I was quite excited about Fable 2. The living, breathing, tale-spinning marketing machine that is the dark side of the man in charge at Lionhead Studios was working overtime on this one, thick black goo dripping from its well-oiled mechanisms up to the very day of release. The dream machine promised us a story incredible beyond measure, a breakthrough online mode, a brave new world, a game-changing pet companion, and more. Then, on October 21st, the smoke finally began to clear.

You think we are in a recession? THIS is a recession!

   The story of Fable 2 takes place 500 years in the future from the point at which the first Fable adventure wrapped up. The game aptly accounts for this by weaving in familiar names and locations such as the Hero's Guild, but presenting them in the guise of legends, ruins, or tales of long lost artifacts, to account for the passage of time. But where the world of spoken history displays the proper respect for the effects of hundreds of years, the world of sight makes few such concessions. Simply put, Fable 2 looks almost exactly like Fable 1. Oh sure, the graphics have been updated but the art style has remained exactly the same, and if you look at the world itself, it hasn't changed much at all. You have very similar looking architecture, the same fashion of dress, the same manner of speak, the same kinds of stores, and merchants, and castles. The countryside is still littered with brigands and traveling merchants alike, and even the weapons are largely the same, with the one notable exception of the introduction of guns as a ranged option. Even the hookers still charge roughly the same prices. Are we meant to believe that 500 years of progress did so little to change this world? I am not expecting ATMs and wireless hotspots at every corner, but surely, someone came up with something new in all these years.

Geez! Would you PLEASE stop whining?!

Universal Soldier

   One the of the many distinctive things about Fable is that it is one of the very few games out there that manages to mix melee combat, ranged weapons, and magic into a single hyper-effective system without crippling any of the three aspects, or forcing you to specialize in only one thing at a time. This makes for fun, varied combat, and leaves you to decide the exact manner in which you choose to separate your foes from their heads and family inheritances. For instance, you can snipe your enemies from afar (and later in the game, even target specific limbs), shower them in fire or lightning, or let them come up close so that you can pick food out of their teeth with your trusty battle axe. If you like having fun with your prey, you'll undoubtedly discover various tasty combinations of all these techniques; my personal favorite is softening them up with a few long spells, then getting in a few good chops with my melee weapon, then backing up and unloading a few gun blasts in their face at near point blank range.

   Since Fable doesn't make you select a character class, all three types of combat are perfectly viable in any proportion you choose from the very beginning, with each being tied to a dedicated face button on the controller. As you discover the particular style that best suits your fancy, you can use experience points to beef up specific abilities accordingly. To make sure that some kind of basic balance is maintained, the game assigns experience points in four categories: Strength, which controls your health points and melee based abilities; Skill, which affects abilities of ranged weapons; Will, which is Fable's jargon for magic; and General, which provides an extra pool of experience points that you can use as you choose across the other three categories. The more you use a particular style of combat, the more experience of that type you will accumulate, with the General category providing you with extra flexibility to extend into something different. In addition, should you have a change of heart, any spell or skill you acquire can be unlearned at any point in the game, with experience rolling back into your pool of available points, ready to be spent on something else.

Hey Beavis, why does a dog lick his own nads? Because he can.

   Incidentally, that timeless quote also explains why your loyal (and extremely long-lived) pet companion constantly sniffs out treasure instead of buried chicken bones. While your heavily touted canine friend doesn't change the core gameplay as much as Peter Molinyeux would have you believe, he is extremely handy in pointing out places where various unfortunate fools have chosen to bury random bits of cash, jewelry, weaponry, and other valuable commodities. As you run around on your quests, the dog will call your attention to such spots with loud barking, and if you are not too busy flirting with the local flowergirl to give him 30 seconds of your time, he will quickly lead you to the precise spot where the treasure is buried. If you particularly fancy this form of income, you can even buy special books that will teach your dog (or presumably, allow YOU to teach your dog, since the poor animal can't read very well) to be an even better detective of hidden stuff - just make sure you have the patience to pull out your trusty shovel a lot more often.

   Aside from sniffing out valuable underground objects, your hairy friend will also pretend to help you out during combat. I say "pretend" because I honestly haven't noticed much actual impact being made by all his biting and scratching, although I suppose there is some use in his constant tangling in people's legs. Either way, since combat is not particularly challenging to begin with, I guess it's the thought that counts, so you should be a good dog owner and play rubber ball with your furry buddy every once in a while.

Buns of steel, chest of lead

   One of the new things that Fable 2 brings to the table is the ability to play as a female character, and, being the innovation junkie that I am, I just had to try it. Unfortunately, Lionhead didn't build the most graceful-looking 3D model to serve as the female hero, with the young girl in question looking considerably more like one of the ladies of the WWF than I might have liked. Swinging around heavy weapons didn't help the situation one bit, and soon my gentle warrior princess was considerably broader in the shoulder than most male characters in the game, probably able to benchpress a horse-drawn cart with the horse still attached, by the looks of it. After I took a few liberties with replenishing myself with fatty foods like beef jerkey, things started to look really scary and finally, when at a certain point in the story my character went bold, I gave up entirely, bought her some male clothes, and just pretended that I was playing with a male character all along. Given that the world of Fable has a healthy population of raunchy bi-sexual females, my decision to revert to pretend manhood had no dire consequences on the available selection of friendly wenches at the local tavern.

Children flying out of windows head first? Tell me more!

   So what of the actual story of Fable 2, you may ask. Does it stand up Molinyeux's great claim of being so much more than the story of the first Fable? Well, the beginning is certainly exciting, what with kids being dropped out of castle windows and all. Things fall into a more recognizable pattern after that, however, with both the overall structure as well as certain specific pieces of the story being rather similar to the first game. There are some twists and turns to be sure, and the tale sports more active characters this time around. This makes it feel a bit more dynamic overall, but as with the rest of the game, the difference is not really all that breathtaking. Personally, I was quite happy with the first game's story to begin with, and so this one certainly fits the bill just as well.

   The nice thing about the story is that it develops at a leisurely pace, strung together with key episodes, with ample side-questing room in between. The episodes belonging to the central storyline are identified as your main quest in your quest log, and most of the time you can choose whether to pursue the next step, or put it aside for a while and concentrate on one of the side quests, of which there is never a shortage. This has a small negative effect in that doing too much side-questing may occassionally cause your interest in the overall narrative to dwindle, but that's a small gripe, and all in all, it's a nice balance.

Ma! Which one is the bad guy?

   Another interesting feature of Fable is the need to make moral choices. Unlike most games, it will not force you into simple black and white scenarios; instead it is more akin to advanced RPGs such as Mass Effect, where choices have shades of grey, and most choices will often have both positive and negative repercussions. There are certain things you'll never be able to do if you play a goody-two-shoes, and similarly, you will miss out on other juicy content if you decide to be a villain through and through. This adds a great deal of replayability to the game; this one is really worth multiple playthroughs, not only for the additional content, but also because NPCs react to you quite differently depending on which choices you've made.

   Speaking of NPCs, one thing that drove me nuts is the fact that once you gain a little fame (or notoriety), the little buggers tend to follow you everywhere. And because the function of shutting the door to your own house is oddly missing from the game, it is not unusual for these lovely people to visit you in your home at all kinds of hours of the day. This would be ok if they had the manners to stay in the guest room, sipping tea and chewing on busquits while they waited for you to come down; but no, these fine folks will walk right up to your bedroom and catch you with your pants around you ankles and your hands full of your lady's bosoms. It's right out funny the first time around, and worth a smile the second time, but not so much after that.

Wenches to do, people to slay

   There is a whole lot more to say about Fable 2, but frankly, I'd rather play it, and advise you to do the same. Whatever small flaws it may have, it remains an absolutely great RPG with many unique features; a kind of game that doesn't come around very often. If you've spent time with Fable 1 you will find many things recognizable, but unless you are an insane innovation junkie, this won't spoil your experience in the slightest and will make you feel right at home. If you have even the tiniest interest in role-playing games, this one is an absolute must have, and even if you don't, you might just want to check it out anyway, because this kind of gaming excellence is worth admiring from up close.

       ... Vaga