Fable II

[Kita]

Published by: Microsoft
Developed by: Lionhead Studios
Release Date: October 21, 2008
Genre: Action RPG
Rated: M for Mature

Big brown eyes staring out at the world, one in which being poor is looked down upon. Brushing my long luxuriant hair from off my shoulders as I walk down the cobble stone streets.  Dirty looks left and right with spoken words from under the breath of both men and women as I walk by.  "Street rat" a phrase heard commonly at such a young age that no longer hunts my thoughts.  How my big sister longed for us to have a better life, one in which we would be the ones to rule Albion.  Off in the distance the voices of a crowd ring out in my ears and sweet music could be heard.  Jumping with all my might to try and see over the heads, but with such a small stature my attempts are futile.

A hush can be heard leaving the lips of the street vender as all around fall silent.  "With this magic music box you get one wish.  This perishes gift can be yours for the small price of 5 gold coins!"  Not believing in such things my sister under her breath says, "5 gold coins, we could eat for a week had we 5 gold coins. Besides there is no such thing as magic." Yes, this is how it all started.  On this very same day I lost my sister to the gunshot of a horrible man.  Lord Lucian was his name, one that would hunt my very dreams until I get my revenge...

If that opening caught your attention, then you'll be up for disappointment with the words that follow.  Don't let my love of writing fool you because this is one game that I would not recommend.  Unless if you are into sticky controls, games that constantly freeze up, and that rob you of a terrific final fight.  Fable II lacks all that made the first Fable great. Of course I played the first game on the PC, where as this one is only for the xbox 360.

As the opening suggests the story gets off to a rather nice start, however it goes down hill from there.  At least in this game you do get a trusted sidekick, a street dog, which you are free to name once you place a collar on him.  I did enjoy that you could choose this time from either male or female, but there is really no difference at all just looks.  Aside from that you really don't get to many choices when it comes to clothing or styles.  Everything seems rather dull in color and is unappealing.

We have here nothing but a poor story driven game with some fetch quests thrown in to make it seem more like an open world.  For a western RPG this game doesn't have the kind of freedom one would expect.  Not only that, but the game can't even be played for more then ½ hour without freezing up on you.  Even after the expansion packs and fixes this game is very much lack luster.  Sure you can pick yourself up a prostitute and have a good time or get drunk and throw-up but there is only so many times one could do this in a game before getting bored.  Face it things like that are better left for the real world – kidding.

Moving onto graphics, as stated the appeal of the characters was rather dull.  Even though things seemed rather dark, the towns did take on some beautiful scenes.  Close your eyes if you will and imagine standing on a bridge as the sun is setting over the endless water line.  It touches upon the surface and reflects it's beams cascading over the town as the town crier calls out informing you the shops are closing. 

I would have to say that the casting of shadows was laid out quite nicely as seen above.  My favorite parts of the game were just watching the sun set.  Seeing the glow across a field, body of water, or just through the window of a shop created such beautiful imagery.  This could not make up for the repetitive music beats or poor battles.  I really feel no need to touch on the music because this game had nothing impressive.

Sound affects for the antics that you would run through where pretty funny at times.  However, the one-liners fed to you from the town folks were such a drawl.  Seriously how many times can one take it with people chasing after you saying, "If only we had a ring."  After I completed the game being a perfect little angle and getting everyone to love me, I then went on a killing spree and opened fire attacking all the villages and towns people.  I was amused to find out that I earned expressions from doing this, but sadly my game froze before I could save.   

Guess I should tell you a bit more about how the battle system works.  It flat out sucks.  Spells get mixed up all the time because you can't shift quickly enough through them while in battle.  Not only that but the controls are so sensitive that even having different spells at different levels they will switch on you.  Not only does using magic, or in this game will, suck but it also makes your character look atrocious with bright blue veins running through your body. 

Close range melee style weapons are easy to come by but there aren't many combos you can pull off. Finally we have your long-range guns and crossbows.  One nice thing is for both melee and long range you can add what the game calls arguments.  These you can get from venders or in chests. Some of them get you more gold, higher power or even add an affect, nothing different from weapon add-ons in other RPG games.  What I found sad about battles was the lack of creativity.  You fight bugs, undead, and bad guys.  Oh, can't forget the occasional troll and some werewolf type monster.  Other then that, there is no variety.

Bottom line, this game did not live up to my expectations at all.  Especially since I was expecting a game that was more open and didn't really force you into a boring story.  There are a number of differences from the first game and while I did enjoy playing it, I wouldn't recommend it.  Especially after the ending, which denies you any satisfaction of playing the game.  I didn't touch on the online play at all either and that's because it really isn't a co-op game at all.  You get to trade items, but you can't play together so there really is no point.  On average this game scored about an 8.5, but I would say it's around 7.  If you can find it at $20 then perhaps get it, if not the game gives you only about 40 hours of game play and that's if you do a lot of the boring quests.  Save your money and get something else.