Fantasy Gaming Like Never Before

By Jay Williams

What's going on all you medieval peeps out there?

Well I'll tell you what's going on, the world of Fable just got a serious boost, that's what.

We've been playing Fable 2 for many weeks now and I will say that it is one of the most polished games I have played.

Brought to you by the fastidious folks at Lionhead Studios, headed by gaming guru Peter Molyneux (best known for creating Populous, Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Black & White etc.), Fable 2 is a role-playing game of impressive - and hilarious - proportions set in a time-forgotten land called Albion.

Played from the third person perspective, this game displays an appealing semi-cartoon style but with a grimy, gritty tone that works well in the medieval setting.

But really all you need to know is that this game looks great. 

The 3D rendering is excellent, the attention to detail (and especially facial details) is fantastic and with a good mixture of towns, countryside, dark forests and eerie caves, exploring Albion can be a fun experience.

That said, if you do get bored of walking everywhere there is an excellent fast-track feature that allows you to avoid much of the back tracking.

The weapons and the spells look superb, and some of the eye candy, like when you charge up a spell and the colour drains from the screen, are as innovative as they are cool.

Like all good role-playing games, the story is integral to the game and begins with you taking on the role of a child known as Sparrow. 

After a bit of gameplay as a child, the story begins in earnest and become a gypsy on a mission to avenge your sister and bring down the evil that has tainted the once noble lands of Albion.

During the initial stages of the game, making your way around the gypsy camp is easy with the help of the “Glowing Trail” and your canine companion.

This is one of the first games that involves owning a dog - which you keep with you for the entire duration of the game - and it's one of the most useful elements of the game. 

Your pooch loves you unconditionally, but he's also an excellent tool.

He's not only your pathfinder, but he can sniff out treasure chests and hidden items, will warn you of approaching danger and will even attack enemies, tearing at the throats of fallen enemies.

In short, he's one hell of a pooch and is completely CPU controlled. But he never gets in your way, even in combat, which shows how good the AI programming is.

Anyways, at the gypsy camp I found myself wasting an hour or so trying to chat up the gypsy hotties outside my caravan and somehow persuade them into my wagon for a little bit of slap and tickle, but all to no avail... 

So I set off to try my luck in the big city.

It's pretty hard to get lost in this game and the controls are pretty easily grasped as well, so getting around pretty simple.

When you have been given an important task or quest you are magically directed to it by a glowing trail of light on the ground, which helps a lot. 

As I already said, in addition to walking to your destination you can also use the fast-track feature to zip to destinations that you have previously visited, making life that little less difficult and giving you more time to delve into the gameplay.

So my task was to set out to the big city and find some medieval poontang. Well not really, as the main objective was to make my way to the city and kill some stuff along the way. But the fact that you can do the horizontal mumbo, start a family, and all sorts of other stuff unrelated to the story makes this game all the more playable.

Upon setting foot in town you will notice in the options menu that there is a section labeled 'jobs', which lists all the jobs available in current and surrounding towns.

So I thought first thing I needed was some serious cash to make my hero over to better attract the chiquititas, and because quite frankly my character looked little to drab for my liking, plus certain clothes give different bonuses.

So before I knew it I had taken up an apprenticeship at the local blacksmith/weapons dealer and in doing so brings it brought up a minigame where you have to hit X button at the precise moment within this green bar - and the challenge is that the green bar gets smaller and smaller with each pass.

As you proceed (without stuffing up) you get combos which in turn give your more money for each sword forged.

The same sort of principles apply to other jobs later on, such as bar tending and wood chopping.

This can be quite addictive. Sure, they call me Mr. Gambler in office, but I spent the first four hours of gameplay simply forging swords and making money. My brother watched on in agony all the while saying “this is boring”. Well I showed him (mainly by stomping him in the neck) as I ended up buying the entire town and setting the rental rates so I was filthy rich within days.

This sort of freedom is unprecedented, and being able to buy properties and kick people out of their homes is remarkable.

Another aspect that is equally addictive are the “Game Masters” which are scattered throughout the Fable 2 gameworld.

The “Game Masters” are generally shady-looking fellows with funny hats who offer you a range of games that you can play for money, and the games very closely mimic pokie machines and roulette which is kinda scary.

Once you gamble a bit you can build up your level, which gives you the ability to risk more money, but watch out punters. Get into to much debt and can't pay? You may see yourself being followed by debt collectors!

That may appeal to some, but what's that I hear you ask: "Aren't heroes supposed to be noble and giving?"

Well, that's where this game is different. You can choose to be good or evil, pure or corrupt. Being a huge capitalist with a predilection for raising rental prices, I started to grow horns and began to look like a demon. The horns were ridiculously huge - it was awesome!

My appearance started to bother people and let's just say my personal quest of bedding the ladies was becoming, how do you say, ever more distant.

The last time I'd had a little hanky panky game time was like two months (game time, which is about 3 days). I'm afraid to say wasn't free. Shame on you Lionhead studios for including the oldest profession on Earth, prostitution.

I had to do something ASAP, as I could feel my humanity slipping, so I set out on a quest to only eat pure items such as celery and holy water no more pies and meat. 

I had to lower the rents and help grannies find their grandsons in creepy orc-infested caves and generally try to be a good videogame avatar.

After much time and many missions, pure living was harder than I thought but after some dedication and blood, sweat and tears, these noble deeds made my horns shrink and eventually vanish (for the mean time) and after many hours of debating I realised there was something missing from my Fable 2 experience.

I didn't think I'd say this but a family, yes thats right my very own video game family. 

I was done with chasing booty and paying hookers: it was time to settle down.

So I found my suitable mate and now I had to woo her into marrying me. Because I was super rich it wasn't very hard (who said money can't buy you love?). 

I just showered her with gifts until she loved me enough to get hitched. Wham, bam, thankyou ma'am.

This part of the game is rather good it really gives your character the sense of belonging because once you marry, you consummate the relationship and then hey presto, you can have a child. 

But that's not it. Once you have a family they miss you and want your attention.

I started pursuing the story quests after marriage, which are a lot of fun but in the process I neglected my digital family and my wife wanted to leave me. Well, I couldn't let that happen. So I did what any hero would do and I sacrificed her to the dark sector. 

Truly, this game is brilliant. There's so much you can do before you even attempt to unravel the main plot.

Of course when you do, you'll be involved in a lot of combat, which consists three styles: swords, guns and magic.

Each skill has the ability to level up: 

Strength increases your abilities with melee weapons like the Axe, Mace, Longsword, Cleaver, Cutlass, Katana and Hammer.

Dexterity levels up your ability with guns and bows such as the Blunderbuss, Clockwork Rifle, Turret Rifle, Crossbow and Flintlock Pistol.

Will skills level up your magic abilities and there are eight spells in total including: Chaos, Force Push, Inferno, Raise Dead, Shock, Blades, Time Control and Vortex.

In addition to all these skills, some weapons have slots for installing augmentations, or magical gems that convey various bonuses.

Some of the augment abilities include increased damage, protecting you from damage and draining health vampire-style (which is one of my favorites).

Augmented weapons are a must-have in the later stages against tougher foes, plus when you have a weapon that replenishes your health every hit you land, you're not stuck carrying heaps of potions around.

Character leveling is a huge aspect of this game and Lionhead Studios has made it very enjoyable.

When you kill a foe they drop experience orbs. Green orbs fill up your regular XP, while the other three colours signify the three combat disciplines. 

If you favour hand-to-hand combat, you'll tend to get more Strength XP (blue). If you prefer to use guns and crossbows, you'll receive Skill XP (yellow), allowing for more advanced shooting techniques. Using Will powers earns you Will XP (red), making it possible to learn additional and more powerful spells.

It's neat and tidy and opens up a very cool RPG levelling system to a wider range of players because it's very accessible and rarely confusing.

Overall it is best to mix it up when in combat and level up all three skills so you attack from afar, at close range, and use magic. But if you're like me and all cashed up you can just buy all four orb potions from the potion shop in town which makes leveling that much easier.

Without having played online I can only imagine that the experience is only heightened, but the co-op mode on the one system is very enjoyable, adding more offensive power in battles and making questing a more social event.

If there was anything I didn't like about the game, I thought the cut-scenes went for too long, but overall there's very few bad points.

Fable 2 is a triumph of interactive entertainment. It's utterly addictive, it looks great, it sounds fantastic, and will have gamers glued to their screens for weeks on end.

There's even downloadable content such as extra levels and quests you can find on Xbox Live to increase the game's shelf life.

Every element of this game is well-polished, from the way the story unravels, to the fun minigames, even to the way the shops work and things like owning your own house and having a family and being good or evil add so much fun to the experience.

It's one of the most accessible RPGs I've ever played and in accordance with the prophecy, dim sims after a night out surely make for some dirty laundry.

Game: Fable 2
System: Xbox 360
Players: 1-2
Online: Yes
Developer: Lionhead
Distributor: Microsoft Game Studios (MGS)

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)