Gambling Fable 2
Where will your morals lead you? Will you be the savior of Albion or its harbinger of doom? Fable II is all about player choice. Even the story takes a back seat to the early and often hyped morality system. The choices you make will affect every aspect of the Fable II experience, but nowhere is the affect greater than the opening and closing acts. Your first choice will determine whether Bowerstone is a den of thieves or a bustling marketplace surrounded by upscale homes.
Smaller choices will affect your day-to-day interactions as well. Brandish your weapon in town or set off an accidental Force Push spell and the townsfolk will grow to fear and hate you, but if you cater to their needs and work the right expressions they will love you and ask for your autograph. So far the interaction system sounds an awful lot like that of the original Fable, and it is. If you played the original then there won’t be any surprises waiting for you in Albion in terms of personal interaction, and that’s a bit of a letdown. The system certainly works, but the game world should be immersive, and it just doesn’t feel right to woo your first wife by doing a funny dance, giving her a single bouquet of flowers, dancing once more, and then moving into pick up line three times. At this point you’ll notice that the object of your desires’ love bar is in the marriage zone and present her with a ring. A silent protagonist – save for the occasional belch or fart – who interacts with people day in and day out serves to break immersion and showcase the mechanics that really ought to remain behind the scenes. When the magician’s strings are exposed throughout the trick it kills any feeling of wonder and highlights that you’re moving sliders on a bar instead of courting a young woman.
Where Fable II does improve upon its predecessor is the addition of your canine companion. Just like a real dog he will love you unconditionally and accompany you on all of your travels. You can name him, train him to do tricks, train him to search for treasure – buried and otherwise, and turn him into a valuable combat asset. My personal favorite is knocking bandits down with Force Push and letting Fido finish them off while they lay on the ground in pain. What really sets the dog apart from other game characters though is that he acts naturally He’s excited to see you, apologetic when you scold him, and eager to please when taught a new trick. He looks like a dog, sounds like a dog, and if it weren’t for the fact that he only ever shows up on the television set I’d swear he was a real dog.
Fable II Jump to navigation Jump to search This page needs to be wikified It needs to be re-written with wikimarkup and laid out correctly according to the editing guidelines. 2 4 Welcome to the Fable 2 game guide which will help you pass through the main quests and the side missions. Additionally, you will find detailed information regarding all the secrets, which the authors have hidden in the game - the keys, chests, gargoyles, legendary weapons and demonic doors, together with maps showing their localizations. Created by famed game designer Peter Molyneux, Fable 2 for Xbox 360 features an epic story that picks up 500 years after the first game. It offers an open world environment giving players a massive amount of freedom to explore and play as they please, with every decision made contributing to the game itself. Just start gambling in Fable 2 and press y to open the menu and there should be an option to select a patron. Self explanatory from there. It should work fine.
What the dog doesn’t do, however, is guide you from point A to point B. And it’s a shame because it would have been a great way to nudge the player in the right direction without laying out a trail of video game breadcrumbs to follow. The trail can and should be turned off, at least when exploring. It’s impossible to get lost in Albion when a golden trail is always pointing toward the next plot point. Navigation is a constant stumbling block for Fable II. In an effort to reduce on-screen clutter Lionhead chose to exclude a mini-map. This wouldn’t be a big deal if there were a decent map available in the pause menu, but the only maps available are small, undetailed, and impossible to use for any real navigation or course plotting.
If you take the time explore you’ll discover that Albion is a large and varied world with distinct locales and denizens. Moving through the game at a leisurely pace will allow you to really connect with Albion and its inhabitants. Forging a meaningful relationship really pads the game length without feeling forced and lending emotion to the game’s final act. If you rush through and follow the golden trail for quest to quest Fable II can be completed in around eight hours, but you’ll be robbing yourself of the experience.
That experience can be found in the everyday life of the citizens of Albion. The blacksmith needs help forging swords and laments his loss of business to the gun maker across the square. The farmer needs wood split for the fireplace, and the barman needs help serving drinks to thirsty crowds. And after you’ve earned enough money you can live the Albion dream by purchasing your favorite watering hole and watching the profits roll in. You can also purchase the tailor’s stall, the blacksmith’s shop, and every other building in every town of the game. Even the majestic Castle Fairfax can be purchased by a hero with an especially heavy coin purse. If mini-game bartending doesn’t appeal to you, the pure of heart can take up bounty hunting and the corrupt can take up slaving. A third option is available to anybody that can spot the game master at the local pub: gambling. Just like in Fable II Pub Games the three offerings are Keystone, a hybrid of craps and roulette; Spinnerbox, a medieval and magic slot machine; and Fortune’s Tower, solitaire for money. Fortune’s Tower is the easiest of the bunch, but just like in real life there’s no feeling quite like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine.
So now you can make money and impress your friends, but no RPG is complete without combat, and Fable II delivers on that front. It’s important to understand that Fable II isn’t played for the challenge. It is played for the chance to feel like a badass hero proficient in all three combat disciplines: melee, ranged, and magic. Unlike other games, Fable II encourages you to spread your experience around. It pushes you toward it further by doling out four types of experience points – strength (melee), skill (ranged), will (magic), and general. There is less choice between specializing in ranged or melee combat and more choice of what type of multi-faceted warrior you’ll be.
Combat is simple to facilitate victory and ease of use. X is used for melee attacks, Y is used for ranged attacks, and B is used for magic attacks. You’re rewarded for using all three with more experience orbs dropping for the hero willing to swing his axe to take out the vanguard, charge up a Force Blast to knock three bandits down, and finish off the whole group from afar with well-aimed pistol shots. It’s possible to complete encounters using only one combat discipline, but the system really shines when you spread the love around each of the three combat buttons. One place Fable II’s combat falls a bit short, however, is punishment. It is literally impossible for the player character to die. If you lose all of your health you fall over and right back up. Your only penalty is the uncollected experience and a new scar to call your very own. Defeat ought to be temporary. After all, you’re the hero of Albion. There should be a real penalty for failure, though, and Fable II does not ever adequately punish the player for his failures.
What does every hero want? To show off. Or maybe to save the world with a friend. Don’t get me wrong. The dog is great, but there’s something to be said for being able to play through a game with a friend. Fable II delivers both offline and online cooperative play, but neither is especially compelling. What is the point of buying clothes and weapons if I can’t take any of it with me when I play coop? More importantly, who could possible think it is a good idea to allow to bring experience and skills but not my weapons? Unless your character is heavily favored towards Will abilities you’ll be playing at a disadvantage every time you buddy up and act as a henchman for a friend. You might think I’m only describing online coop, but I’m not. For some strange reason Fable II can’t display both my and my buddy’s characters and weapons when all of our save data resides on the same hard drive. When so much time goes in to character creation, fancy hat buying, and weapon augmentation it just doesn’t make any sense to deny the guest player any individuality.
Fable II does a lot. Some of it is infuriating (why are there no cartographers in Albion from whom I can buy a decent map?), and some of it is exceptionally rewarding (pistol sniping bandits from across a field). Thankfully, Fable II does more good than bad, and I’ve yet to come away from a play session disappointed. I grumble about the interaction system and the lack of decent maps, but the exceedingly fun combat and narrative that becomes more relevant with each moment I spend in the game world more than make up for them. Albion is worth visiting, and it’s certainly worth saving. Fable II should not be missed by anybody who enjoys getting caught up in a populated and diverse fantasy world.
Plays like: Nothing else, but is clearly related to the first Fable though drastically different
Pros: Extremely fun combat, lots to do, engrossing narrative
Cons: lackluster coop, no good map
ESRB: M for Blood, Language, Sexual Content, Use of Alcohol, and Violence – Fable is a Dickensian cartoon, and the M rating is appropriate, 17+ only
Publisher: Lionhead Studios / Microsoft Game Studios
Release Date: October 2008
ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)
Consoles: XBox 360
Genre: Action RPG
My Rating:9.5 – High Praise for an addictive adventure!
MHG: Must Have Game – a Must Have Game is a game that is so good you simply have to play it or have it in your game library. These games are singled out for their content, innovation, entertainment level, or play experience. Fable II has been designated a Must Have Game based on the strength of our experience playing it, and the 100+ emails we have received requesting a Game On! review.
Introduction
Fable II is one of the games that appeared in our annual Christmas Video Game Guide (2008) in the paper – and at the time it received a rating of 8.5 – mostly due to some serious game-breaking bugs that impacted play. Those bugs were fixed shortly after the piece went to press, and since that time the creators have added two DLC expansions that increased the entertainment value of the game considerably.
In addition to the DLC, there was also a stand-alone game available on the XBox Live Marketplace – Fable II Pub Games – that had limited interaction with the game, but added to the anticipation of its release by allowing the players to play the gambling games from Fable II months before it was released – and as long as they did not cheat, even allowed the player to transfer their winnings into the game!
Our rating of the game increased by a full point in part due to the above improvements, and in part due to the intensely addictive gaming world presented in Fable II – a world that has not lost any of its pull even after nearly two years of play.
As a sequel Fable II faithfully followed in the footsteps of the original, but thankfully the folks at Lionhead took the time to correct some of the issues that affected the first game, and made some changes that redefined the system of play in positive ways. Unfortunately at release date there were serious issues with the game that impacted nearly a quarter of the players, relating to certain older models of the XBox 360 – and it soon became obvious that Lionhead was aware of these issues and chose to release on the targeted date anyway, planning to correct the problems afterwords by issuing patches online.
That decision caused many reviewers and critics to jump on both the studio and the game, recommending that consumers wait to purchase it until after it was fixed to send a message to the studio – a message that clearly was received. Happily these are no longer issues of concern for the player – the bugs have been fixed, and new content has been released, so if you have yet to experience the fascinating world of Albion, now is a great time to do so!
The Story
The events of Fable II take place in Albion roughly 500 years after the events of the original game, in an era that very much resembles the 1600’s in England – footpads roam the roads, firearms are primitive, and the sword is still the primary weapon for defense. Communities center around larger cities rather than towns, and castles are still the seat of power in most areas. The aristocracy is at the top, and the middle classes are a narrow band within society.
The changes to society in the 500 years since the original adventure include some major differences – the world is a safer place now, and law and order tend to prevail. The Hero’s Guild no longer exists – though vestiges of it can be found in ruins throughout the land – and firearms have a more prominent place in defense. The cities have grown larger, and the population more affluent.
It is partly a result of this that has created the circumstances that now threaten the world – the lack of heroes has allowed a dark force to build in the world, inhabiting some unlikely places, and as the game unfolds your character – themselves a hero – must seek out and recruit the last few remaining heroes in order to build a party that can fight the evil that now threatens Albion. I do not want to say too much or give too many details away, since the threat centers around a major plot-point of the game, and it would be a shame to spoil that for you!
Fable 2 Gambling Guide
As the game begins, you find yourself working to earn the five coins that you need to buy a curious relic from the traveling merchant, a relic that you are assured by a trusted source may be precisely what the con-man says it is, though he is not aware of this. Once you have acquired this relic, events quickly unfold, thrusting you on to a different path in life than the one you had been on, and changing your life – in many ways for the good – as you grow into adulthood, and begin your grand adventure.
The Changes
Morality plays a major role in the game, with the player’s choices having direct and visible results in the game. For instance a good player will eventually earn a halo-like symbol over their head, and their appearance changes – fair hair, tanned skin, and an over-all healthy glow. Their dog companion also changes – their coat will turn golden as a result of the good alignment of their owner. A bad player will have dark hair and features, and an ugly complexion with red veins running all over their body, and their dog companion’s coat will turn black as a result of their evil ways.
In addition to appearance changes relating to morality, the player’s character appearance also changes as a result of what they eat in the game – food being the alternative to potions for restoring health – as a diet rich in fat will make the character fat, and healthier food choices such as vegetable, fruit, and tofu, will keep the character thin. Improving the character’s stats also impacts their appearance – adding muscles, height, or in the case of magic skill, blue glowing patterns on their skin.
Fable 2 Gambling Cheats
Quests and missions are no longer the method for gaining money in the game, having been replaced with jobs. The player can seek out employment as an Assassin, Bartender, Blacksmith, Bounty Hunter, or Woodcutter, and can also find money in treasure chests and with the aid of their dog, in hidden spots that the dog can detect and dig up as they adventure together. Items found can be sold to merchants in towns, and the player can purchase and rent out property in the game, becoming a landlord. Gambling is also a path to wealth in Fable II, but the games found in pubs can also be a coin sink if the player fails to take the time to learn how they work and what strategies apply best.
Gambling Fable 2 Game
Co-operative play is perhaps the most significant change in the game – and once connected to XBox Live, a player can have friends join in their game, dropping in and out at will without this impacting game play. In addition to being able to earn money and obtain items and experience in the game that a player can then bring back to their own game, co-op play allows both players to earn special Achievements that they cannot earn in solo play!
Game Play
Fable II is ideally suited for casual play – with missions and quests that can be completed in bite-sized chunks. The player can choose to play either a male or female hero, and that choice has some interesting influences on the game play experience. Starting the game as a child, the player is exposed to several events that help to form the personality and the outlook of the main character, among them an event in which the player befriends a stray dog who ends up becoming their adventure companion when the main game unfolds.
One aspect of the game that has drawn criticism is its relationship structure: in Fable II the player can have relations with other in-game characters, date, and even get married and start a family. The criticism comes mostly from conservative groups, upset by the fact that these relationships can be same-sex, and there are opportunities for bigamy, adultery, and group sex, and polygamy. The game emphasizes the need for safe sex – condoms are readily available in it, and failing to use one can cause the player’s character to contract an STD!
Conflict in the game is a combination of traditional swords and sorcery, and the assistance of a core group of friends who will eventually help you to defeat the evil forces and become the ruler of the Kingdom!
DLC Packs
Knothole Island: The first DLC pack for Fable II was released in January 2009, and includes a new area to explore – Knothole Island – and mysteries to solve! There is a new map, new quests, new items, and new Achievements worth 100 GP! The expansion pack is required for play in the new areas, and costs 800 Microsoft Points on the Live Marketplace. Players wanting to play in the new lands with a friend who has purchased the expansion but that who do not want to buy it can download a free version that allows them to play, but does not award Achievements and certain items to the player.
The first DLC expansion to Fable II was criticized for being too short, and there may be something to that, but casual play and taking the time to enjoy the experience allows you to stretch out the experience and value.
See the Future: The second DLC pack, released in May of 2009, priced at just 560 Microsoft Points, includes an additional 13 Achievements worth 250 Gamer Points. The expansion has some interesting game altering additions – for instance using a set of potions, the player can now change the breed of their dog to either a Bloodhound, a Dalmation, or a Husky!
The main focus of the DLC is a series of quests that relate to three cursed items that you purchase from the traveling merchant. These quests add a very interesting dynamic to the game, and if you are a fan of the Fable series, this is a must-have!
My Take
The version of the game that I played was the original with the two DLC packs added on to it via the Marketplace, but in September of 2009 the folks at Microsoft released a Game of the Year Edition of Fable II that includes both expansion packs in the game CD – and that would be the one I would recommend.
I rated this game a 9.5 which is a strong rating and it deserves it! I also rate this a BUY not Rent, because of the amount of time you will spend playing and the excellent re-play potential present here with or without the expansions. Like Fallout 3, Fable II has a large and open world and a great storyline that engages the player. From an entertainment point-of-view it is one of those rare games in which the price of admission is far less than the value received.
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A Review Copy of this game for the XBox 360 was provided by Microsoft.
Codes for the DLC Packs were provided by Microsoft.
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Gambling Fable 2 Cheats
Copyright © 2010 CM Boots-Faubert.