I just finished the campaign last night, so I thought I’d post a few of my thoughts. There are many ****SPOILERS****

Having played the first one on the original Xbox, I’d say the best summary to my thoughts is that it’s everything the first one should’ve been and was definitely worth the money.

I coughed up the extra cash for the limited edition. I’ll edit this later, I have yet to watch anything on the bonus disc.

Fable 2 isn’t really a direct “sequel” but rather a new story in Albion(500 years later, to be exact) starring one of the descendants of the hero of the original game. I really enjoyed the different ways things had changed and how actions from the first game had rippled through time. For example, in Wraithmarsh the town that used to exist there is now wholly a den of evil, resulting from the evil actions of your “evil self” from the first game. It’s far from the same place that existed in the first game. The main training ground of heroes from the first game is now nothing more than ruins.

The game starts you off as a child, much like the first game. You have a sister, also much like the first game. I really felt anyone new to Fable would have no problem if they hadn’t played the first game. However, I am glad I did because you see the things/locales that Lionhead has put in Fable 2 that only players of the first game will notice or remember.

Things seem in an even worse state then ever, when speaking of the world at large. Magic and heroism for the most part is a thing of the past, nothing more than a legend. The game, through different cutscenes and quests, gets you acclimated to how Fable works and sets the story off in epic fashion. One compliment I would definitely extend to Lionhead is that the world of Fable 2 is vastly bigger than the first Fable.

You and your sister discover a music box that you buy for 5 gold at the urging of Theresa, a mysterious woman who guides you throughout the whole main story. You discover this music box is magical, and the lord of the land, Lord Lucien, sees the magic from his tower and summons you.

The events in the tower set the stage for the whole game. He discovers that heroes blood runs in you and your sister’s veins…and promptly kills your sister and thinks he kills you. Your youth is told in cutscene, unsurprisingly training to become a hero and get revenge on Lucien.

Apparently Lucien is trying to rebuild the “Spire” which was to be a conduit of magic for the whole kingdom. I’ll digress from telling the whole story. I really wasn’t terribly impressed by the story of Fable 2, to be honest. It’s not too unique of a story, or original. However, the presentation was spectacular. The way in which it is told is quite unique, in my opinion. The unique artistic style of the whole game was so awesome!

As for the graphics…well I don’t think they pushed the Xbox 360 as far as they could have. I found the graphics to be glitchy at times, with textures popping in. The graphics are not bad, by any means, but the difference between Fable 1 and 2 in graphics is not as vast as it should be. I found, being a wizard by nature, that things got quite slow when I really let loose the higher level spells. By slow, I mean laggy, in terms of the speed of the game animations for everyone.

The sound of the game was great. It’s not as memorable, as say, Halo’s music, but it was great. Perfect for the type of game it is. The voice acting was pretty solid.

The gameplay was fantastic, for the most part. I still feel that the first person aiming system for shooting guns and bows is still quite clunky and requires little to no skill. Not much of an improvement over the first game there. However, the swordplay and wizardry were quite fun and topnotch. The A.I. of the enemies were puzzling at times- there was more than one instance where I could attack a group from far away with my bow and never even get so much as a bad look as I popped every one of them with arrows.

The side quests of Fable 2 are great. If you really throw yourself into all Albion has to do, from side quests to jobs to being a real estate mogul, you can easily spend 30 hours, I wager. I personally didn’t, but there is easily 3x more to do in Albion this time around. Lionhead really brought Fable up to the level of, say, Elder Scrolls IV. One thing I found puzzling was the lack of a full world map- you could only access the map for your region.

I’ve really been looking forward to this game, and overall I was definitely enthralled and impressed. I neglected to do any sort of co-op action….from what I hear, it’s pretty fun. Overall I think Fable 2 was a huge improvement over the first, but if there is a 3rd(and I believe there will be) Fable, there are still quite a few improvements Lionhead can make for the next outing in Albion.