Fable 2

The role-playing genre has never been my favorite. In fact, I usually stay as far away as possible, especially if it's a JRPG (Japanese role-playing game). Normally that's the issue, but after playing Mass Effect and Fallout 3 western actionRPGs has actually earned my favor as long as they don't have anything to do with middle earth. Sadly, the original Fable took place around that time, and I never really got into it. It was bland in my opinion. So why play Fable 2? Because there was sooooo much hype about what they would do differently. Well I'm here to say that although there are some minor changes, the overall gameplay barely changed. Seriously, I had the play it 3 times just to find out everything that's different and I found little. Aw well.

The story starts out with you being a poor dude or chick with your big sister walking around doing remedial tasks which serves as the game's titorial until you are invited to a lord's castle. Then shit hits the fan as your sister gets shot and killed while you get blasted out the window. You survive your encounter (despite falling 1000 feet at 100 mph and cracking your head on the roof of a building on the way down but what the hell; let's roll with it) and years later you seek to get revenge any way you see fit.

The main point of this game is that you can be as good or as bad as you want to be, and the populous will react to your presense accordingly. So if your pure evil who's blood is liquid malevolence, then expect the public to quiver and avoid you (unless your in a town full of criminals; they'll love you). Of course you can always go the good route, but why would you want to? Everyone crowds around talking about how great you are, and if they're in love with you they won't leave you the fuck alone (normally that's when I pull out the pistol to scare them).
You can always be neutral, but every time I played my character always started to lean to one side. Whichever sides you take, know that some of your decisions will change the world in certain ways I can't explain without spoiling it.

That's all fine and dandy, but the real reason I play action RPGs is the action, so let's down to the combat. The fighting is broken up into 3 catorgories: strength, skill, and will. Strength deals with your melee weapon, skill deals with your gun (or crossbow), and will is your magic. When you kill an enemy, color orbs appear. These orbs give your experience points in each of the 3 catorgories-points you will use to improve your character. Blue orbs give you experience points for strength, yellow orbs for skill, red orbs for will, and green orbs for you to spend however you like. Which orbs appear depends on how you killed that enemy (use your gun and yellow orbs will appear). Gaining experience in certain will also change your physical appearance, but frankly who cares. I like this system better than most RPGs because it easy to understand what I'm doing to my character, but to tell you the truth I can never spend a single experience point and still beat Fable 2 because its TOO easy. If you get beat to death, you'll instantly spring back to life like the Undertaker in a WWE match (any WWE fans here......no?.....ok) and pick up right where you left off. The only real penalty for death is scars on your body you can't remove. BIG FREAKIN' DEAL!. Because of this, I just ran blindly into every battle and press the X button repeatedly till I got tired of it and decided to cast a spell.

If you're tired of killing everything that looks at you with 2 eyes, there are other things to do in the country of Albion (sorry I forgot to mention earlier that the game takes place in a fictional country). Questing doesn't pay as it used to, so you can get a job to earn you some extra dough. This is good for earning money to buy a kickass weapon, but like I said earlier the game is incredibly easy so new weapons aren't necessary. Besides, you get new ones halfway through. Of course you can use that money to spend on a ring so you can marry and start a family, but why would you want to? You half to constantly visit them and make them happy, not to mention provide them with money every 5 minutes. In the end, I wound up killing my spouse and letting child services take my kid [Where were they when me and my sister were kids (and alive)?].

So with all these issues, why is Fable 2 fun? Seriously, It's one of the best games I've played during the holiday season. It does very little different, but it does enough for it to be my 3rd favorite RPG for XBOX360 after Mass Effect and Fallout 3. Basically what Im saying is that it's worth a look, so find a friend who has it and play a little. You might be surprise.

NOTE: There is a co-op mode, but the visiting person can't use their character and the camera is fixed so it's really not worth it unless you need help getting money or something.