Fable 2 Review
Well, I did it. I finished Fable II, the long-awaited sequel to the original Xbox's action RPG bestseller. That is kind of starting at the end, though, isn't it? Let me backtrack for a moment. Fable II on the Xbox 360 was my first true foray into the Fable universe; my experience with the first was a few fleeting moments of play at a friend's house where I remember thinking, "Diet Zelda? Just one calorie, not enough Zelda." Incorrect or not about the first, I went into Fable II completely fresh-faced and with no reservations about what I was about to experience. About 20 hours later, I see Fable II for exactly what it is: a flawed RPG with some fantastic elements, some tedious and flawed ones to match and an overall experience that just can't seem to decide on a direction.
Before you flip out, Fable II is not a bad game in the least. It just isn't the world-changing experience it, and incidentally, the first game, was promised to be. Fable II places the player into the ambiguous shoes of a young child who will eventually become either the world of Albion's greatest savior or most dastardly villain. As you no doubt already know, Fable's hook is that the choices you make throughout the game affect your character, the world around you and the game's story and plot progression. Right from the start, your behavior will lay the groundwork for what is to come. As cool as it sounds on paper, these choices often boil down to simple A or B, good or evil, with very little room for ambiguity. Even with the game's numerous neutral decisions, and creative players' attempts at mixing up the good and bad, it all seems to lead to one of three results: The good, the bad, or the yawn-inducing middle ground. The fact is that other games, like the recent Fallout 3, allow the player much more room for choice and infinitely more varied results. And the choices in other games often feel truly good or sublimely evil; Fable II has you collecting STDs (not a typo) and charging high rent to accumulate bad karma. Ooo…. I'm terrified.
Even though the good/evil choices can be boring and the story hinged on them is a paint-by-numbers RPG yarn that was lame 15 years ago, the gameplay and exploration do make up for a good bit of it. Fable II plays and controls a lot like a 3D Zelda game with no viable enemy lock-on. This might sound like a shot against Fable, but like I said in my earlier review for Dark Sector (a game that copied Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War almost exactly), if something works, where is the harm in copying it? Getting around and fighting in Fable II all works magnificently, and the game will only be spinning in your 360 for about 30 seconds before you have mastery over everything.
The only aspect not faithfully copied from Zelda is the lock-on system. In the 3D Zelda adventures, locking-on to an enemy or object allowed the player to move a full 360 degrees around it. In Fable II, you can lock-on to enemies and objects, but the 360-degree measure of freedom is lost. Instead, you are tethered to the enemy or object with virtually no options except attacking or approaching head-on.
This might not seem like a big deal to most, but to those of us who have been playing games like these for years and years, it comes as a rather jarring shock to see a system we once praised carbon copied with the one element that truly tied things together simply left on the cutting room floor. Other than that bizarre omission, everything else works great. Fighting, moving, even switching between short-range and long-range weapons on the fly, all of it makes the game a joy to play.
Besides being just plain fun, Fable II does something that very few games have managed to do outside of the walls of the MMORPG; the world of Albion feels like an actual living, breathing world. The countryside, at first, feels small and restrictive. As you progress in the game, the plains give way to cities, cities to more expansive areas and even climates, and so on. One of the issues I took with the game was that it never decides on what it wants to be - a console contained MMO Lite, a story-driven action/RPG, a "choose your own adventure" customizable experience - but in borrowing from the open world aspect of some larger games, Fable II does capture the feeling of being a citizen in a world, rather than a character on a stage tailored for your experience only. Granted, a quick glance at a strategy guide will show how one sided and hollow some of these things are (a whole area's appearance and temperament can hang on one minor choice here or there), but the mood and feel of the world are infectious, provided you don't see the rather lame puppet master holding the whole thing together.
For all the promises made by developers before the game hit shelves, Fable II does fall rather flat. Its fun to play and the world is convincing, but sadly that is where it stops. The story is just plain blah, the main quest is short (I said earlier that it took around 20 hours, but that was only because I was working on a guide for the game as I played. Most will finish the main quest in between 7 and 10 hours, and even thorough players won't be occupied with all the extras for more than 15 or so) and for a game with so much going on, there isn't a ton of substance to any of it.
When you sit down and think about the game as one cohesive experience, you can almost breeze through the developer's promises and the game's features like ducks in a shooting gallery. You have a dog to accompany you? All he does is pinpoint hidden (and not so hidden) treasure and fight with enemies (sort of). The game is all based on your choices? Too bad they are all A or B choices; sometimes having two paths just waters down what would have only been a semi-strong single focus. You can (insert activity here - start a family, own real estate, etc.) in this one? Again, too bad most of these things are mere distractions, with almost no effect on the overall gameplay. As much as I truly tried to enjoy Fable II, the fun gameplay and convincing world just couldn't make up for the game's drawbacks. For open world RPGs (or MMORPGs) based on player choice, it's a Fallout 3/Elder Scrolls/World of Warcraft world, and Fable II is only a half-hearted effort when compared to those giants. With the first game, my thought was, "Just one calorie, not enough Zelda." With the sequel, it is, "Just one calorie, not enough anything." Besides, who ever heard of a customizable RPG where you can't even decide what your character looks like?
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
73%. 