Fable II Review (Xbox 360)
You’ll be sucked in by Fable II’s charm right from the start, with its distinctive visuals and fantastic characters combining to create a very convincing world. It doesn’t try to be realistic, in fact it’s almost cartoony to look at, but very much like World of Warcraft, it still manages to create a breathtaking environment. It seems to take inspiration from other games as well. In parts you’ll recognise Resident Evil 4’s eerie ramshackle villages and the over-the-shoulder gun aiming, whilst battling certain large enemies harks back to Team Ico’s stunning Shadow of the Colossus. Like these games, it isn’t perfect – graphical glitches crop up from time to time, and your character can get stuck between a fence and a rock, for example, but that’s forgivable when you have a whole world to run around in. Plus, it’s easily fixed with a handy ‘teleport’ via the map screen – something that comes in very useful if you’re not the type of person who enjoys running great distances – you can instantly hop to places you have visited previously.
Fighting multiple enemies is common, but very fun.
We’ll keep quiet about the plot, because we’d rather not ruin it, but as is common in Lionhead games, the decisions you make during the course of the game will influence the final outcome of the story. You can be good or evil right down to the finest detail and Peter Molyneux seems to have finally nailed it with this one. Previously, it has been fairly obvious which path you’re taking, but Fable II will genuinely make you think about each decision and how it might change your Good/Evil score, whether that means buying a house and putting up the rent, stealing from towns and villages or even shouting at your pet dog. Yep, your pet dog – it follows you everywhere – quickly becoming an invaluable partner, sniffing out treasure chests for you to crack open, finding items buried under the ground and even attacking enemies you’ve knocked to the floor.
The combat system in any RPG is perhaps one of the most important elements, especially in one where fighting happens a lot, and Fable II delivers on this front. We’ve never used a more satisfying combat system in an RPG, and its simplicity is astounding. The X button is mapped to your sword, the Y button to your gun and the B button to your spells, but each attack can be upgraded in many different ways, introducing combos, more powerful attacks and lots of different magic. Of course, combining different attacks against many enemies simultaneously makes things a little more interesting.
The Troll fights are fantastic
Offline co-op play works well, allowing anyone to pick up the second pad and join in by choosing one of a few preset characters. You can then decide how you will go about divvying up the gold and experience, with any collected by the second player saved onto their gamer card and collected by their own Fable II character the next time they play by themselves. It’s a great addition if you need a bit help through a tough patch or if a friend is watching, itching to join in. Playing co-operatively with both proper characters is sadly reserved for the forthcoming Xbox Live co-op mode patch*, which we will take a look at when it arrives.
Overall, the combat system, the excellent story and the visuals combine to create a genuinely fun and entertaining RPG experience. The time will fly by when you play Fable II, and when you complete it for the first time, you will want to go through it all again. It isn’t perfect and it is missing Xbox Live co-op play for the time being, but we don’t remember having this much fun with a single player RPG in a long time, and that’s what counts. If you own a 360, you simply must own Fable II.
Rating: 
(Scoring policy)
By Jonny Robson
Fable II is released on Friday the 24th of October in the UK and Europe.
* The online co-op patch will be made available for download in time for the game’s release. See here. We’ll revisit the game soon to let you know our thoughts on the online co-op mode.
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Thats it then I’m getting this
[...] our thoughts on the online co-op later in the week and in the meantime check out our glowing review of Fable II from earlier [...]
Co-op Patch on Launch Day has been confirmed my friend.
http://www.Lionhead.com
Aye, I posted a news item earlier. I’ll update the review, though.
My hopes have been confirmed!
[...] Snappy Gamer 5/5 here [...]
[...] Fable II Review (Xbox 360) [...]
[...] Fable II Review - easily one of the best games we’ve played so far this year and definitely the highlight of the week for us. [...]
[...] see the full post here. We must admit, we never encountered any such bug when we awarded the game full marks last [...]
[...] Pig in the City, but it’ll probably just be some downloadable content or something. Check out our review of Fable II if you’re wondering why this news is at all [...]