Fable II: Practically Perfect

By Tommy Skaggs

There’s been tons of criticism that the original Fable did not live up to all of its promises. But, if a player took the game at face value, and didn’t fall into the hype, it was an enjoyable experience. The same is true for Fable 2. Forget about all of the rumors, and just play the game for FUN. You’ll have a great time!

The main concept behind the Fable series is “Choice.” A player shapes the kind of hero they want to become, and the digital people in the game will react accordingly. Many quests allow the player to choose separate paths. For example: Early in the game, the player has the chance to help a small mountain village, or you can help to destroy it for profit. Your choice will affect the rest of the storyline.

The game has great graphics and sound, but the part that shines through is the writing. Fable 2 is so cleverly written, it can change from a scary setting, to awesomely dry humor, to a very sad scene in a matter of minutes. There were many times while playing where I was laughing out loud (even the Achievements are hilarious). And, there were other times I was so scared, I thought I was hearing noises in the other room.

Before playing, I read the game would be an open world environment. Sadly this does not hold true. When I think “Open world,” I think of games like Grand Theft Auto, or Oblivion, where a player can travel from place to place on foot or vehicle. Fable 2 differs because it has specific zones. And, when a player hits the edge of a zone, the game will automatically “teleport” to the next area. There’s no possible way to walk from one location to another. This gave the game a HUGE “level-to-level” feeling, rather than an open world environment.

I was able to look past the area mapping… but, the two things that will hurt this game are the glitches and poor loading times. I got stuck in walls, help-text would not disappear, the FPS would come to a crawl whenever there was too much action on the screen, and the menus were super slow loading. My guess is the developers set a deadline that could not be pushed back any further, and released what they had. The good thing is the Xbox allows free, downloadable updates for games with errors. So, in a few weeks, these may be non-issues. But, it hindered my overall view and enjoyment of the game.

Fable 2 is easily summed up in two words: Addicting and Enjoyable. While I was playing it, my wife went to bed around 11:30pm, and I said “I will be in there in a few minutes.” I played for a little bit longer, and looked at a clock and it was 5:19am. The last time I had time fly like that was the day I bought City of Heroes.

The bottom line: Fable 2 is a near-perfect game with several options and features. The main quest doesn't take long to beat, but to complete all of the side quests would take months. It’s worth grabbing a copy.

Score: 4.5/5