Pinch those luscious grapes and this time it really will cost you
Format: Xbox 360 Dev: Lionhead Studios Pub: Microsoft Out: 24/10/08 Players: 1-2
When Lionhead Studios revealed, even before the release of the Xbox 360, that a sequel to the grossly successful fantasy RPG, Fable, would headline the next generation of Microsoft’s console experience, gamers responded with an understandably mixed response of admonition and burgeoning anticipation. Once again, notorious designer, Peter Molyneux, took up the standards of love and beauty in an enthused and partisan marketing campaign. For many, despite initial exaltation, Fable was a bitter disappointment, after the encapsulating hype provided by Molyneux’s relentless passion.
Fable II, unlike its predecessor, allows its audience the freedom (to a reasonably limited extent) not to fulfil the duties of the traditional people’s hero, setting itself the task of ‘making one care’. Fable II introduces morality with a new dimension of importance and complexity. Notions of purity and corruption, alongside existing measures of piety, cruelty, wealth, quality of appearance and popularity, affect character development. While these particular trails are still mapped on a number of sliding scales and altered as the player acts, the development of morality lends a great deal to the freedom of choice in Fable II.
Also, among the acceded features finally accounted for in Fable II is an intuitive context-dependant combat system, inaugurated on a single button and sensitive to rhythm and intensity. With a single button responsible for each hero discipline in this way, combat becomes a varied and flavoursome weave of sword-swinging, gun-slinging and fireball-flinging fray. The game’s combat sections pick up reasonably slowly, and are bereft of any true challenge, or indeed fair punishment of failure. An enemy victory is merely rewarded with a moment’s rest as the backsliding hero flops to the floor for a moment, to nurse his aching ego. However, the lack of adversity is hardly of consequence to such a casual and forgiving game, and removes any chance of frustration or dissatisfaction for the player attempting to live out his preferred imagining of the game.
In the five hundred year period that has passed since the first Fable, the towns of Albion have seen a rapid development into a collection of vivacious colonial cities. In societies of more elegantly spoken, dressed and conducted townsfolk that appear ostensibly to have matured and learned to live their own lives without heroes. Each town or city now contains a unique brand of villager, comprised of individuals each with their own preferences and personalities. As such, every hero will find a place to call home, that reflects their own mould, in which they can live and work among their own kind. There still remains however the farcical aura commonplace in every Lionhead game, making inter-personal relationships with these characters nugatory and unrewarding.
Sexual encounters now carry a number of choices. Will your hero tenderly raise a child with his or her loving spouse, or have unprotected sex with a group of strangers? Although the hero can now have a full family, which can have some involvement in the story, there is little emotional gain from this. This comes as no surprise considering the non-entity that was your wife in Fable. Your suitors are still largely identical, vacant character models which are beguiled into infatuation in little over five minutes. But, these simple townsfolk, however inane, manage to add a lot to the player’s sense of presence. The deeds you perform will be reflected in the contempt or admiration you receive from both strangers and your own family. Popularity is also influenced by the player’s outward appearance, in effect adding many hidden qualities to each character and aiding the game in its attempt to create a unique experience for every player.
Perhaps the greatest achievements of Fable II are the rich and enchanting environments put before the brave explorer. While earlier adventures took place in a patchwork of miniscule corridors, the hero of new-age Albion is free to leap, dive, swim and roam across the countryside without a glimpse of stitching. The hero is led through this world (should they require it) by a delicate and unimposing ‘breadcrumb trail’. But can also choose to rely on his trusty companion for guidance, who will also sniff out buried treasure and rusty old chests – no hero would be complete without his sidekick.
Fable II, irrespective of the surrounding hype and mistakes of the past, is a thoroughly engaging success story, and an absolute joy for the casual gamer. While it may suffer from offering such a short story, it tenders no shortage of distractions, also burying a few activities for the player to find. The dreamy magnanimous world of Albion is so persuasive that you’ll soon forgive and ignore the few faults you might find. If you’re going to pick up one game this year, make it Fable II.
Piers Wainwright
[Originally published on Tuesday, 6 January 2009]
