Finally, the long-awaited and highly anticipated sequel to the Xbox original has landed, but here’s the question: Is it as good as the hype says? Let’s see...

Fable II is, much like the original, is about a young lad/lass (Depending on your choice) who wants revenge on evil people because of the death of a friend and/or family member/members. I don’t want to give anything away, even though it’ll be explained to you in the first 15 minutes of play...

The game is a hack ‘n’ slash RPG where you do quests, build renown and buy properties, and along the way you’ll be given choices... You can pick which choice, you’ll still be able to finish the game, but some choices will change your appearance and how others perceive you... Who will you become?

Now, I’ve been awaiting the arrival of this game for what feels like an eternity, so I was expecting something good. And I wasn’t disappointed. What I expected was more of what I saw in the original Fable, but with better graphics and a slightly larger storyline, what I got was what I had in the original, with better graphics, a larger storyline, and a whole lot more that I really didn’t expect.

The storyline is, as with a lot of RPGs, the definition of clichéd. You want revenge for whatever reason. The reason doesn’t really matter, and the story isn’t that spectacular, but there are parts of the game where that very story, despite how linear, seems so vivid and immersive... It’s a rather unimpressive storyline, told, in places, incredibly well. Which completely makes up for it.
Based 500 years after the original Fable, lots of things have changed. For example; guns are now a common item, whereas they were once non-existent. Will is now considered as something that doesn’t exist, so if you use it in front of people they’ll hate you for it. A good few of the locations from the old Fable have completely disappeared, or rapidly changed, Bowerstone is utterly and completely different. The Bandit Coast from the last Fable is now known as Bloodstone, and is a port town. The game makes a lot of references to the last game, but they aren’t all that obvious, you don’t need to have played the last game to thoroughly enjoy this one. For example; you can visit the grave of Twinblade, the less-than-memorable bandit king from the last game.

Now, those used to the old way of Fable battling, throw that out of the window. The new Fable is completely different. The basic moves that Fable veterans will be used to, like Flourishes and various Will attacks, are still intact but are performed in a different way. For example; to Flourish you now hold down the X Button to power up your attack, then let it go.
 Your Will moves are all assigned to one button, and changing which move you’d like to use isn’t a simple task, but you should get used to it quite quickly. Although, I wouldn’t change my moves in the middle of a battle... Always before or after. Most of the actual battling is just hammering the X Button to smash your enemies with your sword, or axe, or whatever you have. Remember experience? Still there. And yes, it’s still in 4 different categories, Strength, Skill, Will and General Experience. Except now there are small things that will happen if you spend more experience in different areas, if you spend a lot of experience in the Skill section, your character will grow taller.
Now, the mini-map, that’s gone. In its place is the Glowing Trail. Yes, well, if you’ve played the original Fable you’ll remember that there’d be little symbols on your mini-map telling you where you must go to complete your quest, well, areas are considerably bigger, mini-maps just wouldn’t have worked, and as such have been replaced by this trail that you follow. You can set the trail to go to any of the quests you have, they’ll pretty much take you exactly where you need to go, and if you’ve already visited the area you can make your character go there instantly, a bit like Cullis Gates, except time still passes, like, it’ll take 90 hours to get to this area, etcetera.

The graphics, in places, look like they haven’t really changed. It looks like that quite a lot. But that’s just because you can’t see the subtle details... Look a bit closer... It’s beautiful. The wide areas, the way things in the distance seem to fade out, it’s all wonderful stuff. The water effects are lovely, like shimmering silver, everything is so fluid. Now, there have been moments where the screen has almost been filled with enemies and the game begins to slow down, but the developers seem to have tackled this, instead of making the lag jittery and unplayable, they instead slow everything down, so everything is going in slow motion, once the action calms down things start speeding back up, it’s much better than you’d expect. Oh, and the CGI scenes? Bloody gorgeous.

There’s no real background music, there doesn’t need to be. But the voice acting... The voice acting... It is nothing short of incredible. Because it’s good? No. Because it immerses you into the game? No. Because it’s AWESOME. Almost everyone has some sort of British accent, and almost everyone is hilarious. Small children walk up to you and say things like; “If I hold my breath for 30 seconds, I can see funny stuff.” GENIUS. Absolute genius, truly. The voices are funny, but in the wrong way? No. Yes, the voice could possibly get on your nerves because it’s bad voice acting, but it’s bad because it’s satirical! It’s meant to be bad! That’s why it’s funny! It’s really good stuff! I’m hoping by using so many exclamation marks you understand what satirical humour is! If you still don’t, go look it up on Wikipedia! It’s good stuff!

Now, this game has multiplayer, quite good multiplayer. It feels almost like an MMO when you see your friends, who are also playing Fable II, and are in the same area are running about in front of you. Now, you don’t actually see them, but you see these Orbs, you can run up to them and interact with them, trade items, invite to a co-op mode and it’s really quite brilliant.

The game seems to keep going and going, even after completing the main story there are many things to do in Albion, find the nine Demon Doors and complete their tasks, shoot 50 Scottish Gargoyles, collect all the silver keys and unlock their chests... Or you could make the world fall in love with you, have many children, there are so many things to do the list could go on and on, it really could. I mean, even after you buy all the properties you could decorate them... So many things to do. Not forgetting the achievements, which add an extra bit of life span to any 360 game.

Now, let’s look at the thing as a whole. It’s the sequel to the epic Xbox game, it’s huge and far more expansive, it’s got pretty graphics, the dialogue will make you laugh out loud and the game is genius.
It’s changed since it’s original, dramatically so, in places, but it’s still an excellent game. If you enjoyed the original Fable, then it goes without saying that this is a must-buy. If you didn’t enjoy the original Fable, what’s wrong with you? You fool! Buy this anyway. It really is that good. It may not feel like one of those games that you can’t put down, but it does feel like one of those games which can occupy you for absolutely ages.

Storyline 8/10 – Not spectacular, mostly clichéd, but the way the story is told makes up for it.
Game Play 8/10 – Mostly button mashing, but mix it up with a bit of Will and it rarely gets boring.
Graphics 9/10 – Look hard enough and you’ll realise how gorgeous this game is.
Sound 10/10 – It’s rare that I find a game which genuinely makes me laugh, but this one does.
Multiplayer 8/10 – Clever stuff, nice way to involve your XBL friends, and a lovely co-op.
Life Span 9/10 – It, unlike the last Fable, can seem to go on forever...