Fable II

It’s interesting how something that can seem so right in theory, so immaculately constructed, can manage to fall flat on its face when set into motion.

I remember first hearing of Peter Molyneux and his game Fable, and thinking to myself how wholly wonderful this game was going to be. As an aspiring game designer – yes, I once dreamed of spearheading my own games, but that is not a story for here nor now – I couldn’t help but feel that Peter and I were altogether on the same page; here was a man who envisioned the same things I envisioned, that shared my ambitions of bringing an entirely new dimension of immersion to what was largely a lifeless genre: the computer role-playing game.

Now before you start questioning my reason, know that I have been, and most likely will always be a fan of role playing games, from your more classical medieval RPGs to your sometimes overly colourful and eccentric JRPGs; in fact, my introduction to role playing games was much more humble than that of those who have found themselves christened on the alter of digital gaming: my first experience with role playing games came in the form of a book, a book that whisked me away on an tale where I was the hero, where I chose my own adventures. Yes, back when I was young the “choose your own adventure” books were in full swing. Even the popular kids, who were usually way too cool to like the things I liked, were into them. There was something quite simplistic about those books, and yet they worked quite wonderfully. At any given moment, I would be tasked with making the decision for my imaginary self; sometimes these decisions would be care-free and amusing, while other times, they would bring upon dire consequences. The important thing is that it always left me feeling empowered.

The biggest problem with this form of gameplay was that inevitably I would grow tired of the limited settings. Because of their nature (these being books and all) these games carried about them a very “set on their rails” kind of feel: you would always find the shimmering vile on page 57, just like you would always fall to your doom on page 19.

And that’s when I discovered Dungeons and Dragons.

Now Dungeons and Dragons was an entirely different beast. In this game, I could see my character grow and flourish into a grand adventurer (or die miserably depending on the kind of Dungeon Master I had – luckily most of my DMs over the years have been good to me) and my adventures were only limited by my own imagination. Since the person running the game was in fact a real person, he would be able to remember the things I had done and the people I had spoken too, and the story would unfold accordingly. Just like with the “choose your own adventure” books, the decisions I made while playing Dungeons and Dragons were significant, but because of my human game master, the world in which my character inhabited was constantly being renewed and re-invented. The more I played, the more the concept of action and consequence intrigued me. What would happen if I turned down someone’s offer on a bounty? What if I decided not to kill the the murderous thieves, but instead chose to side with them?

In most computer role-playing games, you play the role of the hero, and at the end of the day, when everything is said and done, you will find that you have walked down the hero’s path, a path which is mostly narrow, without much twist nor turn. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not insinuating that I would necessarily prefer to follow a villainous path, but simply that most heroes don’t always follow one set route. Most computer role playing games (at least at the time) didn’t offer you the open-worldliness that a pen and paper role playing game could offer. The Knights of the Old Republic was one of the first games I remember playing where the developers had placed special emphasis on the choice between good and evil; every mission had a different outcome depending on how you chose go at it, and as time went by, your Force powers would be affected by the choices you made; dark side or light side. Now I know that many people have complained over the years that in order to fully benefit from these choices you had to choose one path and stick to it: either be completely good or completely evil. To me, it was never about the Force powers; the real benefit simply came from having the ability to choose. That was the real power.

As revolutionary as KOTOR had been however, there was still much more I strove to see accomplished in the games I played, and so, here entered Fable.

Fable promised great things. You would start out the game as a child, and grow into old age, and things you did as a child would bear consequence in your adult life. I remember hearing things like “if you cut off the arm of a young man, when you meet him later on as an old man, you’ll be able to see where his arm was severed” or “if you deeply cut the same young man, when you meet him later on as an old man, you’ll be able to see the scars that you left him with”. The other thing that had me excited was the prospect of being able to marry someone and have children. To have an emotional bond with a character to such a degree could only mean great things for such a game, because if I found myself so completely enthralled with an in-game character to the point in which I wished to marry them, than surely this meant that the game would be ripe with context; add to this the fact that the actions I’d choose to perform under these circumstances would directly benefit or jeopardize the lives of these people I felt so fondly about, and you had yourself what should have been the greatest role-playing experience ever!

I have since then learned to take everything Mr. Molyneux has to say with a grain of salt.

I also understand that Fable received critical acclaimed, and that certain people, still to this day, will claim that Fable was a great game, and I wouldn’t be able to argue with them otherwise – it just wasn’t the game I wanted. I was dismayed by the game’s surprising shallowness and lackluster. Perhaps there was indeed all these machinations taking place in the background, but if so, I wasn’t able to tell. Also, without a proper story taking place within the boundaries of this virtual world, I had a hard time becoming emotionally invested in it. It’s true that I didn’t want story to lead me by the hand, but I still wished to see it drive me forward. So when Fable 2 was announced a few years back, I approached the entire endeavor with some skepticism; I had mixed feelings about trying my hand at a sequel. Would they learn from their mistakes and bring forth the improvements I had so longed for, or would they simply dolly up the same kind of rubbish they had served me in the first game? I have to admit that I had completely lost myself in all the hype the first game had generated, which is probably in large part the reason I was so devastated with the state of the first game. It would not be a mistake I would repeat.

Fable 2 is a beautiful game. I don’t usually get caught up in the visuals, but since I think it’s worth mentioning, I figured I’d get it out of the way. A little while ago, I listened to a podcast in which people were discussing the state of graphics in today’s video games and the seemingly unwillingness of its developers to make use of a full colour palette. It was their argument that many games now-a-days tended to overly make use of grays and browns in order to recreate a more realistic look, even though the real world is not nearly as bland. I think that the choice of using an analogous colour scheme is just as much an esthetical decision as it is a practical one, and that opting for such a look and feel (like that of Gears of War) is more in an attempt to depict grittiness, rather then realism. With that said however, I do believe that certain games would benefit from refraining from making use of such colour schemes. In Fable 2 the world’s canvas if filled with vibrant colours, from the lush greens of the grassy fields, to the blood-curdling red’s of the tarnished battlefields, and it manages to do so without ever feeling entirely too cartoon-like, which is one of the biggest complaints I had with World of Warcraft; but I digress.

As for the gameplay, things haven’t changed drastically since the game’s first incarnation. There are, however, a few minor tweaks that I personally feel has made the game more inviting. The fighting in the game, for instance, makes use of a single-button attack system, which to many action game aficionados seemed like a ridiculous idea. I have to admit that I don’t fall into the prior category of people; to me, having the battle system simplified helped take away the emphasis from the battles you fought and placed it squarely on the exploration and “experiencing” of the world. It should also be pointed out that there is a nice graduation to a slightly more complex battle system involving blocking, countering, and combos, so the action game enthusiast shouldn’t feel completely left out. I also like the idea of always having both a melee weapon and a ranged weapon at my disposal; and the most well thought-out idea in my opinion was to never make you have to stock up on ammo. Not having to worry about ammunition is just another way the game allows you to experience the game relatively worry-free.

Once again you can form relationships with people, either good or bad, and you can eventually get married and have children; of course by “eventually” I really mean within minutes of starting the game. As I said before, I absolutely love the idea of being able to get married in a game and have children, but the entire concept in this game is so entirely unrealistic, that it completely disinterests me of doing so. In order for me to even fathom the idea of marrying a girl (or boy, if it be your fancy) I would have to develop some kind of emotional bond with the character first. It would have been nice if the developers would have propagated the world with more NPCs, characters with varying personalities for me to court. I’m not requesting a full-fledged Japanese dating sim, but something a little more fleshed out would have been greatly appreciated. In fact, it turns out that your dog has more personality than most villagers in the game.

Speaking of your dog, I suppose I couldn’t possibly write a Fable 2 review without talking about the highly touted sidekick. I have to say that all things considered, the addition of this fateful companion is a wholly welcomed one. There are several things your four legged friend can do, including sniff out hidden chests and buried treasure, and help you fight-off your wretched enemies; he also makes for a great conversation starter when you’re simply wandering about town. It’s also nice to know that there’s someone accompanying you around on your expeditions, even though they are not the most verbose.

The game now also has co-operative play, which is the thing which disappoints me the most, because frankly speaking, it’s simply broken. The first thing you’ll notice when joining a friend for some co-operative fun is that you can’t make use of your own character. Instead you are forced to make use of a preset selection of characters. Furthermore, you will notice that you no longer carry about you your inventory, nor your accumulated abilities. The game also restricts your ability to interact with the world around you, by preventing you from rotating the camera angle and performing such actions as opening chests. You are also tethered to the other player, so if you find yourselves getting too far apart (which isn’t very far at all) you won’t be able to move any further. A lot of these issues are understandable when it comes to local co-op – there’s only so much you can do on one shared screen – but there really aren’t any reasons why so many of these restrictions should apply to the online co-op; in fact, the option to play via split screen could have allowed for more flexibility as far as local co-op goes, but that might have been too much for one system to handle. All in all, the co-op in Fable 2 seemed like a complete throw away and something they simply tacked on for the sake of having it there.

Fable 2 is a great game. It doesn’t necessarily do all the things I would like to see in an RPG, but I’ve come to terms with that. There are a lot of great things to do, places to explore and choices to be made, and even though my outlook on this series may has been a bit pessimistic in the past, the game still manages to surprise me once in a while. If you’re a fan of RPGs or have been thinking of trying one out for the first time, I can wholeheartedly recommend this game; I believe you should be able to find something about it to your liking.