Fable II

            For my next review, I shall be doing another game that has had mixed response fans.  Like the 2008 reboot game of Prince of Persia, this game also released to generally favorable reviews but got  mixed reactions from fans.  It's time for a Fable II review.

The Plot

            The game takes place five hundred years after the first Fable and the events in it have become subject to legend and interpretation.  After the death of Jack of Blades the Heroes became obsolete, tyrannical, and were finally wiped out by the people of Albion after the invention of gunpowder.  In this game you once again play as a silent, unnamed Hero who is revealed to a descendent of the Hero of the first game.  In this game you seek to avenge the death of your sister and to prevent a man named Lord Lucian from rebuilding an ancient device, called the Spire, that will grant him the power to shape the world as he wishes.  In order to do this, you must find the Hero's of Strength, Will and Skill who, along with you, hold the key to defeating Lord Lucian.

The Game Play

            The fighting system of this game was very much like the original Fable with a few things added.  Like the previous game, you had the choice of using your usual hack and slash weapons like swords and axes and a number of spells to choose from.  Unlike the previous Fable, however, bows and crossbows have been replaced by muskets and pistols.  The game also offers a variety of clothing, ranging from the cloths of a commoner to the clothes of a noble.  The tradeoff for this, (and an unfair one) is that in this Fable there is no armor. 

            Perhaps the best part of the game is your dog.  Found by you and your sister at the beginning of the game, this dog is your constant companion throughout it.  He finds you objects, opens doors, fight along side you, and is fun as hell just to play fetch with.

            Another great part of this game is the ability to buy property.  The first one was limited to buying houses, whereas in this game you can buy huge amounts of real-estate, town stores and stalls, and can own almost everything in Albion.  Like the previous game, there is a karma system that determines your appearance, in this game the appearance of your dog and the way people react to you.  While in the first one, the karma system was more or less based on decisions you made in the storyline, this one had a karma system that was more based on the choices you made in the jobs you took.  That's not to say their aren’t karma decisions to make in the storyline but they don't hold as much weight in this one as they did in the first.  For example, choosing to be a bounty hunter results in good karma while choosing to be an assassin results in bad.

            There is also a corruption/purity meter and also affects the appearance of you and your dog.  This meter is generally determined by the way you handle the property you own.  Charging high rent for living on your property, for example, results in corruption while having low rent results in purity.  

            The way you earned money has also changed.  In the previous game, you earned money by completing missions.  In this game, you take up various jobs to earn money, such as blacksmithing, wood chopping, or bounty hunting.  This makes earning money considerably easier.  That, in turn, made the entire game easier.  Another factor of the game play worth noting, is the ability to buy experience potions.  This made leveling up extreamly easy and made the entire game considerably easier as well.

          The Characters

            Despite the relatively easy game play and a silent, nameless, protagonist, this game had a number of noteworthy characters.  The first of which, is you dog who never stops being a delight.  There is also the enigmatic mentor of the hero, Theresa, (who appears to be the sister of the hero from the first game).  Then there is Hammer, the Hero of Strength, Garth, the Hero of Well, and Reaver, the Hero of Skill.  Hammer is a former monk who joins you to avenge the death of her father.  Her personality often reflects her upbringing with the monks and develops a fast friendship with both you and your dog.  Garth is a mage who once unwittingly helped Lucian in his attempts to restore the  Spire and joins you after being trapped for years as a prisoner in the Spire.  Calm and patient, Garth seems to be a loner and is a man of few words.  Reaver is a pirate leader who is extremely skilled with a gun but has a cocky and abrasive manner that make him unlikeable but believable and joins you after Lucian attacks his mansion.  Lucian himself is, in his own right, a great villain.  While nowhere near as good as Jack of Blades, the character is believable as a man who has lost everything he cares about and is willing to do anything and kill anyone in order to get what he wants.   All around, the character of this game were great.

    The Verdict

            All around, this game was OK.  While, for the most part, it had great game play and great characters, the game suffered from being to easy.  The storyline was short and seemed like it was just put in as an afterthought.  The final boss fight at the end of the game was just stupid and wasn’t even in the same league as the first one, (anyone who as played the game will know exactly what I mean).  The various jobs and buildings you can buy take away much of the difficulty in earning money and the ability to buy experience potions made the game far to easy.  All around, it's a decent game in its own right, but as a sequel to Fable, it falls short and was a disappointment.  Fable III is due for release on the 26^th of October and I can only hope it proves to be a better sequel then this game was.

All Around

8/10

Prince of Persia (2008)

            Their have been many games throughout the past thirty years that have been considered masterpieces and others that have been considered horrible abominations that should have never seen the light of day. 

The Game

            For my first review I am going to do one that had mixed responses at the time of its release.  I am referring to the 2008 reboot of Prince of Persia.  Of all the games I've played I don't think I've ever seen people so divided on a game.  Some people think it should have won a Game of the Year award while others think its the worst Prince of Persia game ever made.  All I can do is give you my opinion and you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to play it.

The Plot

            The game starts out with the Prince wandering the desert in the middle of a sandstorm looking for his donkey, Farha when he falls into a ravine that leads to a hidden kingdom.  He then finds a woman, named Elika, running from armed men who turn out to be working for her father.  Long story short he saves her and she reveals that she is the princess of this land and the two of them have to save the land from a dark corruption by collecting these things called light seeds and revive a dying tree that is holding the Demon God Ahriman in prison who will bring about the end of the world if released.  In order to do this they have to save four different parts of this land from the corruption guarded by four different creatures, hell bent on killing you.  In this sense, it is very similar to the plot of The Elfstones of Shannara where the two main characters were working to stop demons from storming the earth.  All around, the plot's a little cliched but its executed in such a way that makes you forget it.

The Game Play

            Like the previous Prince of Persia titles the game play focuses more on environment obstacles rather then combat.  However this is where the game has serious faults.  Where in other games you would have to hold down the buttons in order to run along a wall the obstacles in this game seem to be nothing more then timed button sequences. For example, on the X-Box 360 if you just pressed the right trigger button at a wall, it would automatic run along the wall for you or if their was a wall with a number of grip areas that went straight up you could just press the button once and it would take you right up to the top.  You never fight more then one foe in combat and the ones you fight don't have much of a variety to them.  Another issue I, and most people, have with this game is that it is impossible to die.  For example, if you fall off a cliff, Elika appears, grabs you by the wrist and you both reappear where the obstacle began.  This part is where the game is weak and causes it to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

The Characters

The Prince from this game is reputably not the same character from the Sands of Time Trilogy.  This Prince apparently has more in common with the original Prince from the very first Prince of Persia game, who was nothing more then a street urchin in his youth.  He is a thief, a grave robber, vain and arrogant where as Elika is noble selfless.  The two are complete opposites yet it makes the dialog between the two entertaining.  The only other character worth noting is Elika's insane father who works to release Ahriman for unknown reasons.  The characters are memorable but there is nothing remarkable about them until the end of the game.

The Verdict

            All around this is a decent game.  It is by no means a masterpiece but its not as horrible as many Prince of Persia fans believe it to be.  It's absolutely worth playing through but you probably would never look at it again after you beat it.

All Around

7.5/10