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By Joe Robinson
Fable II has been a long time coming. Despite the fact that the sequel was only announced in 2006, people have wanting this since the first Fable, as despite its critical acclaim, it left most people with a sense of disappointment, or at very least, an “oh, that was short”. Molyneux assures us that it is not the case this time, and despite a main quest that allegedly can be done in 8 – 10 hours, he assures us that there's plenty in the game to keep us occupied for a long, long time. And he's not far wrong.
The basics you already know: Fable II is set 500 years after Fable, in an Albion that more or less resembles Briton during the Enlightenment era. Guns have replaced bows, industry for farming, and Heroes haven't been seen since the Guild was burnt down sometime between now and then. A rendered CVG sequence greets you as you first start the game, and in a short prologue section that reminds you of how the original started, you begin what will truly be a worthwhile experience. The fact that the game resembles 17/18thCentury Briton is no mere bias on the reviewers part, Fable II does feel extremely British. Perhaps it's the accents which tend to be either predominantly cockney or west country, (as, naturally, that's all there is to Briton), or maybe it's the attitudes which are full of British humour, maybe it's the architecture. No matter how you look at it, this is a very British game, almost to the point where it wouldn't surprise me if our American cousins simply didn't pick up on any of the subtleties. Still, this isn't an analysis on Game Culture, it's a critical appraisal of what has certainly been a highly anticipated game.
Unfortunately, this game isn't perfect, unlike what some of the hype suggests. Depending on your individual tastes, there are several niggles like loading times or glitches that may annoy you, but those are down to you. There are some more meaningful things not quite right to the game, where just like the first game Fable II doesn't quite go far enough, but that's not an adequate reason to damn it completely. Just don't get carried away.
As before, the main theme centres around one choice: Who do you want to be? The customization options have been extended in this game in terms of of clothing, hair styles, tattoos etc... and there's more deep choices when it comes to your alignment. The alignment system has been extended slightly from simply being good or evil, to include corruption and purity. The attraction metre has also been extended to include a separate funny/scary metre. Along with renown, the whole package is meant to allow the player to alter their character in quite subtle ways that the people of Albion will react to. It is more in-depth then its predecessor, but one of Molyneux's main talking points was that this was meant to be more challenging then before, with the choices being less clear cut. That bit is certainly true, but the challenging point doesn't quite work out as you'd expect.
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