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Review: Fable II
This raises another choice: do you want to bother with all of that adventuring, or just become a landlord? Do you want to own shops or residential properties? Do you want to seduce someone’s husband, then buy their marital home and kick her out? It’s an entirely separate branch of activity you can pursue, and very quickly becomes hugely compulsive thanks to neat touches like rent accumulating every five minutes regardless of whether you’re playing or not. To acquire the capital to become a property grandee you could become a trader, picking the right towns in which to sell your goods, and gradually, if you’re good at it, affecting entire economies. Why should that village in a pleasant location be a home for bandits and thugs? You can invest and, after a good period of development, it’ll become a haven for more respectable types. And everyone will know that you were responsible.
Fable II is a world that is worth wasting time in. It’s a laugh to wind up the villagers, make silly faces for the children and wink at the barmaids. Buying properties has more than just pecuniary interest, and investing in the future of Albion and its residents, however you choose to do it, is some lure.
Outside such civilised – and base – exploits, combat proves that less is often more. Assigning each of your attacks (melee, ranged and magic) to their own buttons makes the system about placement and timing rather than fast fingers. With groups of enemies, it’s quickly second nature to think two or three moves ahead, always in search of the experience bonuses that the game liberally doles out.
The weakest section of the game is its handling of your early childhood years, trammelled by its tutorial undertones – a shame since, obviously, it represents the game’s opening. To be fair, at least it concludes in some style. Animation, meanwhile, is often remarkable, and yet your character’s manoeuvrings can feel floaty – an unfortunate failing in a game that’s all about connecting with a world. Fable II also suffers the sort of technical issues that now feel commonplace in so many large-scale Xbox 360 releases, with pop-up and pop-in sullying the view. In terms of more random glitches, on one occasion shooting a ruffian off a ledge saw him spasm upside-down for a while, his legs twitching faster and faster until he took off into the sky.
None of it matters greatly. Once Fable II has its hooks in, the breadth and detail of its wonderful world swallow the minor quibbles. It’s a game that builds gradually and then becomes irresistible, a beautiful lump of an RPG that continues beyond the close of its main campaign, and will have you thinking about it when you’re not at your 360. With Fable II, there’s only really one key choice: whether to play it or not. And that should be the easiest decision in Albion to make.
9/10
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
I agree that Fable 2 does far more better things with the RPG genre than Final Fantasy. I agree 100% with that statement. However, that doesn't excuse any of the glaring flaws from being mentioned. Period.
Why bother with a map at all if it's not going to be accurate? From a design standpoint, that's just not justifiable. Don't give me this "they're sticking with the ye old times theme and trying to make it realistic with the time period the game takes place in" because that's rubbish.
Sorry, "committing to memory" isn't fun. When every major rpg for the last decade has given players a working, functional, map... If it's fun for you, then great. Don't use the map in ANY game. But give players the OPTION. Just like we have the OPTION to use fast travel or not.
As far as coop, no...I don't think there would be jerks trying to ruin my world. Because I have this thing called a "friends list" and I play with friends. The coop could have just as easily been designed to not allow a guest player to injure the hosts family. Problem solved.
The coop isn't just icing, man. Maybe for YOU. But not everyone is going to have your perspective. There was ALOT of complaining when they announced the coop would be delayed. That wasn't players griping about not getting their icing. Those were players upset about a major portion of the game being delayed.
Personally, I wish they just didn't include coop. If you can't do something right, just don't do it. Don't half ass it.
Sloppy development. And sloppy gaming "journalism" in giving this game a 9 and not even MENTION the flaws.
While I agree with you a bit on the map issue (I don't want to get too lost, but so far haven't had too much trouble with getting lost) I do have to mention that co-op does allow you to turn on/off friendly fire so your co-op buddy can't kill your wife or any other NPC. I am disappointed in the way co-op was handled. It is nice to receive money and exp, (and achievements!) in co-op, but not to get any loot or get anything as far as game progress (but I guess that kinda makes sense though) is a bit disappointing. It seems like co-op is something that most developers have a hard time implementing properly. Bungie even stated that pretty close to Halo 3's launch that they weren't sure they would get it in and that's just an FPS. Guitar Hero:WT and Rock Band 2 managed to screw up co-op as well (you don't get venue credit while playing as guest in someone else's band for your own profile/band).
And for certain games not having their flaws pointed out, I'm there with you. Rock Band 2 has terrible online multiplayer, it’s very limited and NO ONE pointed that out. It has a 92 metacritic score and I feel it should be a bit lower. No band v band multiplayer and head to head matches are 1 song offerings with neither player choosing what song you do (in comparison GHWT ranked matches alternates who gets to pick the song and you can choose to play against the same guy for as long as both players choose to, so if you lose one, you can redeem yourself). Don't like Alanis Morsette? Too bad, you're playing you oughta know for the 11th time. And tour mode in RB2 makes you play the same 5 songs about 15 times throughout the tour...why???
@ CyberData4
like your sour grapes much?
I’ve played this non-stop since Friday and I’ve discovered no MAJOR flaws, just a few niggles that could never detract from the sheer scope and love that's been poured into this game. It's an amazing piece of work with so much to see and do and so many areas of decent RPG innovation I fail to see how your examples would be worth robbing the best game I’ve played in ages of one measly review point....
Not having a mini-map is annoying, but hardly game breaking. I've managed to find my way around quite easily just by referring to the pause menu from time to time. I've also never played a game that lets you warp to areas you've yet to discover for yourself, so I feel this point is mute also.
I also remember Peter hyping the co-op feature, telling us all how we would be able to "move" into someone else's game in order to see how "their" world has differed from your own, and as far as I can tell Fable II's co-op still allows this. Yes you may have to be generic what'shisface solider 1 but you still get to visit and take note of how your friend's world relates to your own story.
While on the topic of co-op and Live, I absolutely love having my friends list come to life in Bowerstone Market. Seeing all my friends floating about in-game knowing that even though they're playing their own story the fact they're still so close is great, and hearing them chatter over the head set just adds to the living and breathing atmosphere Lionhead have weaved into their game world.
@ironman tetsuo
Spare the snide opening remarks. It almost makes me not want to validate you comments with a response.
I've also played the game non-stop since it launched. Played it all weekend. And? Does that magically invalidate a games flaws? If so, then I'd say you'd be less than objective. As far as "Major" flaws...we'd both have to agree on what constitutes a "major" flaw. I'd say even minor flaws should be at least MENTIONED in a review. Which they're not in this case. No mention of the coop issues. Or the map issue.
To clarify. I'm not saying the game is bad. Not at all. But I just take issue with a review not going into detail about the negative issues a game has. There's just NO reason not to mention the less than optimal way the coop was implemented. It just doesn't "flow." The developers really lost a chance at making the coop in this game really stand out. Most likely because a "suit" said they have to make a fall 08 release no matter what in order to get those holiday sales next month.
The map issue is FAR more than annoying. It hinders exploration. But definitely not game breaking. But I believe it's worth mentioning and deducting points in any fair review. And rpg of this size and scope not giving players the OPTION of using the traditional in-game mini map is just bad design.
And to clarify, I'm not complaining that you can't warp to an area you haven't discovered. I'm pointing out the design flaw when you're told you can't warp to an area you haven't been to...you don't KNOW what the closest zone that you HAVE been to is. And...since you don't have a world map...you can't just look at it. See that rookridge is the closest zone and port there and walk the rest of the way.
Once again. Game breaking? No. Sloppy design? Yes. Is that now something reviewers should not do? Point out sloppy design/implementation?
And (from my very limited experience w/ co-op) all of the people on my friends list do not even want to play coop. The few that do, always want to host. Why? Because NO ONE wants to spend ALL that time pimping out their character, gearing them up, fine tuning their look...and then join their buddy's game as "generic henchman 908." It's also a drawback to be completely tethered to the host character. Plenty other online
And I definitely should specify that the floating orbs ARE fantastic. It felt like I was in an MMO for a moment in bowerstone when I put the orbs to "ALL." Man, there were players everywhere. Talking about quests. Asking questiosn. Answering questions. Generally, helping each other out and being chill. That is a great feature.
1up was 100% correct when they said that Fable 2 does more wonderfully new creative things with the RPG genre than Final Fantasy has in the last ten years!
Honestly, the last time I had this much fun with an RPG game was when I played an RPG for the first time and was amazed with the storyline, the fighting, and the environments. Some of my favorites were Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star 2.
Fable 2 does too have a "map." The map isn't designed to be the type of accurate map that competes with a satellite tracking system. We may "live" in the 21st century, but this game does not take place in the 21st century. "Committing to memory" where the important areas in each town exists is actually something fun. That's the way it was in my favorite RPG games like Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star 2.
If having a "constantly evolving" World Map is something that is so important, maybe the developers of the game could add that feature to the game as a Download. I bet it wouldn't require much effort. What do you think Peter? If you are reading this, how about doing that, just to make a few people be quiet with their minor complaints.
I'm sure the Co-Op download can improve over the course of time, as well. I don't have a problem with the rule that says both players have to be on the screen at the same time. I actually think that is a good thing. Do you really think that there wouldn't be jerks out there who would deliberately wander far away. And I'm sure the developers of Fable 2 are making improvements to the amount of characters and customization involved with the Co-Op part of the game as we speak. But it's important to remember, that the "Co-Op" part of the game is just icing on the cake; its a bonus.
The key part of Fable 2 that makes it incredibly fun is the single player RPG elements. Fable 2 has such an incredible gameplay system that there is no other game like it available on the market today! If you like RPG games and you want FUN you should play Fable 2.
Imagine you went to see a film at the cinema, a long-awaited blockbuster. Let’s say it’s Quantum of Solace. Imagine if in one of the dramatic, explosive scenes a microphone strayed into the shot. Or you could plainly see that the guy leaping across rooftops clearly isn’t Daniel Craig. What if one of the explosions pixellated suddenly and then vanished entirely revealing, for a second, a green screen?
I am assuming most people would be a little disappointed and the movie would (deservedly) become a bit of a laughing stock. Cue double pages in The Sun pinpointing each glaring error. Now, this never happens in film, at least not in Hollywood. Film is a serious industry, capable of delivering incredible amounts of money, not to mention the occasional film that will make you think, reconsider your approach to life or inspire optimism, pessimism.
Now I am happy to accept that computer gaming is an industry still in its childhood years. Much like I am not expecting a serious conversation about the meaning of life from my 4 year old son, I am not expecting games to provide the same level narrative or emotion. Yet.
But in the meantime how is it that some of the biggest, richest developers and publishers get away with releasing games technically sub-par games, littered with texture pop-in, AI glitches and all sorts of other short-comings? Surely these can’t just be ignored? They aren’t artistic shortcomings (which the film industry is rife with), they are basic, technical ones.
This may not be a new gripe but it is concerning that more and more games are released with these problems and people seem to be accepting them as normal. Far Cry 2 and Fable II were what brought this rant on – after running into a (lirerally) blank landscapes with alarming regularity and witnessing shonky texture popping I felt the need to vent.
Rant over.
I think texture pop in is more of a memory and hardware limitation problem more than it is a developer one. A lot of big budget games have had problems with that (Fallout has it, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fable, and a few others). Games with open environments like that tend to have that problem. Some games are able to get by without having texture pop-in, but few pull off huge open worlds without some kind of texture pop in. Fable does seem like the open environments aren't quite as vast as say oblivion or Fallout so I would imagine it would show up less, but after playing for a few hours myself it does seem a bit more frequent in Fable than in other games. I do think it takes away a bit from the immersion of the game (I had a discussion with someone yesterday in a bit more detail yesterday) when you see things pop into view, it’s a bit distracting. I think it’s a little less distracting though in games than it is in movies (if you were to see something similar in a movie).
I know what you mean 'Cyberdata4', I'm not dissing EDGE but I have found the sort of reviews you are looking for in the big online stores; the customers already bought the game so they just lay it down like they see it. But be warned though, you have to read through a huge amount of biased rubbish to find the good stuff!!!
Bah! I shall abandon my plans to purchase an Xbox and procure the PC version.
Ugh. This is why reviews are becoming less relevant in todays age of information that the internet has given to us. I agree with this review, to an extent. But it seems to be more of a shallow preview with a score slapped on it than an in depth, well laid out (and well justified) summary of the games positive and negative aspects.
Don't get me wrong. Fable 2 is a good game. Very fun. But three things bother me with this review. First, the author doesn't give ANY mention to some of the MAJOR flaws with this game. After spending 25 hours in the game, I can lay out a few. The lack of an in-game map in the 21st century w/ an rpg is inexcusable.
The omission of that in-game mini-map makes navigation through the towns and the roads painful. Oh, there is a map, but if you want to view it...you'll need to press start. Look where you want to go. Then press start again to get back into gameplay. So if you're in a huge town trying to find a weapon vendor, expect to be pressing start alot in order to make your way. There is no world map. Just section maps. So you never know what the adjacent zone is unless you commit it to memory. You never really know what zones are next to what. It makes the game feel ALOT smaller than it is since you HAVE to rely on the instant transportation system
The game does have a waypoint system in the form of the golden train that leads you directly to targets. It fails in two ways. First, when you have a quest target in a zone you've never been in, you can't quick travel there. You can only follow the gold trail. But since you have NO WORLD MAP you have no idea how far away your target is. You have to randomly go through zones hoping you don't have to go through each and every zone to get to you target.
The second flaw of the golden trail is that it wastes cpu time calculating all the time. Creating slowdown. It'll go in one direction one moment. Vanish. Then reappear in another direction.
Finally, NO mention of the Coop mode. At all. How can you release such a half done review? You left out mentioning the most broken feature of the game. The coop in fable 2 in horribly implemented. And I really wish gaming sites would call out developers when they pull this crap. When they hype up a game, then half-arse it. The online coop doesn't even let the client player use their OWN character. They have to use a random premade generic henchman. I don't understand why most sites don't call out flaws such as this. When playing online, both players HAVE to be on the same screen at the same time. So in a game of this size, I can't go to one area of the world and let my friend port back to town to grab some supplies. Also, when one player pauses, it pauses the game for both of them.
The crappy coop alone disqualifies this game from a 9. Not to mentions the bugs, and gliches and crashes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Fable 2. Heck, I'm about to go play right now. But I'm just fed up with gaming sites giving unrealistic, undeserving reviews and never go into details about the flaws in a game.
Fable 2 is great! Alot of fun!