It Needs to Cook a Little More
It Needs to Cook a Little Bit More
WA Julian
Fable 2 is a lot like a batch of your mom’s chocolate chip cookies. You love these cookies, they’re really good. The ingredients are all well-done and it’s a perfect mix of goodness. Except this time, your mom was in a hurry and she didn’t bake the cookies long enough. Yeah, sure it tastes good and it’s still a very good cookie but mom… WTF?!?!
So, Fable 2 really does have some great ingredients. Considering this is an RPG, we should first hit on the story. It’s a pretty good story that feels like a really mature kid’s movie almost. If it weren’t for the themes of bloody violence, sex, and the murder of little kids, then this might just be a kid’s game. In fact, the opening cutscene and the first mission, where you play as a kid, literally have you convinced that you’re playing a generally kiddy game… that is until the unthinkable happens. The tale is smart and mature.
But it doesn’t end well. There is no final fight of any kind whatsoever. In fact, you end it all by basically pushing a button and then that’s that.
Your fun will basically depend on easily immersed you are. The towns and people in Fable 2 respond directly to your actions. You can get the whole town to love you if you’re nice enough. Now, this sounds great in theory. But the thing is, the system doesn’t work too well. Let’s say you flip someone off and that in turn pisses them off. Don’t worry because all you have to do is perform a well-executed fart to win back their affections. Just by existing you’re probably going to get enough men and women wanting to marry you before the end of the game to finally get quadracentabigamy into the dictionary. You see, you might actually wind up enjoying this if you’re willing to play along. Yes, it’s hard to really get immersed in a system where everyone looks and sounds alike and behaves like a total retard, but then again it’s possible to enjoy it. If you don’t abuse the ridiculous system and if you like living a second life then sure, this is for you. But you’re probably better off playing The Sims.
An interesting feature that actually works like it’s supposed is the economic system. Supply and demand is in full-swing and it’s literally possible to make an in-game fortune if you buy and sell things just right. Speaking of buying and selling, you can buy any property in the game. You can buy a house and rent it out. But you see, you really get little to know benefit for doing this. All of the best weapons are found not bought, so again this all ties into how easily immersed you. It’s all for its own sake. If you really don’t care, then unfortunately you will hate this game.
Entire towns actually do follow your actions. For instance, if you mistreat some parts of town they’ll turn into wastelands full of poverty. Or if you’re really good to a certain area’s economy more houses will appear. It’s a fascinating feature but ultimately has the same problems as above.
The combat is actually cool. I like the fairly unique era that Fable 2 hits and the combat reflects the swashbuckling nature of the times. It’s a one-button system that works pretty well. It’s great when you’re taking down multiple enemies in a true dueling style, but it’s a tad frustrating when they’re beating you. Yes, that’s actually true of most games, but for some reason it’s worse in Fable 2. And then the combat is a lot like the above. You need to play along. Why? Because you can easily decimate everyone easily with your wizard powers maxed out. There’s no point in spending time with sword combos if you can even more easily make super-lightning come from the sky and kill eight enemies at once.
I’ve not played the first Fable, but from what I’ve heard very little is actually different. So, I guess it loses points there.
I had actually planned on giving this four stars but as I write this review, I realize how much this game really sucks if you look at it just right. I literally can’t give this thing more than three stars. It’s really got a great recipe to it, but in the end the chocolate chips are still hard and you’re eating the dough. Now, I’m actually kind of sad it turned out this way. All they really needed to do was give us more reason to care. Why not somehow integrate your lordship over whole cities into the plot? But they didn’t and that’s that: three stars.
