Fable II Preview
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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.
