Fable II

There's actually a whole lot I want to say about Fable II. I want to touch on my own experience with the game, on the game's triumphs and shortcomings in general, on Trev's very controversial Fable II post from two years ago, and on the quest through my video game backlog in general. Without any regard for natural transitions, and in no particular order, here we go.

Trev's post

In what can only be described as a key event in Back-Blogged history, Trev made a post in 2010 about Fable II, and specifically about how he would never beat the game. I did a double take or two at my computer screen and went off on an intentionally over-the-top tirade in the comments, condemning the post with whatever authority I had as the blog's creator, co-administrator, and most frequent contributor. I want to clear the air, two years later, not because I think it needs clearing but because here's the best place to do so. I was never opposed to the contents of the post itself; it's just that, having specifically set up a blog with which to document my own so-called quest through my own backlog, I was taken aback by the concept of somebody posting about a game they were never going to beat, right there alongside a bunch of posts about games I and others had put in the time and effort to beat. It immediately set a precedent I had never considered, really, and I worried about copycat posts coming from others and about the blog turning into a place for everyone to shit on games, books, and movies they never planned on finishing. Having said all of that, I liked the post itself; it was descriptive, lengthy, and interesting, like the best of these blog posts are. Having re-read Trev's post, it even sounds like the game itself simply failed on him, crashing multiple times and leaving him abandoned in certain save states with no way out. And that's shitty. That sucks. That's a failure on Fable II's part, and not a failure on Trev's. My only issue at the time was that I didn't think failures of any sort had any place on the blog. In hindsight, I think they do. I think Trev's post was perfectly reasonable. But I am glad I made a few edits, like greying out the cover art, adding a big "FAILED" stamp to it, and removing the post's "video game" tag. I actually encourage more posts like this. Tentatively, I mean. Like, I would never want to give up on a game or use one or two bugs as an excuse to put a game away for good, but at the same time I acknowledge that not everyone contributing to this blog has the same silly ideas about cleaning out their backlogs. To most, this is really more of a place to share thoughts on the movies, books, and games we're all consuming, and sharing stories about failures is just as important as sharing thoughts on successfully completed stuff.

The game

So what exactly is Fable II? It's an open-ended sandbox-style action (or Western) RPG. You control an almost completely customizable hero and your actions throughout the game dictate all sorts of things about the hero, right down to his appearance, weight, and reputation. This isn't Infamous or BioShock, with a simple "good vs. evil" karma bar that you're more or less meant to push to one extreme or the other; no, this is a game with a fully multi-dimensional feel to its characters. There are plenty of side quests and mini-games and collectable items - up to and including the ability to raise children and flip houses - but the main story is a pretty simple one. Basically, you've got to find and unite three heroes in order to stop an elderly prince who is hellbent on obtaining godlike powers. The ordeal takes you through an enormous world akin to those in Final Fantasy or newer Zelda games and you encounter a diverse array of characters. Oh, and you have a dog sidekick.

My experience

I began the game with no real idea of who I wanted my character to be, and early on I went through several different phases. The bearded wood-cutting lumberjack, the mace-swinging hotshot decked out in colonial America garb, the masked assassin with precision shooting - I went through all of these before ultimately settling on a do-good monk dressed in what looked exactly like Assassin's Creed robes. For the sake of gathering some Xbox Live achievements, I did some not-so-morally-sound things like marrying two women, killing bunnies, and kicking chickens; ultimately though, I was able to raise my "goodness" and "purity" (no alcohol or hookers, basically) to their maximum levels. I also got really fat at one point from eating too many pies; I solved this by eating a ton of celery (seriously). My weapon of choice was some sort of holy sparkling serrated axe that I got by donating a ridiculous amount of money to a temple. I spent a fair share of time on sidequests and mini-games, all the while fighting the urge to return to the main story for the sake of backlog reduction timeliness. Ultimately the game took me about ten to twelve hours to beat, and I'm confident I could have done it in six to eight without exploring and dicking around so much - which isn't to say I did the majority of what the game had to offer me. Far from it.

Two criticisms

This game lagged worse than any I'd ever played on a PS3, Wii, or Xox 360. It wasn't quite laggy enough to be completely broken, but it was choppy and sluggish enough to be annoying for sure. That's the easy and obvious criticism. The other deals with the game's slight case of schizophrenia. I've mentioned that this was a game where in addition to a fairly straightforward main quest, you could do all sorts of things, like engage in bigamy or grow morbidly obese. The all-inclusiveness was probably the game's biggest strength. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the game's tone, which varied from super-serious to comical and silly to everywhere in between, all with no regard for the story at hand. The game opens with a bird shitting on your head, and shortly thereafter you're making fart noises at citizens and wreaking little kid havoc. Then, minutes later, on a mandatory tiny sidequest you must either obtain a bottle of booze for a drunk or let his wife know he's been drinking too much. Alright, alcoholism treated as a serious problem rather than just for laughs. Interesting place for a game to go. Then just minutes later, the only character aside from your own that you've come to know so far gets murdered in cold blood and an attempt is made on your life. Yikes! You fall out a window and then the game cuts to a series of hand-painted still images that zoom in and out in a story intercut while a woman who sounds like the God of War narrator explains how you, the hero, have gone away for ten years and become a man. (Ocarina anyone?) So all within half an hour or so, this has become a game where birds shit on you, a game with a set code of conduct and morals, a game about vengeance, and, more than anything else, a game that really has no idea exactly what it wants to be. The multiple personality disorder continues throughout the game. There were times when the atmosphere grew creepy as hell and a shadowy monster scared the shit out of me, and there were times when NPCs engaged in witty banter that made me laugh. A decent chunk of the game took place in a gruesome prison camp of sorts filled with slave labor. This multitude of tonal ability should have been a strength for the game but if anything I found it to be a detriment. My hunch is that this is because of a weak overall story at the core of the game. That powerful scene in which your childhood companion is murdered out of the blue in front of you? That should have lasting and meaningful implications. Instead it's rarely mentioned again until coming back in a big way at the very end of the game, and I'm left wondering how seriously the game wants me to take it. I can bang hookers like in GTA - hell, I can even get STDs if I don't wear condoms - but one of the options the game gives me for social interactions is to do this weird dance while I spread my asshole open and fart loudly. It's as if, in its mission to be everything it can, the game has forgotten the need to be something specific first and foremost at the end of the day. Oh well. There are worse ways for games to disappoint.

My video game backlog

Not tonight. This post has grown absurdly long and rather than edit it down into something decent I'm just going to hit the hay. Ongoing logging thoughts can wait for another post.

Overall, a decent little game. Flawed. Not perfect. Glad I spent some time exploring and doing mini-games and side quests, but also glad that the main story was as short and simple as it was. Enjoyed the game enough to at least consider buying its predecessor and direct sequel. But not yet. Not yet.

Good night!