Review: Fable II (360)

Mind and Body

But as fun as it is to upgrade furniture so you can raise the rent, an adventurer's natural state is duking it out in dungeons, and Fable II's got plenty of beasties to battle. How you dispatch foes quickly becomes as much a matter of personal style as your interactions with townspeople. Will you carve through the undead with a cleaver, pick off bandits from afar with a crossbow, or turn a room full of creeps into a swirling storm of bodies and debris with a charged Vortex spell? Each type of attack earns you different colored orbs to spend on attack upgrades, and changes your physique. Strong characters become burly, skillful individuals grow tall, and magic users start to glow.

Before long I was timing my brutal melee strikes for combination bonuses and aiming for high-powered headshots with my rifle, but rarely did I ever feel like I was in real jeopardy. Part of the problem is that your eight magical spells are not constrained by any mana requirements. On the one hand, it's great fun to spam foes with charged-up inferno blasts and clouds of conjured blades, or slow time to a crawl so you can slice and dice without taking so much as a scratch, but even vicious Balverines and mysterious Shadows that absorb a dozen blows each will offer little hardship to anyone who can do more than mash buttons. I have to think this will only get easier with a partner, although co-op play won't be available until shortly after the game's release.

Fable II

A Life Twice Lived

After blasting through the bitterly anticlimactic final confrontation with Lucien with - I kid you not - a single rifle blast, I had to wonder why I'd had such a good time when combat so often amounted to tearing through tissue paper. Then I returned to Bowerstone and continued the rest of my life. I went back to buying up property, helping the local guards deal with ruffians, and showing off to children. I hunted down and shot taunting gargoyle heads, installed new augmentations in expensive weaponry, and appeased demon doors to gain access to hidden treasures. I served drinks at taverns, gambled away my earnings, and commissioned more stone statues of myself in various poses.

A few hours of idle romancing, carousing, and trading later, it dawned on me: Fable II, despite its overly easy battles and disappointing dog, had become a sort of second home, comfortable and malleable. As much as the canned storyline ultimately disappointed me, there remains so much more to do, and I simple don't want to leave. Hardcore gamers looking for non-stop combat might not have the same reaction, but people looking for a well-rounded escape from the real world will get far more than their money's worth.

PROS: Large number and variety of activities; lots of world and character customization; stunning storybook graphics; flexible and enjoyable combat.
CONS: Unsatisfying main campaign; enemies present little challenge; dog isn't terribly interesting; some irritating questing quirks.
Fable II

Comments [42]

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MikeTheGreat

Thought about getting this game, and since I've seen the reviews say that the game is awesome and you are probably gonna roam around in it a lot, and i decided to actually buy the game when i get the money. I'm just one of those type of gamers that likes to roam around the area is fun enough to roam around. The game looks fun and i haven't had any expectations too high for it, so it should be a blast for me.

TRUPREDATOR

i got it this morning at midnight.all i can say is it is great.full of humor and fun.controls are good.good story so far,it is very much like the original but far better.for fans of the original if you liked it, go out and get this game is wont let you down.i totally agree with the overall scores this game has been getting.8 out of ten.

TRUPREDATOR

spunnups wrote:

I'm prob the only one not excited about this one. You can try that fanboy shit, but this just isn't my thing. The gameplay just looks so weak.

your loss.

Jake016

Whether I get this game or not depends on how good some of the other holiday games are. I probably will get this though considering I loved the original, despite some of its shortcomings.

greensabre

I rented it this morning and have played for maybe an hour, but it's really fun. I'll have to get a little farther before I have a solid opinion of it.

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