review: fable 2…

fable 2 official site(link)
@amazon for $27.99(link)
lionshead
xbox360

when a game makes you think, “i might have liked it if i didn’t play fallout first,” it comes as a surprise that joystiq.com’s best of 2008 list(link) gave fable 2 its top recommendation. the first fable was hyped as the greatest rpg ever to be sold, a huge world built upon promises that, as i’ve heard, ended up failing to deliver. i never got a chance to play the first, and i don’t have an opinion of my own to add to the discussion, but i did finish the second, and i’m sure this feeling i have is the one many felt after playing the first one.

i’m a sucker for rpgs. where else can i be rewarded for my obsessive tendencies — scouring less beaten paths for treasure chests, hunting for legendary weapons by doing monotonous quests that don’t further the story, and talking to every villager in case i miss anything minutely important. when someone promises innovation in the genre, i get excited. peter molyneux, game designer for lionhead studios, talked up the first fable promising an environment where every choice would have a consequence. i imagined world of warcraft: the console version with epic quests, game altering decisions, and an artificial intelligence that could emulate human behavior. it shipped with a lot of the promised features missing from the game. fable felt like fable lite.

fable 2 might have been the game to deliver the promise of its predecessor and redeem the franchise. the graphics are pretty, the production values are solid, and the world is expansive. from the get-go, you’re given a choice: male or female. after a quick tutorial, the introduction ends with your sister murdered and your body hurled from the castle’s tower by the game’s main antagonist.

your character from that point begins to age. to defeat lord lucien, your character must become stronger by killing, questing, and working. abilities give you more power in melee, shooting, or casting. a player can focus on one area of expertise or spread their abilities throughout. spells can be cast without any regard to a mana or energy bar — one can go through the entire game raising the dead and casting aoe inferno spells. low health can be fixed with a press of a button that instantly uses up the highest health potion in your inventory. i died once during the entire game, and death became a non factor after i augmented a weapon with a stone that drained the life from enemies with every hit.

when you’re not out saving/destroying the world of albion, you can indulge in a little bit of self-absorption. as you become morally pure/corrupt or evil pure/corrupt, your appearance changes. abilities also affect your body shape, height, and complexion. with every melee set increase, your character buffs up. skill abilities make your character taller, and casting abilities mark your skin with glowing veins. a completely leveled female netted me an unattractive big-bodied woman that looked more like brock lesnar than xena. after i finished the game, i deleveled myself and learned: if you want to be pretty, you have to be weak.

all in all, i was very underwhelmed. i played a moral character throughout, but i didn’t feel like it earned me anything. in order to get the rest of the achievements, i had to start killing off citizens, but they all came back to life eventually filling up the town i decimated. morality without consequences does not a fun game make.

your approach to beating the game may be different entirely different than mine, but it will end the same — you kill lord lucien and live to quest again or create some havoc. on the flip side, no one is so evil that they can’t pay a fine and be let go. life goes on after your main quest, but i wish it was more entertaining. apart from quests that move the story along, you’ll spend the rest of your time going here, attacking this, going there, attacking that, and so on and so forth. a golden trail that loads whenever it wants to will lead you to your destination, though you’re still expected to go off the beaten path and find treasure chests. between being lead by a sparkly trail and having a voice tell me what i should do next — i felt like i had no choice but hold the hand that leads.

after you finish the game, you can continue questing and living your fabled life. question is: will you care?

graphics:
lighting is used well. character models and clothing are unnattractive. spell effects are nicely done. nothing extraordinary.

soundtrack:
music is nicely done except for the battle track. imagine the sound of someone tapping on a bass string and changing notes once in a while.

playability:
multiplayer and downloadable content which i did not really sample. after you finish the game, you can continue playing. more prisoners need saving. they’re where they usually are. you think they’d learn.

overall:
hack and slash your way through mundane quests in order to get revenge on the one who killed your family. you can choose to be evil or good, but it doesn’t really matter because all can be forgiven and forgotten.

rating:
2/5

for a list of 10 reasons why f2 wasn’t as good as i hoped: 10 reasons why fable 2 sucks(link)

(used wikipedia for jumpoff points like links.)