A Heroic review for a brilliant Action RPG…
Wow Is the first and main thing I have to say… WOW. Fable 2 has had me hooked and is very different from most games for me. Usually I will play a game until I haved attained the 1000 points or until I have completed it and cannot possibly earn anymore points, then I will trade it in. Fable 2 however has kept me coming back for more. Since buying the game on 27th December 08 and completing it a week later I have completed it multiple times with a few different characters.
I didnt play Fable 1 so I dont really have anything to compare it too, but I will still offer my opinion.
After selecting a male or female character the begining of the game plays like a tutorial as you are a child living on the streets with your sister, it teaches you about movement, combat and character interaction etc. After the events of the introduction pass you find yourself now older as you have become a strong young man/woman and you can then begin your journey.
(A young male character begining his journey)
Fable 2 offers players a huge free roam environment called Albion in which to explore. (Which is 10 times bigger than Fable 1 for anyone that played it.) This environment is filled with many different regions each with its own city for you to explore. The graphics in Fable 2 are stunning, the differing environments from town to town give you a detailed impression of how life in Albion would be, from the bustling streets of Bowerstone Market Town Center to the lush greenery of Oakfield are very detailed and believable. Similar to the system featured in “Oblivion” and “Fallout 3″ you can fast travel. So if you dont want to make your journeys on foot, you can select what region you want to travel to within the game menu!
(Oakfield’s Beauty in all its glory!)
The concept of the game consists of working your way from region to region completeting quests that you recieve along the way. The main quest line will take you through the story of the game whereas you can accept side quests from villagers and other characters all of which you can complete in any way you want. A large part of the game makes you choose whether to complete it by being good or evil, You characters visual appearance will change dependant on your charcter’s lieniency towards good/evil, and pure/corrupt. If you are good a halo will appear above you head, whereas if you are evil, devil like horns wil appear on your character’s forehead. Also if you are pure glowing light blue streaks will appear all over your charcters body, whereas if you are corrupt, darker dull red streaks will appear.
(A completely evil character, with full Devil horns and glowing red eyes!)
Along your travels you will encounter a variety of creatures and humans that will attack you these range from the dwarf like Hobbes (It is said Hobbes kidnap children and turn them into Hobbes themselves) to werewolf like Balverines to huge towering Trolls. Human enemies include bandits and assasins.
(Being surrounded by bandits doesnt worry our brave hero.)
To combat these foes, you can use Hand to Hand Combat, using weapons like Longswords, Katanas, Axes and Maces. Long Ranged weapons include, Crossbows, Rifles and Pistols. You can also use Magic Attacks such as the electric Shock, the fire Inferno, and Raise Dead which raises the souls of fallen enemies around you which come back to fight for you. The combat system is pretty basic and its really down to button bashing but the attacks are set to X (Hand to Hand),Y (Long Ranged) and B (Magic) buttons. If you die in combat, your character will recieve battle scars on their body.
(A very “shocking” performance for those hollowmen!)
During combat you can earn experience points, you earn different points dependant on your attack, Blue strength for hand to hand attacks, Yellow skill for ranged attacks, Red will for magic attacks also Green for general experience points. These experience points appear as little orbs that drop from your enemies as you attack. When the battle is over or even during if your daring you can hold your “RT” trigger and the experience will be drawn into your character. If you die in combat you simply revive in the same spot you died you just lose any battle experience you hadn’t collected during the combat up to that point.
(Sorry about the quality, Here you can see the experience orbs on the ground!)
Aside from all of the quests and fighting there is a lot to do in Albion. You can try to live a normal life in that you can make people fall in live with you by impressing them enough, to a point that you can get married by offering a ring to someone that loves you, Upon marrying and selecting a marital home you can have protected or unprotected sex with your wife/husband, unprotected sex can however lead to your character contracting STD’s and you could also have a little child of your own.
(“Do not worry ladies I have time for all of you”)
Within the many towns and regions of Albion there are many properties to buy like shops, pubs, houses etc. You can earn money by renting out the houses, and from the profit your shops bring in, but dependant on your pure/corrupt lieniency you can choose to alter rent to any where between 100% above or below the oringinal prices. Obviously charging no rent is going to make you pure, whereas being greedy will make people dislike you and become corrupt.
Aside from your statistic building experience points, you can earn Renown points which basically add up to how famous/well known you are within Albion. You can earn renown by completing quests for people and earning trophies which you can show off to people via the expression wheel.
(My Hero displaying one of his many Trophies.)
During your time spent in Albion you will undoubtedly encounter an endless amount of villagers, settlers and other people to converse with. To interact with people you must use the expression wheel. There are various expressions to use from Social, Fun and Flirtatious ones to Scary and even Rude ones. All of which have different effects on how people react to you e.g. Fun and Social expressions will make people like and even love you, whereas Scary or Rude expressions will make people fear or even hate you.
(Trying to impress “Sue the Housewife” with some flirty expressions)
If no one else within your Fable experience, you will always find one friend wherever you go. Man’s best friend itself, your dog. Always at your side your dog follows you on quests and wherever you go throughout Albion. Although it is nice to have the company while your travelling, your dog does have its uses. You can train your dog to be a stronger fighter, you can also teach him to hunt for treasure in which case he will find treasure chests and items buried in dig spots that are near you and will lead you to them.
(Giving your faithfull friend some loving praise!)
There are two versions of the online multiplayer. First of all there is the co-operative mode in which someone can join your gameas a physical character and help you with quests and fighting etc. The other version is chosen from the in game menu. You must select to display player orbs and whether to display friends only or everyone. Then little orbs will appear which represent other players online. You can then approach the orbs and interact with them by chatting or giving them gifts etc.
(Here I am interacting with another player’s orb online via Xbox Live.)
Downloadable Content: Knothole Island = 800 microsoft points.
Knothole Island gives players an extra quest line in which you must solve Knothole’s weather problems, you can help the “Box of Secrets” shop restock by finding certain items around Albion, and their are 10 informative books detialing Knothole Island’s history for you to find within the region. By completing these tasks throughout you can earn another 3 achievements worth 100 gamerpoints.
So finally all in all I give Fable 2 – 10 out of 10.
Another highly addictive RPG game that has had me hooked! With a brilliant story and great re-playabilitly and massive explorative capability this game keeps you coming back for more! I have given it top marks because, in my opinion, this game cannot be faulted!
Thanks for reading
Peace & Love To All
- Pigeon
(Achievement information from xbox360achievements.org)
(Choosing which music video / party game to play.)
(You can see on the left, this player has just earned the Technique medal)
(The Get Music menu option, the icons floating above are all of the songs I have added)
