Many years ago in the period covered by the NES through to the N64, I loved the Zelda franchise but after that console I pretty much put gaming to one side for the best part of a decade. A year or so ago now when I bought myself a Xbox360 so I could do COD4, a game I enjoyed so much that it was the only one I owned for about 18 months, until MW2 came out. One of the benefits of that game being so full of glitches that so many players exploit (3 months in at time of writing and still full of them) was that I started looking at other games of interest. At that time Fable 2 started being offered in download form of 5 chapters – the first of which was free. Of course you offer an Irish man something free then you can pretty much say goodbye to it so I tried it out.
Although running round as a child looking for warrants was not the most thrilling experience, the early moral choices were a nice touch and, once the story actually kicks in (with Lucien killing your sister and trying to do the same to you) it becomes engaging. The story is typical role-play stuff, you can do your best to rip through the actual story from start to finish or you can take your time, do side quests and many of the life-style things that exist within the game but as a story it is well written and broken down into chunks that unfold well as you play along. Aside from this there are side missions to bring you awards of gold, fame, weapons or items that can assist in getting by in this world. Of course if you are only about "finishing" the game then finding books to teach your dog new tricks will not be of too much interest but the gameplay is clever to build in such things as being important at certain stages, so, while not all of them are critical to progress, some of them are and they aren't allowed to be totally like two separate parts of the game.
To casual gamers (such as myself) and non-rpg players (such as myself) this does create a necessary evil that, at some point the game will not just progress as fast as you can swing a sword, you'll have to build up experience points and learn new skills or you will either not be able to complete some challenges or you will simply be outclassed by the enemy. This is par for the course and I was fine with it but I will be honest and say that it is hard to really explain to your girlfriend what the appeal of the game is when she has seen you make swords or chop wood for 30 solid minutes – particularly when chores around the flat remain undone! This stage of the game is a bit of a pain but, once you start getting some basic property under your belt then the money starts to take care of itself as long as you are not in a massive rush. Indeed it can come quicker at the expense of your morals, in a thing that I liked about the game – you can exploit all the NPC characters like crazy but you turn ugly and are hated as a result (something that will cause you other problems). Such conflicts are constant in the game and they add colour but the game can still play no matter what path you chose (there is no "wrong") and it allows you to change without too much work.
Once the game is "finished" there are still things to dabble around in (such as doing up houses, getting the various achievements etc) and these are quite fun although of course not as fun as the games. Likewise the missions and jobs continue while the DLC has some good stuff in it to help extend the game. The graphics are great, even if the camera control is perhaps not as automatically responsive as you would want, while the levelling of sound effects and music allows for the ipod to do the work while the subtitles help distinguish important dialogue from the endless chatter of villagers. Speaking of which, the comedy inherent in the material is of great value – whether it be the characters themselves or the wonderfully odd use of voice works (from a dour Brummie ghost to a wonderfully flamboyant Stephen Fry), it adds so much to the enjoyment and uniqueness of the game compared to some rather dry and overly serious games in the same genre Overall Fable 2 is a great game. It is perhaps a little linear for those that love to be lost and confused for hours (personally the breadcrumb trail was perfect for me) but it does have puzzles and things to work out. The story is well fleshed out with missions, quests and characters, some of which are avoidable and some of which are not – but not all can be done on the same path, meanwhile the use of humour, characters and some great voice work really help it. I tried it for free, bought each chapter and am now looking forward to Fable 3 a great deal – not bad for someone who doesn't really like the genre.
