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.. Will Fable2 Be One Of The Best Games Ever?
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Create a Myspace LED Scroller BARCELONA, Spain--Earlier today at Microsoft's undeniably good X06 event in Barcelona, we met with Peter Molyneux to discuss his plans for Fable 2. Molyneux got the proceedings underway with an apology for having nothing to show us save for a few pieces of concept art. He went on to more than make up for that, though, with talk of his incredibly ambitious plans for the game that, in his own eyes it would seem, could make or break him as game designer.Fable 2 will take place some 500 years after the events of the first game, and among other improvements, it will boast a number of gameplay features that were originally promised for Fable. Molyneux apparently received two death threats from Fable fans when they realized that you couldn't plant an acorn and witness it growing into a mighty oak tree over time--he didn't enjoy the experience, and so we're told that this feature will definitely be in Fable 2. To further illustrate his vision of a game in which you can influence the world in dramatic ways through simple actions, we were shown a concept image of an area called Brightwood--a small campsite tucked away in the middle of a forest.The first time you encounter the camp, you might think that any decision you make on how to interact with it is insignificant, but according to Molyneux, the effects of even your seemingly trivial actions will be felt for decades. If you choose to trade with the camp, for example, you might find that it has developed into a small settlement when you're in the area again 10 years later. After another decade, that small settlement might grow into a village, and ultimately it could become a thriving town or city. If you decided to loot the camp and kill its inhabitants, on the other hand, the land it occupied would be reclaimed by nature, and 10 years later you'd never even know it was there. Molyneux calls this technology "dynamic regions," and it's one of several features in the game that he seems genuinely excited to talk about.Among the features that didn't realize their full potential in Fable were the promises that you'd be able to invest in property and have a family. These somewhat gimmicky features of the original game will not only be fleshed out in the sequel, but also have the potential to occupy huge chunks of your time--perhaps even becoming an important part of your Fable 2 storyline. Regardless of whether you choose to play as a male or a female, you'll start out as a street urchin with absolutely nothing to lose. Your physical transformation as you become an adult in the game will be determined by a number of factors in addition to the requisite good/evil mechanic, including cruel/kind deeds, and whether you become rich or poor. If you manage to accrue a significant amount of wealth in the game, you'll have the option to unlock additional game content by purchasing each and every building in the world, including castles, catacombs, and the like. If you never have more than two gold pieces to rub together, your experience, your appearance, and the ways that people in the world react to you will be very different.On the subject of family, Molyneux's goal is to introduce unconditional love to video games by giving you the ability to have children with whichever character from the world you decide to marry. After meeting the woman or man of your dreams (you can play as a woman, remember), you can marry them and then, if you're so inclined, you can opt to have protected or unprotected sex with them. If you choose the latter, we've heard nothing that leads us to believe that your hero will be at risk from infection, but there is a chance that you might become a parent nine months later. Your offspring's appearance will be determined by your spouse's characteristics and by your own at the time of conception, and regardless of what path you choose to take through the game, that child will love you unconditionally. If you've opted to play as a woman, it'll be you that gets pregnant, of course, but that's a preview topic for another day.Molyneux said that one of the most magical moments of his career was when he recently saw the Fable 2 family features in action. Returning home from a lengthy quest, Molyneux found that his baby son had grown up in his absence and, as he approached the house, the boy swung the doors open and ran toward him with his arms outstretched. Molyneux also stated that your child's development will be determined to some extent by your own actions, almost as if he or she is trying to imitate you or gain your approval. So, if you play as an evil guy covered in tattoos, you might find that your son gets himself some ink the first chance he gets. As the bread winner of your family, you'll be responsible for making sure that they always have enough money to eat, and your performance in this regard will also play a part in your child's development.Although many of these features were talked about as if they are confirmed for Fable 2, we should point out that Molyneux made a disclaimer of sorts at one point when he explained that many of his ideas are still being experimented with. An amusing example of a feature that won't be making the cut, for example, was the idea that you would assume the role of your offspring if you died. The reason why this won't be in the finished game? Testers at Lionhead started procreating like bunnies in the game, because every child was essentially like an extra life.Perhaps the most amusing part of our meeting with Molyneux, though, came when he turned his attention to Fable 2's combat. This portion of the meeting was entertaining not because Molyneux's plans are crazy or anything, but simply because we recognized a lot of what was said from his "this is not Fable 2" keynote address at the Leipzig Games Convention earlier this year. Among the features mentioned (but not demonstrated on this occasion), was the "constrained combat" that occurs when the way that you swing a sword, for example, varies according to the vicinity of allies, walls, and anything else that would interfere with the kind of generic motion used in Fable.Molyneux ended the meeting by telling us that the feature he's most excited about in Fable 2 is also the one that he's not willing to talk about yet. The top-secret feature is apparently so revolutionary that we won't believe it until we can see and play it for ourselves. In fact, it's so ambitious that nobody on the Lionhead development team wanted any part in attempting to make it work when it was first suggested. What could this feature possibly be? We're 99 percent certain that you'll find the answer in the aforementioned Leipzig Games Convention keynote, in which Molyneux detailed his plans for incredibly varied and realistic combat in fully interactive locales being played out using only a single button. We look forward to bringing you more information on Fable 2 as soon as it becomes available, though according to the man himself, we're unlikely to see the game in action until March of next year.If you have never played fable before then click here to find out more about one of the great games to appear on Xbox. It came as no surprise that Fable 2 was announced at E3 this year, what with the success of the original Fable as well as the expanded Lost Chapters on Xbox and PC. Whether you loved or loathed Fable, as a gamer you have to give kudos to Peter and chums at Lionhead Studios for bringing us a remarkably ambitious title. As many of you are aware, Peter Molyneux made several comments pre-production, regarding ideas he had for Fable yet upon the game’s release many of these ideas failed to materialize. Well Peter has learnt his lesson and now adopts a policy of saying virtually nothing about his current projects. On one hand this limits disappointment and perhaps misinterpretation but on the other it means we have little to no details regarding Fable 2 whatsoever other than the odd comment from Peter outlining some of the direction he wishes to take with the game’s production and that Fable 2 is set 500 years after Fable.From recent interviews it’s clear that in Fable 2 the team is aiming for a more emotional experience where players actually care about their actions. How this translates into gaming terms is wide open for speculation; however as gamers we can perhaps piece together some ideas on what we think could be implemented.Let’s take a look at Peter’s philosophy of wanting to make the gamer care about what they are doing and who they are doing it to. To begin with the story portion of games usually evokes an emotional response from the gamer as story telling within games is used to develop the player character and those around him or her. Whether an emotional response is positive as in I would like to help that character or negative I would love to kill that character is usually dictated by information given. So will Fable 2 have a more in depth storyline which involves more key characters for the player to care for or not? Fable had plenty of people in its world yet progression was very much a solitary affair. It was you in the world with the aim of rescuing it from evil yet you didn’t really live in the world like the rest of the game’s characters. As an example you were able to buy homes in every town in Fable and even get yourself a wife but due to having a world to save I’m pretty sure gamers didn’t spend very long in their homes and why should they as there was no real emotional attachment to their home once you had bedded the wife.With Peter’s hints that he would like players to care more I can foresee a situation where perhaps players’ homes and wives are no longer in safe havens. As the player gains popularity in the world this could attract the undesirables of society or people you have ticked off? A situation where homes are randomly attacked and wives are possibly kidnapped or even worse killed, would definitely make players care a little more for their homes. Those players who chose wives in every town would also have a tough job defending their properties as well.An idea that was mentioned prior to Fable’s release was the inclusion of offspring, Perhaps Fable 2 will incorporate this feature and in regards to the safety of the home would add a huge level of emotional attachment. In fable you lead a life based on your experience in the world however you were immortal. Perhaps we will see a more refined system where skills could weaken with age and perhaps the aging process not linked to how much experience was spent on skills. A time based aging system would seem a far more realistic approach. With the whole idea of aging and mortality raises the question once again that players may be able to carry on their adventures through their offspring if children are included in the game. I can imagine a situation where players are given a choice to retire their aged character and depending on what skills the player has learnt are passed on to future generations in some way so that starting as a child again isn’t the same as starting from scratch.For every action there is a consequence. This was a tag line from Fable and in many respects was very true. However the consequences themselves were mostly cosmetic and didn’t really have much of an emotional impact. Sure if you got caught stealing, you paid the fine and then carried on stealing. Perhaps Fable 2 will offer far greater risk for actions where players are forced to think carefully about what they are doing before trying rather than having a situation where players already know what will happen if they say steal a weapon from a store. There needs to be an element of uncertainty included which again Peter has hinted at during recent interviews in terms of offering the player plenty of surprises in Fable 2. I would like to perhaps have a random element to actions which garner one of several outcomes including being attacked immediately or even being captured and having items or skills reduced. Perhaps having situations where entire townsfolk chase the unscrupulous players out of town? Things like murdering people could have far wider impacts where town security is increased or the random person you killed has a family that will hunt you down somehow. However these become null and void if a save system is used which offers the player far too much cushioning. To create a sense of loss and the emotional attachment the team are aiming for the save system needs to be intuitive and dynamic unlike the easily abused system in Fable. Perhaps having a system where events occur regardless of the player with the choice being given to the player whether they wish to get involved or not being one way to ensure that players simply can’t see and do everything the game has to offer with one character or play through. I would like to see the option to replay failed missions removed and that failure in itself has consequences.The character reactions to the player were a pretty cool feature in Fable and it’s interesting to speculate on how the team will improve on this. I would like to see some more varied reactions to the point that certain actions might just provoke a response the player doesn’t expect. A random element here would work wonders, so for an example you might decide to give the middle finger to an innocent by stander which in turn could result in a fight or perhaps laughter. With an element of unknown possibilities it would make the player think more about what they were doing especially if who you were doing it to made a difference as well.I would also like to perhaps see how news of the players deeds travel in Fable 2. Possibly a true word of mouth system could be employed whereby news is delivered by newspaper. Perhaps after embarking on some nasty deeds in one town it would be possible to stop the spread of news by simply eliminating the messengers. There are simply loads of possibilities the team can use in terms of the villager AI and in a recent interview Peter mentions that Fable 2 will mostly be using a new game engine so we shall have to wait and see how things develop.The Fable trailer that was shown during E3 (you can view the trailer here) offered an insight into some of Fable 2’s features according to Peter. Well after close scrutiny it seems as if Fable 2 could offer more defined character classes as opposed to being the jack of all trades type character Fable allowed you to create; perhaps like in Oblivion skills will be based on character class? It also looks like players will be able to be a male or female hero perhaps? Fable 2 is set 500 years after Fable and so technology has progressed as the trailer clearly shows, there is now use of early guns which raises more questions about the game’s combat. The initial mentality behind Fable was one of a world in which heroes would compete or aid each other. Whilst this was partially addressed during the game’s storyline with Whisper and Briar Rose being rivals to the player it wasn’t fully implemented. In the Fable 2 trailer it truly points towards teamwork or joining forces as you see two characters looking over a recently killed White Balverine (ferocious beast). Perhaps this indicates the inclusion of Xbox Live features which were discussed prior to the release of Fable. We could perhaps see Live co-op and versus modes in Fable 2 with two or more players? Or simply more characters to enlist during the single player game outside of a main storyline? Either way Peter is very interested in integrating Live into his games based on his recent E3 2006 interviews. One of the few snippets of information regarding Fable 2 that’s available is players will be able to have a pet which I assume will follow and perhaps aid the player throughout the game. Sadly there are no other details regarding Fable 2 and so you’ll have to make up your own assumptions based on the E3 trailer. Fable 2 is 2 years into production and so we can expect a 2007 release.There are plenty of possibilities with the direction the team take Fable 2 and with a lot of eyes on them to deliver a next generation experience that doesn’t necessarily point to Fable with a graphical update means that we all have a lot to look forward to game play wise especially if the team keep the same ambitious outlook they had with Fable. I can’t wait until more details are revealed and whether Peter plays it safe or offers a true Next generation experience that will be talked about for years to come. Here are some of the things I would like to see in Fable 2.-Larger more open areas -improved combat system, more moves -Online Co-op play -Online trading of items - A revised saves system -More defined character classes -Playable offspring -More emotional consequence to actions -A random element added to the law and order aspect -Mortality -More possible definitions of character rather than just good, bad and neutral - Age defined by time rather than experience -More heroes to interact with outside of the storyline -Costumes do not affect alignment.
