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"Xbox 360 - Fable II"

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Thu 06/11/08 at 15:05
Regular
"THFC"
Posts: 4,488
Xbox 360 – Fable II

Having never played the original Fable on Xbox I had little to go on, other than youtube videos and what people on here were saying. Seeing as it was all very positive and I don’t think I heard a bad word said about it during my time researching the game, I thought it would be rude of me not to pick it up and at least give it a go.

Fable II is an adventure RPG, the graphics are good, but by no means the best I have seen. Some places in the game are very dark and other very light graphically, but while they may not be the best you accept it due to how much work has gone into everything else. I don’t even mean to sound negative about the graphics as I quite like them, anyway, the plot is a pretty average story, but for some reason I have spent over 40 hours of my life playing as a Hero of Albion and I don’t regret any of it! Imagine a massive fantasy world, where you actions will affect how things go, from how you look to the economy of a certain area. The attention to detail within Fable II is something to marvel at. Never in my years of playing games have I spent so much time buying houses, praising a dog and pouring beer to earn money. I will come to all of these in a bit, but first let me introduce the plot;

Once you have chosen your sex and watched brief opening sequence to show you the old town area of Bowerstone, which is seen as the main town in the game, you gain control of your character as a child. You are with your sister in the slums, living out in the cold and struggling to get food and stay warm. All your sister dreams of is living in the castle with the prince, no sooner then she thinks about this does a travelling merchant stumble into town. Selling magical items, and one of them happens to be a small trinket which will grant you a wish! The only problem is that this will cost you 5 gold coins, convinced it is a scam you go to walk away and carry on with your life, when a mystical woman appears who tells you that maybe it is not fake, maybe for 5 gold coins you should take a chance. And so begins the first of many quests – collect 5 gold coins. You now have full control of your character and can make your way about town, helping people to find things, rescuing a stray dog and kill bugs to earn your money. With each of the 5 missions you can do a good or bad deed that will affect the world when you grow up.

Once you have done the 5 missions you will be able to purchase the magic trinket, once obtained your sister wished she could live in the castle, while the trinket appears to be doing something it suddenly vanishes. Thinking that nothing has happened you make your way back to your shelter and go to sleep.. When you are woken up by castle guards and taken to the castle to meet with the prince. When at the castle you learn about 4 heroes who exist and discover that you are potentially one of them. After a series of events which I do not want to spoil, you are left on your own and taken away by the mysterious lady who appeared before.

Many years later when you are grown up, you can finally begin your quest and fulfil your destiny and become a Hero of Albion while searching for the menace you seek. The main plot carries on from here by seeing you adventure all over Albion in search of the other 3 heroes, so you have enough power to take down the main enemy in the game. While you could just sit and go through the main quest in about 10-12 hours, it is the large array of side quests and things you can do that really make Fable II a standout game. You will be able to rescue people, save captured slaves or just go find a job to earn some money. It is all of these things that give Fable such a large lifespan and the fantastic review scores it has received.

While the plot is a big point in a game, Fable really shines by allowing you to make nearly every decision and shaping who you want to be. You change your weapons, clothes and hair to suit you and your physical appearance will match your personality. If you are a healthy eating, pure saint you will have a Halo and be more attractive to people, or if you eat baby chickens and slaughter villagers you may grow horns and become demon like. Everyone will play it different and in turn have different characters, you can concentrate your exp you earn on magic, on strength or on your shooting skills. Going off and doing the side quests will allow you to become stronger quicker and in turn be more feared by people and it will make the game easier for you. There is not a huge amount of choice in weapons in my opinion, but there is a good enough range to keep most people happy, for example; I like using Katanas, while others prefer the slower but more powerful maces. When you look at Fable in this light it is clear to see how easy it is for you to get lost in creating and designing your character. I had a slightly evil, skinny looking man who wielded a legendary weapon Katana and had a shotgun like gun named a Blunderbaus.

So the game is huge and the loading times are pretty reasonable considering it is all on one disk, one of the big problems the game has for me, is that it sounds like my Xbox wants to stop and die, it really struggles and I did find it caused the game to freeze a couple of times. Not the worlds biggest problem and it only slightly affects game play, but it is annoying none the less. You can see by how much detail I am able to write this review in and how easy it is to get lost while doing so that there is a lot going on in the game and more than enough to keep you busy for possibly over 100 hours. Which without being an online multiplayer where you compete aginst the world as such– is incredible value for money.

So I have touched on the story, the aspects of the game which keep it alive for so long and the graphics. Well there is not much else for me to rant on about without giving away too much, part of the delights in Fable are exploring and finding out things for yourself, and talking about them with other Fable players. I can only touch on a few negative points within the game, but with so many positives and the fact this game will easily be playable in a year’s time, it is hard to try point out the bad things!

All I can say to finish this off is that if you like the sound of having a character, levelling them up by fighting in a open style combat system that works well and choosing how they live, where they work and what they eat. Really having full control over someone in a fantasy world while running alongside a simple but well told story, you will love this game. It is a must buy for any fan of this style of game. There are so many points to discover that even if I had wrote a review twice this size I would still be saying, “oh and there’s also…..” so I will finish it off by hoping all of you enjoyed this wonderful game as much as I did. For about £30 you will be wondering why you didn’t have it sooner!

9/10

Thanks for reading, hope this helps.
Fri 07/11/08 at 13:15
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
It sounds wonderful. In fact, everyone who talks about it says good things.

I'll be getting it myself when I get my iPoints through, hopefully you'll still be going online with it then!
Thu 06/11/08 at 15:05
Regular
"THFC"
Posts: 4,488
Xbox 360 – Fable II

Having never played the original Fable on Xbox I had little to go on, other than youtube videos and what people on here were saying. Seeing as it was all very positive and I don’t think I heard a bad word said about it during my time researching the game, I thought it would be rude of me not to pick it up and at least give it a go.

Fable II is an adventure RPG, the graphics are good, but by no means the best I have seen. Some places in the game are very dark and other very light graphically, but while they may not be the best you accept it due to how much work has gone into everything else. I don’t even mean to sound negative about the graphics as I quite like them, anyway, the plot is a pretty average story, but for some reason I have spent over 40 hours of my life playing as a Hero of Albion and I don’t regret any of it! Imagine a massive fantasy world, where you actions will affect how things go, from how you look to the economy of a certain area. The attention to detail within Fable II is something to marvel at. Never in my years of playing games have I spent so much time buying houses, praising a dog and pouring beer to earn money. I will come to all of these in a bit, but first let me introduce the plot;

Once you have chosen your sex and watched brief opening sequence to show you the old town area of Bowerstone, which is seen as the main town in the game, you gain control of your character as a child. You are with your sister in the slums, living out in the cold and struggling to get food and stay warm. All your sister dreams of is living in the castle with the prince, no sooner then she thinks about this does a travelling merchant stumble into town. Selling magical items, and one of them happens to be a small trinket which will grant you a wish! The only problem is that this will cost you 5 gold coins, convinced it is a scam you go to walk away and carry on with your life, when a mystical woman appears who tells you that maybe it is not fake, maybe for 5 gold coins you should take a chance. And so begins the first of many quests – collect 5 gold coins. You now have full control of your character and can make your way about town, helping people to find things, rescuing a stray dog and kill bugs to earn your money. With each of the 5 missions you can do a good or bad deed that will affect the world when you grow up.

Once you have done the 5 missions you will be able to purchase the magic trinket, once obtained your sister wished she could live in the castle, while the trinket appears to be doing something it suddenly vanishes. Thinking that nothing has happened you make your way back to your shelter and go to sleep.. When you are woken up by castle guards and taken to the castle to meet with the prince. When at the castle you learn about 4 heroes who exist and discover that you are potentially one of them. After a series of events which I do not want to spoil, you are left on your own and taken away by the mysterious lady who appeared before.

Many years later when you are grown up, you can finally begin your quest and fulfil your destiny and become a Hero of Albion while searching for the menace you seek. The main plot carries on from here by seeing you adventure all over Albion in search of the other 3 heroes, so you have enough power to take down the main enemy in the game. While you could just sit and go through the main quest in about 10-12 hours, it is the large array of side quests and things you can do that really make Fable II a standout game. You will be able to rescue people, save captured slaves or just go find a job to earn some money. It is all of these things that give Fable such a large lifespan and the fantastic review scores it has received.

While the plot is a big point in a game, Fable really shines by allowing you to make nearly every decision and shaping who you want to be. You change your weapons, clothes and hair to suit you and your physical appearance will match your personality. If you are a healthy eating, pure saint you will have a Halo and be more attractive to people, or if you eat baby chickens and slaughter villagers you may grow horns and become demon like. Everyone will play it different and in turn have different characters, you can concentrate your exp you earn on magic, on strength or on your shooting skills. Going off and doing the side quests will allow you to become stronger quicker and in turn be more feared by people and it will make the game easier for you. There is not a huge amount of choice in weapons in my opinion, but there is a good enough range to keep most people happy, for example; I like using Katanas, while others prefer the slower but more powerful maces. When you look at Fable in this light it is clear to see how easy it is for you to get lost in creating and designing your character. I had a slightly evil, skinny looking man who wielded a legendary weapon Katana and had a shotgun like gun named a Blunderbaus.

So the game is huge and the loading times are pretty reasonable considering it is all on one disk, one of the big problems the game has for me, is that it sounds like my Xbox wants to stop and die, it really struggles and I did find it caused the game to freeze a couple of times. Not the worlds biggest problem and it only slightly affects game play, but it is annoying none the less. You can see by how much detail I am able to write this review in and how easy it is to get lost while doing so that there is a lot going on in the game and more than enough to keep you busy for possibly over 100 hours. Which without being an online multiplayer where you compete aginst the world as such– is incredible value for money.

So I have touched on the story, the aspects of the game which keep it alive for so long and the graphics. Well there is not much else for me to rant on about without giving away too much, part of the delights in Fable are exploring and finding out things for yourself, and talking about them with other Fable players. I can only touch on a few negative points within the game, but with so many positives and the fact this game will easily be playable in a year’s time, it is hard to try point out the bad things!

All I can say to finish this off is that if you like the sound of having a character, levelling them up by fighting in a open style combat system that works well and choosing how they live, where they work and what they eat. Really having full control over someone in a fantasy world while running alongside a simple but well told story, you will love this game. It is a must buy for any fan of this style of game. There are so many points to discover that even if I had wrote a review twice this size I would still be saying, “oh and there’s also…..” so I will finish it off by hoping all of you enjoyed this wonderful game as much as I did. For about £30 you will be wondering why you didn’t have it sooner!

9/10

Thanks for reading, hope this helps.

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