Being a big fan of the Fable franchise, I’ve been hungrily rummaging through Fable II over the past couple of days. And since I know how important it is to write down first impressions (which might get completely blown away later in the game), I thought I might just do it here on the GL Blog as opposed to writing it down on some obscure piece of scrap paper that I will then have to ritually eat after I write the full review. So you get first impressions early and I get better digestion. Everybody wins.

Anyway, the game, unsurprisingly, looks and feels very much like its predecessor. Although hundreds of years have passed since the close of the previous chapter, the towns, people, dress fashions, etc. don’t really look too different (improved graphics notwithstanding), which is actually a bit of a disappointment. Although on one hand it makes for great continuity with the first game, being an all new game it would have been nice to see a little more evolution in the visuals, especially since the story arc definitely allows for it.

The gameplay (so far), also feels very similar, which, again, is not a bad thing, since the original system worked quite well. Although the interface has changed somewhat in Fable II, combat still works essentially the same way. The biggest new addition is your pet dog, which provides for some nice companionship on those lonely late night runs across the land, and also helps a bunch with sniffing out hidden goodies - no more missing that treasure chest because it is so perfectly blended in with the surrounding bushes. So far the dog doesn’t feel like he is pulling a lot of weight in battle, though - hopefully that will change with some further training.

The promised amazing story is still very much unfolding, so I am not yet in a position to properly compare it to that of the first game. Peter Molyneux hyped this aspect especially hard, it seems, and I am still waiting for some amazing twists and turns.

That’s all so far (well, almost - there are a few other bits I’d like to keep close to the chest for now - hang on for the full review in the next week or so.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 9:51 am and is filed under Gaming News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.