Fable 2
Ah yes, I remember fable. You started out as some snot nosed kid right? Tragic stuff goes down and then you're faced with all these complicated decisions. Do I marry the girl who I made fall in love with me, or simply steal all her shit and buy more tattoos for my face. Do I help the villager find his lost child, or do I just burn his whole village down and continuously fart for 5 minutes?
If I wanted to answer a bunch of hard questions and do terrible things to people I don't care about, I'd go back to grade school ok. I continued to play the old Fable until, well, the newest Xbox game came out. Not to say I didn't enjoy my time playing it, it's just I had a mod chip in my old Xbox and the games were flowing like beer at the time. I have fond memories of the game so I was definitely excited to check out the new Fable. Hey, maybe this time I'll get to plant that tree as a child and then visit it as an adult and see how big it is. WOWEEE!
One of the biggest complaints of the original Fable was that Peter Molyneux didn't live up to all the hype when it hit the store shelves four years ago. The game was solid and a lot of fun. People who bitch and moan about a freaking tree are dumb. There I said it. Moving on.
This latest installment starts off with you being able to choose what gender you would like to play as. Once this takes place, the scene is set with the hero lookin' all down and out as a child with your big sis, trying to scrape together a couple bucks to buy a little slice of happiness. Set 500 years after the original game, Fable 2 starts by getting you familiarized with the emotions wheel, fighting and the many moral choices that need to be made and their respective consequences. You're essentially given tasks and once you accept them, you can go about achieving your goal one way or the other. One way being the "What would Jesus do?" route, the other being the "What would Mr. Burns do?" route.
Who Will You Become?
The thing about the Mr. Burns way of doing things is simply the fact that it's easier and more fun. I'm normally always the good guy in games like these so for this new adventure I will be playing the role of the A-Hole. It took a while but I finally figured out that the rules of Karma do not apply to digital media simply because a controller is in my hand. No more trying to get discounts on items by dancing around and giving them thumbs up. This time I'm tossing a lightning bolt straight up your pooper if you do not fully comply with my request.
I will however draw the line when it comes to my dog. The latest addition of Fable comes equipped by default with a doggy companion. Regardless of how you treat him, he'll always be by your side. You can actually calm his nerves, give him some love and play fetch with him. You'll also need to heal him when he gets hurt. He provides some benefits to you by finding hidden items such as treasure and buried things by barking. He helps you out with bad guys from time to time as well. I can't go completely bad ass because a dog is a man's best friend and treating him like I treat everyone else would just be cold. But that's the beauty of Fable 2, to each their own. The dog doesn't die so do whatever the hell you want.
Speaking of death, don't even worry about it son. You get "knocked out" instead of dying and when you come to; you'll lose any experience points gained during that particular battle and will have a shiny new scar to flaunt around town. That's it. Aside from losing all that XP, scars are beneficial to anyone leading a Mr. Burns type campaign. People will fear you more if you have a scar and with fear comes respect and with respect comes power and with power comes women and with women come headaches. The good thing about being evil is you can get rid of headaches in this game pretty easily, if you catch my drift.
The attention to detail in this game is evident the second you start controlling your character. Snowflakes flutter around adding ambiance to the small detailed village you live in. The architecture is unique and everything is built on a sort of tilted or curved angle adding to the 'cartoony' feel of the game. Hands and feet are huge and the character design sets the mood for a fantasy type adventure perfectly. Animations at times can be a bit choppy but is forgivable. Particle and physics effects are very well done. Nothing mind blowing but very colourful and vibrant. Using your 'Will Power' is a definitely a treat every time you stick it to whoever has it coming to them. Giant fireballs fill the screen and devastating lightning effects take care of anyone within striking distance and it's all beautifully executed.
In order to pull off these devastating attacks, you must kill enemies and absorb their strength and knowledge by collecting 4 different elements. Combining these elements allow you to upgrade your Strength, Skill and Will. Killing bad guys in ways that combine your skill set will create multipliers which in turn, provide more experience to upgrade your different skills. Got it? Great. Two things that I like about this game is that you cannot die and that you don't need to replenish or waste any Mana (magic points) when using your will powers. Just blast away and have the time of your life.
It does make the game a little bit easier seeing as without the deterrent of dying, there isn't much to worry about, but playing in a default 'god mode' can be pretty damn fun. At times I regretfully found myself button mashing and realized that this type playing style takes a lot away from the combat mechanics of the game. You can make your self look like a real bad ass by stringing together some rather cool looking combos by switching between your attacks. X is the melee attack, B is your Will Powers and Y is your long ranged attack. It's a lot of fun combining all of these different attacks so feel free to go to town, you won't be disappointed.
Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the game, aside from the combat and story line, is the plethora of side quests, jobs, and countless other distractions available in this monster of a game. It's really easy to find yourself chopping wood or chasing tail instead of seeking your revenge on that mofo Lucien. If you don't know already, that's the bad guy. I found myself serving drinks and working as a blacksmith for far too long. This is one of the main ways of incurring any income and I'll warn you right now, it's a little on the addictive side. It's set up as a mini game of sorts testing your reflexes. Who knew you could make so much money serving up frosty pints?
Another thing I loved doing was buying up real estate. You earn money every five minutes or so just by renting out property and purchasing businesses. Once you are the proud owner of your fine new establishment or residence, you can decide to either jack up the rent or the price of goods or lower them. This will in turn effect your corruption or purity score. This really reminded me of my tried and true Monopoly strategy. Buy everything you see and watch the money come in....eventually. Prices vary depending on the economic stability of the town you are in and you can get discounts by several different means. Killing the owner will lower the price, your hero opinion is a factor as well. It's all very well done and is a great distraction from the actual campaign.
I could honestly go on forever but I think I'll let you guys check this one out for your selves. This is seriously a great game, there's lots to do while your playing the campaign mode and it even continues on after you beat the game. You could play this game for years interacting with the townsfolk, doing random jobs and buying up real estate. It's hella fun to play and worth every penny.
