Fable II is a 2008 action role-playing video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. The game is the second installment in the Fable game series, and the sequel to 2004's Fable. The story takes place within the fictional land of Albion, 500 years after the first game. Players assume the role of a young hero who is destined to stop a former ruler turned madman from destroying the world. The game features several prominent actors portraying major characters in the game, including Zoë Wanamaker, Ron Glass and Stephen Fry. The game's setting takes inspiration from the historical late colonial era, in terms of architecture, social equality and basic firearms such as flintlock pistols.
The game made several improvements over its predecessor, updating existing gameplay and offering larger locations to explore. Alongside the main story, players can engage in several side quests and repeatable jobs to earn money and rewards, build up a property empire, and customise their character with various clothing items, hairstyles, tattoos and makeup. Players also can make decisions on how they act, affecting their characters' morality and appearance as a result. New features to the game included the opportunity to choose between playing as a male or female character, a fast-travel system, and a canine companion who can detect treasures and alert the player to nearby enemies.
Fable II was released in October 2008 and achieved critical acclaim, many citing its adherence to the original while praising the changes that redefined the game system. The game later received two downloadable content packswhich introduced new locations, items and questswhich were released in a compilation with the main game, titled Fable II: Game of the Year, in September 2009. It has been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time, and proved a commercial success, becoming the best selling title on Xbox 360 following its release. A sequel, Fable III, was released in 2010.
Gameplay
The world in Fable II is fully dynamic, interactive and mostly free roaming with no set quest path to take. Since the game takes place over a hero's lifetime, many things can change; Molyneux gave an example of a trade camp that the player could either help or destroy. Trading in such camps would increase their profit, resulting in a small town growing around them.
Additionally, every accessible property (those that can be entered by the player) in the world can be purchased (except for the Tattered Spire), and ownership of unique buildings can unlock further quests. In addition to purchasing and renting homes, businesses and stalls are now available for purchase. These businesses produce income for the player every 5 minutes, depending on the quality of the business, the economy level of the town, and the opinion of the shop owner for the player (a shopkeeper with a high opinion will work harder), and the rent or goods prices set by the player; this happens even while the Xbox 360 is turned off. Rent is also accumulated every 5 minutes. Also, if the player visits his own shops, the quality of their goods will improve, and improve the quality of the shop. Players are able to furnish the houses with furniture and other items available for sale. In addition, titles will be awarded for buying property; if one were to buy every building and piece of land in a town he/she may become the mayor of that town; owning more land leads to higher titles such as king/queen, and eventually Emperor of the entire land of Albion. Players can become more Pure by setting prices and rent low, or more Corrupt by increasing them.
The environment in Fable II features trees with branches and leaves that are individually animated according to their own physics, each tree having roughly 120,000 leaves. There are also around 15 million poppies in Albion. There are both interactive and non-interactive cutscenes in the game. According to Lionhead Studios, the non-interactive cutscenes consume less than five minutes of game time.
In the fully interactive cutscenes a player can use their expressions during the dialogue or even run away from the scene, thus skipping it; afterward the player can return to the cutscene location to start it again. If the player runs away from a cutscene which contains important information, the character will await the player's return.
The player's companion is a dog which the player befriends as a child. This dog follows the player almost all of the time during the game. The dog can learn tricks, fight enemies and find treasure, and lead the way to quest objectives (when required, though this is rare; typically the player is led to objectives via a sparkling gold "bread crumb" trail). It can also aid in combat situations by attacking downed enemies. The dog cannot be killed, but can become injured and ineffective, requiring healing by the player.
The appearance of their dog will also mirror the player's choices and changes colour depending on the player's alignments; if the player is neutral it will remain grey, being good will turn the dog's coat to golden and evil will turn it to black. There are no other animals in the game, save for neutral rabbits and birds, a fact commented on by one NPC who notices the oddness of carriages with no horses.
In the downloadable content "See the Future", it is possible to change the dog's breed with potions. The three choices are Dalmatian, Bloodhound and Husky.
Family and relationships In Fable II, it is possible for the player's character to get married, including same-sex marriage, and have children. Divorce with the player's spouse can occur, and can be initiated by either the spouse or the player themselves. As with a real family, time spent around and interacting with them will keep the bond between them strong and reduce the chance of them leaving. It is possible to become widowed through the death of a partner. It is also possible for the player character's children to die through cot death or disease, or to run away from home to become an adventurer, in which case the player can rescue them from danger.
The relationships, as in the original Fable, are initiated by flirting, gift-giving, and the common expression. By performing a potential mate's favourite expressions, or giving them their preferred gifts, they will become infatuated more easily. Beyond a certain level of interest, or payment in the case of prostitute characters, a character may proposition the player for sex. Unprotected sex may lead to the birth of a child, but can also lead to sexually transmitted disease; this does affect the player, as it may lead to sterilisation. If the player has purchased or found a condom, they will have the option of protected sex. No sex is actually shown; the screen is black when the option is selected.
Character morphing Fable II enhances the system of morphing one's character based on their actions as introduced in Fable. Character morphing revolves around two major alignment scales: Good and Evil, and Purity and Corruption.
Good players will enable a pleasant-looking Hero, with tanned skin and light hair, while evil players will have a more frightening look, with pale skin and black hair. Pure players will find that their hero will have a clear complexion and a halo, while corrupt players will find their hero with a flawed complexion and horns. These scales are independent of one another, meaning that it is possible to be both good and corrupt simultaneously or any other variation.
Also related to character morphing is the character's slimness or fatness, determined by what foods the player eats; fruits and vegetables (mainly celery), make the player thinner, while alcohol, meat and pies make the player fatter. In addition, fruits and vegetables give the player purity points (because no animals are harmed in their creation/consumption), while meats and alcohol give the player corruption points (because animals were harmed in their creation/consumption and they can cause drunkenness, respectively). This has no effect on gameplay other than attractiveness or the lack thereof in the eyes of NPCs.
Levelling up stats will also alter the player character's appearance. Increasing the Physique level will make the Hero more muscular. Increasing the Skill stat will make the Hero taller. A high level of Will power and spells create glowing blue markings, called Will Lines, all over the body.
Jobs Unlike Fable, the player does not acquire money through doing quests, but by doing jobs around Albion. These are Blacksmith, Woodcutter, Bartender, Assassin, Civilian Displacement (Slaver), Bounty Hunter, and Merchant. The first three involve correctly pressing the A button during certain times, and the latter three are combat related. Merchant, however, is done by taking advantage of the economies of each town, buying low and selling to richer vendors for a profit. The jobs become available depending on how much renown the player has and story progression. The trade skill jobs can be done over and over again for a certain number of days, but the side quest jobs are single use, requiring the player to wait for another task to become available. The trade skills can be levelled up to five stars via promotions, allowing for more money to be made.
Recreation Exploration plays a primary role in the game. As in the original Fable, gameplay is very linear; however, main story-advancing missions may be performed whenever the player chooses and there are additional missions that do not affect the storyline. The player may also choose to perform any of the many different jobs, gambling-based mini-games, participating in the arena-style minigame called the Crucible, explore dungeons, tombs, and caves, or roam the countryside. The player may even choose to kill innocents in town. All of these optional diversions can result in rewards for the player in the form of additional wealth, items, experience points, or character-altering attributes. Exploration is essential to discovering much of the game's hidden content, in the form of 50 silver keys, special treasure chests, 9 Demon Doors, and 50 gargoyles that can be destroyed.
Co-operative play Players are able to drop in and out of other players' games at will. The host player can set certain rules; e.g. how loot gained is split between the players and if friendly fire is active. The joining player cannot load their custom hero; they must select a premade male or female character. This "henchman" cannot buy property or gamble in their friend's world, nor can he/she accept quests. Co-op can be achieved through Xbox Live, System Link, and by playing on a single console.
Fable II did not ship with online cooperative, but a free patch has been available from Xbox Live since the European and American release date which adds this functionality. Without the patch, players cannot play online due to being disconnected from Xbox Live.
At E3 2008 in July lead designer Peter Molyneux demonstrated 'Albion Orbs'. These orbs show where other players are in their worlds and allows bringing them into their world to co-op with. Only orbs for friends are initially viewable, with all players viewable if an in-game setting is changed. Online chat is automatically enabled between players that can see each other's orbs.