Fable 2 Campaign Review

In this article I’ll be doing a review of Fable 2 solo player campaign. There is a co-op campaign mode but I’m not covering that part. This game was originally released in 2008 on Xbox 360 but this review was done on Xbox Series X thanks to Xbox Game Pass.

Now I just want to give a fair warning to readers, I know a lot of people keep this game close to their heart mainly for nostalgic reasons. However, this game is not that great. I’m emphasizing my warning here, because it’ll sound like I’m ripping the game apart because of the poorly written story which is an important element to an RPG.

Other NPCs in the game don’t care about what’s happening. We’re told there is someone with god-like powers about to blow up the entire nation and mold things to his desire, but no one seems to care. People walk around villages going about their day, guards just do their day-to-day stuff. You would expect there to be a panic, perhaps the leaders of regions preparing their armies and enforcing a mandatory army enrollment for people that are able to carry arms. But no one in the game seems to care at all.

Some people might argue that I’m being too harsh because the game is almost 13 years old by the time I do this review but that’s not true. Games that were even older do an amazing job such as Knights of the Old Republic from 2003. You don’t need good graphics to have a great game, but when an RPG fails at telling a good story, it’s down right disappointing.

One of the worst things about Fable 2 is that it copies too many important elements from the first Fable game. Let’s break it down how it affects your character and how many times major events are copied from the first Fable.

1. The game starts you off as an innocent child.
2. You are targeted by bad guys for unknown reasons at this point.
3. You experience a tragic event that changes your life forever.
4. A mysterious person with magical powers saves you and takes you in within the first 15 minutes of the game.
5. You grow into an adult seeking justice.
6. You are told your bloodline is special and you’re a threat to the main villain.
7. You’re never told in detail why your bloodline is special. There’s no prophecy document lying around or anything of the sort, it’s just mentioned in the passing.
8. The interactions with the main villain are so minimal that you don’t really have that big of a grudge against him as you progress throughout the game. The main villain is hardly ever shown. Games like the first 3 god of war, Batman Arkham Knight games and others will do a good job of reminding you constantly who your enemies are throughout each game and you have a goal to overcome them.
9. Throughout the entire game the main character has the personality of a brick. They’re dull, boring and just stand there during interactions. In fact in Fable 2 throughout the game, NPCs will constantly mention how quiet and boring your character is. The most your character will do is make gestures at your command during gameplay. During dialog and cut scenes the main character will hardly shrug their shoulders.
10. There’s actually 2 more but talking about them would spoil the story.

Fable 2 has its own flaws different from the first game. In Fable 2 you’re led by someone who happens to be the sister of the main character from the first game. I’ll just say that the ending was perhaps the worst part. Things just happen without any reason. It also had perhaps the worst boss fight in a major game because there practically wasn’t one. The game just ended out of convenience and you’ll feel cheated after hours of gameplay.

If you focus only on the main quests you can probably beat this within 14 hours. If I had known about my next point, I would have completed it way faster.

My next point being is that you can’t die…. No seriously, you can’t die. If your health bar is depleted in combat, your character will get knocked out, you’ll lose experience but you can continue fighting as much as you want. Whenever your character is defeated they’ll accumulate scars but that’s not important. After I realized my character couldn’t die, it took away from the excitement of combat. Especially when I achieved enough experience points for the spell I invested in.

I invested in the fire spell that let my character shoot fireballs or do area damage. I just kept making this spell more powerful and hammered on the spell button during combat because I knew my character wouldn’t die and this cleared a wave of enemies the fastest. This also made combat boring. It’s unfortunate because you can quickly switch between melee, range and spell combat incredibly fast. It had a lot of potential.

Just like a typical RPG you can invest in great combat skills to make your character stronger. Some of the stronger opponents are useless like the skeleton enemies. They move so slow that you can hit them and run, hit them and run, and so on.

On a positive note one of the great things about the game is the morality system. You can be a completely evil person and wreak havoc to those around you or be an incredible hero. The decisions you make affect your character’s appearance.This morality system goes deep. Decisions you make early in the game impact the environment of the game later on. It’s a well made system.

The combat aiming mechanics has been greatly improved compared to the first game. In the first game you have targeting on an enemy, if you defeat them then the main character starts targeting nothing. It was frustrating but fixed in Fable 2. Other combat mechanics are simple and kept similar to the first game. One button for melee, another for range weapon and another for casting spells. It’s simple but works well.

An annoying element kept from the first game is that in order to collect experience, you have to hold down a button and watch as your character collects experience orbs. This makes no sense and experience should just be collected automatically.

When it comes to melee combat, at the beginning of the game my weapon did next to no damage. It was annoying so I started taking jobs which are completely optional. It’s a fast and easy way to make money in the game. These jobs are easy enough but the mechanics are pretty repetitive. A bar appears with a moving shape, just make sure you align the moving shape in the green area. Simple but incredibly repetitive. I focused on being a blacksmith. It was a fast and easy way to make gold so I could buy better items. I also did just about every bounty quest which is just repetitive quests about freeing slaves or killing bandits. You can earn even more gold by investing in property by renting out houses or owning shops but it cost me more to purchase these properties than I got back in gold because I finished the game too quickly.

There’s also your dog which is a hit and miss. He’s your companion that follows you pretty much the whole game but he’s near useless. He’ll have basic attacks like biting an enemy when they’re down but most of the time he does nothing. His best attribute is finding minor treasure close to you. In fact he’s so buggy that he’s invisible most of the time.

The game does have it’s rare bugs like the main character’s body mechanics in weird random positions but bugs are thankfully incredibly rare.

There are some interesting elements thrown on the side such as starting a relationship and potentially getting married.

Depending on what your character eats they can also gain weight. A tip to lose weight is to eat celery from a vendor. The more in shape your character is, the more attractive NPCs will find you.

Maps are larger than the first game which is great but there’s a weird blurring effect as your character runs. On Xbox 360 people thought it was an issue with frame rate and the console not keeping up. On Xbox Series X it’s still present which means it was intentionally done. I’m not sure why as it’s just a bit straining to the eye.

Lastly is sound. This is where Fable 2 shines. Voice acting is spot on and some of the dialog is written quite well.

To wrap things up, I don’t recommend this game. It copies too many elements from the first game in terms of story. Your character can’t die so you don’t feel challenged during combat. Side missions and jobs are incredibly repetitive. There’s minimal interaction with the main NPCs and the list goes on. If you’re already paying for Xbox Game pass and curious to play this game then go for it, but I don’t recommend spending a penny on it.

This game could have had amazing potential but development on the story and certain parts of game play just felt completely sloppy and lazy.