Before the time when the Hero of Oakvale failed to impress
me and the Hero of Bowerstone managed to somehow irritate the piss out of me
with an interface that a first year game design student would be sobbing in the
corner after seeing…there was Fable II. Fable
II happened to be the first game in the series that I picked up, having no
prior knowledge of Fable beyond
having seen the trailer for it. Of
course, by the time I had actually gotten around to where I could play the
original, Microsoft had jumped to the Xbox 360 and Fable II had just come out.
But
I apparently didn’t miss much, so no harm done.
Fable II begins
some five centuries after the events of Fable
II, making it even easier to get involved without prior knowledge of the
series for newcomers, with a boy or girl living with his/her sister in the city
of Bowerstone. When a snake oil salesman comes to town trying to sell cheap
knock-off magical merchandise, Sparrow and his/her sister Rose get a nod from
the Lady Cassandra O’Brien dot Delta Seventeen to buy a music box that she
claims really has magical powers. After
acquiring five gold coins in a tutorial level and buying the box, Sparrow and
Rose use it and make a wish…which seemingly does nothing until they are met in
the middle of the night by guards sent by Lord “Oh, My God, He’s So Obviously
the Villain”.
This results in Sparrow and Rose finding out about their
hero heritage before Rose is unceremoniously shot and falls dead on the spot,
followed by Sparrow being shot and falling out of a window. Saved by Theresa, however, Sparrow doesn’t
die and lives for the next indeterminate number of years in the peace and
safety of a gypsy camp. Just enough time
for them to get to the 18-20 years old range and be ready to pick up a rusty
sword, a crossbow, and a spade and go out to kick the ass of the aforementioned
Lord Villain.
...oh, and you get a dog. It barks annoyingly and occasionally tells you places where you can dig. Until it gets killed at the end like everything else you've ever loved. Spoiler Alert.
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| This is what happens when you roll a crit... |
Theresa reveals the Tattered Spire, an artifact of the Old
Kingdom that was immensely powerful and caused a massive cataclysm in Albion
long before the events of the first game.
Now, Lucien’s trying to rebuild it to resurrect his dead wife and
daughter…
…at the very least, that’s the implication if you don’t
ready the diaries provided later in the storyline.
...obviously (and this does get lampshaded later), he’s
eventually going to realize that bringing back his family isn’t all he’ll be
able to do, so now Sparrow has even more motivation to stop him…depending on
whether or not you get bogged down in the side questing. In fact, you’re going to have to do some of
that in order to get any progression in the storyline at points. It really just kind of kills the pacing when
I have to stop my quest to save the world from the Genocide Tower in order to
go hunt down some bandits or dance around like a Russian in front of some
villagers to increase my Renown.
Speaking of hunting down bandits, we have the combat. You
have Strength, Skill, and Will – which translate to melee, ranged, and magic
attacks – and I know that this joke has been made by every single game reviewer
and their mother by this point, but with the area of effect spells available
you basically pick one, pour points into it and spam until you win…no, really,
that’s it. It’s hilariously easy to pull
off. However, your other choice would be
going the melee route and making flourishes your best friend. Seriously, it’s nearly impossible to block
them and will send all by the strongest of enemies flying. Still, for crowd control, you can’t do much
better than the Will area of effect spells.
Speaking of the three forms of combat – the three Hero
Skills factor into the plot through three of the main supporting cast that form
a strong trifecta. Those would be Hammer
– the Hero of Strength – Garth – the Hero of Will – and Reaver – the Hero of
Skill. Three heroes that Lucian needs
for his plans in order to build the Spire…for some reason that isn’t ever
really made clear. Nevertheless, the
three heroes make a colorful group and are very interesting characters in their
own right – so much so that Reaver showed up in III and will no doubt be in later chapters of the game series. Then again, when you’re voiced by the
magnificent Stephen Fry, you’re worth keeping around.
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| The Rolling Stones tour in Albion was met with screaming fans...out of fear... |
But as the Hero of Bowerstone, Sparrow is the mystical
Fourth Hero that Lucien because he/she is the only one who can stop his plans…because…destiny? There’s really no clear way to understand it –
whether it’s just Theresa’s machinations or if there’s actually a prophecy
involved, we never really know. However,
it quickly becomes clear that you’re the only one who can stop Lucien. Provided
you can get away from the dynamic and in-depth NPCs…who…aren’t…really.
Yes, there’s more variety to the NPCs here, but they suffer
the clone brush very fast and it shows when you can actually marry an NPC and
have several hot, sweaty love children with them and go off and find three
other copies of your beloved in the same area. Of course, you do have to have a
house in Albion in order to actually have a wife and family…and it’s
surprisingly easy to work up money when you get a set amount every five minutes
from shops you own and houses that you rent out. With enough time and patience, you can very
easily buy out every property available in the game. As soon as you own two million gold pieces
worth, you can actually take the title of King or Queen of Albion.
…and then fork over a million gold pieces for the Castle.
Still, considering that you make however much money every
five minutes no matter what, it makes making that money back insanely easily. Just buy out the Bowerstone Market District
and you can pretty much go about shopping at your leisure and have the money
back with no issues within a few five minutes stretches.
Of course, if you raise the rent or the shop prices, you
risk corruption points – something that gets brought in along with the
Good-Evil Scale is the Purity-Corrupt scale, which pretty much just further
changes the way you look. Good luck
trying to stay both good and pure, because beyond the neutral look it’s the
only one that doesn’t look nightmarish (in the case of corrupt) or hilarious
(in the case of evil).
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| She doesn't look a day over 10,000... |
Tone wise, Fable II
can be a little jarring. The tutorial is
a delightful romp through the streets of Bowerstone that gets capped off with
your sister getting shot and you getting thrown through a window. You can go about killing civilians, but as
soon as you pay a fine or do a community service quest you can play a lute a
few times or rip off an extreme powerful fart and the villagers love you again
like nothing happened. Even the art
style is very cartoony and over the top and yet can easily sink into very dark
and depressing areas – like the Tattered Spire or the soldiers of Lucien
therein. I wouldn’t mind this, variety
is the spice of life and all, but it’s hard to get a grip on what they were
going for and that distracts a bit.
When I first played this game, I absolutely loved. Now, coming back to it after having played its
sequel and its prequel, I still find some enjoyment out of it. While not taking the broken promises of Peter
Molyneux into account, this game is actually very good and provides a lot to
find even within the linear set it has.
Seriously! Six years after this game’s release, I’ve still managed to
find and realize things I didn’t before.
Still, though, the world feels open and it lacks that overpowering
feeling of linearity that Fable III
has, if only because the shackles feel a little looser. Then again, that might actually be enough and
the game does do well for what it is.
Fable II is now
available from Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Games for Xbox 360.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, follow him on
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