Starting off with the story of the game, like the first Fable you start off as a child (either a boy or a girl this time) roaming the cold, nasty streets of old Bower stone desperately looking for food and some new shelter due to the fact winters coming. You’re accompanied by your older sister Rose as you go about town either doing good deeds or bad deeds to get enough gold pieces to buy a magical box from a travelling trader which supposedly grants wishes. As you can imagine these poor kids wish for a better life and so this tempting wish box is a believable goal. Anyway I don’t want to tell any more of the plot other than that, for spoiler’s sake but let’s just say you have a rather lengthy main quest ahead of you that’s full of exciting missions and characters to meet, assuming you do most of the side quests as well. Unlike Fable 1 there is so much more to do here this time around. There are more side quests, jobs to earn gold, people to meet and even marry, not to mention all the little secrets to find around the world, which btw is a lot bigger than Fable 1’s. As well as being bigger it’s more open and free roaming. You can vault over fences and go explore that distant field now. That’s not to say it’s like Oblivion for example. The world is still confined in the sense that each of the worlds regions is self contained. There’s still exit’s to and through from each region.


Moving onto the combat, this was one of the things talked about a lot during Fable 2’s development and I’ve got to say it works very well. Everything is assigned to one button. X for mêlée, Y for ranged and B for magic (known as will). This sounds boring but let me tell you it is not. It is very easy and intuitive to string together various combos via combining the three styles. My personal favourite was to slow time with a spell, then summon some undead spectres to help me out. I would then follow this up with a few swords swings and finish any distant enemies off with a couple of shots from my old Flintlock pistol. Overall the combat is more fun to perform this time around.


A great feature, as well as one of the most talked about is the dog. He works very well. Like Peter Molyneux said the dog replaces the mini map in your HUD and guides you around the world often finding buried treasure and hidden chests. He’s very useful in this regard but when it comes to combat I was a little disappointed. All he does is gnarl enemies who are already down from your attacks. Pretty lame. That said he is a loveable companion who will never leave your side and make the game a lot more personal, especially in regards to the plot. He even morphs, like you depending on your alignment of good or evil. Also this time around you can be good or corrupt. These various alignments work the same as Fable 1 really, it just affects your appearance and how people in the world react to you. For example if you’re fully evil they will all be scared of you and certain shops may offer you discounts based on the fact that the shopkeeper is so afraid of you. This system works really well and to be honest, is what Fable 2 is all about. Playing it your way. Good or bad.


I’ve got to say that there are times in this game when the graphics make you go “Wow, that’s really something!”. Then there are other times, mostly in regards to the animation of characters that make you go “Erm hello, this is Xbox 360 not PS2!”. Overall the visual polish is good and the art direction is utterly fantastic but it is let down somewhat by occasional choppy animation and the odd bland texture here and there.


Moving onto the sound however and it’s win win all the way through the game. The voice work is excellent; a good mixture of British and even some American accents thrown in there. The effort put into some of the main characters is outstanding and were this a feature length CGI film, they would have truly brought some of the characters to life. The music is enchanting and well done, with some pieces returning from the first Fable. The clash of swords is believable and the sound of blasting off a rifle is very satisfying. All in all there’s a good overall presentation in Fable 2.


So to wrap up this little review, I’m going to leave you with this. Fable 2 is a very fun well done game, with some aspects that feel unfinished or perhaps unpolished. But I have to say, it’s definitely worth picking up and completing at least once, doing as many side quests as possible.



Reviewed By Whackeygrunt