Fable II - Knothole Island
Please note this is a review for the first DLC pack for Fable II: Knothole Island and not a review of Fable II the full game.
Knothole Island is the first expansion to Fable II release via Xbox Live, around 550MB. Comes in two ways, first free and next premium, costing 800MS points (about $10). The free package allows you to join a friend in Co-Op who has the Premium package, and gives you a few items to boot: Sunglasses, Assassin's Gloves, Knothole Knight Boots, Fat-Burner Potion. All the aforementioned items are included and expanded upon in the premium package. For your 800 MS points you'll get a ton of new armor, several new weapons (at least two Legendary weapons with open augment slots), a myriad of new Augments that seem to be good for mid-game (as opposed to the crap you get at the start and the great augments you get after you're too strong to take full advantage of them you find on the mainland), a new town, and three new dungeons. All of this will take somewhere between two and four hours to complete, so if you weren't crazy about Fable II to begin with you may want to pass, but for die hard fans it is easy to recomend picking it up.
Knothole Island is a special place, the original inhabitants crafted several weather totems in order to harness the power of nature and control their island's weather. These totems are held inside dungeons full of monsters and puzzles, kept in such places so that the inhabitants do not grow complacent with their ability to change the seasons. Generation after generation it gets harder and harder for the inhabitants to retrieve the totems, which ultimately leads to Knothole Island's current predicament: Uncontrollable weather wrecking havoc on their daily lives and businesses. An inventor named Gordon fashions himself a submarine and sets off to the mainland in search of hero! That hero is you. After giving you a few gifts to help convince you to come to the island you two board his submarine and arrive on the frozen docks of Knothole Island. It would seem the local Cheifttain is being blamed for the island's troubles and he would like you to fix it. Then you're off on your way to find the Ice Key in order to retrieve the Sun Totem.
The Dungeons in Knothole Island seem to offer scaling difficulty based on your characters overall progression. A new character faced off against shadow forms of Hobbes, Beetles and the occasional Bandit, where as a Hero who has completed game will be met with Balvarines, Banshees and Highwaymen. This means that if you've waited this long to play Fable II, Knothole will still have something to offer you right out of the gate.
During your trek through the first dungeon you will acquire some new clothes, weapons and potions, after you've cleared it the town's shops will once again open for business. The shops on Knothole Island are rather unique, the stylist offers things not found on mainland Albion such as potions that alter height, weight, your complexion and even your scars.
Next is the Box of Secrets, a rather unusual store in that they do not take gold for their items, all products are hidden from sight and given vague names like 'Sexy Outfit', 'Rebellious Outfit', "Barbaric Weapon'. Approaching each item will tell you what item you need to trade for it, these range from foods, to books, to rings and dyes, none of which are found on Knothole Island itself, so prepare to hunt some things down next time you find yourself in Bowerstone.
The Stonecutter, who offers several wonder augments as well as an 'Augment Remover' (which does exactly what it sounds like, placing both the empty weapon and removed augment back into your inventory) does not become available until the second dungeon is cleared, meaning it's still very hard to find useful augments in the early stages of the game.
Upon completing all the Dungeon and returning all three weather totems to the village you're left with a choice of what to do, one being good, one being evil, had to mix the morality in somewhere right? It is Fable after all. Regardless of how you decide the Weather Chamber becomes available in the middle of town, giving you quick access to all three totems allowing you to change the island's weather in order to hunt down remaining treasure chests, dig spots, dive spots and silver books.
Overall Knothole Island is an enjoyable, albeit short addition to the Fable II universe. While it adds a large amount of wonderful new armors and weapons, the quests are ultimately short and as easy to complete as anything offered in the main game, with the lightest of 'puzzle' elements in the form of very linear switch pulling and button pressing. Despite these shortcomings I still highly recommend Knothole Island for anyone who loves Fable II, wanted real armor during their game, or just wanted a little bit more out of the game. The price point may seem high when you hear there is only a few extra hours packed in, but the heart of the DLC is the new armor, weapons, potions and other items all of which are worth every penny.
