Fable II is an interesting beast. Understated and cool, it comes across as a confident, wholly personal project from series creator Peter Molyneaux. His creative style and vision is clear in every part of this game, given free reign to do precisely what he wants, wherever he wants it. There have been several games this year proudly touted as the jewel of their lead designer’s eye, such as Too Human and Metal Gear Solid 4. These have always been my favorite sorts of games to play because they are always, at the very least, worth playing through once.
Fable II is something altogether different from the first one, across the board a more polished and focused effort. The world is bigger, the scale grander, and the pacing tighter. Everything about the design and style of the game feels right, as though the ideas have been honed to a point through numerous iterations. The result is a game that has a quiet, relaxed feel. It’s neither overwrought with style, nor insufferable with pretension. Many eyes have seen it before mine, and the game has clearly improved because of it.
My first impressions were not quite so favorable, however. Technical issues were the first things I noticed after the introductory cutscene. First off, the control feels amazingly stiff. I liken it more to piloting a Segway than running around as an agile Hero. Just moving around showcased the game’s oddest issue, that of a constant frame blur I think is intended to mask lower framerates. In the high-contrast snowy village you explore during the first part of the game, just rotating the camera resulted in a streaky mess. I also encountered numerous problems with the audio while performing for the random townsfolk; the game simply could not load the voice samples fast enough so the sound effects and eventually even the music cut out completely until I stopped. These technical problems turned out to be something that I’m able to ignore after a while, but it created a noticeable negative undercurrent to my entire experience.
The game’s advertised hook is in how the world reacts to you and what you do in it. Superficially, it sells its concept very well, with villagers talking about things you’ve done and bits of the world changing as a direct result of your deeds. However, trying to see beyond these things reveals little. Soon, you begin to see that people are easily influenced to do anything you want in minutes, and getting married to an NPC results in a relationship with less depth than a Tamagotchi. Seeing my personal interactions accounting for very little, especially in gameplay terms, ended up making me feel the least attached to those I was meant to care for most.
For me, the make-or-break with this game was whether I was able to fully invest myself in the world and people I met, and ultimately, I couldn’t. It’s hard to make believable people in videogames, I know. As a longtime gamer I’ve learned to do many things to make me more likely to ignore unavoidable shortcomings, but this game seems to think it’s addressing some of them without actually doing so. The result is that when something happened to my husband, my dog, or even me, I felt mostly unaffected. This surprised me given the emotional investment I remember feeling by the end of the first game.
The tone of the game is partially to blame, being a switch between whimsical and destitute with barely a transition between them. The darker themes (and my favorite parts) are explored almost entirely at the end of the game. It’s a shame that this portion of the game is also the most hastily-assembled. It’s in such a hurry to get you through the final sequence and into the endgame that for me, it almost played itself. After the smoke clears, you’re left to finish any lingering quests along with a handful of new ones. And yet, since I finished maxing out my strength and skill trees just before completing main quest, I don’t feel the need to do more than I have. The world isn’t going to change anymore, and neither am I. It’s a fantastic option for completionists, but I’m ready to move on.
Overall, the game is competently made and can be very immersive, but I found the tonal changes and lack of deep characterization to be a serious detriment to my enjoyment. Thinking back, the first game had higher highs (and admittedly lower lows) that actually resulted in me caring about it more. Fable’s identity and character were made by doing more with less, and the sequel feels like it’s doing enough with enough. It’s hardly a bad game, but I’ll always remember the original more fondly.
