Good, Evil, I'm The Guy Kicking Chickens

My insistent friend went to the trouble sending me a copy of Fable 2 to get me to play it, so here we are. I gave up on the original Fable early on, and Fable 3 was the first game I completed on my Xbox 360, to a mixed response (of the three I got when I bought the console, it was much better than Rage and much worse than The Saboteur).

In Fable 2, you play as one of two orphaned siblings who scrape together enough gold to buy an allegedly magical music box. Your sibling wishes the two of you could live in the huge castle in town, and the next day, you are invited in. Turns out Lord Lucien is a kooky weirdo, and convinced one or both of you will endanger his plans, he shoots you. Your sibling dies, you gets blasted out the window and survive the fall thanks to a blind sage. Fast forward several years, and it's time for your character to head out and bring Lord Lucien down. Hijinks and murders - lots of murders - ensue.

Something I appreciated initially was you aren't one of the 3 Heroes Lucien was worried about, but the Fourth who brings them together. It's still basically a Chosen One thing, but presented as just off from that enough to interest me. I like narratives where the person who saves the day isn't some special person, just a schmo who happens to be there and get involved. In practice, the game still comes down to me doing everything, as usual. Here I thought having three other Heroes would lighten the load.

Since it's a Fable game, you get the option to resolve some quests in different ways. Do you help a grief-stricken ghost break the heart of the lover who spurned him or no, stuff like that. At the beginning, you can earn gold for the music box by either retrieving warrants for a peace officer, or hand them over to one of the criminals. When you come back later in your life, you get to see how your choice affected things. Like with Fable 3, I gave up aiming for a particular approach with regards to good or evil, and just took things as they came. Selfish, selfless, cruel, helpful, it depended on the circumstances and my mood.

So I chatted with the Temple of Shadows, earning the option of getting money by sacrificing others, though I never did that. I remembered in Fable 3 I planned to turn the tables on them at the last minute, and then I waited too long and they'd vanished. I didn't feel like repeating that mistake. This time, when they attacked the Temple of Light, I went against them and slaughtered the lot of them. I never took the Civilian Displacement (read, "sell people into slavery") jobs, but I was fine Bounty Hunting or taking Assassination jobs occasionally. By the time I stopped playing, I was considered very Good, but also very Corrupt. I'd help others, but also enjoy myself.

Watching the locals react, and how that changed over the game could be amusing. At a certain point they'd run up to me and cheer or flirt, or ask for autographs. Which then got tedious because I couldn't get a moment's peace. At some point I guess I fired my rifle or let off a burst of magic too often in public, and they all became terrified of me. I'd show up, and everyone would run away screaming. Would have been fine if all the yelling didn't get so annoying.

There's a whole stretch in the middle where rescuing one of the other Heroes requires your character spending 10 years as a guard in the mystical tower Lucien is using slave labor to rebuild. The game keeps presenting you with options to obey orders, or defy. If you defy, you lose experience points which means you might not be able to upgrade enough later to win, possibly. At least, that's the fear the game tries to put in you. For me, it almost made it too easy to defy (that and the fact I'm not the one actually being shocked by an obedience collar). The game thinks I have that little confidence in my ability to win?

I think my character's dog died while I was in the Spire, though. The one that greets me when we return has an entirely different color coat than the one that accompanied me up to then. It wasn't a puppy when my character and his sister took it in, and that was several years before my decade in the Spire began. Shadow probably died and the others worried my mind would snap under learning Lucien cost me another loved one. So find a new dog, and then fake it when they see me. In reality, it's probably just some glitch, because the dog's fur color does go back to being the proper color occasionally.

Combat isn't as smooth as I remember from the third game. Trying to use Flourishes worked inconsistently. A third of the time, my character blocks instead. On the other hand, I feel like the enemies are easier. I tend to shift between shooting, hacking, and leveling everyone around me with spells depending on the situation. Not pretty, but it works. I haven't played Fable 3 since I beat it, but I recall having more trouble with hobbes and balverines than I did in this game. Between that and the ready availability of recovery items, I didn't die once, or really even come close to it. Controls are mostly smooth, although the interface when you get near the water's edge kind of sucks. It can be hard to get out of the water, or to get away from the shore once you're in the water. The music is forgettable. None of the tunes stick out, but there's nothing terrible.

The ending was a genuine surprise. I expected a big fight with Lucien, but I'd already had the last big fight without realizing it. I still enjoyed killing him. Didn't even let him finish the first sentence of his bullshit about how I'd accomplished nothing. Killing him certainly counted as something to me. The game gives you an option of one of three wishes, I chose to resurrect my loved ones. I figured it would bring back my dog and my sister (I assume it would have revived any spouse or children I'd lost, if I had them). Well, one out of two ain't bad. One of the other options was to bring back everyone who died rebuilding the Spire (the third was for fabulous wealth). I coulda brought back all those people, and instead brought back. . . a dog. I'm OK with that. Although it's awkward there's still a grave at the place Lucien shot him. I make sure not to go back up there anymore. Best not to confuse the dog. A couple of the other Heroes tried shaming me on it, but if they wanted to make the choice, they should have saved the damn world instead of getting captured like chumps. Once again it falls to Calvin to save the world.

My experience with Fable 3 had me primed for a double-cross by the blind sage, pretty much from the moment she rescued me and started in on how I had some destiny blah, blah. And when she took control of the Spire after Lucien was gone, and sent the rest us on our ways, I was sure I was right. I was gonna have to storm the Spire and cut off her head. Apparently not, though. I'm a little disappointed, since I don't trust her in control of that thing. For the record, I'd only trust myself to the extent I don't know if I'd do anything with it. I might just leave it empty if I could, or store random crap there.

I probably would have posted this review a couple of weeks ago, but there were some quests related to specific buildings I wanted to play, and you have to own those buildings first. Which means having enough money to buy them. As with Fable 3, I hadn't wanted to waste time owning property or doing jobs while I was playing through the main story. So I was starting from behind a bit, and earning enough dough took time. I tried blacksmithing a few times and that was the most tedious shit imaginable. So I bought enough properties to collect enough rent, and once I'd bought all the places I needed for quest purposes, sold all the properties I could. Being part of the landed gentry isn't my style (although I guess I still am, since a few of the properties can't be sold once you buy them).

I don't get everything out of the Fable games, since there's so much of it that doesn't interest me. Owning homes, getting married, courtship, blah blah. I like exploring the worlds and finding secrets, so that part of it I exploit as much as possible, but there's a lot of the game that might as well not even be there. The places behind the Demon Doors always intrigue; I wish they were bigger so I could nose around more. Or at least had some clues as to what went on there. Especially the Winter Lodge.