Fable II Review
Okay, so for a long time, I have been anxiously waiting for a sequel to Fable. I cannot begin to tell you the joy I had with the first game. Sure a bunch of people were dissapointed because it didn't make good on all of the promises that Peter had made but it was still a fun game with some intuitive ideas and a decent story to boot. Well, Fable II has finally arrived and for the most part, its what I expected however, there were a couple of things about the game that I just couldn't seem to get over and really hampered the overall experience that I had.
Let me get this out of the way right now. Fable II is not a bad game by any means. The controls, story, sound design, graphics, dog, etc. are all pretty good, but some of the things in that game really stuck out to me in a negative way. The first thing that I really didn't like was the weapons, or more specifically, the lack of weapons. In the first Fable, I remember going on quests and opening a treasure chest and getting some wicked awesome new sword to jack fools with but in Fable II, that will never happen. I think throughout the entire game, I only had 2 different weapons. Sure you could buy them from the blacksmith but I missed opening a treasure chest only to find myself in awe by some cool new weapon. Instead, the game just fills any and all treasure chests in the game with experience or health potions which is nice, but the game was so easy (I didn't die once), that by the end, I had probably 150 - 200 health potions stocked up all from treasure chests. It was rediculous to not have found any weapons or anything. Another gripe I have with that game is in the same vein as the whole weapon thing, and that is that there is NO armor in the game. I remember in the first game getting the Sword of Aeon's and some wicked sick armor and just destoying anything in my path, but in this game, I had the best set of clothes in a matter of minutes and there was never anything better. So I played the entire game with the best clothes and it never changed. I was hoping to find some amazing set of battle armor but no, instead I get some pieces of cloth that are supposed to protect me from bullets and sword slashes.
This next part of the review is going to be a spoiler for the end of the game so if you don't want to discover this yet, skip to the next part. SPOILER ALERT......................... Okay, so my final issue with this game is the final boss. There is no final boss! Lord Lucien is basically destoryed by a music box? I shot him once and he fell over into the Spire. How retarded can you be? The first Fable had an amazing final boss and it was actually pretty tough, but this was just a joke. How lazy do the developers have to be to not include a final boss fight of any kind. That just erk'd me so bad, that I really never want to touch this game again. Okay but lets move on. SPOILER OVER.............................
Some of the things that I did like however, were the addition of the dog, who was actually quite helpful in finding treasure chests and such even if they were filled with crap. I also really liked the magic in this game. I thought it was way better than the first game and looked pretty cool to boot.
All in all, I would say that if you are a fan of the first Fable, you should check this one out, just don't be expecting much in the way of innovation or an increase in quality. As for general RPG fans and other people in general, I think that with the amount of high profile games coming out in the coming months, that this is one that you could probably skip and be okay. While it was an intertaining ride, some of the technical hiccups and design choices really held this game back from being a triple A title.
Story: 4/5
Graphics: 3/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Sound: 4/5
Overall: 3/5
