Fable II
Pros: Simple yet rewarding gameplay; moral choices are interesting, not forced
Cons: Some tedious game elements; experienced gamers may find it ‘easy’
The original Fable promised a rich fairytale role-playing world where your every moral choice had an effect on your character, but ultimately those effects were rather ephemeral. The sequel is, simply put, better in every respect. You’re still a clichéd urban urchin at the start of the game, but by the time you’ve finished, you’ll have a faithful hound companion, possibly a family, and plenty of battle scars along the way – more if you’re the evil type, but less if you’re a ‘goody to shoes’. You’re still solidly in fairytale territory – you start the game out earning money for a ‘magic box’, and it just goes on from there – but the expanded gameplay (which includes two-player cooperative mode), a much improved script and a wealth of side quests make this an excellent and compelling title that anyone who enjoys a role-playing game should definitely check out.
Overall I score it a 4.5/5.
Saints Row 2
Pros: Lots of silly fun; a huge amount of character customisation
Cons: Weirdly buggy in various places
Speaking of urban urchins, it would be easy to take one look at Saints Row 2’s urban setting and deride it as a cheap Grand Theft Auto (GTA) clone – only one that looked a bit poorer and had a few more weird bugs within it. That’d be a cheap analysis, though, as Saints Row 2 doesn’t take itself anywhere near as seriously as GTA and, as such, it’s a heck of a lot more fun. A lot of that comes down to the character customisation. Sure, you could play as a muscled-up thug or an over enhanced streetwalker, but how many games will easily give you the ability to play as a curiously cockney-accented big fat hairy guy in a dress and top hat? With a start like that, it’s not surprising that Saints Row 2 doesn’t take itself seriously with missions, which range from property devaluation (via sewage truck!) to insurance fraud – using your own body as a missile – and plenty more besides those. Saints Row 2 may borrow from the GTA ‘crime sim’ play book, but it’s definitely its own creature, and a highly enjoyable one at that.
Overall I score it a 4.5/5
