Customer Reviews

Fable II

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(92)
3 star:		(62)
2 star:		(46)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

I didn't have a problem with the game freezing up my XBOX, and I'm sorry to hear it happened to (seemingly so many) others. The story isn't the best, and the inventory system is clunkier than the original. But a lot of improvement has been made. And you have to play it for a while to notice the better differences.

The good

There is no Mana bar anymore. If you are a primary Will user, this will be a godsend. No more having to worry about how much juice you have left. If you have the spell, you can use it as much and often as you want. I loved that. To extend on this, Magic is better balanced against melee weapons, so you don't feel like I did in the first one, that the spells were a nice addition, but not typically too practical in a difficult fight.

The game has a fairly complex economy system. Much more complex than I've seen in any other game. You can buy nearly every building in every city. There are exceptions...but not many. And when I say that, I mean it. You could probably count the buildings/structures you cannot buy on one hand. Which leads to the next thing I liked: When you rent out houses or buy vendor stalls and shops, you accumulate wealth without having to work for it. And, as is normal, you can regulate how much you charge. More than the town average will corrupt you, less with make you more pure.

After the main quest, there are still jobs and quests available that take a while to complete. I've probably put a good 30 hours into the game, and I still have a lot that can be done.

You four-legged friend. I think it's the coolest addition to the game. He will help you somewhat in fights, he will sniff out treasure for you to dig up, and he will growl when you approach an enemy, before you see them. As well, he/she has a number of expressions to compliment your own...which are adorable.

The graphics are really great. They are similar to the first game in terms of coloration and...well, Fableness. It's colorful and there are lots of ambient noises out in the open.

The leveling system is improved by default. Since in this world 500 years after the first, the Heroes Guild is utterly destroyed. The Chamber of Fate is the most intact piece that us left. But this means that there are no experience portals for Skill, Will, and Strength. So as soon as you build up enough experience, you can immediately go to the Abilities section in your options and upgrade you skills.

The music is pretty, and similar to the first. It's a perfect compliment to the environment. No long explanation needed. It's just well used.

The Okay

To be honest, I was disappointed in the guns. The rifles/pistols/crossbows. I didn't find them as evenly balanced against all of the others. They are nice from long range, but I didn't find them as useful as I found the bows in the original game. Not bad by any means, but I think if they caused more damage in relation to the other types of skills you possess, I would have used them more.

The "free roaming." On the back of the box it's said that "Roads are for suckers" accompanied by a picture of someone hopping a fence. Well yes, this is possible. However, what is not possible is multiple paths to the same destination. There is more substance -around- the roads, and there are more caves, but you cannot, for instance, leave the road and go up and over the mountain to get somewhere faster.

The new mapping system. I remember about a year ago, Peter Molyneux told us all that the original Fable was too easy. You could play the game by looking only at the displayed Mini Map. And he was right. But their solution? Now instead of a Mini Map, you have a glowing golden trail to follow. You -can- turn it off, but to be honest, I didn't really see this as a solution. It's just a different version of the same thing.

The bad

The story, I have to say. It's not that great, and it's not actually that long. But, I suppose I couldn't expect something on the scale of Oblivion or Lost Odyssey after the first one was so short as well. There were really no twists. The beginning really had me intrigued, with the box and such. But then it kind of went exactly how I expected it to go. There was no...substance, to any of the characters. Except between you and your dog. At the end of the game one of the characters calls your characters the best friend she ever had...and it's meaningless. You don't spend that much time together, and are absent for a long time. You don't know that much about them.

The Inventory system. Like the last game it is nicely divided into subsections. Weapons, Clothing, Food, Potions, Trophies, Books/Documents, etc. However, when you choose, for instance, to consume a potion that will give you more Strength Experience, it closes the menu and you go back to the game. So if I want to lose weight by eating celery, I have to press Stars>Items>Food>Celery. And then repeat it. It just gets to be a hassle. I wish you could do what you need to do, and then unpause the game yourself.

Weight. If it's your first playthrough, you will probably, like me, end up overweight. I didn't even realize it was happening, because when you first play through you probably don't have that much money, so you buy whatever will heal you. This seems necessary because, 1. If you get knocked out (killed), you get a new scar, and 2. Potions and Food are a lot less plentiful than in the last game. So when you get badly injured, you eat whatever comes up on the D-Pad. There are lots and lots of things that can make you fat. Cheese, meat, pie, some beers. The only normal item that makes you lose weight is celery. The ONLY. It took me about 5 hours of interactive game play to finally get back to even with my weight. Sleeping for weeks at a time to give the produce vendors time to restock on celery, buying and eating it, sleeping again. It got tiring, very fast. So my recommendation to you if you haven't bought the game yet and are reading this...stick with potions, apples, and carrots.

(Too long didn't read? The game is worth your $60.)

I never played the original Fable because I was living Warcraft 7-days-a-week :) I heard the original was pretty good though it was short (content-wise) and might have been a little over-hyped? Well this time around I completely ignored the hype and early reviews and just bought the game. So far, I am not disappointed. I'm out of the training area, have my first spell, beat my first mini-boss, and showed off my first trophy. This is a really good game so far.

The combat system flows really nice once your get used to it and it's super simple - one button for Melee, one for Ranged, one for Magic.

Everything you expect in a good RPG is there : XP, Levels, Skills, Weapons Upgrades, Socketed Items, Gold, Loot Drops, Condoms, and Babies.... Umm. Yes, did I forget to mention it's rated M for mature. So make sure the receiver of this game is mature enough. It's all in good spirit and there aren't any secret nude cut scenes that I'm aware of. Of course this can lead to the responsibilities of a family, having children, buying houses, providing for them which sounds like a ton of fun but I'll save this part to the end after I defeat the world and wave fireballs in the air first!

Otherwise, one of things I like about this game is that there are so many different types of content. Talking statues, random items, magic books, treasure chests, treasures to dig up, you have a pet dog that you can train, you can swim above water, you can even buy and rent houses as well as own shops for income; or head down to the pub and gamble your way to riches.

There just seems to be a good amount of things you can do in the game - and of course the graphics and storyline are pretty darn good.

I think they did a good job with no bad surprises so far. So if you think you might like this game - there is a very good chance that you will.

The 2008 season of great games has officially begun.

Fable 2, as it has been advertised, is all about choices and the repercussions of those choices. From the start of the game, these choices shape the very world around you, whether a town turns into a slum or a glorious economic stronghold.

The combat system is remarkably simple, and remarkably fun. It's simple in that 3 buttons control sword, pistols(and crossbows,etc), and magic. But it turns out to be an amazing amount of fun and flows rather fluidly between the three.

The overall feel of the game is excellent, much better than the original fable. The graphics, as you can see if you look at any gameplay videos, is top shelf. The music is also great, and really sets the mood of the game.

The only downfalls of this game are in co-op and expressions. Co-op doesn't allow for you to drop your character's weapons or looks into your friends game, only your experience and skills (hopefully this will be fixed in an update). The expressions wheels, while interesting and simple, are strange since it makes for zero words said for your character (just a lot of farts).

All and all though, excellent game, definitely worth the wait. Pick this one up.

If you enjoy casually playing games you will likely find Fable 2 to be worth the money. If you tend to be professional or "serious" about your gaming habits you will find Fable 2 too easy and would be better off renting it and completing it within the day or less it will take you.

The game itself is a stunning display of modern graphics, interesting story, entertaining combat mechanics and amazing freedom of player choices that have different effects on the outcome of the game.

The game also adds a multiplayer feature which is useful if like mine your spouse gets very tired of watching you play RPGs without any option to join in.

But... the game has enough balance issues to keep it out of the category of the truly great. For starters the game essentially has no death penalty. If you die you get temporarily knocked out and then get right back up to vanquish the threat. You do get a permanent scar if this happens which detracts from your beauty but as you can easily buy attractive clothing the villagers you attempt to woo will never know the difference.

Another significant problem is that amassing gold is absurdly easy and the best items in the game are proportionately absurdly inexpensive.

Even with these gritty flaws pulling the game off the pedestal of gaming greatness this game is still highly enjoyable if you don't take it to seriously. Instead of rushing the story give yourself limitations. Make it your goal to never die or to win without ever upgrading weapons or skills. Or see how benevolent you can be and then see how long it takes you to go completely evil.

Bottom line: With a little imagination on the part of the player this game is superb, unfortunately as it is traditionally the developers responsibility to provide the imagination this game cannot be considered the final word in RPGs.

Fable II, the aptly-named sequel to Fable, hit the markets a while back. I didn't have a way to play it then, but I do now, so even if this review isn't terribly timely, I hope you'll find it helpful.

The game takes place in the world of Albion, a beautiful, lovely world somewhere between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. In that it quickly differentiates itself from most fantasy worlds.

You play the Hero. You don't get a name, but you can get titles (like Lionheart, Executioner or the NAMBLA-friendly, Chicken Chaser). You can be male or female, good or evil. You can marry the opposite sex or the same sex. You can customize your looks with new hair styles, tattoos, facial hair and hair dye. You get all sorts of different clothes to pick from, and get scars when you die. You also age.

In addition, you get a whole slew of skills. You can learn how to chop wood, for example. If that's not exciting enough, you can also tend bar! Blacksmithing, bounty hunting and a couple other jobs round things out.

If jobs aren't your thing, you can go on a whole series of quests, though not very many. During these quests, you can earn gold which you can use to buy all the usual stuff, plus real estate. Yes, if you want you can become the next Donald Trump! One of my friends has done this and basically owns every bit of property that can be owned.

This is an action RPG, which is different from regular RPGs in that you don't select options from a menu screen. No, instead you bash, smash and crush your enemies by repeated button-mashing. Think of the Zelda games. You have both melee weapons and ranged weapons as well as a series of spells, some of which can be lots of fun!

Along the way, you have a dog acting as your faithful companion. Allegedly he helps in fights, but not so you'd notice. What he mostly does is sniff out treasure, and that's a damn nice thing, given how well-hidden some of the treasure chests are.

Graphics wise, this is one of the most beautiful games on any system. Everything looks gorgeous, even the darker and more unpleasant spots.

If it seems like I'm focusing overly much on the non-story aspects of the game, it's cause the story, well, kind of falls short. It's the usual "fight against someone who killed your sister" kind of plot. Nothing memorable. It's also rather brief. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but it's not very original.

Still, the joy is in the journey, and this is one of the best games of its kind out there. Highly recommended!

I would've rated this a 3.5, but since you can't I rounded down.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

What I liked:

- Less scarring. In the original it was much too easy to get scarred up early on
- Buying real estate (and not having to keep running back to collect your profit)
- The option to be a woman
- Having kids (although I could've lived without seeing them pick their noses and rear ends)
- More expressions
- Naming my family... too bad they were just "nicknames"
- Everyone having names and their own likes/dislikes. Made it more personal
- No more aging when leveling up (Not enjoyable to have to decide to be old and strong or young and wimpy)
- The "loose" citizens. Yes, my character was a ho
- Graphics
- The slo-mo shots in battle
- Gargoyle hunting
- Ties to the past/original
- Dying clothes/hair
- The jobs and sidequests
- Missions involved more work, often sending you to several different places
- Experience potions
- The women's voices didn't sound like old hags when they asked for wedding rings, ala Fable
- More variety in people. Although most of them weren't exactly lookers
- Stealing. My favorite hobby
- The dog. I had more of an attachment to my dog than to my family


What I did *not* like:

- The aiming system with guns/bows sucks. In Fable 1 it was so easy, just double click to zoom in and decapitate bandits. Another favorite hobby, and missed it here
- I much preferred the medieval setting in the original
- Playing as a woman was fun...until you leveled up and she became a hideous Amazonian she-beast. I ended up concentrating on Will so as not to look so much like a transvestite. But then the glowing Will lines all over weren't pretty either
- Stolen items were mostly junk, and you didn't know what it was until you took it. There was no way to drop something worthless. Who wants a rotten apple?
- Missed the old lightning spell where you could zap several enemies at once
- Inability to hurt or kill Reaver. I so wanted to
- Kicking animals is not funny
- You never got to see Rose again
- Your kids constantly on your a** so you can't get a moment alone with your spouse
- Trying to gain the affection of just one person draws a crowd, and they're all affected by your actions
- And the absolute **WORST** thing in the entire game: you're followed EVERYWHERE. I cannot say enough how much I **HATED** that. It actually took a lot of enjoyment out of the game for me. When you're well-known you have mobs following you down the street, all asking to marry you. Sometimes the crowd is so thick you can't get through and they repeat the same things in unison until you want to rip your hair out. They even follow you into your house like they own the place. Out on the streets is bad enough, but in your BEDROOM? Ridiculous. I wanted some quiet time with my family; next thing I know there are strange kids dancing around the room along with a few adults chatting me up. Wtf, go away! There's no way to get rid of them. Trying to scare them also scares your family. They really need to let you shut your front door to keep these idiots out
..Okay, rant over

By the way, what does it say about a game that, while playing it, you yearn for the original?
All in all though, this game has its problems but is still worth a playthrough if you liked Fable.

A great game, but once you beat it, there's not much point playing afterward, unless of course you're trying to get achievements.

I really looked forward to this game. I loved the first Fable and still play it once in awhile, so the sequel was top of my list for new games to buy when it came out. I was very disappointed! Some of the best things about the first Fable were absent from the second. Molyneux explained a couple of these-1) the mini map has been replaced by a golden trail you follow along the ground. The reason for the change? Players were spending a lot of time following the map and missing the wonderful scenery (it is wonderful). 2) The armor is no longer available. The reason? Players all wanted the best armor so ended the game looking alike. For a game that is supposed to rely heavily on choice, important choices have been taken away, decided instead by the developers as what would be best for us, the players.
It would have been more appropriate to give us the choice to use the mini map or armor instead, in the game.

The characters are incredibly unattractive. The female character as she gets stronger, takes on a very male appearance. What does that say?

The loot sucks, plain and simple. You can find most of it in the store. There is very little discovery of wonderful items.

On the plus side, the graphics are beautiful. The music too.

I think they managed to take a great deal of the fun out of what was one of the best games out there. I hope future games will include what they removed from this one. Either way, I will rent the next one before choosing to buy.

Well, like many others, I waited a long time for Fable II. I had played Fable I, not liked it at first,

but then gone back to it, and when "The Final Chapters" version was released, got much more into it. I

was not much for RPG type games, and still don't play them much, but this one was interesting to me

because of the way it was presented, and that it was simple enough for a "casual" or "beginning" RPG

player to pick it up, without a lot of the depth or complexity of MMORPG's or "Oblivion."

Anyway, having enjoyed Fable, I waited a long time for this game. Finally, it was released, and I got it home, started it up, and was quite impressed with the opening cutscene, very nice. (I had a feeling that bird would do what it did; I don't know how). Without giving too many spoilers, you start as a young boy (or girl) poor and fighting to survive;something terrible happens (as it always does to start off RPG's), and you beging your journey with rudimentary weapons and some gold. As in the first game, your first authorized use of your weapon (yes I randomly attacked a few people first, I'm evil) is those stupid giant bettles again. As before when you kill someone or something, squeeze the left trigger to gather their "orbs." The "orbs" are used to purchase your level ups, as in the first game.

The course you follow is up to you; you can follow the main story, or quest, do things on the side, randomly kill, steal and plunder, like in the first game (but as in the first game the guards are levels above you, so it's stupid to try to fight them at first); one thing I enjoy, as I did in the first game, is to simply explore a town, sneak into a house and steal whatever I can when no one is looking (hee hee). Even being a simple theif, though will turn your alighment towards "bad." Which is alright with me, I ususally prefer to be "bad."

Some things I don't like: The interface is still hard to use. I never liked it much before now it seems worse. The map isn't too good. Also on a standard def TV (am I the last one left with one) the menu pages are hard to read, and some of the instructional text in the game is way up on top of the screen and hard to read. And I agree with other players on the save system: there is an autosave, and you can save when not on a quest, but there seems to be only one slot, so if one or the other gets corrupted you could lose hours of work. I also think it's past time for "mute" characters. Yes, it's a lot of programming, but Fable II is not a bargain game; and they can fit a lot of content on one disk; look at how the main characaters are realized in GTA IV, Mass Effect, and other games.

Some things I do like: Cutscenes are amazing. Combat is OK-I am not a melee expert and appreciate a simple interface that does a lot. I still find myself eating something when I want to draw a weapon, or casting a spell when I want to shoot somebody though. Still frustrating.

The most amazing thing: I love the dog! Absolutely amazing AI programming. I have never seen anything like it-the dog will follow you, show you the way to hidden (and buried) chests, etc, and help you in combat-if you knock a stronger foe down, the dog will attack it. Finally, however your character develops, the dog will take on a similar apperance: if you're good, it's a handsome shepard mix-looking thing, if you're evil, it's a fearsome, snarling beast. Very cool!

On the reported freezes: I have not experienced any glitches or major bugs yet; I have seen other users report the game freezes; unfourtunately when a game freezes, it ususaly means your 360 is failing (sorry). This was my experience-I purchased my first 360 in August 2006, and it gave me good service (it ran 24/7 for more than 2 years because it was networked with my computer used as a sometimes media hub)-when games began freezing in it, a short time afterwards it red ringed. From what I understand, it is VERY rare for game software to brick consoles, when this happens it's because of a console update that goes wrong because of an error that happens when the firmware is written to.

Conclusion: Fable II is a good game; if you enjoy RPG's you will like it. If you are new to RPG's you may want to rent it and check it out. Minor problems aside, it's fun and there is lots of replay value, vis. play through as a male, then a female, then evil, then good, and so on. Recommended.

Fable II is a serious contender for game of the year. As soon as the game begins, you're pulled into an incredible fantasy world where you can choose to do good or evil. I'm only a few hours in, but apparently your choices will shape the fate of your character. If you choose good deeds, you'll be shaped into a hero. If you choose more aggressive or hateful behavior, you'll be shaped into something darker.

Fable II has some of the most jaw-dropping visuals I've ever seen in any game, period. The cut scene animations are on par with Hollywood blockbuster movies like Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings. The music and voice acting is of the highest quality and the gameplay graphics are vibrant and detailed. From a sound and visual standpoint, I can't imagine anyone having anything negative to say about it. The game controls are intuitive and simply put they feel right. With an RPG, controls are very important. You never want any button placements that make it difficult to play, and Fable II has the controls laid out in a way that make the game a pleasure to play.

You can play as either a male or female. You'll begin as a child and go all the way to old age. You can be a loner, get married, have multiple lovers and have a family. You can have a family in one town, a lover in another town and another family in yet another, but if you neglect your wife, or she finds out about your other lovers, she will divorce you! Also, if you play as a man, you can pursue men and if you play as a woman you can pursue women. So any sexual preference you have can be played out in the game.

The game is also co-op! At any point a friend can connect a second controller and jump right into your Fable II game. This is my favorite feature. I really wish more games would take advantage of this.

Replay value is going to be huge for this game. I read where the game contains 38 hours of recorded dialog alone, making it impossible to hear the same dialog twice during multiple plays. Plus, you can play once as a male and be a hero, then again as a villain. Then, play as a female hero and then again as a villain. And that doesn't even begin to touch on the fact that you could do other things such as raise a family, just have multiple lovers or stay alone. Each play thru can truly feel like a whole new gaming experience.

I wish I could share more, but I'm only a few hours in, but in this short span of time Fable II has completely captured my imagination and I can't put it down. This is the best RPG I've played since last fall's Mass Effect, and I'm going to enjoy this just as much if not more.
In this crowded holiday season of hit games (and we still have Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2 coming) Fable II stands out as one of the must buy games of the year.