Fable 2 Feature - Walking the Path of a Hero: Part 3

Posted by Ty Huston on 11.04.2008

Once more into the fire! This is part three of a bi-weekly journal entry regarding life in Albion. Spoilers inside, I repeat - SPOILERS inside.

Fable – the name itself sparks controversy in the gaming world. After years of hyperbole and finally the release of the original game, designer Peter Molyneux – best known up until this point for his works with “God games” Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Black & White - was heavily criticized for over hyping the game due to the long development period and lack of dozens of ideas that he had for the game yet were never implemented.

Released in 2004, Fable received praise for being a fun, quality adventure game yet was met with a horrible stigma thanks to the over eagerness of Molyneux to tell the world of his fantastic ideas and failure to follow through. Now, the highly anticipated sequel has arrived and yet again Molyneux has hyped it to death. It’s time to see if it lives up to the expectations.

As part of reviewing the game, I’ve been asked to provide sort of an ongoing commentary of my first couple of weeks playing the game. Here, I’ll give a little insight into how I’ve played the game and what my experiences were like. Unfortunately, I don’t have the set up for taking screenshots of my handy work unlike some other 411 columnists *cough*Oracheski*cough*.





The Crucible

When we last left our (my) hero, I was preparing to head forth towards Westcliff and The Crucible. Along the way, I made my first encounter with the dreaded balverines (including the historic White Balverine), and slayed them with the help of Hammer. After dealing with those naughty little werewolf bastards, we reached Westcliff – a run down shit hole of a town. Here, I encountered the goofball who gave e a Thesaurus earlier and wanted me to invest 5,000 gold for his latest “get rich quick” scheme.

So, being the Hero I am, I coughed up the money and then made my way towards The Crucible. Fans of the original Fable will recognize that The Crucible is the arena. I entered, made light work of all of the baddies and ended up champion. The Crucible is eight levels of encounters, ranging from hobbes to bandits to hollow men and eventually balverines and the finale – a rock troll. Fortunately, I had fought one troll before so I knew how to take him down. I’ll also say that with more time playing, I’ve become quite a lot better at combat and especially the magic.

After winning The Crucible, my next primary quest goal is to travel to the Spire and rescue Garth. I am allowed to pretty much do whatever I want until then, so I spent my time getting my family moved to Bowerstone and all happied up before I leave and running some more bounty hunter jobs.

The Spire

Well, the time had finally come to rescue Garth so I handed over all my stuff and my dog to Hammer while I travelled via ship to The Spire. It’s a very intimidating structure. I follow along with whatever The Commandant wants me to do (he’s the guy in charge and a freak), since his big things is obedience. I figure he and Lucien have some sadomasochistic homosexual thing going on, and who am I to rock the boat? Well, days turn into weeks. Weeks turn to months and months to years. When I finally get the chance to escape with Garth, ten years have passed.

You read that right, it took me ten years to find an opening and break Garth out. It’s a good thing I made my wife super happy before I left.

So I fight The Commandant and whip him, Garth and I make our escape and take the newest batch of recruits with us for fear that they might end up dead.

And … we arrive back home. My dog is waiting for me (he’s STILL alive!?) as well as Theresa who takes Garth to the Guild for some hot mage on mage action. I think. It’s hard not to make these kinds of jokes considering so much of this game has sexual undertones.

I return to my family to find my little girl is now a cute little child and my wife … well, she’s happy according to my quest log, but I can’t find her. I’ve searched everywhere in town for her and she’s nowhere to be found. Odd.




To Infinity and … whatever comes after infinity

Garth is free, and I’m now in line to go after the Hero of Skill. He’s in Bloodstone, and that should be a fun experience. Check back with me later this week as I climb even closer to fulfilling my destiny and see if I ever find my damn wife!

Screenshots
All 17 Fable 2 Screenshots

Pages: 1 2 3 4