About as magical as a trip to Milton Keyenes...
Now forgive me for thinking that a game called Fable would have a fascinating story driven by magic, interesting characters and an enchanting world. Fable II has none of these things and is one of the dullest stories I've played through in many years. The premise is simple enough man kills sibling, tries to kill you, doesn't and you set off on a quest to get revenge. The twist though is that you turn out to be a hero who has the power to stop his evil ways. The whole thing trudges along to an anti-climatic ending that didn't make much sense and a tacky three wishes morality decision. The main problem stems from the fact the main characters evoke no emotional response in particular the protagonist who has all the charisma of a ball of yarn. Moreover isn't the RPG genre famed for it's interesting stories and loveable characters (baffling I know).
The combat is the best thing about Fable it is split into three different categories Will, Skill and Strength and these represent your sword, gun and magic. All are mapped to a single button tap once to do minor damage, hold for more damage. It's simple and intuitive and allows you to put some great combos together. Better still levelling up these skills is simple as there aren't many categories to deal with and the interface is clean and easily navigated. So in that respect Fable is a success and it's a good job it is because you do a lot of fighting during the course of the game and this is were it all falls to pieces. First off the enemies are all very generic and can all be defeated by simple button mashing. They aren't very intelligent as they will stand and wait as I hack their buddy into thin strips of tagliatelle. Worse of all though is that when you die you come instantly back to life with a small experience penalty and a scar which lets be honest is as much of a deterrent as an ASBO. I don't mind the infinite lives system but instant respawning makes it all too simple by anyone's standards.
The Fable franchise has always been big on morality decisions and this game is no different but the decisions never seem to have much impact on the world around you, as all you need to do is give some money to the nearby tramp and you've gone from Hitler to Gandhi just like that. Also the difference between Good and Evil is minute either the people cheer you or they boo you that's about it the world itself stays pretty much the same and the people still spout the same inane drivel they always do. Worse of all none of the decisions you have made make any difference until you get to the final choice at the end. So essentially you haven't had free choice at all you've just been herded to each choice as the designer sees fit and until a game manages to have an ever evolving game world and story around the decisions you make Moral choices will be nothing more than a gimmick.
Albion itself has a certain level of charm to it the towns have a wonderful Ye Olde England style to them and with all the things going on around you it can be quite easy to be immersed in this world. The people that populate the towns have the odd amusing quip but do tend to repeat themselves. The problems begin when you go exploring outside of these towns as everything looks the same just one long drawn out road leading you to the next town. Yes you can find the odd cave but these are very similar in design and with the same enemies attacking you constantly exploring can become a bit of a drag. Which is a shame because some of the side quests do lead to some interesting places, the pirate side quest been the pick of the bunch. On the topic of quests the main story ones do have the horrible habit of falling to old RPG clichés as they mainly fall under talk to character, kill people and then report back. Rinse and repeat and you've pretty much played Fable. There are a lot of things to do in Albion you can get married, buy property, get a job or generally mess around . All of these things though are pretty pointless after all you can get married and have numerous children but there is no reward for it. You can build a property empire and rent it out to make a fortune but you don't really need money in Albion so why bother. You can get a job to earn money but the mini games are dull and simplistic. Herein lies the problem all of these ideas don't add anything to the world around you and don't effect the story so there is no point in them. They are add-ons to extend the length of the game instead of making the quests more sprawling and interesting. If there will be another Fable these ideas need to be part of the core gameplay mechanics otherwise they are yet more Albion gimmicks.
Talking about gimmicks the big one here was the dog and I'm honestly not certain what it's purpose was apart from sniffing out treasure chests (admittingly that dog can sniff out a treasure chest like a fat man can sniff a McDonalds). I've been a bit mean though the dog is actually one of the few emotional links you have with the game and you do end up getting attached to it as you wander the never ending countryside with it. The dog also becomes Good or Evil depending on your actions during the game which adds an element to it's character. Your appearance also changes depending on how evil you are but it seems a bit pointless as most people can be won around if you fart enough times. Also why after eating one pie did my character look like he was a member of the Klumps? I can only assume that it's a glandular problem or that area of the game is screwed.
The graphics though are fantastic with all of Albion looking lovely with all of the buildings looking great and the locales looking just as good and the soundtrack and voice acting were also of a very high quality with Susan Harper putting in a very good performance. These two things do add up to heighten the sense of immersion but that quickly fades away when you hear the same character talking to themselves but I suppose that's hard to avoid. Also my copy of the game had some severe slowdown, some glitches and the loading times can be painful.
Overall I can't help but be disappointed by Fable II after all the combat is good and Albion has a certain level of charm to it but the story was shocking and the quests were repetitive even in the games short 10 hour play through. The moral choices and the game add-ons all seemed pointless to me and the whole thing reeked of over ambition that could never be fully attained but there is certainly enough scope here for another sequel but big changes need to be made to many of the games mechanics. Oh and while there at it try and keep Molyneux's mouth shut.
Pros
+ Combat is simple and satisfying
+ Albion and it's inhabitants have their moments
+ Graphics and Sound are top quality
+ The Dog
Cons
- Albion can be repetitive and dreary at times
- The story is absolutely terrible
- Characters devout of emotion
- Morality choices and other menial tasks are poorly implemented
- Difficulty is non existent
Overall
5.0/10
P.S Aren't you sick of practically every game these days having a morals system what ever happened to the days were the writer got to develop the character and not us.