Fable 2 feature list
. Movie Like Combat in Real Time - Live the movie like combat in real time without health points or bars. Now, only one cut of a sword can become a mortal blow for your enemy. However, if you miss your blow, your life will be nothing more than a memory.
This is very similar to Jade Empires combat system.
· Character Transformation - Fable 2 enhances the innovative system which consists of transforming your character according to your actions. Your look depends on two dimensions: the good and evil, and now also by nobility and corruption. Good deeds and evil deeds will modify your physical look, but with corrupted deeds, for example, to drink too much, or noble deeds, for example, to work hard in your employment, will modify the look even more. Where your friend's evil hero could be a slim and fine young man and as threatening as Dracula, who has made evil and noble deeds, your hero could be as hideous and malicious as Quasimodo following his corrupted ways.
I find this feature totaly useless, simply because it follows stereotypes. I find it boring that corrupt/evil characters become hideous/ugly while rightous/good characters become radiant/beautiful. It would be much better to have the characters looks be determined by the effects adventuring has on them.
· Reacting World - Day and night cycle mark the passage of time. Watch as the spring, the summer, the autumn and the winter go by. As the years pass, see the effects of your actions in the world. See how a village develops and thrives through the years. Sow terror among the inhabitants and see the village being reduced and finally become a ruin and a ghost town. In this world, even a modest purchase will transform the local economy.
Day/Night cycle is very old, though I am interested to see how seasons effect the environment (e.g would there be some passes that will be treacherous/difficult to get through depending on the season or will seasons have only a visual effect on the game)
· Life of the Hero - Live a life of a hero, from childhood to old age. Will you become a nice muscular colossus, or a master-robber?
Would you like to become a covetous big landowner, a champion who sacrifices themselves for the masses or to simply direct a modest inn to provide for the needs for your family? You decide.
If this is anything like Fable, age will have no effect on the character except how he/she looks. Also will they do what they did in Fable where your aging is capped at a certain age?
· Man's Best Friend - Your best friend in the world will be a faithful four-legged companion. A pup that will reach adulthood as you do. By giving him compliments and by punishing it, he grows into a frightening attack dog, a playmate to impress the others, or a partner, who, thanks to his sense of smell, will avoid problems and help you find treasures. Observe as your best friend transforms to reflect what kind of hero you are.
Altho an animal companion is nothing new I am actually interested to see how well this will work in Fable 2. From what I have seen it seems like it was implemented well.
· Use the Environment to Your Advantage - Fight on a shaking rope bridge, and unbalance your enemies so they fall the over edge to their death. Fight in a narrow cave passage and resist the attempts of your adversaries to surround you and realize that the very low walls and ceiling
constitute serious obstacles. Fight when you're surprised and you are likely to be surrounded. The location of battle will play an essential part for your survival.
I havent seen any of this in gameplay so I can not comment much on it. If they pull it off and if the environment is as much a danger to you as it is to your enemies instead of just another means of killing enemies it will be interesting (e.g. if you are fighting on a rope bridge, your enemy should be able to unbalance you and make you fall over the edge to your death, making the rope bridge as much a danger to you as to your enemy, so that more agile characters would fight on the bridge against heavier opponents while heavy opponents might prefer to quickly get of the bridge and fight on more solid grounds)
· The fair sex - Play the game while begin a heroine. You can even get pregnant.
This is one feature I think is overblown. I mean for a long time now almost all WRPGs have had the option to play as a female. Now while the ability for your character to get pregnant might seem interesting, from what I have heard so far all that happens is you miss a year of your life and then get back to adventuring. What is the big deal in this espcially since you will be leaving your child as soon as you are able to without a second thought.
· Customization - Choose your sex, the color of your eyes and you are ready to play. Also, you can personalize your character like you want: let the hair or beard grow, change the color of your clothing, get tattoos, buy accessories, dye and cut your hair, or even do make up.
Create the hero or the heroine, you wish to be.
Again nothing new here, games as old as Buldar's Gate alloud you to do this.
· Careers - When you are not doing an epic RPG quest to kill the baddies and to progress in the game, stop for moment to test one of the various careers in the game. Hero's job doesn't always pay that well, so there are many means of increasing your income while working part-time. Perhaps you would like to become professional gladiator for one day, or a barkeeper, or a blacksmith, a gambler, or a farmer or even a burglar. It is for you to choose what you do and it is always possible to earn money by doing things simultaneously.
As for jobs are you kidding me? This is something that is in WoW (which I seem to recall someone ragging on not too long ago). At least in WoW the economy was much more robust and the jobs themselves were more fleshed out, while here it will play out as minigames.
· Offline Multiplayer - Those who don't have an access to the Internet can always play together by bringing their hero in their friend's world (via a memorycard) and by transforming it into a spirit, a powerful creature which can fight the monsters, cure friends, curse the enemies, divert the masses, find hidden treasures and take the place of the main hero when the action becomes too hard!
While this is interesting one thing that struck me as odd in the demo was the apsense of the second players dog. Now I dont know if this was because the second player somehow got his dog killed (which is strange since I heard somewhere that your dog will not die) or the second player cant bring along his dog. Also I will point out this is nothing new BG on the PS2 had the same thing.
· Online Multiplayer - Join a group of players sharing the same interests and objectives, which can appear in their respective world in the capacity as "phantoms", share resources, fight each other in very diverse challenges, bury treasures so that the other players can find them in turns, to trade objects and much more.
Now this is a bit more interesting since I dont think there has been an online multiplayer RPG on the console (not counting MMOs).
· For each choice a consequence - Discover the causes and the effects behind each of your actions. Eliminate all the inhabitants from a city and become a wanted fugitive and disguise yourself to escape from the police. Make yourself an idiot and notice that everyone shows you the finger, makes fun of you and that nobody will give you any serious work. Have sex like there's no tomorrow and discover that you became a father or a mother, if you didn't use protection.
I hate to repeat myself but again nothing new here. I think that most people will find the Witcher is better at this since its cause and effect is not quite as black and white as other RPGs (including I suspect Fable 2)
· Freedom - It's a world of adventures: give up on the roads and travel through fields to surprise your enemies, swim across the lakes and dive in to find treasures, pass by the windows and the balconies in an immense tactile world.
We still have to see just how much freedom you will have in this game. From what I saw of the demo you are still confined to where you can travel by roads, and dont have nearly the same amount of freedom as games like Oblivion.
saolin323
Now let me make a few thinks clear. I am not saying Fable 2 will be a bad game, I am just saying that some people are setting this game up on a very high pedestal for features that have been available in most WRPGs for a long time now. If it pulls of some of those stuffs well I am sure it will be a great game, however it is not the greatest thing since sliced bread and I doubt it will be the greatest RPG.
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