Fable 2. You either hate it, or you love it. And from what I can see, Fable 2 seems to have just as many people who love the game as there are people who hate the game. Dollar for dollar, Fable 2 was a success, despite the haters. I suppose in the end, players vote with their wallets. So, is Fable 2 worth your hard earned cash? My answer may surprise some of you, especially those who either love or hate the game. The short answer, for me, is a definite yes, but not what you may think. WHA? hear me out folks. Fable 2 is a fairly solid game in my opinion, and you should go out and buy it. Now is the time. It's an older game now, and the prices I've seen for it recently are a good deal. If I had known how broken the game was prior to purchasing the thing when it first came out for about 60 bucks, I would have waited for the price to go down. So why wouldn't I want to buy Fable 2 for the full 60 dollars plus tax? Here's twenty reasons why along with five saving graces that, hopefully, will encourage you to buy the game for what it sells for today.THE BAD
1. The breadcrum trail. The breadcrum is just annoying and distracting. I'm running around starring at glowing "breadcrums" to make sure I'm going the right way. Meanwhile, I'm paying little to no attention to the beautiful environments while I'm running around it my head down. It's a good thing this world is controlled by the player or the Hero would be running into people and buildings and trees left and right.
2. bad inventory screen. The inventory screen is just poorly designed. It's a chore to find what you want to find and navigate the different menus. It needs a complete overhaul.
3. loading screens. There are too many loading screens. I'm so tired of running around and having to stop every three minutes as the game loads the next area. A few load screens here and there is fine, but every three minutes??? NO THANK YOU.
4. co op. I tried playing co op with my friends. Previews made it look fun and entertaining. Just about any game is better with co op. UNfortunatley, most of the time co up just didn't work when my friends and I tried to play. And that camera in co op mode. UGH. I can't tell you how irritating it was to navigate the world or fight when there's a shared screen for two players. You're trying to move one way, your buddy is busy fighting on the other side of the screen, and neither of you can move until you close your proximity to each other. FAIL.5. short game. You can beat this game in about five to six hours. Enough said.
6. broken combat. Combat is broken in this game. You can swing your weapons with X, shoot your gun with Y, and cast your spells with B. The thing is, there's no reason to use your weapons as your constantly reloading with your guns and your sword attacks are almost useless unless you're using a flourish.
7. easy game. I never came close to dying ONCE. NOT ONCE. And when co op works, it's even easier. There's no fun in fighting when you can close your eyes, mash or hold down the B button, or even the Y and X buttons, and defeat just about any enemies save one or two. There's no suspense and excitement when you have to actually TRY to lose.
8. annoying NPC interactions. Let's face it, the interactions at completely lacking. Not in the options available to you, oh no, I mean they're lacking in substance and functionality. You can fart at someone. Cool. Burp in their face. Cool. Play a chicken. Cool. Oh wait, no it's not. Toilet humor and slapstick comedy run dry, and quickly. And as for their "Monty Python" approach to their jokes and interactions. YOU WISH. It's insulting to compare this game to Monty Python.9. Weapon variety limited. Most of the weapons in this game looks the same. The colors may be a little different, even the shape might vary to a certain degree. Basically, their design is more or less the same while their properties can vary a bit.
10. don't care about the dog. One of the biggest selling points with this game was the dog. There is almost no relationship with this canine. You just don't care about it. It helps you dig up useless items, help you in combat, though it's little more than a distraction, and the interactions and "bonding" choices are insignificant and fail to deliver an emotional connection. The most useful thing about this mutt is that he will, occasionally alert you to enemies ahead of you that you MIGHT otherwise not notice until they're swarming you.
11. mediocre, uninspired, letdown treasure and loot. I opened a big treasure chest that I essentially cleared a room full of enemies for by batting with sword and spell in hand, striving against wave after wave, my trusty if not useless side-kick by my side barking his head off and running around, the two of us locked in glorious battle, smiting our foes left and right, won the day, opened the chest, our hearts pounding, our breath caught in our chests..... for an APPLE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Are the people in charge of making this game trolling their own paying customers?
12. no reason to spend money. It's so easy to make money in this game. Get a job until you can start buying some real estate and rent it out and expand as you go. You'll receive payments every five minutes. For example, you rent out six homes in Bowerstone and every five minutes you're making about 1,500 bucks. Sweet deal. ONLY THERE'S ALMOST NOTHING TO SPEND IT ON.13.boring jobs. Tell me something. And this was actually used as a marketing point. Ooooooo, look how fun this is. Don't you want to buy this game so you can work? As in, work an extremely tedious job for almost nothing when you can actually PLAY THE GAME and earn money at the same time as a landlord? Who was the genius who thought, "Hey, our customers sure work hard at their jobs to make money and buy our games. They deserve a fun game when they're not working. Let's see.... how can we make this game the best, funnest game they're ever played...? I KNOW!!!!! We'll give them a boring job where they stare at a moving dial-like thing, and press X or A or whatever at the right moment. That's so boring and tedious, it just has to be fun!!!!" NO IT'S NOT!!!!! NO IT'S NOT!!! NO IT'S NOT!!! NO IT'S NOT!!! NO IT'S NOT!!! NO IT'S NOT!!!! NO IT'S NOT!!!! Tired of reading NO IT'S NOT!!!!! ? Well, I'm tired writing it. But not nearly as tired as I was doing the jobs to make some money.
14. boring quests. Lazy, tedious, unoriginal, boring, uninspired. And just about any negative adjective you can think of. There. I put in just as much effort as they did with most of the side quests. You're welcome.
15. linear paths. Let's get something straight. Fable 2 is a beautiful game. The environments are gorgeous. It's a shame that everywhere you go is essentially a linear path or corridor, I'm looking out into the distance thinking, "Man, wish I could go over there.... A man can dream..... sigh...." I have a solution to this problem along with reason number one. get rid of the annoying glowing trail, and let us hop a fence and traverse the beautiful land of Albion.
16. lack of customization. You can change the color of your clothes. Pick a haircut. Maybe get a stache. Some tattoos. And there you go. "Customized" Amazing.
17. disappointing ending. I think it's the goal of the Fable franchise to have a lot of build up to the final confrontation and then leave the players wondering, "Wait, that's it?"18. choices mean nothing. This game would be so much better if the choices you make had a more substantial affect on the world around you. The results are about the same whether you were good or bad.
19. magic mechanic. Magic is so over-powered in this game. As I said before, most players will just spam spells rather than put up with flourishes and reloading. also, there are several levels or tiers in your magic que that requires you to charge up. This game mechanic is almost rendered useless as all players will simply charge up their favorite spell it maximum power and then send the shockwave out, decimating all foes around you in a matter of seconds. Charging and then blasting your enemies into fine powder is much faster than hacking and slashing or shooting and reloading.
20. uninspired characters. Without giving away too many spoilers here, I'm just gonna come out and say it. The main characters in this game are just bland and there's nothing about them that stands out or memorable about them other than what's already been done in hundreds of books, tv shows and movies, and especially video games.
THE GOOD
1. stunning visuals. The game is beautiful. The environments are picturesque and vibrant.
2. engaging story: Up until the ending, the plot is actually fairly engaging.
3. easy controls. Just about anyone can pic up this game and win. Again, just press and hold B, then release. Rinse and repeat.
4. interesting world. Albion has a ripe history and back-story behind it. And in my opinion, it deserves more attention from developers who could really engage the players more in the lore and history of the world, and integrate it into the story and gameplay. What an unfortunate, wasted opportunity.
5. co op (when it works). Co op is really fun with friends. WHEN IT WORKS. And, of course, as long as you're willing to tolerate the dreadful camera angles and restrictions.
For it's mediocre game mechanics, glitchy co op mode, short story, broken combat, and the other reasons I listed above, the good just isn't enough to even the playing field to make this game what it could have been: A really good game.
When co op doesn't work, Fable 2 earns a 6 out of 10
When co op is functioning as it should, Fable 2 earns a 7 out of 10.
