The storytelling borders on exceptional. The central plotline and main characters draw you in early and keep you interested throughout the game. There are a few touching moments, and humor sprinkled throughout. I laughed; I cried; I explored Reaver’s Rear Passage. While the side quests are somewhat underdeveloped for an FRPG, they serve their purpose well enough. One thing that the game does uniquely well is managing the tempo between the central story-line and side activities – giving you several clear breaks in the main thread during which you can pursue other interests without feeling like you’re “breaking character”. This has long been a pet peeve of mine from countless other RPGs, so I’m pleased by that.
On the other hand, one thing that grated my nerves throughout the storytelling was the in-your-face moralizing; this is a disturbing trend in RPGs generally that Fable II simply embraces with passion. There was a time when RPGs taught moral lessons that were limited to universally accepted values – don’t murder innocents, protect the defenseless, help those in need, etc. Fable II takes this moralizing to a whole new level of ridiculousness: eating vegetables increases your “purity” (because no animals were harmed in the making of this food), charging a higher than “normal” rent increases your “corruption”, and there’s a quest where you need to find a gay farm boy a date in the big city. Now I get the fable/moral connection; I really do. However, these aren’t the time honored lessons of Aesop or the Brothers Grimm; these are the trendy whims of metrosexual game designers. I’d as soon seek enlightenment from the back panel of my breakfast cereal. Spare me.
