Forget Fable III, this is what I want. A fun, varied and addictive gaming experience - memorable for the right reasons!
I was happy to give my gaming ego a huge slap on the back. Fable II is an utterly charming game that in my opinion offers a great mix of combat, experience and abilities, quests, treasure, colorful characters and a liberal dose of humour. It retains some strong RPG elements in terms of interacting with your fellow citizens, developing your real estate portfolio and character customizations etc. Although I tend to shooters and more serious RPGs, Fable II had me hooked from the start - it was an enchantingly different game to play for me and has provided hours of simple enjoyment.
It's definately not a hardcore RPG, but focuses more on a sense of adventure and immersion in the world of Albion through the eyes of your character. It achieves this by allowing you a fairly broad scope of choices in terms of how you interact with the world. You can be a demonic tyrant and paint Albion with the blood of your potentially many innocent victims, or a heroic saint who is revered by all and loved by many (being propositioned for a bit of slap and tickle by every second passer can get annoying though, while inciting fear and dread never gets old).
The main quest is ever present although not overwhelmingly so and I never had a sense of needing to rush to complete it. It didn't intrude on the other elements of the game, and was actually easy to forget as I meandered throught the streets of Bowerstone and Oakfield looking for a choice piece of real estate or searching for pesky gargoyles to shoot. The side quests are for the most part varied enough in terms of objectives, environments and creatures/enemies.
The combat and ability development is easy to learn and master. Melee, ranged and magic elements are mapped to the x, y and b buttons. These elements are enhanced and become more varied as you defeat enemies and gain XPs to put towards attaining higher levels of aptitude in the three abilities. Weapons for the most part need to be purchased from a blacksmith or weapons trader and deal damage according to the material they're made from. Some can be augmented to deal extra damage, but doing so often comes at a cost to your character (i.e. scarring). Combat moves are, although not as smooth as Fable III, effective and well powered. It's pretty easy to move between melee, ranged and magic one after the other to string together a rewarding sequence of attacks. Not dying does remove some sense of challenge and achievement, but not enough to be annoying.
I loved just being able to do things at my own pace and leisure in Fable II whether it was questing, exploring, kicking a chicken, shopping or legging it back to the marital mansion in Bowerstone for some R&R with Sally the Housewife! The graphics and audio are excellent and in keeping with the cheeky nature of the game. The menu system (i.e a list) is a little clunky and simple, but is still effective and logical. The maps are a waste of time however and I can't imagine why Lionhead bothered with them at all.
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 8.5
Audio: 8.5
Presentation: 8.5
Fun/enjoyment factor: 10
Overall: 9.0/10