I must be the only person who believes that this game lacks substance.... But hear me out for a second.
First of all, for the game that focuses so much of the moral dilemma, the game has absolutely no appreciation for the shade of grey. You are usually given two choices, and one is good and the other is bad. That's it. Your action is either perfectly angelic or completely evil.
But the bigger problem is the fact that this game offers zero freedom. I mean really, think about it. If i am the ultimate evil dude, shouldn't i be able to start up my own criminal organization? If i own every property in the area, shouldn't i be able to reform the town by turning a residential area into a commercial area? If I am filthy rich, shouldn't I be able marry **** load of women, have them all stay in one house (without having them complain of course. im rich, **** get over it.) and have super orgy every night?
While we're at the subject of marriage, lets talk about this for a second. One of my favorite reviewer Ben Crowshaw said this: "(in Fable 2) You can get married... But why would you want to?" This was exactly what it felt like to me. I mean every damn characters in the game looks the same anyways, so you wouldn't feel emotionally connected to any of the characters. Your kids don't do much neither besides follow you around asking for gifts. And you don't even get to see anything while your boning your wife. Ok, so the third point might not be too convincing... but my main point is that there is no benefit to marrying someone. Sure, they give gifts sometimes. Sure, sometimes you get a quest or two from your family. But overall, there is really no point in marrying someone in the game.
My final complain about the game is that it is SHALLOW. Everyone you meet in the game are completely two dimensional. They either like you or don't like you. And if they don't like you, just flex your muscle in front of them, and next thing you know, they will want to marry you. This was not the intuitive life simulator i was promised.
But since we're talking about this game's shallowness, lets talk about the dog shall we? I read in all these reviews that this canine element is the biggest plus in the game. No it's not. This is not a dog, but a metal detector. You can't train him(for those of you that say "YES YOU CAN," reading a book to a dog is NOT training), can't do much with him other than playing catch(which gets old really really quickly), and ultimately i get no emotional connection with this dog. This dog element is the shallowest thing i have ever seen in all games, and i cannot believe that so many people are responding so well to it.
If you read this far, I thank you. And if you disagree with me, i dont think i can change your mind. But really think about it. Did Lionhead fulfill all of their promises about delivering the next great life simulation action RPG?