If I were composing this review in conjunction with the first play-through of the game my initial gasp of excitement would have led to a more positive review. After accruing around 750 gamer points however the bland story and ol' Pete's temerity once again have let me down.
The charismatic leader of Lionhead Studios has jobbed us all once again to deliver unto us a merely mediocre action adventure with clever viral videos and hyperbole. I admit to being quite excited about this next installment of Fable after having watched the various developer diaries and gameplay videos spread across the internet and salavating once again for what might have been. If there is one thing Molyneux is good at, it is the smoke and mirrors way in which he presents his project du jour.
The presentation of the game is great, in the beginning you are drawn into the world with a soft, but bold female voice letting us know that we've just begun our journey, your characters young years present the nuance of the gameplay and the sound a music serve to say that you are preparing for a great epic adventure. All the pieces are there.
What I feel this game suffers from the most is pacing and linearity much as the first one did, almost before you know it you are at the climax of the final quest. Whether from my own guilt or stubborn disposition I felt myself artificially prolonging the game by choosing not to fast travel, attempting to gain every skill, polishing off as many sidequests as possible and buying every house before you head down that last irreversible chain of events.
The so called co-op suffers from the same sort of over zealous hype. In my mind I envisioned myself and a friend questing about as our two heroes battled the forces of evil/good in a bloodthirsty melee for survival. What we get is the ability to completely gimp the entire process and purpose of playing the game. I entered into my friend's game whereupon he immediately accrued a whole slew of achievements simply by "observing" my character. Had he actually witnessed some of these achievements I might have understood since a first glance the list says "...or witness another hero do so." but having them handed out like halloween candy with as much effort as that suggests is a bit depressing as you remove any of the personal satisfaction. Gifting a friend a master weapon or two will allow them to KO enemies with a couple shots for a good portion of the game.
Your hero does not scale with the character you are playing with, the weapons do but not the abilities, unless of course you go with the generic evil, good, or neutral male or female. Which you might as well do since your avatar does not appear in the game, only his or her skills. The incessant pausing of you or your friend's game grates as well when either of you go into the menu to optimize abilities and purchase new ones the other is locked and unable to even enter their own menu.
The actual gameplay is quite bland as well, Peter's attempt to streamline the combat means essentially tapping the attack! button until you get into a bit of trouble and then simply invinca-rolling out of the way. You can milk a bit more mileage by manually aiming and targeting specific limbs good for a few laughs however it doesn't work quite so well in co-op. You can also spice things up by mixing and matching spell levels and trying different combinations but it still wears thin after an hour or so.
The best thing about this game is the presentation. The music, though a bit sparse is good when it winds up, the animation is crisp and the world is vibrant but beyond that it feels like another empty promise delivered courtesy of Lionhead Studios.
