Fable II Review
Fable 2 brings you back to a world where every action that you decide will shape not only your character but the world around you. Become a pure and saintlike character or become a demon spawn, master the use of melee weapons, ranged weapons, and/or magic. If you are looking for a RPG to sink some time into this could possibly be the game for you.
Graphics-wise this game looks awesome for the XBOX360. There might be some issues with the rendering of certain objects if you get the camera angle right, but its not enough to distract for long. Each town/area that you explore looks a feels different and as such you feel like you are truly traversing a world.
The controls are pretty straight forward, and once you know them you're basically set. There are some issues when you're having to button mash, which is most battles, when you are trying to attack, guard, and trying to heal yourself. The pause button is also slightly strange, depending on the situation you're in you're going to get a small little pop up that says PAUSE or you are going to actually go to the pause menu where you can change clothes, equip weapons, and browse your stats.
The gameplay is very enjoyable but there are so many parts where you're going to have to button mash or have the patience of a god to get through. There are also times where you'll think that you have gained a skill that you can use, but when you try to find it, it won't be there and the instructions aren't really clear on how to get at what you thought you have learned. There is also the annoyance of loading screens everywhere. This is not a fluid go into one area from another its disjointed. You get to the end of an area and once there you get a loading screen, sometimes its fast, other times its amazingly slow. There are also cases of a town suffering this same fate, where you'll have to look upon a couple of loading screens just to tour the area.
Overall this game is solid, if you are wanting to explore the world do every little quest, and try to unlock ever achievement you are going to find that this game feels a little bit like a MMO. If you are the type of player that just wants to go from start to finish so you can say that you beat the game you are going to find that the level of content is deceiving and you'll find yourself at the end way before you thought it was even possible. If you are going to play the game and not try to go straight through then let me make a suggestion for you. Train in all the jobs as they come available, they'll definitely help you out. Also when you have the money buy shops and houses and you'll find that you'll have your money back over time, and that time can be while the 360 is completely turned off. Fable 2 is an improvement over the first Fable, especially with the notion of co-op but sadly the co-op experience doesn't go very far once the novelty runs out and the frustration of orientation kicks in. Fable 2 gets an 8.1 out of 10.
