Fable II Preview

Yet another preview of Lionhead Studios’ Fable II has surfaced on the ‘net, and this time it’s over at Play.tm.

Jump in co-op play will also be a favourite feature, we’d imagine, and journeying into some mysteriously atmospheric caves on a quest to find a lost boy, we come across a young man opening a special chest who is faced by some rather nasty monsters. One of my fellow journalists duly took up the reigns as an additional character, while the NPC chap also helped us battle the nasties. XP will of course impact your abilities in melee and ranged-weapons combat, and as ever practice makes perfect.

Battle is an action-packed colourful affair, and you’ll also be able to cast a few magic attacks on the fly, which not only look great but can also aid your levelling-up in the thick of the action. The game’s open-world pretensions mean that combat is something that can happen at any time, depending on your actions in-game – while throughout the experience Lionhead have clearly worked hard to create a game with a strong atmosphere – a delicious slice of videogaming escapism. As Georg Backer notes, the audio is a key part of this, and the sheer volume of it in Fable 2 was something of an epic challenge for the producer.