7 / 10

This is one of those things in life that sounds awesome and starts out really awesome and then is mostly awesome and then kinda awesome and then ok and then by the time it ends you're like wow, that's it?

This is par for the course if you played the original Fable though, so if you're not expecting awesomeness for an ending, you're covered.


Fable 2 gets "awesome" points for:
Excellent voice acting. Top-notch.

Combat mechanics that are not just fun, but *awesome*, even right up to the end.

Seamlessly adding "bullet time" effects to random kill strokes when you have the flourish skill, combined with the game's ability to read my mind with what kind of flourish I want to perform and even throw in a surprise now and then. AWESOME.

AI that not only does things that make sense, but surprises you sometimes with its depth. For example, if a villager likes you, and you start brandishing your weapon around they'll assume you're kidding. Until you turn the safety off that is.

Excellent graphics and effects, but that's pretty standard nowadays.

An excellent leveling and advancement system, which the basics of are still present from Fable, but has been expanded and improved upon.

Doing the intro thing fantastically well, and having really good writers for the info on the objects of the game.


Fable 2 gets "lame" points for:

Making me kill the same enemies over and over. There are probably 7 really unique enemies in the game.

Making me run back to the same place that I went to last time to rescue slaves from the same place I rescued them last time and fighting on the same terrain with enemies even standing in the *same place* as they were standing last time. Lame.

Having a not-very-interactive and nonsensical ending. Really now, is this what I played through 30 hours for?

Making my level 5 targeted inferno spell look exactly the same as the level 1 targeted inferno. Super lame.

Making me hunt around the game for Gargoyle heads that seem to be hidden really, really well. This might not be an official lame point, I never enjoy doing stuff like this. It's always a chore for me. I played through the whole game, exploring, and only found 27 / 50.

The arena in Fable 2, now called "The Crucible" has lots of audio but takes place entirely in caves, and while you can hear screaming fans, you can't see them anywhere. Super lame.

Having a "speedwalk" system that lets you essentially warp to different areas, but leaves you with a complete lack of understanding as to what area connects to where. This was really disconcerting, I kept having to re-read my quests to try and figure out where I was supposed to go, and lots of times it was obvious that I needed to go "near this place" but figuring out which area that was was impossible. A global map system instead of a list of names for selecting an area to "warp" to would have been much better.



Something I was really surprised at, and immediately attempted to abuse was the complete lack of a mana mechanic. That's right! No mana! You can cast spells as often as you want without end! At first, I though this was a HUGE mistake on the part of the developers, but after whoring myself out to be a caster in the game, I actually found that I died more trying to cast huge ass spells then I did just slashing my way through enemies with an axe.

Each spell has 5 total levels (each of which you have to buy with experience points), and 2 modes, AOE and targeted. You can tap your cast button and throw a level 1 spell, or you can hold it and charge to whatever your level 2 slot is set at, or hold it longer and charge to level 3, or charge to level 4, or all the way to 5th level if you really have that much time. An AOE level 5 Force Push really fucks things up, let me tell you. This makes casting fun and not too overpowered. Not having to worry about mana was really nice.

The good and evil mechanic was much more intelligent this time around, and your choices in the game have some pretty far reaching effects. This always sounds good to me on paper, but when I actually play the game I always end up reloading to find out what the other choice was. ><

Overall, Fable 2 was worth the purchase price. The depth and sheer upgrade from the original Fable was worth it for me, just relishing in the fact that the world was much more lush and verdant and explorable. Being able to hop over railings and dive into lakes was neat too. All in all, I'll probably end up playing it on the PC when that version comes out, and hopefully they'll release an expansion that explains some of the plot inconsistencies that perked up.

If you liked Fable 1, or you like really well done RPGs, you'll like Fable 2 for the most part.

--Locane

It really amazes me that the artifical game lengthening quest mechanism known as "grind" - once unique to monthly cash-fed MMORPG's - is now standard in so many single player games. As if there's no other way to make an RPG. :/

As I said before, I suppose it's a notch better than endless randomly generated dungeon spelunking, but not by much, and likely not at all, if not well executed.

(Obligitory Murderous Zero Punctuation Review)
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"There is no emoticon for what I am feeling." - The Dungeon Master, The Simpsons
Thothie

Oh man, fucking awesome.

Visiting ZP was my next stop, and I had been hoping he'd reviewed Fable 2. He's hilarious as always, even if I disagree with some of his complaints. Like casting being overpowered. That timer system can really kill you.

He was right about one thing though, Fable 2 is like Upgraded Fable. That's what they should have called it.

I've heard from more than one source that the game is just too easy, and that it's quite possible if not probable that you'll make it through an entire playthrough without dying once. Its probably an ok game if you have an xbox... but since fallout 3 is out for xbox and pc and ps3 it makes me wonder why you didn't just go with that instead.

Yeah, actually I thought I was hot shit because I hadn't died at all up until a certain point in the game. You have resurrections phials that just auto-res you when you die, and if you don't have one of those you get a scar.

I thought the scar system was kinda neat, personally. It's a real scar, you can't remove it. You can walk around and say, "Oh yeah, that one I got from the task master at the spire, this one was from an assload of balverines.." etc.

After hearing that lots of people think it's too easy, I can definitely agree with that. Lots of times I'll find myself in the midst of 10 or 12 enemies and they're all patiently waiting their turn to swing at me.

--Locane