Fable II: The Good Parts

After spending days picking apart Fable II’s storyline, Shamus at Twenty Sided returns to point out what he liked about the game.

Fable 2 has many activities, and while a few of them exist for their own sake, most are interconnected in ways that lead you naturally from one activity to another. Doing trade runs leads to buying better clothing which leads to being more attractive which leads to flirting with villagers which leads to rounding up more expressions and emotes to use which leads to romance which leads to getting married which leads to buying a house which leads to getting involved in real estate which leads to redecorating houses to alter the local property values and economy which leads back to trading. etc. This is a playground with a lot of fun toys.

Yes, the villagers are reduced to little generic clockwork automatons with their love/hate sliders, and you don’t take them seriously as people. Because they’re toys. But they’re fun toys, and rounding them up an making them laugh or scream or yell is an amusing way to spend your time. I actually enjoyed playing evil in this game for once. I would wander through town, pelvic-thrusting the monks, flipping off children, kicking chickens, and directing my dog to pee on town guards. The lighthearted tone made it all absurd and funny instead of stupid and mean.