Fable II

I've been mucking around with Fable II lately. Before you ask, yes, I did buy Gears of War 2 but as I've only just got it, it would be premature to start talking about it, no?

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been mucking around with Fable II lately. I won't talk much about the game itself (you can read online reviews if that is what you are looking for) but I really wanted to give my thoughts on the game itself.

My initial impressions of the game were very good, and if I had been writing this last week, the tone of the blog would have been all positive. You see, Fable II is the kind of game that really gives a good first impression.

You have an expansive world to explore. There are loads of citizens to interact with. Loads of property to buy. And what seems like loads of stuff to do - quests, jobs etc. The problem is that the game is very shallow and I can see that it would get boring after a while (admittedly, it hasn't started to get boring for me yet, but I can see that happening in the not too distant future). What do I mean by shallow? Well, let me give you some examples.

One of the big things about the game is meant to be that you can interact with all the various denizens of Albion and even get them to fall in love with you (whereupon its "wham, bam thank you ma'am!" followed by the sounds of tiny feet pattering around the marital home). In theory, this sounds good - lots of potential for roleplaying as you woo your future wife. In practice - not so much.

You start the game with no money and pauper clothes. While dressed like a pauper, no-one particularly notices you. However, as soon as I had enough money, I was able to buy myself a snazzy set of noble's clothing. Whereupon, everything with 2 legs and a hole seemed to think that I was James Bond. Suddenly, everywhere I went, I was surrounded by members of the female sex declaring their undying love for me. All I had to do was sneeze and people would offer me discounts on healing potions.

And the dreaded task of wooing a wench to be my lawfully wedded wife? All I had to do was buy a ring and then "wham bam ..." - well, you get the idea. I got a wife but I couldn't help but think - "what an easy slag!" (especially as everytime I see her, she wants to have sex! Its getting to the stage where I think I accidentally married a bitch permanently in heat!!).

The game also makes a big thing about the economy. Shopkeepers will occasionally offer discounts or jack up prices if they suffer a shortage. The economy also impacts property prices. Again, in practice, several things conspire to make this relatively meaningless. You see, in Fable II, money is never in short supply.

Jobs are on offer for you to make money. Although the jobs differ, the minigame attached is invariably about hitting a button at the right moment. The only difference in jobs is when you should hit that button. Can anyone say repetitive? Even if you don't want to take on a job, you can really start to earn money by being a property magnate. Once you can afford your first property (probably some kind of shop stall), its easy to make a fortune from property. How?

All you have to do is nothing. Literally nothing. Even when you aren't playing the game, you still get rental income from the property. So if you switch off your Xbox, go to bed and then log back on the next evening (say after work), you suddenly find yourself with a stack of money. Once you realise how easy it is to get money, you stop caring about the economy. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter if I'm buying goods at an inflated price when I know that I will have plenty of money by tomorrow evening anyway.

Quests are also disappointing in that there don't seem to be many quests. Granted, this may simply be because I haven't gotten very far in the game yet. But somehow, that's not the impression I get. I'll know more after I finish the game, but the impression I get is that there really aren't a lot of quests because I suspect the developers expected people to be busy doing other stuff (like wooing the nympho wife or looking out for discounts before going shopping).

To be honest, I'm being highly unfair on Fable II. Looking back at the above, it sounds like I'm not enjoying the game. However, the truth is that, despite all of the faults I mention above, I am having loads of fun just running around living my life in Albion (including doing the odd repetitive job). Fable II is the kind of game that would be really boring if you just shot through the main quest. However, when you wander around and immerse yourself in Albion, then all the little charms and quirks come through and you find yourself having fun despite the faults.

Of course, I fully intend to replay the game so that I can see the alternative endings. The problem is that, at this moment in time, I really don't know if I'll be able to live another life in Albion when I start my second character. And this is what concerns me and what led to the negative post above.

The acid test for any game is, of course, would I recommend it to someone else. The answer is maybe.

If you prefer RPGs with a good story, then I would suggest you have a long hard think before you buy this game. This isn't to say that you won't have fun (after all, I'm having fun despite my gaming preference for story driven RPGs) but rather that to enjoy Fable II, you really have to forgo the story and just life your life.

However, if you enjoy open world games then I really can recommend this title for you. And as acid tests go, I guess that isn't too bad.