| FABLE 2
Fable 2 was one of the two games that we did not get any hands-on play time with. This was okay as Peter was there to personally give us an overview of the game with code as up to date as this past Sunday (May 11, 2008). Fable 2 will be released this Fall (or Autumn if you speak the Queen’s English like Peter) and it looks freaking awesome! This is another one I can’t wait to play!!
The showcase of Fable 2 this time focused on the story and dayum is it going to be deep and incredibly engaging. The one thing that I always try to avoid when reading about upcoming games is spoilers. Unfortunately Peter dropped a huge story spoiler on us so I’m kinda bummed. But despite me being bummed about that, I can totally see why he did it as it gives a glimpse of what drives the lead character and just how deep and dramatic the story will be. I will not be sharing the spoiler at any point in this review or at any point in the future.
Your character starts as a powerless street kid. The goal here is to work from nothing to an all-powerful hero to permit the contrast and really engage you in the story.
There is a huge sense of freedom in how your character, the story and how the entire world develops. For example, let’s say you approach an area where a cut-scene would play. You can either listen to the cut-scene or simply walk away. If you listen to the scene it remains interactive. If you use expressions or fart during the cut-scene the person speaking will react to how you are acting and it may have repercussions in how the story develops. If you simply walk away, you will get the story elements in a different fashion later on during the game.
Also added is a breadcrumb feature that will always point you in the direction of the next place in the story. It will not, however, be in your face, but is instead designed to permit you to wander around and explore while always being able to get back to where you need to go to progress the story. This avoids the need for a mini-map completely. It is also adaptive. If you use it religiously, it will glow quite well, but if you do not use it all that much it will fade away quite a bit.
The areas in the game are pretty darn huge and you can explore ALL of the areas. Go into all of the houses; watch how the AI characters spend their day. Interact with the AI characters. Go anywhere and do anything. Get engaged in the story as if you were truly acting it out!
Part and parcel to this engagement in the story is the ability to change how the world develops. Based on your actions certain cities may develop into trading ports or into seedy underbellies. What you do at certain points in the game will cause the city to develop in one way or the other. If you are playing consistently, this should play in well with your character. For example, if you are nice and “do the right thing” a city may develop into a thriving trading port where you can engage in trading. If you do the “wrong thing” the city might fall to the criminals and you might be able to hire yourself out as an assassin. Awesome stuff!
The simulations in camps and towns are all dynamic and fully interactive. You can watch the residents of a camp go about their daily business or you can get married to one, buy a home and settle down. What you do is totally up to you.
The co-op play is entirely seamless with true drop in and out at any time. The friend you bring in will be developed based on the hero on your hard drive. This will prevent someone too strong coming into an early heroes’ game, etc.
There are apparently co-op surprises that they don’t want anyone to know about as they simply teased us with a “we have a few surprises of things that no one has ever done” line but didn’t tell us what it was. If it is as good as what we did see, I already love it!
The beauty of the fighting mechanics in Fable 2 is that it is balanced enough that both spectrums of the gaming community can play; hard core gamers and casual gamers can play side by side. Maybe my wife will finally play a game with me!! The fighting is controlled by 3 buttons. One is for melee, one is for ranged and one is for magic. While this sounds simple, you will gain experience depending on how skillful you use any of these abilities. You can then unlock rhythm, flourish or other combos that hard core gamers will love and casual gamers may or may not ever notice.
There are 8 spells with 5 dynamic ways to use them. Sure 8 spells doesn’t sound like very many, but with the ranged or localized usage along with the many different ways in which to use a spell, you will have a hard time running out of combos and/or using the magic in the manner you desire most.
Something else new is that you have to work for Gold. Examples include running a shop, being a blacksmith, trading with others, hiring yourself out, etc. As a precursor to this need to earn money in game, there will be a (or a few) Live Arcade titles that we can play before Fable 2’s release through which we will be able to earn money for our Fable 2 universe. To avoid the “I’m starting the game with 1000000000 Gold” issue that will be created by those people who have nothing better to do than game, the Gold will not be instantly available to you. Instead, it will come to you later in the game as part of the story. Peter didn’t elaborate, but I’m going to assume it will be in some cool story aspect where perhaps an uncle dies and leaves you an inheritance or something equally as cool as that.
The death aspect has been changed from what we talked about at E3 last year. Instead of being scarred, apparently if you die you will simply lose quite a bit of the experience that you have gained during fighting. Focus groups apparently showed that when people died they were shutting off their machines to avoid their characters becoming scarred. Rather lame if you ask me – sack up people; have a cool scarred looking dude! So this dynamic was changed and now you will lose experience you might have otherwise gained during a battle. The amount you lose will depend on how much it takes to bring you back to life. If there is more left over you may not lose it all.
All in all Fable 2 is shaping up to be another AWESOME game. I’m waiting, but it is going to be difficult and Fable 2 is going to suck hours of my life away! | 
