Fable II -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Fable II earning forty-eight of fifty achievements. I haven't decided if I'm going to play it that much more to earn those last two achievements. Overall I would have to call Fable II a great success in spite of some rather large failures. The biggest failure being the much ballyhooed co-op game play. To call it outright broken would be an understatement. In theory you're supposed to be able to join someone's game and play through the game. People are bitching about not being able to play as your own hero, but that's actually fine with me. The problem comes in the fact that you're essentially playing couch co-op online. That means you're sharing the same camera view. Think about that, you're tethered to another player to the length of one screen with minimal control of your camera. That means if you go too far you'll suddenly hit an invisible wall and can't go any further. In a combat situation you'll need to back away if you're using guns or spell casting and with both characters doing that you'll be at the boundary almost immediately. And you'll be pinned there by the enemies. Hell, it's even extremely difficult to navigate around the world without even being in combat in co-op. Not all of the co-op functionality is broken. One aspect in particular is decidedly cool. And that's the player orbs. As Xbox Live is actively online while you're playing anything, you're able to see people who are playing Fable II moving around the game world as glowing orbs. You can talk to them via headsets or check their stats or give and trade items with them. It gives the game a slight massively multiplayer online RPG feel. The other major flaw against Fable 2 in my eye is the feeling that the game is barely stable. The entire time I was playing the game it felt as if the game was going to break at any moment. I can only describe it as that PC feeling compared to the extremely solid console feeling you'd associate with Nintendo during the 16-bit era. I would experience sound glitches and proximity issues with failing button prompts and the like. As well as standard random glitches associated with games trying for sandbox or open world. But it's not all bad. Almost everything else Fable II attempts, it does exceedingly well. In no small part due to concepts in art direction and the game's voice. It's a sort of Victorian aesthetic mixed with traditional fantasy and spiced with British humor. The humor is prevalent in everything. Fable II's main story is peppered with it. The world is filled with wit and whimsy. And it comes off as a breath of fresh air. The game's combat is diverse with three styles to choose from and any mix and match combination in between. You'll find a way to play it that's fun for you. The graphics and sound are all top notch. The voice work is especially great. As I stated earlier in this entry, Fable II is well worth playing in spite of its inherent flaws. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully Fable III will be a tad more stable, and the co-op will be less insulting. I'm giving Fable II for the Xbox 360 a 9.