Fable II: Difference between revisions
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Later that night, Rose is awakened by a strange visitor and their new dog. The person reveals himself to be an agent of Lord Lucien's, owner of Fairfax Castle and ruler of Bowerstone, and that he has come to collect them, at Lord Lucien's request. Rose is ecstatic, and quickly wakes her younger sibling and explains the situation. They travel to Castle Fairfax, and are met by Jeeves, Lord Lucien's personal manservant who takes them to Lord Lucien. |
Later that night, Rose is awakened by a strange visitor and their new dog. The person reveals himself to be an agent of Lord Lucien's, owner of Fairfax Castle and ruler of Bowerstone, and that he has come to collect them, at Lord Lucien's request. Rose is ecstatic, and quickly wakes her younger sibling and explains the situation. They travel to Castle Fairfax, and are met by Jeeves, Lord Lucien's personal manservant who takes them to Lord Lucien. |
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After questioning them about their experience with the music box, Lord Lucien asks them to stand on an ancient Guild Seal. After a few confused moments, he attacks the two children. The young hero is subsequently knocked out of the tower window and falls to the street below. The old woman, who's name is Theresa, saves him, and 10 years later the hero, and his dog, embark on a journey to change the face of Albion, for good or ill. |
After questioning them about their experience with the music box, Lord Lucien asks them to stand on an ancient Guild Seal. After a few confused moments, he attacks the two children. The young hero is subsequently knocked out of the tower window and falls to the street below. The old woman, who's name is Theresa, saves him, and 10 years later the hero, and his dog, embark on a journey to change the face of Albion, for good or ill.......the dog would be dead after you skip ten years in the future.....is the freaking dog immortal?????LESS DOG MORE COWBELL |
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== Gameplay == |
== Gameplay == |
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Revision as of 04:47, 27 October 2008
| Fable II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Lionhead Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Designer(s) | Peter Molyneux |
| Engine | Proprietary (graphics)[3] Havok (physics)[3] Kynapse (pathfinding)[3] Alienbrain 8 (asset tracking) [3] |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Action RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Cooperative gameplay, Xbox Live |
Fable II is an action role-playing game for the Xbox 360 developed by Lionhead Studios, published by Microsoft Game Studios. The sequel to Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, it was originally announced in 2006 and released in October 2008.
The game takes place in the fictional world of Albion, five hundred years after Fable's setting, in a colonial era resembling the time of highwaymen or the Enlightenment; guns are still primitive, and large castles and cities have developed in the place of towns.[4] Unlike the original, the player may choose to be either male or female.
Lead designer Peter Molyneux has played a major role in presenting this game to the public, as he did in the lead up to the release of the original Fable.
The game reached gold master status on September 22, 2008.[5]
Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2008) |
The story begins in the Dickensian city of Bowerstone with the very poor young boy (or girl) huddling over a fire with his older sister Rose, both wishing for a better life. After hearing a commotion in the square, the two discover a trader selling supposedly magical items, including a small music box, which apparently grants the user's wish. Rose scoffs at the idea at first, but an elderly blind woman gently rebukes her for not believing and walks away. The two then gather five gold pieces and buy the item, but to their discontent it appears to not work. They angrily go to bed, and find the dog waiting for them.
Later that night, Rose is awakened by a strange visitor and their new dog. The person reveals himself to be an agent of Lord Lucien's, owner of Fairfax Castle and ruler of Bowerstone, and that he has come to collect them, at Lord Lucien's request. Rose is ecstatic, and quickly wakes her younger sibling and explains the situation. They travel to Castle Fairfax, and are met by Jeeves, Lord Lucien's personal manservant who takes them to Lord Lucien.
After questioning them about their experience with the music box, Lord Lucien asks them to stand on an ancient Guild Seal. After a few confused moments, he attacks the two children. The young hero is subsequently knocked out of the tower window and falls to the street below. The old woman, who's name is Theresa, saves him, and 10 years later the hero, and his dog, embark on a journey to change the face of Albion, for good or ill.......the dog would be dead after you skip ten years in the future.....is the freaking dog immortal?????LESS DOG MORE COWBELL
Gameplay
Combat
All combat is context specific, so that, if a player is on top of a tower, pressing a particular button may cause the player to throw an enemy off of the tower rather than attack with a weapon.
Additional features are included:
- Positional advantage: if an enemy is above the player such as on stairs, the enemy will have a tactical advantage[6]
- Skill increases: better combos and flourishes become unlocked as the character progresses
- Weapon specific attacks: the character's combat style changes according to the kind of weapon they are using.
- Ranged weapon targeting: while using a gun, the player may aim more accurately by using a crosshair. During co-op, if either player would like to use the crosshair to aim, it would be shown from the same perspective as the rest of the fight, unlike behind the hero's shoulder in single player.[7]
- Unlike the first game, Fable II does not have a mana bar, spells can be cast at will. You can choose either a surround or a targeted spell.[8]
- If the player presses and holds the X button he will block, and holding down the button while moving the analog stick will unleash a flourish.
- Armor does not play a role in combat. Your character's defense is based on the rank of his or her toughness ability.[9] (This means you could wear a robe and still have as much protection as a suit of armor would give you.)
Melee weapons include axes, maces, swords,cleavers and warhammers. Ranged weapons include pistols, rifles and crossbows, all of which come in several varieties. Longbows are not in Fable II due to the appearance of guns in Albion, however, crossbows are still available.[10]
Like in the first game, the weapons have a hierarchy, with four different types of weapons. These are (in order of worst to best); rusty, iron, steel, and master. Legendary weapons are also still present, though their main power lies in their augments.
Death
At first, the loss of all health would result in a Hero falling down, at which his attackers would kick him/her, leading to permanent scars. At the Game Developers Conference in 2008, Peter Molyneux indicated that the design for death had changed due to player feedback during play testing. It was found that players would rather turn off their console than subject their character to permanent disfigurement. In the new design, upon losing all health, a hero falls and loses an unspecified amount of experience; this experience is exchanged for a 'burst' of energy, allowing one last 'Heroic Struggle' in which the player rises to their feet and knocks all enemies away, leaving the player momentarily safe from harm.[11]
Co-op
Online
On September 26 2008 it was reported that Fable II would not ship with online-co op stating that it would have to be patched in at a later date, reportedly as there are still kinks to work out. Although it was stated that the player would still be able to see their friends' Albion orbs, meaning players may still chat and trade with each other, other players would not be able to team up until the patch has been installed. On October 9, 2008, Peter Molyneux announced this update would most likely be available at launch on both the European/American release as an Xbox Live downloadable patch.
On July 14, 2008 at E3 2008 lead designer Peter Molyneux demonstrated 'Albion Orbs'.[12] These orbs show where other players are in their worlds and allow you to, at the press of a button, bring them into your world to co-op with.
The mode of co-op is somewhat similar to that of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game; in that players are able to drop in and out of other player's games at will. The host player can set certain rules; eg. how loot gained is split between the players and if friendly fire is active or not. The joining player cannot load their custom hero; they must select a premade male or female character.
On October 19, Lionhead and Microsoft confirmed that the online co-op Fable II multiplayer feature update is confirmed for a first day free download on Xbox Live, worldwide (21st October).
Offline
While on the same console, a second player with their own account can drop in and out as a "henchman" to the first player. If the second player on the same console does not have an account of their own, the henchman is made in a brief character-creation screen that pauses the game. Henchmen created this way are not saved into the main player's game. The first player also decides how much bounty the henchman will obtain, e.g. gold and renown. The second player will also be able to port any experience, renown and gold to their own Fable II Hero via a memory card if they have imported their character and not created the henchman from scratch.[13]
Features
Family
The family aspect of the Fable series has been further built upon. It is possible to get married and have children, to engage in same-sex marriage and polygamy. Female players may also become pregnant, and this is reflected physically in-game. In addition, divorce with the player's spouse can occur, and can be initiated by either the spouse or the player themselves.
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 main alignments: Good and Evil. These are affected by simple moral choices (killing one's spouse, etc.). There is also Purity and Corruption, which is affected by the greediness or piousness of the character, and a number of aspects that are involved with it such as:
- Good or Evil
- Pure or Corrupt
- Kindness & Cruelty
- Wealth & Poverty
- Slim or Fat
- Young or Old
The hero's Skill, Will, and Strength attributes play a key-role in character morphing. Strength causes the character to grow more muscles, skill affects height, and magic gives the hero glowing blue tattoos. These alignments either enhance or degrade a character's features. The player can be good but cruel, or be evil yet kind, etc.[14]
Content
According to an IGN preview, Albion is about ten times the size it was in the previous Fable title.[15] While Molyneux has stated that the player can complete the main story in 12 hours if they rush through it, it would take 100+ hours to complete everything in the game. Molyneux has stated that it would cost about 100 million gold to buy every item in the game.[7]
Jobs
Peter Molyneux has stated that unlike Fable, the player does not get money through doing quests but instead doing jobs around the town. These are blacksmith, woodsman, bartender, and assassin, civilian displacement (slaving), bounty hunting, and liberating slaves. The first three involve correctly pressing the A button during certain times, and the last five are combat related. The jobs become available depending on how much renown you have and how far into the story you are, and the trade skills can be leveled up to level five via promotions, allowing for more money to be made.
Cutscenes
There are both interactive and non-interactive cutscenes in the game.[16] According to Lionhead, 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; afterwards the player can return to the cutscene location to start it again.
If the player runs away from a cutscene which contained important information, the character will come and find you later on.[citation needed]
Dynamic world
The world in Fable II is fully dynamic, interactive and free roaming with no set quest path to take and includes all 4 seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter).
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 (properties that can be entered by the player) in the world is ownable, and ownership often unlocks 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); this happens even while the Xbox 360 is turned off. Rent is also accumulated every 5 minutes. Also, if the player frequents his own shops, the quality of their goods will improve, and improve the quality of the store. 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, and eventually Emperor of the entire land of Albion.[17]
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.[7]
Peter Molyneux also has revealed the "bread crumb" trail, a feature that shows glowing sparkles in a line in front of you to guide you back to the main story line. Molyneux also said players are free to turn off this feature at any time and venture on their own path to that quest, or just completely ignore the quest and explore more of Albion or partake in a side quest.
In Fable II Pub Games, an unlockable concept art shows a map of a coastline unlike the one from the original game. Whether this is a new area or a revamp of the original is unknown.
The world of Albion is fully accessible - in the original Fable you were restricted by fences, this restriction has now been removed. Peter Molyneux has stated that "if it looks like you can go there, you can go there."
Pre-release marketing
Tales of Albion
Lionhead Studios released a section on their website entitled "Tales of Albion",[18] which provides a back-story to Fable, Fable: The Lost Chapters, and Fable II. In "Fragments of the Old Kingdom", it details how the Archon came to power in Albion, and how the Heroes' Guild was founded. "Tales" also chronicles the end of the Heroes and ruin of their Guild in "Fall of the Heroes", and "Travels in Today's Albion" (which will be updated more and more as time goes on) describes where some places are and has a little description of each notable area/artifact.
Online competitions
Just as Lionhead has done with The Movies, online competitions were made available through Lionhead's forums. One such competition was naming a title to be used in the game, similar to the first game wherein a character was addressed by various titles that the character purchased from a "Title Vendor" Lionhead has stated these titles will be bought but they have to be earned first. They are bought from a town crier in Fable II; the winning title was Lionheart. An "insult the hero" competition is also taking place and the winner is yet to be announced.[citation needed] On May 30th, Lionhead held a competition for artwork that would be used in the game.
Video diaries
- On May 24, 2007, episode one of The Lionhead Diaries, examining the love and emotion aspect of Fable II was released.[11]
- On July 30, 2007, episode two was released, highlighting the one-button combat system, and featured the Lionhead staff playing a game of football against fellow Microsoft satellite Rare and winning. It also included a professional combat specialist instructing the animation staff.[11]
- On October 8, 2007, episode three was released, going in depth about the Central Technology Group, and featured Lionhead's 10 year Anniversary.[11]
- On January 11, 2008, episode four was released, focusing on how the graphics department made the world of Albion.[11]
- On March 19, 2008, episode five was released, looking at magic, GDC 2008 and co-op.[11]
- On June 24, 2008, episode six "Art and the Hero" was released, looking at the artwork of the Hero, Albion, and many different characters in Fable II.[11]
- On October 2, 2008, episode seven "Music and Audio" was released, showing how and where the main scores were made, and taking a brief glimpse at the various voice talents for the game.[11]
The Lionhead Video Diaries have been watched over 40,000,000 times in total.
Fable II Pub Games
In August of 2008 Lionhead Studios released Fable II Pub Games. This includes three of the games that can be played in pubs through out Albion; Fortune's Tower, Keystone and Spinner Box. For 800 Microsoft Points all three games can be downloaded on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Alternatively, some video game retailers offered a product code when a pre-order for Fable II was made.
Web games
On the Fable II page of the Xbox website there are two games to play that, when completed, reward you with a prize that can be transferred to your Xbox Live account. These games are 'Chicken Kickin', a game where the player kicks a chicken for a chance to win Fable II gold and 'A Hero's Tale' which is an interactive story in which the player chooses the destiny of the child for the chance to win 1 of 5 unique items.You may try them up to 5 times. It should also be noted that 'Chicken Kickin' was broken for a short period of time, added again, and then taken offline, however the URL still works.[1]
Launch trailer
On October 17, 2008 Microsoft Game Studios and Lionhead Studios released the launch trailer for Fable II on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Xbox.com, and Lionhead.com - taking a look at the different locations, characters and unique variations in your own hero. The trailer asks 'Who will you become?', while showing the double nature of the world of Albion (a dark and light side, serious and funny, good and evil).
Technology
The graphics engine is written in-house, but middleware is integrated for several other parts of the game: Havok is used for a physics engine and Kynapse is used for some AI. Alienbrain 8 is used to track assets such as 3D Models, files, and art.[3]
Limited Edition
A Limited Edition was available on release date with the following extra features:
- 1 token card for in-game content (downloadable over Xbox Live)
- 1 Live trial card – 48 hours
- Bonus disc containing the "Making of Fable 2"
An Xbox Live account is required for the following items:
- "The Wreckager" Legendary Cutlass Weapon
- "The Hall of the Dead" Dungeon
- "Otherworldly Bonus" - Two items, "Hal's Outfit" and "Hal's Sword", and a purchasable "Master Chief" Hero title. The items are an outfit closely resembling Master Chief's armor[19] and a sword similar in appearance to a Covenant Energy Sword; both of these items are a reference to Halo.
There was a supply chain issue that meant some North American Limited Edition games did not have all the intended content.
Reception
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Edge | 9/10 |
| Eurogamer | 10/10[20] |
| Game Informer | 9.25/10[22] |
| IGN | 8.8/10[21] |
| Official Xbox Magazine (UK) | 8/10[25] |
| Official Xbox Magazine (US) | 9.5/10[24] |
| VideoGamer.com | 9/10[23] |
| X-Play | 5/5[26] |
Reviews for the game have been positive as reviews found few complaints to garner about the game. Reviews cited its adherance to the orginal's recipe, while praising the changes that redefined the game system.
The "bread crumb" trail feature in the game was welcomed by Eurogamer "as leads you ever onwards to your next objective, but even though you can't get lost it still allows for deep exploration."[27] OXM lauded the game as a being "probably the most consistent sequel ever made." Combat was cited as being "great when you're winning and nothing but irritating when you're losing" in addition to other flaws.[28]
References
- ^ a b Molyneux: Three more Fables on the way Cite error: The named reference "gsuk" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Game Australia
- ^ a b c d e Technology – Loinhead - the No.1 Lionhead news source : Fable 2 Technology
- ^ "IGN: Fable II Trailer, Videos and Movies". Media.xbox360.ign.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "Molyneux: 'Fable II has gone gold!' - Fable II Pub Games for Xbox 360 News - VideoGamer.com". Videogamer.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "Gametrailers.com - Fable 2-FIGHTING DEMO by DiStaNcE". Gametrailers.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ a b c "Fable II Feature List". Community.lionhead.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "Gametrailers.com - Fable II - TGS 08: Magic Walkthrough". Gametrailers.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "IGN Video: Fable II Xbox 360 Developer Commentary - TGS 2008: The Abilities (Off-Screen Demo)". IGN.com. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
- ^ Fable II Development
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Diaries redirect". Lionhead.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17. Cite error: The named reference "diaries" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "E3 2008 Live Wire Demo".
- ^ Create-a-Henchman in Fable 2
- ^ Video Diary 6
- ^ IGN preview, February 22, 2008
- ^ "Xbox.com | E3 2007 - Welcome to the Xbox.com E3 Blog". Xbox.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ Erik Brudvig and Hilary Goldstein. "IGN: Fable II Preview". Uk.xbox360.ign.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ Lionhead Studios "Tales of Albion"
- ^ "Master Chief crash lands into Fable 2". Joystiq. 2008-08-07. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
- ^ http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=263778&page=2
- ^ http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/921/921508p1.html
- ^ http://www.gameinformer.com/Games/Review/200812/R08.1022.1327.58783.htm
- ^ http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/fable_2/review.html
- ^ http://www.oxmonline.com/article/reviews/xbox-360/a-f/fable-ii?page=0%2C1
- ^ http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=6641
- ^ http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1850/Fable_II.html
- ^ http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=263778
- ^ http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=6641