With all the economic instability and political uncertainty all around us these days, the timing couldn't be better for an open-world fantasy game you could lose yourself in for a few weeks. Microsoft Game Studios' ambitious Fable 2 is now available for the Xbox 360, and while not a flawless role-playing game (RPG) it delivers a deep and detailed world for mature players.
As with its 4-year-old predecessor (which sold 3 million copies on the original Xbox), much of Fable II is about choices and consequences. At many times throughout the game players will be faced with moral decisions that will shape their character and future interactions in the huge world of Albion. For example, early on in the game you're asked to deliver a love letter to a heartbroken woman. When you walk into her home, however, you're offered a gold piece by her nasty mother, who doesn't want her daughter seeing this man, and you can take the money and run or go upstairs to hand the letter to its rightful recipient (she also gives you a coin for your trouble, by the way).
A traumatic event concludes the first act, when you're a child, and sets the vengeful tone for the majority of the game. Will you be good or evil or somewhere in between? Depending on your actions, your character's appearance will also morph over time (similarly, if you eat too much to regain your health, opposed to drinking potions, you can become overweight).
While accepting missions and exploring the lands, players can do just about anything in this virtual world. Accompanied by your loyal dog (who can help sniff out trouble or treasure), you can buy, sell or rent out properties, or own shops; take on jobs such as bounty hunter, assassin or blacksmith (providing an additional revenue stream); fight human- and creature-based enemies and recruit others to aid in your cause; learn new skills and acquire better weapons and items; get married and have children, and so forth.
While not available on the disc at launch, Xbox 360 owners can download a patch that offers the much-hyped online "co-op" multiplayer mode, so at any time you can jump into a friend's game and explore the world together, and then bring the experience points, gold and items back to your game. Note: This feature wasn't available in our early copy of the game. A second gamer can also play on the same TV by simply picking up an Xbox 360 controller and pressing the Start button.
While certainly a well-crafted quest, combat is too simplistic (whether you choose to specialize in melee, range or magic abilities, or a combination of all three); the characters don't look nearly as good as the impressive environments and weather effects; and the map (accessible in the Pause menu) is horrible, so players will likely rely on the shimmery breadcrumb trail that leads you to important objectives.
Overall, however, Fable II is an enchanting RPG with clever (and quite humorous) dialogue, expansive locations and non-repetitive missions to suck you deep into this fantasy tale. It was worth the wait, and more-or-less lives up to the tremendous hype, so players shouldn't be disappointed with this open-ended epic.
Review by Marc Saltzman (the Star Press)
