Combat is a beautifully efficient system – three coloured face buttons represent three different disciplines (melée, ranged, magic), you then simply use a discipline to earn XP in it. That’s it. With flowing animation (and the odd bit of cinematic slow-mo) sword combat has a dazzling energy. Proper Errol Flynn stuff. With the overblown sound mix, the 18th Century guns hit bandits like buses colliding with elephants. Call in a pal for some local or online co-op and the fun doubles, a nice-tag team element in play: you tenderise them, I’ll pluck off their heads.

Albion itself is a wondrous creation: fantasy minus the Tolkien. Bar the Shire-like Oakridge, there is not a hint of elf, dwarf or orc. God bless Oblivion’s fantasy scope, but it’s nice not to see anyone with a stupid cat face. With the wonky roofs and gnarled oaks, Fable owes more to Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, albeit one drenched in shifting annual colours and that gorgeous, soupy light. The choral-led soundtrack even sounds like Danny Elfman with his dial set to ‘gothic magic’.

We’d go as far to say that Fable II is the antidote to Oblivion. Albion is smaller, but artistically honed. When you pick up a book there’s one funny page as opposed to thirty screens of lifeless prose. Epic quests are happy to end with a punchline. Dialogue is funnier – out-joking the Temple of Shadows entrance exam will take some doing – and the strange nature of villager interaction provides constant laughs. Where in Oblivion would you find yourself trying to bed your wife while some random dude stood by your mattress clapping his hands?

Some may attack Fable for its chugsome scene-changing. Others will point out that the dog is little more than a basic sim-pet, good for treasure hunting and little else. We imagine a good few moans about the clunky inventory screens, and yes, we agree. But with Fable II being the laugh-maker that it is, for tackling fantasy in a refreshing manner and for nearly pulling off its dazzling experiment in character creation, we say give it some slack.

Oct 20, 2008