Fable II is one of those games that some people have been waiting for even before the original was released.  Peter Molyneux tried as hard as he could to keep things low key, but try as he might, the hype machine just could not be stopped.  So, does the game live up to expectations or does it soil itself trying to impress the ladies?  Read on dear reader, and find out….

Fable II takes place 500 years after the first Fable.  The story has relatively little to do with the first game, so if you haven’t played the original (shame on you), you won’t be missing much.  There are little hints and easter eggs thrown in here and there, mostly in the form of books and stories laying around the world.  Even if you don’t get some of the references, it won’t hurt the story or gameplay too much.

It’s 500 years in the future, so of course most of the events from the original have become children’s tales and myths.  It’s actually kind of neat, but you really won’t know one way of another if you haven’t played the original, it will just be one more book of flavored text to help bring the world of Albion to life.

You start off as a orphan kid (boy or girl, your choice) eking out an existence with your older sister on the rough-and-tumble streets of Bowerstone’s Old City district.  It’s a hard-knock place to grow up, and all your sister wants is to be safe and happy in a castle.  Through the course of the child tutorial-type stage, you’ll help her get a chance to make a wish that will change your life forever.

This portion of the game really lets you get a feel for the way the rest of the game runs, and it’s one of the better tutorial-type sections of a game I’ve played.  The advancement of time going from the end of your childhood days to that of a young adult also allows the game to show off how much of an impact your character can have on the world.

Even as a young adult moving out of the big city, the game still takes your hand for a little while yet, but this allows the character progression to really focus on how your actions affect the world around you.  It also gives you a direction while you figure out exactly what you want to do with your character.  It can be a little frustrating playing a game like this and being dragged along a quest with little or no freedom to explore, but it works out for the best once you get through it and finally get to go out and explore the world at your leisure.

The story is very good and quite compelling.  It’s not often that I get into a game’s story as much as this, but I could really relate to the motivations of the main characters, as well as the views of all the secondary characters.  Even Lucien, the villain, was complex enough that you could identify with him.  It wasn’t a matter of being evil for evil’s sake, there was actual depth to the character.

It makes things much more interesting when you have a character that actually has motives behind his actions that are more than just a lust for power. This makes an all the more satisfying story because it’s so much more plausible, in my mind, for someone to turn to evil as a last recourse rather than just wanting to destroy things for the hell of it.

One of my favorite characters (and one that received a lot of attention) was my canine companion in the game.  While I don’t think it went as far as Molyneux had hoped when he talked about it in press conferences, I certainly did like having the dog around.  I didn’t exactly fall in love with him or anything, though.

I enjoyed playing fetch and watching him run in front of me while I was exploring.  I genuinely got upset when he wasn’t around, afraid that he had been injured in a fight and I hadn’t noticed.  This wasn’t only because I liked the cute little guy, but because having him around and healthy has tangible game benefits — he will find treasure chests and buried treasure for you and warn you of enemy threats, even going so far as attacking enemies that you manage to knock to the ground.

Frankly, the benefits of having him around are enough to pay attention to him, but it’s because of that that you’ll start to feel closer to the dog.  He’s pretty much at your side all the time, and the few times we were separated because of the story, I actually missed the little guy.  He does change with your character’s alignment, but not as much as your character will.

Good characters will have a golden blond-colored dog that plays with all the villagers, while evil characters will have a black dog that growls menacingly at the locals.  There is nothing more satisfying than hearing some stupid yokel say “Aww, ain’t you a cute little… oh, nice dog!  Please don’t hurt me!”  Maybe that’s just me, of course. I’m sure there are people out there that will choose to actually be good (bo-ring).

Good and Evil are not the only things that affect your character’s look, unlike the original game.  It’s actually fairly complex and a fun little game in and of itself if you’re going for a certain style.  First of all, not only is your look affected by your actual in-game statistical number for good and evil, which can change quite quickly if you work at it, but also by the quest decisions you make.  If you want to be the ultimate evil-looking badass, you have to stick to your guns, no matter how hard it may be to steal that orphan’s lollipop.

The biggest thing that affects your look is where you put your experience points.  If you want to have a heavy-hitting melee fighter, expect to bulk up, while shooty types who spend points in skill will get taller, and magic users will get Tron-like blue glowy vein things all over their body.  If you don’t like the way an attribute makes your character look, that’s too bad.  You can’t have a waif thin heroine and expect them to be able to deliver awesome damage with each swing of their Master Greataxe of Fiery Vampirism.

Another layer of the character’s look is Purity and Corruption.  It’s similar to good and evil, but it’s different enough that after a few hours of playing you’ll understand what the difference is.  Doing things like eating meat, having pre- or extra-marital unprotected sex, and charging a lot for rent are things that will corrupt your character, making them uglier and more evil looking.  Doing things like charging low rent, eating vegetables, and banging only your wife (or at least using a condom if you bang someone else) will purify your character and clear up their skin.

The last two things that affect your look are scaring and fatness.  You get scars mostly from “falling out” in combat, but there are other things that may cause you to get scars.  Generally, combat doesn’t seem to cause scars like it did in the original, which is good since there is no armor in the game this time around.  Eating fatty foods and drinking alcoholic beverages will get your character to beef up in the gut if you’re not careful.  Throwing in certain veggies and other magical foods will decrease your cellulite levels and make you hotter to the local virgins, but just like real life it’s a lot easier to put it on than it is to get rid of it.

All of this combined can really force you to think about what you are going to do with your character.  I mean, do you really want to eat that apple pie to get some hitpoints back when it’s going to add ten pounds to your butt?  Are you still going to want to play dress-up with your female character after they start to look more and more manly?

I personally spent a lot of money on fish since they are a corrupting food (you know, they used to be alive and all) but were mostly fat free.  I did spend some time buying up celery after a drunken binge one session, as that is one of the few foods that will actually burn fat.  I’ve never had to think about what my character was eating before.  The best part is that I spent all this time running around looking for healthy food while I was sitting there smoking a cigarette, drinking a Pepsi, and eating junk food in real life.  Sort of made me feel sick and pathetic that I was taking so much better care of my character than I was of myself.

A lot has been made of the one button combat of Fable II, but I have to say that it works surprisingly well.  The X is for melee attacks, Y is ranged (bows and guns) and B is magic attacks.  You get experience based on what attacks you do and bonuses for mixing things up.  It’s also neat to me that the colors of the different experience orbs, and thus the skills, match up to the colors of the buttons on the controller.  It’s a small thing, but it seems to make things easier for non-gamer-types to get what button does what into their heads.

While one-button combat may seem overly simplistic and make the game sound like another Dynasty Warriors slash fest, it’s complicated and deep enough to keep things interesting.  It’s cliché, but it’s one of those things that’s easy to do, hard to master.  Okay, maybe not hard, but complicated enough to be interesting.

Things are definitely a little lame at first, but once you get some of your skills leveled up a bit and get new combat skills and magical powers, and the enemies actually start to put up a fight, the combat can be quite rewarding.  The best thing about it is that even when you’re getting your ass kicked, you still feel like a badass.

Another great innovation to the combat is the complete lack of magic points.  There is no mana or MP or anything to manage at all.  You can throw fireballs or lightning bolts just as easily as you can shoot your gun or swing your axe.  It’s just another small thing that allows the combat to flow without having to worry about trivial things like ammo or other typical RPG-type micro-management malarkey.

It also allows the combat to just look awesome.  There is something to be said for shooting a dude with a lightning bolt, knocking him into the sky with your axe, and then shooting him as he flies through the air.

The world is rich and beautiful and the graphics are top notch.  The world of Albion really seems to be alive, and each area is distinctive and remarkable in its own way.  The separation of the different sections is a bit of a downer, though, as you never really feel like places connect.  There is no overworld map or anything, just a magical exit between different zones, and going from one zone to another requires traveling through some kind of unknown, non-existant wilderness that basically just gives you a load screen and advances the game time a certain amount.

It breaks up the areas a bit too much for my tastes and really damages the feel of it all being part of the same world.  It’s a small thing and a bit nitpicky, but besides that relatively small gripe, the areas are fantastic and world overall is just amazing.

Another problem with the graphics and art style isn’t really a problem exactly, but it is something.  The world is very well done and much more realistic than the first Fable (for the most part).  It’s still got that fantasy vibe going, but it’s much more believable than the first one.  My problem with this is that there is a definite silliness to the game that just sort of clashes with the harsh “realities” of the rest of the world.  I mean, the town of Bowerstone just looks incredible and the characters look great, but your interactions with them are limited to goofy interactions like dancing and belching.  Well, and chopping their heads off, but that’s a different kind of interaction.

It’s just strange to be the most evil and hated person in Albion because I ran around growling like a dog and farting in people’s faces.  It is funny and it works for the game, but it did seem to sort of clash with the rest of the game’s atmosphere. That may be more of a personal thing, though, as there were times where I genuinely enjoyed farting for the sake of a child’s laughter or taking off all my clothes and pelvic thrusting my way to a public disturbance charge.  It’s definitely not a level of character interaction like Mass Effect, but it tends to work for this game even though it clashes with some of the harsh realities of other aspects of the world.

No matter how evil you are, people will still laugh at you.

Lastly, and one of the biggest things for me, is the multiplayer.  I was really looking forward to being about to run rampant around the world with my wife or brother in tow, or being able to go in and help my wife with her game when she asks for it (and only when she asks for it).  There are very few games she’ll play, and Fable II is one of them, which says something about the accessibility of the game right there, especially if you know my wife.  Which you don’t, so this does absolutely nothing to help you.  I guess that whole thought process just wasted a bunch of your time. Sorry!

Unfortunately, as fun as the co-op can be, there are some definite problems with it.  First, you play as a henchman if you join someone else’s game.  In Lionhead’s defense, it’s exactly what they said it would be as far as that goes, but it’s still a little disappointing not being able to be your character in someone else’s game.

The henchmen does have your character’s stats if you choose it to, but otherwise they’re just generic NPC-looking types.  Even their weapons are not based on what your character has, but you can select whatever types of weapons you want and the generic weapons will have stats based on the level of that character.   You will still have your spells and experience and the like, so it’ll still be your character as far as the stats go (sorta), but it just won’t look like it.

The only other issue with the multiplayer, and also the biggest for me, is the camera.  Whether you’re playing on the same system or over Xbox Live, the camera goes from being controlled by the right analog stick to being static.  That’s right, you can’t just move the camera around wherever you want.  Instead, you have to tap the left bumper to center the camera behind your character.  Either player can do this which just leads to other problems if the two of you keep fighting over the camera.  It’s especially problematic in the more hectic fights with large groups of very agile enemies.

I just don’t understand that design decision at all.  I mean, I can see it making sense if you’re playing on the same system, but it just seems silly to do this over XBL.  Camera problems aside, though, co-op is a ton of fun if you’re in later stages of the game.  Mostly the game is too easy to make co-op really enjoyable, but there are parts where it is an absolute blast…  as long as you don’t have a partner that likes to shop or look at menus all the time.

While the other person is shopping or browsing around the menus, the game just pauses for the other player.  More could have definitely been done to make multiplayer more enjoyable, but as it is, it’s good for short stints into a dungeon or helping someone else out against a tough boss, but mostly it will fall to the wayside because of these small but annoying problems.

Overall, I’d say that Fable II is a fantastic game and does what the original set out to do and then some.  While there are certainly aspects of it that could have been better, or just strange design choices in some areas, overall the game is superb and one of the best games I’ve played this year.  If things seemed a little picky, that’s because I was being picky.

Fable II is a wonderful, wonderful game where the sum of it’s parts far exceeded my expectations.  That being said, it’s a strange juxtaposition of silly and serious, where you can fart in people’s faces then take them back to your place and have sex, complete with pregnancy and STD concerns.  It’s a strange combination of mature and immature that somehow manages to come together and work, and it helps solidify the world of Albion as a strange yet wonderful home away from reality that forever lives on in my Xbox 360.

There is an interview over at GameTrailers with Peter Molyneux that has some pretty interesting stuff about Fable 2… and beyond. The highlights include more discussion about the co-op and how that all works, as well as what I like to call “wuss mode” where you can’t kill any “friendly” townies and the like.

The most intriguing part is toward the end when Peter Molyneux states that Lionhead Studios is planning on releasing three more Fable games, even though the sequel (aptly titled Fable 2) is still two months away from release.

“We’ve got plans for Fable 3, 4 and 5 actually. It’s a big story arc and if you play Fable II you’ll recognize things from Fable 1.”

He also revealed that Lionhead has another game in the works that apparently came about while they were experimenting with things for Fable 2.  He wouldn’t get down to specifics, but being that it’s Peter Molyneux, I’m sure he wanted to talk a big game but some lawyer had his hands on the restraining-bolt controls off camera somewhere.

He did say, however, that he’s always looking for a challenge, stating:

“I’ve always been fascinated by challenges and I’ve always said to myself ‘One day I really should do a sports game’, simply because it’s such a genre that’s locked in stone – we [developers] know how we do sports games and we don’t do them any other way, and that is a real challenge to me.  Same with things like, you know, driving games.”

He goes on to say that what he wants to do for his next project is “a really big challenge.”  I don’t know about you, but a Lionhead Studios-developed Rock & Roll Racing sounds like sweet, sweet candy.

In an attempt to get you more excited about Fable 2’s release, Peter Molyneux and the studly geniuses at Lionhead are giving you an early taste in the form of an Xbox Live Arcade game.

Keystone is a downloadable XBLA game that will release prior to Fable 2. It’s just one of the many mini-games found in Fable 2, but Keystone will let you gamble and win gold that you can then transfer into your Fable 2 saved game. You can be a rich bitch before you even enter the world of Albion!

No release date has been given for either Fable 2 or Keystone, but the stars are aligning for a Summer delivery. Keystone already looks ready to go, so it can up and surprise us at any time. Be on the lookout for that crafty bastard on the marketplace, or just stay tuned to Ripten and we’ll let you know when it’s coming out.