Fable II

Rating:

Fable II is the highly-anticipated sequel to the wildly successful original that sold more than three million copies, offering even more choices and building on the core gameplay theme of Fable, where your every decision continually defines who you become. Set 500 years after the original, Fable II delivers an epic story and innovative real-time gameplay, including a massive amount of freedom and choice to explore a vast collection of dungeons, catacombs, and taverns in the world of Albion.

Fable II Box Art

The Good

• Design
• Graphics

Needs Improvement

• Longevity

Fable II, by Lionhead Studios, is a fantasy based role playing game in which you control the hero from birth to adult-hood.  You start the game out as a young boy and play through a small set of quests to go into manhood, at which point the game really opens up to you.  I found myself playing Fable II for MANY hours so it's well worth the purchase price although some will tell you the game is too short.

If you played Fable I you know what to expect but for those of you who are new to the series Fable lets you choose the good path or the bad path as you play the game.  You can take on a spouse, pay for their existence, and even have children.  Or, you can take on a spouse and kill them off for no apparent reason.  There are many choices to make during the game that affect how evil or good you are.

In Fable II you never really die but you do gain scars from death that are permanent.  You also can gain a lot of weight by not eating much and it takes a ton of celery to get your weight back down.  In one case I ran out of calorie-free potions and had to eat a lot of cheese to survive.  This lead my character to weighing about 300 lbs.  After four or so hours of eating celery I was able to get my weight back to normal but buyer, or eater in this case, beware.

Fable II also gives you the choice of leveling up certain skills such as melee, ranged, or magic.  You gain skills or spells in each tree and get more powerful as you play the game (your physical self changes as well.)  I found it pretty easy to use magic area-of-effect spells to clear most creatures and finished them off with ranged attacks.  It's really up to you how you play your character in the game.  Another thing you can do is buy property and rent it out in the game.  This gives you income every so often that can be used to buy more property and eventually be crowned King although the actual title gives you no apparent reward.

The game is very open ended which puts it in the same realm as the Grand Theft Auto Series but you can complete Fable II in a matter of hours, not days.  Personally, I took my time in Fable II and stretched it out to several hours/days of enjoyment.  You can do the same if you don't attack the game with vigor and attempt to finish it in the shortest amount of time possible.  Fable II is a fun game that gives plenty back for what you spend.

Trailers and custom content are available now on the Microsoft Marketplace.