I remember well the original Fable on the PC. It was a light-hearted adventure with a quirky sense of humor. It was over in about a week, but it was fun. And it worked exceptionally well. So imagine my delight to get my hands on the sequel. Fable 2 for the Xbox 360 is just like its predecessor — but more refined.
The story behind Fable 2 is rather simple. The game begins with your avatar (male or female) living in the slums with his big sister. Anyway, they had a chance encounter with a peddler selling mysterious things. One of those items was a box that only cost five coins. So the siblings go about doing odd jobs to earn the box. They then open it, go to sleep disappointed and then go to the castle in the middle of the night. What happens next fuels a story of vengeance that feels reminiscent of its older sibling.
Yes, the plot is basic. But who says a fun game needs an overwhelmingly complex world? The world has a storybook feel to it. A “fable,” if you wish. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) There are documents to discover and ruins and towns to explore. Even though we have seen all of these locales before, it transforms them into its own identity. However, the light-hearted and self-aware adventure of the original has been traded in for a serious world full of high fantasy. Yeah, it is still fun to see where things are going. But it doesn’t feel as inspired as the original.
Gameplay is nearly identical to the original. You run around the world, exploring the various locales with your dog. He’ll find treasures for you to dig up and help during combat. Combat is a simple hack-’n’-slash. This time around, you can
Thankfully, you do not need to run back to a training center to improve your stats. Just open your logbook and choose the proper enhancement that appeals to you. The game tells you the various skills/improvements available and their costs, along with a brief video and some text explaining them. It is a very intuitive and customizable system.
Just like the original, you have townsfolk to befriend and potentially marry. Unlike the original in which you had to guess what gestures they would like, you lock onto a person and press the Y button. You can see everything the person is interested in, from sexual orientation to favorite locations, motions and items. It certainly makes befriending characters much easier than the original. But unlike the original, at least it felt like you were learning about another character as you attempted to please them. It is still shallow as your spouse never exerts a personality.
However, this, and many other things, does not work as planned. If you wander away from someone after lock on, it’ll continue to lock onto the person until you go back and unlock or leave the area. It’s a game killer when you’re miles away from someone and you need to use bows. This happened to me when I found myself battling a forest troll.
Furthermore, there is no HQ to take quests. You find them on the road like in every other game, though Fable 2 does a pretty good job of finding them in your logbook automatically. Jobs are present, though they are basic timing minigames. It feels like something that was added to pad out the universe, especially since money is easy to come by. (Buy some property, leave it alone for a few weeks and return rich, or at least with a few thousand gold pieces piled high.)
Still at the center of everything are choices. The morality system is just as black and white as the original. Periodically, you get the choice to do something “evil” or “good.” But there is no “gray” area. Your avatar either ends being a villain or a paladin, a saint or a sinner. There is no room for anything in between. Although, you can go through the game choosing sides as you see fit.
Graphically, Fable 2 is realistic while retaining some of its cartoony feel of the original. The world is lush, with grass all over the place as well as forests. Water beautifully pulses around your character when he is swimming. Fire and lightening are potent looking. Characters move smoothly around the screen, though you’ll quickly recognize the same few faces and body types. It’s a nice looking world. Unfortunately, the world has a tendency to slow down at seemingly random points. Although it doesn’t hurt gameplay, it is annoying.
Sound design, overall, is rather bland. The usual fantasy fanfare is present with the usual broad orchestrations. Swordplay is solid with its clashes, and bows shoot arrows with a nice breeze to them. There is some voice acting, and it isn’t bad. However, it won’t have you jump up and down out of joy either. It is just there to lend the world some weight.
As I reflect on my experiences of Fable 2, I am underwhelmed. What I remember being such a joy about the original is present. Combat is much more enjoyable, and the world is waiting to be explored. However, I don’t care if I ever play the game again. It just ended up on my shelf as quickly as it ended up inside my 360. Yet I would argue this is the way the original Fable should have played out.
Somehow, though, I missed the “addiction train.” If you’re looking for a solid action adventure RPG, Fable 2 will provide hours of enjoyment. In fact, you can preview a decent amount of it by downloading the “first episode” from Xbox Live Arcade. It is a massive download, with more than 1 GB of data. From there, each part, or episode out of 5, is about $10 (800 points). So you’ll be paying $40 overall. On the other hand, you can go to your favorite game store and purchase it for $20 or less. In all honesty, buy it for $20 if you like it enough. But you’re not missing much if you decide to ignore it. It is a fable, after all.
