Gaming: Fable 2 Review
When I have some idle time, I enjoy firing up the good ‘ol Xbox. This season has a number of titles I’ve been looking forward to. Fable 2 was one I’d been anticipating for most of this year. Got it earlier this week as a belated birthday present and I am having some really mixed thoughts on it so far.
Likes:
-More detailed graphics and attention to details such as city streets, buildings, etc.
-Addition of pistols and rifles on top of the crossbows
-Decent selection of weapons, though far too easy to buy the best ones early on by spending a little time at the blacksmith
-Takes much more to move your character’s stat sliders (Your character has morality and purty. NPCs have 3 different sliders to affect making it a little more dynamic, though its still easy to get them to sway one way or another)
-Ability to change the colors of your character’s apparel and hair
-Larger world to explore
-Depending how you behave in your childhood "Old Town" will develop differently and with each comes different extra jobs and shops/services.
Dislikes:
-Annoyingly long load times (30+ seconds most of the time, and they’re frequent)
-Sluggish movement and slow camera response
-Only word I can think of to describe the world is "congested". Amen for the Golden Road for assistance to navigate the game until you get more familiar with it after oh, 20 hours or so… Otherwise you’ll get lost quite easily
-Essentially useless battle targeting system (ie, opponent knocked down, targeted, and melee attacks are swinging at the air instead of dealing finishing blows, unless you happen to do flourish attack just right. Easier to finish off with ranged weapon shots or will attack)
-Will attack charge system laggy when trying to change spells. Makes it impossible to immediately cast different spells consecutively. Better off picking just a couple spells and developing them instead of a diverse arsenal.
-Cannot assign items or attacks to D-Pad buttons like in Fable 1
-Your dog’s interaction options always seem to pop up right when I’d rather use a healing potion or some other action
-Apparel has no defense/armor influence? So it strictly for attractiveness statistics… Lame.
-Preview "cards" for hair styles, tattoos, etc. are tiny and difficult to see what they’d look like.
Overall:
The game is fun and for someone who never played Fable 1 it will probably have more appeal. Fable 1’s downfall was that it was too short, and even the later released "Lost Chapers" didn’t add a whole lot. That part has been taken care of. I really am not a fan at all of Fable 2’s battle system. I feel that it pushes me to develop my character toward being a heavier magic user, which I don’t usually like to do. I prefer to develop melee skills first with some magic abilities as support (slowing time, dashing, etc. More non-elemental skills). As for the dog, he’s amusing, but I really wish I could just buy a home and have him be a domestic pet a lot of the time. I don’t feel that he contributes that much to the game. Maybe part of why its more difficult to take out knocked down opponents is because he’s supposed to attack them when they’re down. Its interesting, too, that your dog seems to be the only one in the entire world. Hmmm… As for the length of the game, I don’t know yet because I haven’t beaten it. I’m not totally put off by the game because I do like certain elements of it. However, I feel that it really missed a number of key points that made me really enjoy Fable 1. So, I guess I’m saying that Fable 2 is just an entirely different beast that will probably accumulate a lot of dust on my shelf after 2 play-throughs (once good, once bad).
Rating so far: 6/10
