Fable II

as well.....

 
 It’s pretty nice to see developers continuing their world of fiction within down-loadable content. Not only does this satisfy the developers within the extent of an expansion pack but satisfy those whom hunger for more of the content of that specific game. The Xbox 360 Marketplace has been such a place to buy these down-loadable content with your Microsoft points. One of that down-loadable content is Fable II. Lionhead’s Fable II has been a satisfying sequel to its original Xbox bearer, Fable. Fable has always been a quaint-Disney/Burton world of heroism, dark comedy and British-stereotypical language. This is also Peter Molyneux, highly praised yet known game that he usually presents with features that feel unrealistic or integral to his final product. Despite the criticisms of “feeling derivative” to its original successor, Fable II still offers a catalog of exciting features. The most reputable is your handy “four-legged” friend, your dog and the morality system. These features make Fable II to be quite addicting to experiment on and the choice of becoming King of Albion.

 
Upon completing the main story, fans and enthusiasts hunger for more content to compensate the “horrible” ending and was granted not one but two down loadable content. One of them is Knothole Island which was the first downloadable content to experience more content. Knothole Island is 800($10) Microsoft points.

The history that I had known of is that the inhabitants of Knothole Glade is fed up with Balverine attacks and dreary weather and had settled in Knothole Island. They soon realized that ancient civilization which settle here before had magical artifacts that hid in caves so that adventures can find them.

Upon unlocking this content and starting your desired pro/an-tagonist, you first encountered a new quest which requires you to go to the pier to meet Gordon. Gordon has a message for you from the Chieftain of Knothole Island, it seems like “winter has gripped our lands and only someone valiant enough to recover the mystical summer stone can save us.” After that televise-esque speech, you will receive “his gifts from the island” and summon to Knothole Island by his Beetle-esque submarine.

Entering Knothole Island, you will see the Island is covered by snow and not a single body of water which now covers ice around the centre of the town. Your quest is to report to the Chieftain of Knothole and become the savior or his “assistant” for his selfish desires. As explained by Gordon, you are required to recover the “mystical summer stone” and first you need to key. The Chieftain tells you that “his last hero” had died and buried the key somewhere but doesn’t tell you where it is. Therefore, resorting to your magical “bread-crumbs” trail to follow and let the dog find it for you.

Upon recovering the key and entering the temple/dungeon, “vaulting” down to the actual temple, you will encounter a series of puzzles which you are acquire to handle on receiving the summer stone. The puzzles mainly consist of shoot/slash/spell, the coloured ball-thingy to solve the dilemma at hand and activate levers so that statutes can melted ice obsoletes so you can closer to your objective.

Completing this stone will heed the Chieftain’s call of complain. This time, the summer stone had caused the land to become drought of its vegetation and a lack of water resources. You will have to find the key to the storm temple to make it rain but attempt to ignore the selfish Chieftain and the pearl of me, killing him.

Like the previous dungeon, you are required to solve a series of puzzles and encounter the innovative touches to them. It is quite intriguing yet irritating to solve these puzzles due to the supervision of your accuracy on timing these puzzles. The lack of consistency will cause the puzzle multi-coloured ball to resort back to its original area. It is the irritating aspect of Fable II that wasn’t constructive enough, although it’s a great experience to solve it, in the end.  And so does the final dungeon.  

During your quest on acquiring the different changing weather stones, you will encounter many notable enemies from the original game, there are a few exceptions but not as special. In your adventure, you will encounter many shadow creatures, those whom are shaped of the enemies that you had faced in the land of Albion. The shadow creatures forms consists of; hobbes, bandits and balverines and usually stationed in a big group, awaiting/spawned for your arrival. There are also regular hobbes, balverines, beetles, hollow men, a troll and a banshee. Granted, you will receive more experience to upgrade your strength/skill/will, especially defeating shadow creatures.

Upon entering the town of Knothole Island, you will encounter new shops that sell exclusive items and a box of secret shop which you are acquire exclusive items, if you had accumulated enough of that particular item(s) in exchange for a series of outfits and other accessories. The box of secret shop is quite a surprise to experience, it is a neat idea to trade in the specific item which is require in exchange for what’s in the box. The negative side is that these items are fully unlocked to exchange if the weather changes.

The quest-line is integral to the economy in Knothole Island, changing the weather effects the economy and unlocks or unable to purchase items. At the beginning, the cold winter and the heated drought prevented supplies on stocking stores. Therefore a selected number of stores is unable to purchase or received less in. This system feels more realistic that its original game, besides upping the economy to purchase a new tier of items, this downloadable content requires you to finish the quest-line, so that you can unlock the full potential of Knothole Island. This feature seems quite interesting to the quest-line and changes the economy and unlock new stores.

Knothole Island consists of an Augment/Weapons Vendor which besides a new set of beneficial augments and weapons; you can now remove your old augments and replace new ones, Cosmetician which vendors not only hair/beard/make-up/dye but a set of new potions that are also beneficial to your physical appearance. There are potions that makes you more attractive, erase scars, skinner or fatter and taller or shorter. These are the main asset in the game that proves my addiction to look like a really attractive person. Plus General Goods Vendor that sells non/excusive items, whether its expressions for your “four-legged friend” or yourself, plus more regular items from the land of Albion that unlocks the day when you step upon Knothole Island.

As I mentioned before, there is a Box of Secrets shop which you can exchange particular item(s) in exchange for new outfits, weapons and accessories. Most of them look quite awesome and useful for your adventures such as alignment weapons to appeal outfits. One of which is an assault rifle from the original Halo that will had the finishing touches to your Halo outfit and energy sword. With the exception of augmented-alignment weapons, outfits don’t benefit your status but benefits attractiveness. This is quite awkward to have a heroic stance without the benefit of supplementary rpg-likeness of armor.

The biggest feature in the game is the crypt which resurrects your dog if you had chosen the selected fate in the ending. To bring back your dog, you are required to sacrifice a civilian which by no means, you will lose purity points if you had sacrificed him/her. This feature is quite remarkable if you hadn’t chosen the specific choose in the ending, I resents my depression to see my “four-legged” friend, barking and digging treasure.

Knothole Island has lots of mysterious things to find, many of which is useful and others aren’t. The one and only outfit that you don’t get in the Box of Secrets store are required to by completing the quest-line and finding those chests. That outfit is the Knothole Knight Outfit which is the only outfit in the game that is armour –claded and was promised to shield your appearance from ridicule…. Well besides the other ones in the Box of Secrets shop… but this looks cooler!

This down-loadable content is a recommended purchase, for only 800 MS points, you can access a plethora of “exotic’ items, a crypt which resurrects your dog, beneficiary improvements to your appearance, innovative puzzles and a quest-line which fills one to more hours, in addition of the content of collectables and such. This is a nice addition to the Fable universe and fiction of Albion and I would like to see two or more downloadable content similar to Fallout 3.