RPG-starved Xbox fans were salivating over the thought of Fable, which was released on the console in 2004. Unfortunately, despite being a top notch game, the hype - most of it created by the game’s overly ambitious and rather talkative designer Peter Molyneux - was too much to overcome, with the game receiving a somewhat disappointing reception. With Fable II, due for release on the Xbox 360 in October, Molyneux has done his best to keep his mouth shut about some of the cool – albeit not particularly useful – features in the game in order to avoid massive disappointment on release day.
”I think I’ve been more guilty perhaps than anyone in the industry of making games with mechanics in them which don’t mean anything,” said a remorseful Molyneux in a recent interview with Eurogamer. “They’re very nice, they sound good, but when you come to play them, there’s a kind of feeling of what should have been. It’s far better to cut it down and have a smaller number of things, polished.”
Still, Molyneux has managed to say an awful lot about the some of the ‘polished’ elements in Fable II, giving us a rather good idea of what to expect from the game. Set 500 years after the first game, Fable II puts players in control of a young boy or girl in the world of Albion, guiding and shaping them as they blossom into adulthood. Most of the time spent in the game will be as an adult, with the period spent as a child being rather short lived. Like the first game, Fable II forces players to choose between good and evil, with the world around them adjusting and reacting to their choices and actions accordingly.
Deus Ex Fable.
As you would expect, Fable II is trying to greatly expand on this element of the first game, placing more emphasis on how the towns and people inside them will react to the player. It won’t just be a few useless villagers applauding the presence of a hero, or running in terror at the sight of a villain. The towns – more populated than they were before – will all have their own unique reactions to the player, be it admiration, fear, hatred, or indifference. It’s even possible to come so viciously hated that a town will permanently outlaw you from its district for the rest of the game.
Combat in the game has somewhat changed, but is still recognisable, with melee combat on the X button and the ranged combat accessed through Y. The most noticeable change is in the magic system, where now each magical ability will have five different levels of strength. Holding down the B button will determine how powerful the magic outburst will be. Best of all, not aiming at an enemy will result in an attack that will encircle the player, fending off enemies on all sides. Handy.
This time around, the on-screen character won’t be the only thing that is unique after playing through the game. As well as the player’s character becoming scarred and taking a shape all of their own, the world around them will also change as it is shaped by their actions. For instance, a player can plant a tree, which would be seen to grow throughout the course of the game. So, in theory, no two games of Fable II should produce the same world.
