Revisiting Fable 2

Over the past couple of weeks I've been playing through Fable 2 again (I think this is the 3rd time for me). In a lot of was Fable 2 reminds of KOTOR, in that it's a game with a ton of flaws, and yet I'm mostly willing to overlook those flaws in order to get at what lies beneath them.

For starters, the menu system in Fable is atrocious. Not only is it slow and laggy (there's really no excuse for not having at least 30fps in your menu system), but its organization is terrible, and to top it all off the game, inexplicably, will only allow you to do one thing at a time in the menu before it boots you back out to the game.

Also, the expression system, while fun to play around with for a little while, is a completely inadequate way to interact with the world around you. And when placed next to something like Mass Effects conversation system looks practically primitive. And while the 3 main heroes in the game have decent voice acting, most of the dialog is stilted and disconnected. When put together these aspects create a barrier that frequently takes the player out of the game world.

For all its flaws though, Fable is still a game that I love to get lost in. Lionhead's approach to the game is more sandbox than perhaps any other game I've played in recent memory, save perhaps the Sims. And it's this approach that gives the game its longevity.

Additionally, Fable manages to pull off a feeling that's more "fairy tale" than "fantasy", and it's this setting, in a world where Tolken-esque fantasy practically dominates store shelves, that really sets the game apart from every other RPG I've played in recent memory.