[Warning: I am incredibly long winded. If you just want to see whether or not I liked Fable 2, then skip to bottom, you impatient bastard.]
Before I begin this review, I would like to point out that there were casualties in its creation. All I can say is that it happened. It finally happened. It took a little longer than I thought, but it happened. My 360 fell victim to the Red Ring of Death while I was playing Fable 2. It is currently on its way to the good folks at Microsoft for repairs, and will be waiting for me at home when I return from college in the springtime.
Alright, let?s move on to the review. Everything that needs to be said about Fable 2 has probably already been said, but I still want my say on topic. I?m going to do this a bit differently from my two previous reviews and use sections so as to provide more detail and consistency. It?ll also give me a chance to come up with cool titles for those sections.
Turn the Page
Fable 2?s plot is, in truth, nothing original. However, in this day and age, you?re hard pressed to find any truly original plot. What really matters in the end is not the plot, but the story. What I mean by ?story? would be the presentation of the plot, the characters? thoughts and actions in relation to the plot, and of course the plot itself. It is in this aspect that Fable 2?s narrative can be considered unique, at least if you look at it the way I look at it. The main character, a.k.a. you, is on a quest to take revenge on the man who killed your sister and to save the world from destruction. Conveniently enough for the Hero, completing either task will simultaneously accomplish the other, so it?s a two-for-one deal, really. There?s not much that?s unique about that, obviously.
To accomplish your goals, you must find three other Heroes who will help you. This group of three falls into the typical categories: the hammer-wielding mighty glacier, the spell-slinging glass cannon, and the nonchalant, arrogant marksman. There?s not much originality here, either.
Where Fable 2 can truly be called original is the way in which your character interacts with the other characters, and reacts to the events in the plot. In the spirit of the old saying, ?Actions speak louder than words,? your character will not engage in any dialogue. Your character communicates with expressions, gestures and actions. What your character thinks, feels, and says (or would say) is dictated entirely by you, the player. The main character is more or less an extension of yourself; however, as an extension, he/she is not actually you. His/her actions are not necessarily what you would actually do in a given situation, but what you think you would do, what you?d want yourself to do, or what you hope you would do. While this may make it easy to distance oneself from one?s in-game avatar, I found that it also drew me in by stimulating my imagination to come up with the way in which I would respond to the situations presented by the game. I?ve always been blessed, or cursed, with a highly active imagination, and I think that this may have been a crucial factor in my immense enjoyment of Fable 2. It was quite fun to imagine the thoughts and feelings of my character, and it also allowed me to really make the most of Fable 2?s ?Be whatever you want,? policy.
?Heaven or Hell? Let?s Rock!?
The moral decisions you will be required to make throughout Fable 2 are numerous, and most of the more compelling ones have quite a bit of grey area to them. At one point, I was forced to choose between allowing people to starve and feeding them at the cost of my experience. From a story-central standpoint, this decision has quite a bit of grey area, in that you must choose between letting a few men possibly starve to death, or weakening yourself and potentially throwing away your chance at defeating the bad guy, which would render your efforts meaningless. It?s the classic ?Doing a little evil to accomplish a much greater good,? scenario. It?s choices like that which made me really enjoy and appreciate Fable 2?s story.
Your morality is also one of the major factors of your appearance; you?ll end up with either demonic horns, an angelic halo, or nothing at all depending on your character?s morality. At one point in the game, I was walking around with will scars (glowing runes created by spell proficiency), a halo, and glowing red eyes of doom (from a curse). The glowing red eyes went away eventually, but how many heroes outside of Fable 2 can you think of that had Glowing Runes of Power, an Angel Halo, and Glowing Red Eyes of Doom?
Send in the Clowns
Fable 2 has a fantastic amount of humor spread throughout the game. While there are many serious and even sad moments, there are also times of great hilarity. Digging deeper into Fable 2 also yields some humorous treasure (i.e. the descriptions for many of the items and properties). Many of the funnier moments came in the form of nods to the original Fable; for example, during one of the loading screens, the little tips/trivia thing revealed that after the Hero of the first Fable defeated Jack, he is rumored to have killed the Hero?s Guild Master and carved the words ?Your health is low,? on his forehead. I?ve never played Fable, so I can only assume that whenever you were about to die, the Guild master?s voice would be heard telling you that your health was low. I can see how that would be annoying.
??I?ve killed many men and loved only one woman??
In Fable 2, you have the ability to start a family and/or marry. Some of the more entertaining side quests even have matrimony as one of their potential outcomes. It was during the first of these side quests that my character tied the knot. From what I heard, my character performed well during the wedding night. There are no sex scenes in Fable 2, it fades to black as soon as you get into bed, but you will be able to hear the impassioned vocalizations of your lover. Immediately after that, my character became the proud father of a baby boy by the name of Kiernan. This first child remained an infant until the second ten-year time skip in the game, after which he appeared as an energetic ten-year-old boy who wanted nothing more than to go on adventures with me. His favorite gifts are teddy bears and porcelain dolls (which kind of worries me). After the second time skip, my little virtual family had another addition, this time in the form of a daughter named Anna. She doesn?t have a favorite gift. As such, she?s my favorite because she doesn?t beg me for a ?pressie? five seconds after I get home from slaying some abomination of nature or another.
Infinity Plus One Sword
There are a plethora of weapons in Fable 2, both melee and ranged. Melee weapons include swords, meat cleavers, maces, axes, and hammers. Ranged weapons include crossbows, blunderbusses (an ancestor of the shot gun), as well as rifles and pistols of three distinct types: Flintlocks (slow yet powerful), Clockwork (fast but weak individual shots) and Turret (sort of in-between the Flintlocks and the Turrets).
My preferred weapon set is actually a heavy crossbow and an axe. The reason for my choice of weapons is simple: Every other human character you encounter in Fable 2 is running around with swords and rifles of some kind. Although I originally set out to create a musketeer-type combatant, I quickly changed my mind when I realized that everyone and their uncle did pretty much the same thing, excluding non-human and unique characters. I find quite amusing that even with so many of the human combatants running around with firearms, I can still out-shoot them with my crossbow, and wading through a crowd of sword-wielding thugs while cleaving their bowels open with an axe will never lose its appeal.
If there?s one gripe I have about Fable 2?s weapons, it?s the legendary category. While some of the legendary weapons are with out a doubt the best of their kind, the rest are easily out classed by Master weapons with augments (magical upgrades that give your weapons various attributes and effects). What hell happened? When a weapon is legendary, it?s must worthy of it?s legend, better than any other weapon of its type in damn near any situation. Some of the legendary weapons in Fable 2 are only unique in their names, the fact that they already have augments attached, and the fact that they look cool. That?s all well and good, but it matters little when the Master class weapon of a particular type has 1.5 times the raw power of the Legendary weapon of that same type.
Do You Believe in Magic?
I can?t really say much about the magic combat in Fable 2 because I didn?t use it quite that much. The fact that you don?t have any limit to the amount of magical power you have, and the fact that you can use a spell instantly by tapping the magic button, actually succeeds in making magic, or ?will? as it?s called in-game, a viable alternative to melee and ranged attacks. I have yet to play an action RPG that even comes close to the balance Fable 2 has in regards to melee, ranged and magic combat. As to the spells I used, I found Time Control to be both useful and entertaining, Inferno was beautiful and effective, Shock was a lot like Inferno, Force Push was much less effective than I thought it would be, and Blades was utterly useless. Blades was completely ineffective in close quarters, and at longer range it makes for some rather desperate moments; this is mostly due the fact that the blades involved in the spell take a second to shoot towards an opponent after the spell has been cast. When a Balverine is running at me with the full intent of pulling out my eyeballs and then strangling me with my own retina cords, I don?t need the spell that I just aimed at it to wait for one second while it checks to make sure my aim was good!
?Is that your final answer??
Fable 2 is without a doubt one of my favorite games ever, right up there with Wind Waker, Mass Effect, Golden Sun, Fire Emblem, Tales of Symphonia and Viewtiful Joe on my favorite games list. Although some may find that the main character?s chronic muteness detracts from the story, I feel that it presents the story in a different and entertaining way. With moments ranging from heartbreakingly sad to gut-bustling humorous, there wasn?t a single time that I was bored. The nods to various figures in history and fiction was like icing on the cake, as I recognized the references to people like Jack the Ripper, Dr. Frankenstein, and even obscure Tolkien characters (Farmer Giles and his Blunderbuss, anyone?). I?d recommend Fable 2 to anyone who played Oblivion and wanted something more, or anyone who has an over active imagination and likes RPGs (like me).
Before I begin this review, I would like to point out that there were casualties in its creation. All I can say is that it happened. It finally happened. It took a little longer than I thought, but it happened. My 360 fell victim to the Red Ring of Death while I was playing Fable 2. It is currently on its way to the good folks at Microsoft for repairs, and will be waiting for me at home when I return from college in the springtime.
Alright, let?s move on to the review. Everything that needs to be said about Fable 2 has probably already been said, but I still want my say on topic. I?m going to do this a bit differently from my two previous reviews and use sections so as to provide more detail and consistency. It?ll also give me a chance to come up with cool titles for those sections.
Turn the Page
Fable 2?s plot is, in truth, nothing original. However, in this day and age, you?re hard pressed to find any truly original plot. What really matters in the end is not the plot, but the story. What I mean by ?story? would be the presentation of the plot, the characters? thoughts and actions in relation to the plot, and of course the plot itself. It is in this aspect that Fable 2?s narrative can be considered unique, at least if you look at it the way I look at it. The main character, a.k.a. you, is on a quest to take revenge on the man who killed your sister and to save the world from destruction. Conveniently enough for the Hero, completing either task will simultaneously accomplish the other, so it?s a two-for-one deal, really. There?s not much that?s unique about that, obviously.
To accomplish your goals, you must find three other Heroes who will help you. This group of three falls into the typical categories: the hammer-wielding mighty glacier, the spell-slinging glass cannon, and the nonchalant, arrogant marksman. There?s not much originality here, either.
Where Fable 2 can truly be called original is the way in which your character interacts with the other characters, and reacts to the events in the plot. In the spirit of the old saying, ?Actions speak louder than words,? your character will not engage in any dialogue. Your character communicates with expressions, gestures and actions. What your character thinks, feels, and says (or would say) is dictated entirely by you, the player. The main character is more or less an extension of yourself; however, as an extension, he/she is not actually you. His/her actions are not necessarily what you would actually do in a given situation, but what you think you would do, what you?d want yourself to do, or what you hope you would do. While this may make it easy to distance oneself from one?s in-game avatar, I found that it also drew me in by stimulating my imagination to come up with the way in which I would respond to the situations presented by the game. I?ve always been blessed, or cursed, with a highly active imagination, and I think that this may have been a crucial factor in my immense enjoyment of Fable 2. It was quite fun to imagine the thoughts and feelings of my character, and it also allowed me to really make the most of Fable 2?s ?Be whatever you want,? policy.
?Heaven or Hell? Let?s Rock!?
The moral decisions you will be required to make throughout Fable 2 are numerous, and most of the more compelling ones have quite a bit of grey area to them. At one point, I was forced to choose between allowing people to starve and feeding them at the cost of my experience. From a story-central standpoint, this decision has quite a bit of grey area, in that you must choose between letting a few men possibly starve to death, or weakening yourself and potentially throwing away your chance at defeating the bad guy, which would render your efforts meaningless. It?s the classic ?Doing a little evil to accomplish a much greater good,? scenario. It?s choices like that which made me really enjoy and appreciate Fable 2?s story.
Your morality is also one of the major factors of your appearance; you?ll end up with either demonic horns, an angelic halo, or nothing at all depending on your character?s morality. At one point in the game, I was walking around with will scars (glowing runes created by spell proficiency), a halo, and glowing red eyes of doom (from a curse). The glowing red eyes went away eventually, but how many heroes outside of Fable 2 can you think of that had Glowing Runes of Power, an Angel Halo, and Glowing Red Eyes of Doom?
Send in the Clowns
Fable 2 has a fantastic amount of humor spread throughout the game. While there are many serious and even sad moments, there are also times of great hilarity. Digging deeper into Fable 2 also yields some humorous treasure (i.e. the descriptions for many of the items and properties). Many of the funnier moments came in the form of nods to the original Fable; for example, during one of the loading screens, the little tips/trivia thing revealed that after the Hero of the first Fable defeated Jack, he is rumored to have killed the Hero?s Guild Master and carved the words ?Your health is low,? on his forehead. I?ve never played Fable, so I can only assume that whenever you were about to die, the Guild master?s voice would be heard telling you that your health was low. I can see how that would be annoying.
??I?ve killed many men and loved only one woman??
In Fable 2, you have the ability to start a family and/or marry. Some of the more entertaining side quests even have matrimony as one of their potential outcomes. It was during the first of these side quests that my character tied the knot. From what I heard, my character performed well during the wedding night. There are no sex scenes in Fable 2, it fades to black as soon as you get into bed, but you will be able to hear the impassioned vocalizations of your lover. Immediately after that, my character became the proud father of a baby boy by the name of Kiernan. This first child remained an infant until the second ten-year time skip in the game, after which he appeared as an energetic ten-year-old boy who wanted nothing more than to go on adventures with me. His favorite gifts are teddy bears and porcelain dolls (which kind of worries me). After the second time skip, my little virtual family had another addition, this time in the form of a daughter named Anna. She doesn?t have a favorite gift. As such, she?s my favorite because she doesn?t beg me for a ?pressie? five seconds after I get home from slaying some abomination of nature or another.
Infinity Plus One Sword
There are a plethora of weapons in Fable 2, both melee and ranged. Melee weapons include swords, meat cleavers, maces, axes, and hammers. Ranged weapons include crossbows, blunderbusses (an ancestor of the shot gun), as well as rifles and pistols of three distinct types: Flintlocks (slow yet powerful), Clockwork (fast but weak individual shots) and Turret (sort of in-between the Flintlocks and the Turrets).
My preferred weapon set is actually a heavy crossbow and an axe. The reason for my choice of weapons is simple: Every other human character you encounter in Fable 2 is running around with swords and rifles of some kind. Although I originally set out to create a musketeer-type combatant, I quickly changed my mind when I realized that everyone and their uncle did pretty much the same thing, excluding non-human and unique characters. I find quite amusing that even with so many of the human combatants running around with firearms, I can still out-shoot them with my crossbow, and wading through a crowd of sword-wielding thugs while cleaving their bowels open with an axe will never lose its appeal.
If there?s one gripe I have about Fable 2?s weapons, it?s the legendary category. While some of the legendary weapons are with out a doubt the best of their kind, the rest are easily out classed by Master weapons with augments (magical upgrades that give your weapons various attributes and effects). What hell happened? When a weapon is legendary, it?s must worthy of it?s legend, better than any other weapon of its type in damn near any situation. Some of the legendary weapons in Fable 2 are only unique in their names, the fact that they already have augments attached, and the fact that they look cool. That?s all well and good, but it matters little when the Master class weapon of a particular type has 1.5 times the raw power of the Legendary weapon of that same type.
Do You Believe in Magic?
I can?t really say much about the magic combat in Fable 2 because I didn?t use it quite that much. The fact that you don?t have any limit to the amount of magical power you have, and the fact that you can use a spell instantly by tapping the magic button, actually succeeds in making magic, or ?will? as it?s called in-game, a viable alternative to melee and ranged attacks. I have yet to play an action RPG that even comes close to the balance Fable 2 has in regards to melee, ranged and magic combat. As to the spells I used, I found Time Control to be both useful and entertaining, Inferno was beautiful and effective, Shock was a lot like Inferno, Force Push was much less effective than I thought it would be, and Blades was utterly useless. Blades was completely ineffective in close quarters, and at longer range it makes for some rather desperate moments; this is mostly due the fact that the blades involved in the spell take a second to shoot towards an opponent after the spell has been cast. When a Balverine is running at me with the full intent of pulling out my eyeballs and then strangling me with my own retina cords, I don?t need the spell that I just aimed at it to wait for one second while it checks to make sure my aim was good!
?Is that your final answer??
Fable 2 is without a doubt one of my favorite games ever, right up there with Wind Waker, Mass Effect, Golden Sun, Fire Emblem, Tales of Symphonia and Viewtiful Joe on my favorite games list. Although some may find that the main character?s chronic muteness detracts from the story, I feel that it presents the story in a different and entertaining way. With moments ranging from heartbreakingly sad to gut-bustling humorous, there wasn?t a single time that I was bored. The nods to various figures in history and fiction was like icing on the cake, as I recognized the references to people like Jack the Ripper, Dr. Frankenstein, and even obscure Tolkien characters (Farmer Giles and his Blunderbuss, anyone?). I?d recommend Fable 2 to anyone who played Oblivion and wanted something more, or anyone who has an over active imagination and likes RPGs (like me).
