Fable II Preview

[GameBanshee News]

Kieron Gillen has written a massive four-page hands-on preview of Fable II for the Official Xbox Magazine.

Unintended Consequences

All of which means that it’s worth considering who to invite into the world. Since you hired them, you get blamed for your henchmen’s misdemeanors. The exception, which keeps people from causing incredible harm, is that the host maintains control of the game’s “safety” — that is, what keeps people from attacking non-combatants. So no one’s going to slaughter a local village in your world unless you’ve expressly allowed it.

However, the populace will act toward visitors according to their own reputations rather than your own. So, for example, if your friend is hideously deformed, they’ll be gawking. If they’re hot, they’ll be lustful. And if they’re famous...well, this is interesting in how it ends up subverting one of the key elements of Fable II. As you grow throughout the game, people begin responding to you accordingly. From being ignored on the streets, it ends with your very presence gathering crowds of admirers. People either want to be you or be with you. However, if you drag in an even more resplendent friend, “It just pisses you off,” Molyneux notes. “They’re all interested in him, not you.” Suddenly being the pretty girl’s ugly best friend is the sort of novel social drama that Fable II co-op seems poised to unleash.

Plenty of Time for Heroism

Of course, there’s more to this game than social dynamics. Like its predecessor, Fable II’s main arc won’t be a 30-hour epic. At the moment, Molyneux reckons the game will be in the region of 11 or 12 hours, if you follow the critical path. However, with co-op, it’s going to be painfully obvious to your friend that you’ve steamrolled through the game without regards to any side quests. That’s why Molyneux describes co-op as the single most impactful change to the game.

“You get no gold at all for doing quests,” he tells us. “So if you want to rush through the game from start to finish, it’ll take you 11 to 12 hours. But you’ll be a penniless — if famous — hero. You won’t have bought a house. Your family — if you have one — will live in a hovel hut.”

And when you go and play with a friend who got involved in the many in-game jobs — bartending, blacksmith, assassin — it’s going to be a tad embarrassing when they’re showing you around their many palatial estates, and then you limp back to your hole in the ground with your wart-covered spouse to eat a nice meal of raw potatoes. Meanwhile, your persistent friend is being hailed for his achievements. “If you get a level-5 blacksmith, you can become the most famous blacksmith,” explains Molyneux. “And if you start owning huge amounts of the world, your titles start changing — you can be the leader of the Gypsy town, the Mayor of Bowerstone, eventually become the Emperor of all of Albion.”

All of it returns to the key idea of all the Fable games: the idea of what a hero actually is.

[Lady Dragonfly]

And when you go and play with a friend who got involved in the many in-game jobs — bartending, blacksmith, assassin — it’s going to be a tad embarrassing when they’re showing you around their many palatial estates, and then you limp back to your hole in the ground with your wart-covered spouse to eat a nice meal of raw potatoes. Meanwhile, your persistent friend is being hailed for his achievements. “If you get a level-5 blacksmith, you can become the most famous blacksmith,” explains Molyneux. “And if you start owning huge amounts of the world, your titles start changing — you can be the leader of the Gypsy town, the Mayor of Bowerstone, eventually become the Emperor of all of Albion.”

...and your name will be Uriel Septim.

[DesR85]

You begin to suspect it’s a good idea that they’re cut down. Even as it is, Fable II is a game that’s tried to include everything. Rhythm-based combat. Role-playing statistics and magic. Sims-esque social interactions. Co-op, both online and offline. An enormous open world you’re free to explore. The sort of property-purchasing that the Grand Theft Auto series ejected after San Andreas, along with all manner of jobs you can do to earn the cash to purchase that property.

Quite a number of them sound more like distractions than anything useful. I wonder if Fable 2 will make a good Sim-game instead of a story-based one.

[Ronan]

Originally Posted by DesR85

Quite a number of them sound more like distractions than anything useful. I wonder if Fable 2 will make a good Sim-game instead of a story-based one.

The game seems to go more and more to that direction.