I was never interested in the first Fable, probably because i didn't have an Xbox, and instead I was still playing Vice City on my PS2. Who cares about wether i was good or evil, just shoot until you're out of ammo, and then run away, that was what i was into into. Never mind swords, give me a shotgun anyday.

I still don't know about the first Fable, the only reason I got interested in Fable II was because of all the hype that seemed to be surrounding it. I'd ask people "What do you do in Fable II?" and I'd be told you start of as a boy, and you grow up. Hell, i can do that in real life, why would i want to do that in a game? People never seemed to be able to explain to me what you did in Fable II, because the story you follow is a bit complex. I'd recommend reading the spoiler, as it takes up quite abit of the review, I only talk about what happens during the game, and if you don't read it, this review will look terrible, but it's up to you.



Graphically, this game is nice to look at. They aren't fantastic graphics, they're jsut very pretty. Although due to the cartoon quality of the game, it can't look too realistic. The sounds in the game are pretty good, although there's not much sound to notice, but of what sound there is, it's good.

The video reviews of this game i watched before i bought it myself made out like there's lots there do. There is quite alot to do, but once you've done all them things once, there's nothing to do. There's alot of jobs you can do to earn gold, such as Woodcutting, Bartending and Smithing, all of which require you to stop a moving bar in a green zone. The other jobs are Asssassinations, Civilian Displacement (human slavery) and Bounty Hunting (yes, like Jango Fett), which are all combat based.

Another way you can earn experience is through the Temple of Light. All you do is donate money to the temple, and you'll get more experience if you do it at the Zenith Hour (noon) There is of course a Temple of Shadows, where you can sacrifice people for points, the more people, the more points. Do it at midnight to maximise your points. You can trade these points in for a great reward.

The way you get stronger in Fable 2 is by collecting the experiences from the enemies you've killed. This comes in the form of orbs, and they represent Melee, Ranged, Magic and General experience. You can spend these on new abilities for each type of combat.

One thing that seemed to get quite a few people annoyed was the fact that you can't technically die on Fable 2, when you die, you're given a scar, with makes you more ugly. And of course, there is a maximum number of scars you can get, so once you've got them all, die as many times as you like.

The combat system is very simple, one buttom represents one of the combat styles, Melee, Ranged and Magic. Holding the button for a particular style has different effects on the outcome of the move, holding the Melee button eventually allows you to block, counter and perform a big swipe, once you unlock them. Holding the Ranged button allows you to aim better, once you unlock it. And holding the Mage button, allows you to power up stronger magic spells, depending wether you've unlocked them spells.

There are a few minigames you can participate in, although they are quite hard to understand. One of them is called Keystone, which is much like roulette, but you bet on what number won't come up on the dice, and it's made more complicated. There is also an 'evil' version of Keystone called Bloodstone, where you bet on what will come up on the dice, much more like roulette.

You can of course, after a lovely game on Keystone, get sloshed at the bar. Yes, enough alchohol will make you drunk, and you'll stagger around Bowerstone, and inevitably be sick aswell. Speaking of food, eating different types of food can make you fat or thin, pies of course adding on those calories, and the likes of celery making you thinner. Not exactly the Atkin's diet. Most alchoholic drinks  will add on fat aswell. Not only does food and drink have weight advantages or hindrances, but it can lower your purity or raise it. Any meat consumption results in impurity, as an animal was killed in the making of your food, so start nibbling on that celery. When people see you eat particular foods or drink particular drinks, their opinion of you will adjust accordingly aswell, depending on what they're into, wether they like seeing you scoff a pie, or wether it disgusts them.

There are cool weapons in Fable 2, with different levels of quality. You first have iron weapons, the lowest quality, then steel, obsidian, master and then special weapons which you can find, or complete a series of puzzles to get. You will of course start of with iron weapons, or the equivalent for other weapon types, and as you get more money, you'll be able to afford better weapons that give more damage and are faster, perhaps more damage at the cost of being slower or even less damage at the cost of being faster (a kantana for example is a fast sword, but does less damage than an axe, which is slower, but packs a heavier punch). You'll also be able to buy augments for weapons, which you can attach onto your weapon. The amount of amount of augment slots depend on the quality of your weapon. Augments give a added bonus, sometimes with a bad side effect aswell.

In Fable II, You have an advanced character morphing system, compared to the first Fable. The effect this has on the character is that doing good and evil or pure and corrupt actions affects the look of your character, and how different characters from different regions will interact with your character. A good and pure character will have a halo eventually, an evil and corrupt one will have horns and red eyes.

If you're characters evil and goes to a nice little town, you not going to get a nice welcome. This of course depends on your reputation in different places. The more reknown you get in a place, the more people will recognise you, wether that be a good thing, or a bad thing. Reknown can be gained through trophies (particular events in the game reward you with a trophy that you can show in public), paying a bard to sing a song in the local pub (the song will reflect your recent actions, and how you did them actions, again wether it be good or evil). You can also commission statues, and you even get to pose for them.

Your dog, who follows you throughout the story, will also change depending on your own actions. If you're good and pure, you'll have a lovely, clean and friendly pooch who everyone will stroke, but if your corrupt and evil, your dog won't be very popular with the people.

Different achievements, good or evil, will give you different titles for you to be addressed by. If you don't want to unlock these titles, you can simply just buy them.

Every single thing you do in the game will affect how your story develops.  I'll give an example, but put a spoiler button on it so not to wreck it for anyone.

One feature everyone seems to get excited about is the option to have sex, marry and have children. One thing i found great was the fact that you could transmit STD's, and also if you hire a prostitute, you have the chance, especially in rough towns, to be robbed during your hanky panky. You can also become a bigamist, although if someone finds out, you might be bribed so your reputation isn't destroyed. You must keep your wife, and maybe children happy though, perhaps performing there favourite action, or giving them a gift. Just make sure you don't get them mixed up and end up giving a toy bow and arrow to your wife, and expensive perfume to your son. The expectancy of gifts also depends on the status of your family, which depends on the area they come from. When you want to propose to your fiance as she would be, the ring quality will also be dependant on the status of your soon to be wife.

You can also buy clothes, and change hairstyles, and facial hairstyles. These can affect wether you look good or evil, and wether you'll look hilarious. Just imagine, a burly axe weilder in a pink dress. I doubt you'll get much respect. There are of course hundreds and thousands of combinations you can have, changing colours of hair and clothes aswell. Clothes can also represent your status in the world, wether you good enough to have crumpets with the mayor, or not worthy to beg for coins on the street.

Property is a good way to earn money, once you've got quite abit of money. You can buy shops, and lower the prices to be considered pure of heart, or raise them to be corrupt. Houses are also available aswell, and you choose wether to raise the rent to be corrupt, or lower it to be pure, similar to the shops.


After reading all of this you're probably wondering why at the start i said there's not much to do once you've done it all, as reading this, it seems there is plenty to do, i'm almost convincing myself, but it doesn't take long to get through all this stuff, and once you're through it, that's it, game done.

In conclusion, i couldn't say wether this is a worthy sequel to the first Fable, because as i said, i was probably to busy on Vice City to care about it, but i'll presume it is a worthy sequel, looking at the amount of work that has gone into the game by the looks of it. It's a quirky action roleplaying game, with cartoonish graphics, some famous voices, including Zoë Wanamaker, the one who plays the old woman, and also says at the menu everytime you load up "And so our story begins" which gets very annoying, so much that you eventually find yourself miming it eventually in mockery, and also Stephen Fry who is the voice of Reaver. Seeing that i'm bored of this game now, i couldn't recommend it, but i knew when i first got it, i loved it. My rating is probably also biased towards someone who's bored of the short gameplay, rather than the actually quality of the game and the amount of effort that's gone into it. So it's up to you wether you want to buy it, Little Sparrow.

Overall Rating: 6/10