Seeing as I'm halfway through my second character in Fable II, I figure it's about time I wrote a review for the game (My first review ever! You can check it out on
GameFAQs). Also, keep in mind that 5/10 means average, not bad.
Graphics (9/10):
Glad to see the bloom has toned down since Fable I, though it's still around. Now, instead of your hulking, brutish, octogenarian Fable I character glowing like a Christmas tree at midday, your slightly muscular, young and hip Fable II character stands around in the town square being blinded by the morning sunrise's bloom. But that time frame of bloom is small, and not a problem, seeing as it really only happens whilst staring the sun down, and that's not something you'd exactly like to do in real life. I never looked at one thing in this game and said "Oh... that looks bad," because everything looks great. Maybe even too great, as the game tends to have slowdown issues in towns, but that's for another section. The character models all look really good. The towns each have a very different style, but all feel like they could be actual towns, as opposed to the two-house ordeals in Fable I. All in all, the graphics never knocked my socks off, but were very solid.
Controls (10/10):
The idea of mapping a type of combat to each button is executed perfectly. I was initially frustrated by the way magic is cast though. The idea is that you have five levels of spells, and you hold B to charge them. You could have Slow Time on level one, Force Push on level two, and Fireball on level three, so that a quick tap of B would slow time, a small hold would push, and a longer press would unleash fiery doom. This is a somewhat frustrating change over Fable I seeing as you could flip between spells at will in that game, but this method does have its advantages. First off, before it was not possible to cast many lower level techniques, you would merely resort to the highest level you had achieved, despite how much overkill it may be. Secondly, it makes spell organization far easier than the last game. The main problem is that at the beginning of the game you only have level one spells and it's quite hard to switch them mid-battle (you can either choose to cycle and get hit by baddies, or go through the games annoyingly slow menus...). After you earn a bit of experience, though, and get a wider array of spells, you realize you only need a few spells to do all the work you want, and can organize them in the magic totem pole effectively. That is when the simplicity of this system shines. Melee combat is quite natural, especially the new flourishes. Tapping X to attack, and holding X to unleash an unblockable attack is very fluid. Quite possibly the only flaw to melee combat controls is the fact that the rhythm-based attacks are hard to execute during hectic battles, and not worth the effort. Finally, the gun controls are the best. Tap Y and a direction to shoot at a specific enemy, or just tap Y to hit who you are locked on to. Speaking of locking on, this is a mostly automatic ordeal in Fable II, making combat even more natural, and running away less so. If you hold Y, you'll go into aiming mode. In this aiming mode, you are completely immobile, but shots stun enemies more, and if you've upgraded your skill in marksmanship, you can use this mode in conjuction with the Left Trigger in order to sub-target enemies. This means that once you get the combination ingrained into your muscle memory, unholstering your, pulling a 180, and shooting someone's head off will become a quick flick of the thumbs, and prove to be highly satisfying.
Combat (8/10):
Keep in mind everything I said about controls above, as they also factor into the score for combat. Combat shines in Fable II, far surpassing any fun I had in the original Fable. Combat feels great, but there are a few problems with the types of encounters you run into in this game. First off, as battles get harder in this game, the developers handle this by merely throwing more enemies at you. There's only a very small handful of enemy types in the game, and you'll kill a million of each of them by the time you're through. I thought there was some promise when I was fighting these commander-type enemies who could shoot spikes at me and push me, but they are the hardest baddies in the whole game, which makes for a disappointing zenith of difficulty. This game was obviously made with the casual (read: unskilled) player in mind, just listen to any of the recording of Peter Molyneux before the game came out, but leaving hardcore players in the dust isn't fun. This game needs a hard mode for players like me, because purposely gimping your character into being less powerful to make the game harder is less satisfying than earning a beefed up character and fighting ridiculously tough enemies. The last thing missing about encounters in this game is bosses. Any good RPG has memorable bosses. This one does not. In fact, there isn't even a final boss. That was terribly disappointing. The coolest boss in this game was in the second quest or so, all the rest were either trolls (boring, slow, shoot them in the glowing weak-spot combat) or just regular baddies with flags on their backs. Combat was mostly great in this game, thanks to the controls, but the game could use some scaling down of encounter sizes (along with an increased frequency of encounters to counterbalance this) along with harder enemies and better bosses (plus a final boss!).
Sound (6/10):
The sound in this game is easily its most disappointing aspect. I have not had one sound clip or song from this game ever get stuck in my head, or even play once. Everything here is utterly forgettable. Music merely accompanies the action, rather than driving it. Though, this is somewhat fitting for such an open-ended game. More powerful music might be better suited for a more story-driven, typical JRPG. On the bright side, the music was never annoying in this game, which is most certainly worse than forgettable.
Other Gameplay (7/10):
Having a husband or wife is far more entertaining and demanding in this game. They need money to live, complain if your house isn't nice, want sex (but not too often), and you can even raise a family with them (watch for the hilarious quote when your husband realizes you are pregnant...). While the game has a small wardrobe, anyone with enough imagination can make it feel large due to the huge selection of dyes in this game, so you can make your clothes all sorts of different colors. The only thing missing is a special dye that allows you to enter custom colors, but most people should be satisfied once they find enough dyes. Purchasing this property is far more interesting now, as rent collects more frequently and is transported straight into your wallet. Sadly, rent values are ridiculously high, and becoming a millionaire is rather easy in this game. As I mentioned somewhere above, the menus in this game suck. They are very, very slow, and whenever you consume an item, you are returned to the game. Feel like eating a few pies and downing some experience potions? There goes two minutes of real time. I really wish there was a consume all button, that would've remedied the problem of the menus, except for their slowness (but made that less of an issue). There are also a decent amount of sidequests in this game, many of which have interesting storylines (favorite: helping a farmer's son come out of the closet). Overall, these other aspects of gameplay are pretty nice, even if menus are tedious and money is so devalued that I gave 100,000 gold to my wife as a gift because I was bored, and I always buy every item when I go into a shop.
Story (4/10):
I wasn't expecting much here, given how awful the original Fable was in this category. And then the game surprised me. You start out the game as an orphaned child with your sister, homeless and living between two houses. After doing some quests to earn five gold pieces (they didn't need to bring that element back...), a dog you saved in an earlier quest follows you home. It was very touching, as the dog really looks happy to be with you, and feels natural. Then due to a magical happening, you go talk to a powerful man in a castle. It is here that he
you and your sister, which I found quite interesting. Somehow, the ensuing revenge plot isn't very interesting though. The game then becomes a disjointed series of fetch quests, gathering three heroes to help you defeat your adversary. While the story started out interesting, it falls flat on its face once you reach adulthood.
In Summary:
Fable II is very solid visually, has great combat, and lasts long enough if you like sidequests and feel like replaying the game as a different type of character. The negative aspects of the game really aren't a big deal if you know what to expect and place your focus on how ridiculously fun the combat is, and dress up your character just the way you want.
Buy or Rent: If you like sidequests and multiple playthroughs, buy it. Else rent it.
Score Modification: Add a point to this review score if you really like character customization or you never pay attention to the story in games.
Score (7/10) actual average is 7.34
