Xbox 360

Fable II: Limited Collector's Edition

Limited Collector's Edition includes: Bonus DVD - Includes new 'Making-of Feature' with Peter Molyneux and the team at Lionhead Studios and art gallery. Bonus In-Game Content (Requires LIVE account) - Includes "The Hall of the Dead" Dungeon, "The Wreckager" Legendary Cutlass Weapon and Spartan armor and energy sword.

Role-playing (RPG)Adventure

Time to beat: about 25 hours
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Fable II is a 2008 action role-playing video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. The game is the second installment in the Fable game series, and the sequel to 2004's Fable. The story takes place within the fictional land of Albion, 500 years after the first game. Players assume the role of a young hero who is destined to stop a former ruler turned madman from destroying the world. The game features several prominent actors portraying major characters in the game, including Zoë Wanamaker, Ron Glass and Stephen Fry.

The game made several improvements over its predecessor, updating existing gameplay and offering larger locations to explore. Alongside the main story, players can engage in several side quests and repeatable jobs to earn money and rewards, build up a property empire, and customise their character with various clothing items, hairstyles, tattoos and makeup. Players also can make decisions on how they act, affecting their characters' morality and appearance as a result. New features to the game included the opportunity to choose between playing as a male or female character, a fast-travel system, and a canine companion who can detect treasures and alert the player to nearby enemies.

The world in Fable II is fully dynamic, interactive and mostly free roaming with no set quest path to take. Since the game takes place over a hero's lifetime, many things can change; Molyneux gave an example of a trade camp that the player could either help or destroy. Trading in such camps would increase their profit, resulting in a small town growing around them.

Fable II takes place within the fictional land of Albion, a large continent consisting of several settlements, the largest being the city of Bowerstone, surrounded by lawless stretches of land, including forests, marshlands, and coastal roads. The story and events take place 500 years after the first game, in which the relative safety and peace brought about by the defeat of Jack of Blades led to Albion's citizens deeming heroes to be corrupt and no longer being needed, effectively leading to many to disappear and the Heroes' Guild being destroyed in a riot. Since then, the land has seen changes to science and philosophy, with new religions replacing the old ones of medieval Albion, and new technologies being developed, including the creation of firearms.

Lionhead Studios released a section on their website entitled "Tales of Albion", which provides a back-story to Fable, Fable: The Lost Chapters, and Fable II. In "Fragments of the Old Kingdom", it details how the Archon came to power in Albion, and how the Heroes' Guild was founded. "Tales" also chronicles the end of the Heroes and ruin of their Guild in "Fall of the Heroes", and "Travels in Today's Albion" (which has been completed since its release) describes where some places are and has a little description of each notable area/artefact.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) praised Fable II for its animal-friendly nature, giving it the Proggy Award for the most animal-friendly game of 2008, saying they enjoyed the game's pro-vegetarianism, giving the player purity points for eating non-meat products and corruption points for eating meat. However, there are also achievements encouraging players to hurt particular animals.