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Solid Fantasy RPG

by underthewether on January 8, 2009
4 out of 5 starsScore: 80/100

Fable II is the right type of RPG for someone like me. It has a larger amount of customization and scope than the Legend of Zelda games (which I love), while at the same time not overwhelming you with options like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Fable II has a lot of positives: great art style, fun combat with a surprising amount of depth, large game world, decent story, and a fantastic sense of humor. The art style is just as it should be for a fantasy RPG such as this, a caricature of real life. All of the towns and people are wonderfully over-the-top in their appearance. The fighting develops very nicely from just button mashing at the start to precision kills as your abilities grow. The comedy aspect of the game is one of its biggest highlights. Being a mature title, Fable II isn't shy about taking the gloves off and presenting some genuinely funny material.

On the negative side I did have some gripes, mainly to do with the level of polish the game apparently didn't receive. The menu system is very cumbersome and should have been redesigned. The vertical layout of the menu makes it a laborious task to just use a couple of potions or augment a weapon. To make matters worse it also can be slow to respond to your navigation commands, only adding to your frustration level. This game benefits a lot from the NXE's ability to load games to the hard drive. Fable II has a lot of loading screens and accesses the DVD frequently so speeding up this process and eliminating drive noise are a huge benefit. Graphically Fable II could also have used some improvement. While the majority of the game looks fantastic, at times the character animations and graphics are simply not up to par. I was also disappointed by the end of the main quest. After being set up they way it was I expected a much more epic end to your journey, however, given Fable II's emphasis on your moral choices I shouldn't have been that surprised.

Overall I had a fantastic time with Fable II. Aside from a few technical annoyances and an underwhelming end to the main quest I don't have much to complain about. Definitely worth a try.

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