Review: Fable 2

Like so many games to come out in recent months, Fable 2 has been a very highly anticipated title for me. I played the first Fable repeatedly. I know where all the Silver Keys are, how to get all of the Legendary Weapons, and how to open every demon door. When Jack of Blades turned into a dragon, I schooled him something fierce. I bought an original Xbox expressly for the purpose of playing Fable.

Now it's successor has come along. Honestly: I love it. Despite widespread complaints of bugs, I have encountered very few so far, and none of which have crashed my game or forced me to start again (thankfully.) There's not much about Fable 2 that I don't like. It is an improvement on the original in nearly every way. The only things that annoy me are:
-You can't lose weight by running around; you can only lose weight by eating celery.
-You can't bind equipment or oft-used expressions to the D-pad anymore.
-Merchants usually only have one or two of something in stock. Previously, you could find dozens of potions or food items at the same vendor.

What's improved about Fable 2? The interface (you get a dog instead of a minimap. How fun! Also, for those of you who don't like the dog, you can chose to get rid of it at the end) the graphics are amazing, as was expected, the story was epic, though not quite as epic as the first, and the new hero goodies really make things shine. You can play female characters, own castles and you dye your clothing to change colors! Thankfully, villagers don't freak out if you walk around in black clothing (bonus to the goths out there, plus you get an achievement for wearing all black.)

Like the first Fable, the main storyline is quite short; if you play through nothing but that, you can probably finish in under 10 hours. The good news is that the stuff in between the story (owning property, sidequests, jobs and the like) is much better and is almost as fun as the main story. You can take gigs as a blacksmith, a bartender, a kidnapper ('Citizen Displacement' they call it) or a woodcutter to earn extra cash. You can own just about everything in the game (though you can't buy dungeons) including the castle the big bad guy lives in.

Bottom line: if you like a good RPG and/or you liked the original Fable, check this out! If you didn't like Fable or don't care for RPGs, get something else.