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This thread has been linked to the game 'Fable II'.
Definitely buy this if you like your RPGs, there is a lot more depth than is first apparent. I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first - technically this game has some flaws that you'll need to overcome to get really immersed.
Things like:
Zoning into a new area and watching as ingame characters load.
Slippy/slidy feet movement in places, especially small areas/near objects.
Walking up to something and trying to interract with it by pressing A, then discovering that you have to be at the right angle and distance which requires a bit of shimmying into position.
The very cluttered zone maps which make them hard to read.
You can't play as your own character in someone else's game, you can only play as a default Henchman character (you'll still gain xp, gold etc., when returning to your own game though)
Very short campaign.
A couple of real gamebreaking bugs (don't take your adult character into a co-op game with another player still in the child phase, basically, and try to save regularly) that I believe Lionhead are working on patching.
If these don't irk you and you think you can still get that sense of immersion you like in your RPGs, then read on, because the good stuff makes it all worth it. Personally these factors were a little annoying for me at first, but the game grew on me over the next few play sessions and my initial feeling of 7.3/10 score grew to a 9.4/10 by the finish.
Fable II is set 500 years after the original Fable, which you don't need to have played in advance to follow Fable II's story. The Heroes Guild no longer exists, but the bloodline of the Heroes continues, and forces are at work to bring the remaining Heroes together. You start the game (as a boy or a girl, your choice) in the town of Bowerstone, where you and your sister are struggling to survive. A stranger called Theresa (brilliantly voiced by Zoe Wannamaker throughout the game) sets you on your path to fame and fortune and the short childhood section is swiftly over.
From the outset every decision you make affects the world around you. Play as an evil character and you'll grow horns, your skin will lose its innocent complexion considerably, the world will become a much darker place. Play as a good character and your eyes will develop a serene blue color and you'll get a little halo over your head, the world will be a much more pleasant place.
The first thing that'll hit you is how big the world actually is compared to the original Fable. The first main zone alone has probably just as many secrets, chests, silver keys, hidden dungeons, beetles and bandits, NPCs and so on as the first four or five zones combined in the original. Graphically the game has become truly next gen with lots of neat touches like being able to recognise certain landmarks from the first game, although it's not perfect, the spash animations are a bit inferior when you dive into water.
Combat is a lot easier, X for a melee weapon, Y for a ranged attack, B for a spell, and as you develop the appropriate skills for each type by earning experience orbs during battle you'll learn blocking, flourishes, combos, improve your accuracy, be able to zoom in and aim at bodyparts and ramp up your spell damage. If you're like me you'll be slowing down time a great deal to make certain parts of the game a lot easier.
But what really makes Fable II shine is the way you can either push on through the main storyline (around 15 hours long if you rush through it) or go off the beaten track by taking up side quests, which turns the game into an 80+ hour time-waster. Every time you make a quest your main task, you'll get a magical breadcrumb trail telling you where to go (it's optional, you can turn it off, but it's really handy!) so it's hard to get lost.
The addition of having a dog as your faithful pet is pretty inspired in this regard, your dog will warn you of nearby enemies, bark if it finds treasure chests and lead you to them, dig on the ground if there's something you can dig up, and even join in with fighting if you teach it the appropriate skills (training manuals are available from all good bookstores in Albion). You will become attached to your dog - you can play fetch with him, scold him, reward him, heal him and it is ever loyal. How attached you become plays a major factor later on when important decisions are presented to you, but suffice it to say I became more attached to my dog than I did my spouse and daughter in Bowerstone who tend to play a lesser role in the gameplay.
The side quests themselves are worth doing because they'll eventually lead you to the Legendary weapons - things like searching for 50 Gargoyles to shoot, collecting 50 Silver keys, finding Artefacts for the local archeologist, donating to the Temple of Light or sacrificing innocents to the Temple of Shadows, all these things are optional and yet all worth pursuing.
Other fun stuff includes the expression system for influencing other NPCs in the game, they all have their preferences (some like Thumbs Up, others like to see you do Manly Arm Pumps, most people don't like Flatulence), my daughter loves Belching, for some strange reason.
This leads us onto marriage and children. You can marry whomever you wish regardless of sex, and have children should you wish. Every property in the game can be bought, rented out (set too high a rent and you'll be corrupt, likewise with buying shops, setting the prices low will make you pure) and you can set whichever ones you wish to be your marital home, from Gypsy Caravan right up to Castle. This might seem a bit of a gimmick at first just to get players more immersed in the world, but this dynamic really comes into its own at endgame.
As you progress through the storyline you'll meet an increasingly diverse range of characters, monsters to fight, different types of quests to tackle, and the pirate Reaver (perfectly done by Stephen Fry, I think they included the quest 'Reaver's Back Passage' just for him) and at the fairy tale finale you'll have to make the most important and difficult decision ever faced in a videogame.
You might wonder why this decision is important, but you'll find out after the credits have stopped rolling, and this is where Peter Molyneux reminds us that he is a genius. Fable II doesn't have an ending. You'll arrive back in the game after the storyline has ended, and every single decision you've made along the way results in the world you're now presented with, and it's yours to do as you wish.
You can continue with unfinished quests from before you pushed on through the storyline, new quests will be presented to you (if you have more than one spouse you'll even get blackmailed), new areas will be made available to you, some of the best quests will be offered (if you have children you'll feel a real sense of urgency when you're trying to prevent yours being turned into a Hobbe), you can just tour the world ridding it of evil doers (Bounty Quests) or enslaving innocents (Civilian Displacement Quests) and you can continue your hunt for Silver Keys, Chests, Gargoyles, continue your quest to become a property magnate, even become a benevolent/ruthless King/Queen, it's all up to you.
Longevity is further enhanced by the multiplayer. You can set your options to display nobody, just your friends, or everyone, and you can then see them represented in your game by floating orbs which you can interract with to see their stats (including how many times they've paid for sex) or invite into your own game to help out with bits you're stuck on, like beating the arena best score or nailing a particularly viscious Troll. Or you can just listen to them as they moan about breaking their chain whilst performing a job. (Jobs, as well as income from properties, are a great way to make gold in Fable II, serving beer is probably the easiest).
Achievements are, on the whole, pretty easy to get in Fable II, and they're complimentary to Fable's humour (you get Achievement Points for throwing a swinger party or looking like a Goth), there are also some multiplayer-specific achievements including performing co-op attacks and expressions or collecting all the Dolls available, which can only be done by trading with other players.
Overall whilst Fable II has some major differences to the original game (armor now longer plays a defensive role, there's no fishing) in it's own right it's still an outstanding RPG with some fantastic improvements (better voice acting, the dog dynamic, absorbing quests, environment diversity, new enemies like banshees and hollow men, guns replace bows), perfectly designed to suit both the casual and the hardcore.
Things like:
Zoning into a new area and watching as ingame characters load.
Slippy/slidy feet movement in places, especially small areas/near objects.
Walking up to something and trying to interract with it by pressing A, then discovering that you have to be at the right angle and distance which requires a bit of shimmying into position.
The very cluttered zone maps which make them hard to read.
You can't play as your own character in someone else's game, you can only play as a default Henchman character (you'll still gain xp, gold etc., when returning to your own game though)
Very short campaign.
A couple of real gamebreaking bugs (don't take your adult character into a co-op game with another player still in the child phase, basically, and try to save regularly) that I believe Lionhead are working on patching.
If these don't irk you and you think you can still get that sense of immersion you like in your RPGs, then read on, because the good stuff makes it all worth it. Personally these factors were a little annoying for me at first, but the game grew on me over the next few play sessions and my initial feeling of 7.3/10 score grew to a 9.4/10 by the finish.
Fable II is set 500 years after the original Fable, which you don't need to have played in advance to follow Fable II's story. The Heroes Guild no longer exists, but the bloodline of the Heroes continues, and forces are at work to bring the remaining Heroes together. You start the game (as a boy or a girl, your choice) in the town of Bowerstone, where you and your sister are struggling to survive. A stranger called Theresa (brilliantly voiced by Zoe Wannamaker throughout the game) sets you on your path to fame and fortune and the short childhood section is swiftly over.
From the outset every decision you make affects the world around you. Play as an evil character and you'll grow horns, your skin will lose its innocent complexion considerably, the world will become a much darker place. Play as a good character and your eyes will develop a serene blue color and you'll get a little halo over your head, the world will be a much more pleasant place.
The first thing that'll hit you is how big the world actually is compared to the original Fable. The first main zone alone has probably just as many secrets, chests, silver keys, hidden dungeons, beetles and bandits, NPCs and so on as the first four or five zones combined in the original. Graphically the game has become truly next gen with lots of neat touches like being able to recognise certain landmarks from the first game, although it's not perfect, the spash animations are a bit inferior when you dive into water.
Combat is a lot easier, X for a melee weapon, Y for a ranged attack, B for a spell, and as you develop the appropriate skills for each type by earning experience orbs during battle you'll learn blocking, flourishes, combos, improve your accuracy, be able to zoom in and aim at bodyparts and ramp up your spell damage. If you're like me you'll be slowing down time a great deal to make certain parts of the game a lot easier.
But what really makes Fable II shine is the way you can either push on through the main storyline (around 15 hours long if you rush through it) or go off the beaten track by taking up side quests, which turns the game into an 80+ hour time-waster. Every time you make a quest your main task, you'll get a magical breadcrumb trail telling you where to go (it's optional, you can turn it off, but it's really handy!) so it's hard to get lost.
The addition of having a dog as your faithful pet is pretty inspired in this regard, your dog will warn you of nearby enemies, bark if it finds treasure chests and lead you to them, dig on the ground if there's something you can dig up, and even join in with fighting if you teach it the appropriate skills (training manuals are available from all good bookstores in Albion). You will become attached to your dog - you can play fetch with him, scold him, reward him, heal him and it is ever loyal. How attached you become plays a major factor later on when important decisions are presented to you, but suffice it to say I became more attached to my dog than I did my spouse and daughter in Bowerstone who tend to play a lesser role in the gameplay.
The side quests themselves are worth doing because they'll eventually lead you to the Legendary weapons - things like searching for 50 Gargoyles to shoot, collecting 50 Silver keys, finding Artefacts for the local archeologist, donating to the Temple of Light or sacrificing innocents to the Temple of Shadows, all these things are optional and yet all worth pursuing.
Other fun stuff includes the expression system for influencing other NPCs in the game, they all have their preferences (some like Thumbs Up, others like to see you do Manly Arm Pumps, most people don't like Flatulence), my daughter loves Belching, for some strange reason.
This leads us onto marriage and children. You can marry whomever you wish regardless of sex, and have children should you wish. Every property in the game can be bought, rented out (set too high a rent and you'll be corrupt, likewise with buying shops, setting the prices low will make you pure) and you can set whichever ones you wish to be your marital home, from Gypsy Caravan right up to Castle. This might seem a bit of a gimmick at first just to get players more immersed in the world, but this dynamic really comes into its own at endgame.
As you progress through the storyline you'll meet an increasingly diverse range of characters, monsters to fight, different types of quests to tackle, and the pirate Reaver (perfectly done by Stephen Fry, I think they included the quest 'Reaver's Back Passage' just for him) and at the fairy tale finale you'll have to make the most important and difficult decision ever faced in a videogame.
You might wonder why this decision is important, but you'll find out after the credits have stopped rolling, and this is where Peter Molyneux reminds us that he is a genius. Fable II doesn't have an ending. You'll arrive back in the game after the storyline has ended, and every single decision you've made along the way results in the world you're now presented with, and it's yours to do as you wish.
You can continue with unfinished quests from before you pushed on through the storyline, new quests will be presented to you (if you have more than one spouse you'll even get blackmailed), new areas will be made available to you, some of the best quests will be offered (if you have children you'll feel a real sense of urgency when you're trying to prevent yours being turned into a Hobbe), you can just tour the world ridding it of evil doers (Bounty Quests) or enslaving innocents (Civilian Displacement Quests) and you can continue your hunt for Silver Keys, Chests, Gargoyles, continue your quest to become a property magnate, even become a benevolent/ruthless King/Queen, it's all up to you.
Longevity is further enhanced by the multiplayer. You can set your options to display nobody, just your friends, or everyone, and you can then see them represented in your game by floating orbs which you can interract with to see their stats (including how many times they've paid for sex) or invite into your own game to help out with bits you're stuck on, like beating the arena best score or nailing a particularly viscious Troll. Or you can just listen to them as they moan about breaking their chain whilst performing a job. (Jobs, as well as income from properties, are a great way to make gold in Fable II, serving beer is probably the easiest).
Achievements are, on the whole, pretty easy to get in Fable II, and they're complimentary to Fable's humour (you get Achievement Points for throwing a swinger party or looking like a Goth), there are also some multiplayer-specific achievements including performing co-op attacks and expressions or collecting all the Dolls available, which can only be done by trading with other players.
Overall whilst Fable II has some major differences to the original game (armor now longer plays a defensive role, there's no fishing) in it's own right it's still an outstanding RPG with some fantastic improvements (better voice acting, the dog dynamic, absorbing quests, environment diversity, new enemies like banshees and hollow men, guns replace bows), perfectly designed to suit both the casual and the hardcore.
It's quite sad but I haven't got excited about a game for an absolute age until now. Just can't wait to play it!
Sure, if i get bored and decide to sell it then i will let you. I know my view does at times seem negative, but i am still holding this is a 8.5-9/10 game. I really enjoy it, if i were you pb i would look on ebay as i saw it go for about £25ish which is a good price
The more I read the more I want this. Lovely review FM.
Emmie - let me know when you get bored of it, I might take it off your hands :)
Emmie - let me know when you get bored of it, I might take it off your hands :)
Good to hear others are also enjoying this game, my one concern which i have said to a few others, i have a bad attention span and i think once i have done the main quest, a few sidequests and got a fair bit of gold i will get bored and seek something new.
But that's just because i do that all the time, but like i also said, while i am playing it, i am enjoying it a lot
But that's just because i do that all the time, but like i also said, while i am playing it, i am enjoying it a lot
Sounds brilliant, glad there's a lot more to do and explore. Can't wait until mine comes through the postbox now! Nice review. :)
Definitely buy this if you like your RPGs, there is a lot more depth than is first apparent. I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first - technically this game has some flaws that you'll need to overcome to get really immersed.
Things like:
Zoning into a new area and watching as ingame characters load.
Slippy/slidy feet movement in places, especially small areas/near objects.
Walking up to something and trying to interract with it by pressing A, then discovering that you have to be at the right angle and distance which requires a bit of shimmying into position.
The very cluttered zone maps which make them hard to read.
You can't play as your own character in someone else's game, you can only play as a default Henchman character (you'll still gain xp, gold etc., when returning to your own game though)
Very short campaign.
A couple of real gamebreaking bugs (don't take your adult character into a co-op game with another player still in the child phase, basically, and try to save regularly) that I believe Lionhead are working on patching.
If these don't irk you and you think you can still get that sense of immersion you like in your RPGs, then read on, because the good stuff makes it all worth it. Personally these factors were a little annoying for me at first, but the game grew on me over the next few play sessions and my initial feeling of 7.3/10 score grew to a 9.4/10 by the finish.
Fable II is set 500 years after the original Fable, which you don't need to have played in advance to follow Fable II's story. The Heroes Guild no longer exists, but the bloodline of the Heroes continues, and forces are at work to bring the remaining Heroes together. You start the game (as a boy or a girl, your choice) in the town of Bowerstone, where you and your sister are struggling to survive. A stranger called Theresa (brilliantly voiced by Zoe Wannamaker throughout the game) sets you on your path to fame and fortune and the short childhood section is swiftly over.
From the outset every decision you make affects the world around you. Play as an evil character and you'll grow horns, your skin will lose its innocent complexion considerably, the world will become a much darker place. Play as a good character and your eyes will develop a serene blue color and you'll get a little halo over your head, the world will be a much more pleasant place.
The first thing that'll hit you is how big the world actually is compared to the original Fable. The first main zone alone has probably just as many secrets, chests, silver keys, hidden dungeons, beetles and bandits, NPCs and so on as the first four or five zones combined in the original. Graphically the game has become truly next gen with lots of neat touches like being able to recognise certain landmarks from the first game, although it's not perfect, the spash animations are a bit inferior when you dive into water.
Combat is a lot easier, X for a melee weapon, Y for a ranged attack, B for a spell, and as you develop the appropriate skills for each type by earning experience orbs during battle you'll learn blocking, flourishes, combos, improve your accuracy, be able to zoom in and aim at bodyparts and ramp up your spell damage. If you're like me you'll be slowing down time a great deal to make certain parts of the game a lot easier.
But what really makes Fable II shine is the way you can either push on through the main storyline (around 15 hours long if you rush through it) or go off the beaten track by taking up side quests, which turns the game into an 80+ hour time-waster. Every time you make a quest your main task, you'll get a magical breadcrumb trail telling you where to go (it's optional, you can turn it off, but it's really handy!) so it's hard to get lost.
The addition of having a dog as your faithful pet is pretty inspired in this regard, your dog will warn you of nearby enemies, bark if it finds treasure chests and lead you to them, dig on the ground if there's something you can dig up, and even join in with fighting if you teach it the appropriate skills (training manuals are available from all good bookstores in Albion). You will become attached to your dog - you can play fetch with him, scold him, reward him, heal him and it is ever loyal. How attached you become plays a major factor later on when important decisions are presented to you, but suffice it to say I became more attached to my dog than I did my spouse and daughter in Bowerstone who tend to play a lesser role in the gameplay.
The side quests themselves are worth doing because they'll eventually lead you to the Legendary weapons - things like searching for 50 Gargoyles to shoot, collecting 50 Silver keys, finding Artefacts for the local archeologist, donating to the Temple of Light or sacrificing innocents to the Temple of Shadows, all these things are optional and yet all worth pursuing.
Other fun stuff includes the expression system for influencing other NPCs in the game, they all have their preferences (some like Thumbs Up, others like to see you do Manly Arm Pumps, most people don't like Flatulence), my daughter loves Belching, for some strange reason.
This leads us onto marriage and children. You can marry whomever you wish regardless of sex, and have children should you wish. Every property in the game can be bought, rented out (set too high a rent and you'll be corrupt, likewise with buying shops, setting the prices low will make you pure) and you can set whichever ones you wish to be your marital home, from Gypsy Caravan right up to Castle. This might seem a bit of a gimmick at first just to get players more immersed in the world, but this dynamic really comes into its own at endgame.
As you progress through the storyline you'll meet an increasingly diverse range of characters, monsters to fight, different types of quests to tackle, and the pirate Reaver (perfectly done by Stephen Fry, I think they included the quest 'Reaver's Back Passage' just for him) and at the fairy tale finale you'll have to make the most important and difficult decision ever faced in a videogame.
You might wonder why this decision is important, but you'll find out after the credits have stopped rolling, and this is where Peter Molyneux reminds us that he is a genius. Fable II doesn't have an ending. You'll arrive back in the game after the storyline has ended, and every single decision you've made along the way results in the world you're now presented with, and it's yours to do as you wish.
You can continue with unfinished quests from before you pushed on through the storyline, new quests will be presented to you (if you have more than one spouse you'll even get blackmailed), new areas will be made available to you, some of the best quests will be offered (if you have children you'll feel a real sense of urgency when you're trying to prevent yours being turned into a Hobbe), you can just tour the world ridding it of evil doers (Bounty Quests) or enslaving innocents (Civilian Displacement Quests) and you can continue your hunt for Silver Keys, Chests, Gargoyles, continue your quest to become a property magnate, even become a benevolent/ruthless King/Queen, it's all up to you.
Longevity is further enhanced by the multiplayer. You can set your options to display nobody, just your friends, or everyone, and you can then see them represented in your game by floating orbs which you can interract with to see their stats (including how many times they've paid for sex) or invite into your own game to help out with bits you're stuck on, like beating the arena best score or nailing a particularly viscious Troll. Or you can just listen to them as they moan about breaking their chain whilst performing a job. (Jobs, as well as income from properties, are a great way to make gold in Fable II, serving beer is probably the easiest).
Achievements are, on the whole, pretty easy to get in Fable II, and they're complimentary to Fable's humour (you get Achievement Points for throwing a swinger party or looking like a Goth), there are also some multiplayer-specific achievements including performing co-op attacks and expressions or collecting all the Dolls available, which can only be done by trading with other players.
Overall whilst Fable II has some major differences to the original game (armor now longer plays a defensive role, there's no fishing) in it's own right it's still an outstanding RPG with some fantastic improvements (better voice acting, the dog dynamic, absorbing quests, environment diversity, new enemies like banshees and hollow men, guns replace bows), perfectly designed to suit both the casual and the hardcore.
Things like:
Zoning into a new area and watching as ingame characters load.
Slippy/slidy feet movement in places, especially small areas/near objects.
Walking up to something and trying to interract with it by pressing A, then discovering that you have to be at the right angle and distance which requires a bit of shimmying into position.
The very cluttered zone maps which make them hard to read.
You can't play as your own character in someone else's game, you can only play as a default Henchman character (you'll still gain xp, gold etc., when returning to your own game though)
Very short campaign.
A couple of real gamebreaking bugs (don't take your adult character into a co-op game with another player still in the child phase, basically, and try to save regularly) that I believe Lionhead are working on patching.
If these don't irk you and you think you can still get that sense of immersion you like in your RPGs, then read on, because the good stuff makes it all worth it. Personally these factors were a little annoying for me at first, but the game grew on me over the next few play sessions and my initial feeling of 7.3/10 score grew to a 9.4/10 by the finish.
Fable II is set 500 years after the original Fable, which you don't need to have played in advance to follow Fable II's story. The Heroes Guild no longer exists, but the bloodline of the Heroes continues, and forces are at work to bring the remaining Heroes together. You start the game (as a boy or a girl, your choice) in the town of Bowerstone, where you and your sister are struggling to survive. A stranger called Theresa (brilliantly voiced by Zoe Wannamaker throughout the game) sets you on your path to fame and fortune and the short childhood section is swiftly over.
From the outset every decision you make affects the world around you. Play as an evil character and you'll grow horns, your skin will lose its innocent complexion considerably, the world will become a much darker place. Play as a good character and your eyes will develop a serene blue color and you'll get a little halo over your head, the world will be a much more pleasant place.
The first thing that'll hit you is how big the world actually is compared to the original Fable. The first main zone alone has probably just as many secrets, chests, silver keys, hidden dungeons, beetles and bandits, NPCs and so on as the first four or five zones combined in the original. Graphically the game has become truly next gen with lots of neat touches like being able to recognise certain landmarks from the first game, although it's not perfect, the spash animations are a bit inferior when you dive into water.
Combat is a lot easier, X for a melee weapon, Y for a ranged attack, B for a spell, and as you develop the appropriate skills for each type by earning experience orbs during battle you'll learn blocking, flourishes, combos, improve your accuracy, be able to zoom in and aim at bodyparts and ramp up your spell damage. If you're like me you'll be slowing down time a great deal to make certain parts of the game a lot easier.
But what really makes Fable II shine is the way you can either push on through the main storyline (around 15 hours long if you rush through it) or go off the beaten track by taking up side quests, which turns the game into an 80+ hour time-waster. Every time you make a quest your main task, you'll get a magical breadcrumb trail telling you where to go (it's optional, you can turn it off, but it's really handy!) so it's hard to get lost.
The addition of having a dog as your faithful pet is pretty inspired in this regard, your dog will warn you of nearby enemies, bark if it finds treasure chests and lead you to them, dig on the ground if there's something you can dig up, and even join in with fighting if you teach it the appropriate skills (training manuals are available from all good bookstores in Albion). You will become attached to your dog - you can play fetch with him, scold him, reward him, heal him and it is ever loyal. How attached you become plays a major factor later on when important decisions are presented to you, but suffice it to say I became more attached to my dog than I did my spouse and daughter in Bowerstone who tend to play a lesser role in the gameplay.
The side quests themselves are worth doing because they'll eventually lead you to the Legendary weapons - things like searching for 50 Gargoyles to shoot, collecting 50 Silver keys, finding Artefacts for the local archeologist, donating to the Temple of Light or sacrificing innocents to the Temple of Shadows, all these things are optional and yet all worth pursuing.
Other fun stuff includes the expression system for influencing other NPCs in the game, they all have their preferences (some like Thumbs Up, others like to see you do Manly Arm Pumps, most people don't like Flatulence), my daughter loves Belching, for some strange reason.
This leads us onto marriage and children. You can marry whomever you wish regardless of sex, and have children should you wish. Every property in the game can be bought, rented out (set too high a rent and you'll be corrupt, likewise with buying shops, setting the prices low will make you pure) and you can set whichever ones you wish to be your marital home, from Gypsy Caravan right up to Castle. This might seem a bit of a gimmick at first just to get players more immersed in the world, but this dynamic really comes into its own at endgame.
As you progress through the storyline you'll meet an increasingly diverse range of characters, monsters to fight, different types of quests to tackle, and the pirate Reaver (perfectly done by Stephen Fry, I think they included the quest 'Reaver's Back Passage' just for him) and at the fairy tale finale you'll have to make the most important and difficult decision ever faced in a videogame.
You might wonder why this decision is important, but you'll find out after the credits have stopped rolling, and this is where Peter Molyneux reminds us that he is a genius. Fable II doesn't have an ending. You'll arrive back in the game after the storyline has ended, and every single decision you've made along the way results in the world you're now presented with, and it's yours to do as you wish.
You can continue with unfinished quests from before you pushed on through the storyline, new quests will be presented to you (if you have more than one spouse you'll even get blackmailed), new areas will be made available to you, some of the best quests will be offered (if you have children you'll feel a real sense of urgency when you're trying to prevent yours being turned into a Hobbe), you can just tour the world ridding it of evil doers (Bounty Quests) or enslaving innocents (Civilian Displacement Quests) and you can continue your hunt for Silver Keys, Chests, Gargoyles, continue your quest to become a property magnate, even become a benevolent/ruthless King/Queen, it's all up to you.
Longevity is further enhanced by the multiplayer. You can set your options to display nobody, just your friends, or everyone, and you can then see them represented in your game by floating orbs which you can interract with to see their stats (including how many times they've paid for sex) or invite into your own game to help out with bits you're stuck on, like beating the arena best score or nailing a particularly viscious Troll. Or you can just listen to them as they moan about breaking their chain whilst performing a job. (Jobs, as well as income from properties, are a great way to make gold in Fable II, serving beer is probably the easiest).
Achievements are, on the whole, pretty easy to get in Fable II, and they're complimentary to Fable's humour (you get Achievement Points for throwing a swinger party or looking like a Goth), there are also some multiplayer-specific achievements including performing co-op attacks and expressions or collecting all the Dolls available, which can only be done by trading with other players.
Overall whilst Fable II has some major differences to the original game (armor now longer plays a defensive role, there's no fishing) in it's own right it's still an outstanding RPG with some fantastic improvements (better voice acting, the dog dynamic, absorbing quests, environment diversity, new enemies like banshees and hollow men, guns replace bows), perfectly designed to suit both the casual and the hardcore.