I want to start this off by saying never buy into Peter Molyneux's crap. That man does nothing but overhype his games and create scenarios of disappointment. With that said, Fable  II is good game, if not a little too short.

You start off the game as a little boy (or girl if you so choose) with his sister and are homeless. You see this magical box being peddled by a merchant and you on a series of mini-quests to get the gold for the box. Once you receive that box, your life changes forever and begins you down the path of becoming a hero.  The rest of the story, without going into spoilers is very good and does hold your attention. You are looking forward to the next part of the puzzle and want to know what will happen next.

As with the original Fable your choices of how to finish parts of the main quest and side quests determines your looks and your demeanor.  The more evil things you do the worse you look and most villagers want nothing to do with you.  The opposite is true and really makes feel at ease with the entire system.  The menu system and upgrading of your character is pretty much the exact same as the original. Not a lot of changes have been made in that regard.  Your dog, your companion, will help you with pointing out treasure and things you can dig up. That is great in theory but frustrating in practice. Waiting for you dog to pose correctly to point out spot to dig things up is unbearable sometimes because he can sit there for 5 minutes before he fully sets and you can't start digging until he is. One thing I found to be disheartening is that no matter your alignment the ending doesn't really change. So your actions don't truly change the world around you as much as you would hope.

The amount of time it takes to flow through the entire main quest with minimal to no side-quests being done is around the 9 hour mark personally. I really found that disheartening because I was hoping for a much more involved and longer story. After playing a game like Oblivion, the length of Fable II just seems to be ridiculous. I estimate even with doing all the side-quests I will only have about 20 hours in the game. Disappointing to say the least.

The much touted multiplayer, the thing that would truly change how you play Fable just feels broken.  If you were to do local multiplayer or even across Live, the person that enters your game is just a sidekick. Their character from their game will not be brought in from theirs so you can't see how they look.  You can share gold and experience between the two which is nice.  The most aggravating part of the multiplayer is the fixed camera. There is no real way to control the camera except for doing a re-center of the camera with the Left Bumper.  The camera becomes an issue in areas like houses or caves because you can't see what you are doing or what you are looking for.

Where this game truly begins to shine is when you are in small or large fights.  The ease in which you can switch up your attacks is a refreshing change to most RPGs.  In almost every fight that I get caught up in I end up using a melee attack, a ranged weapon and will abilities to take down the crowd.  Nothing is better than popping a few shots into a guy as he is running at you then switching to a Master Mace for a few hits and finishing him off with a scorch area attack. Moving your character around to take on a group of enemies that has surrounded you is done with great ease. The option to use the will abilities as an area attack or focused on one character can change the battle scene as well.

In closing, if you enjoyed the first Fable then you will definitely have fun with Fable II. It brings everything that Fable had that you enjoyed and improves upon them.  It isn't revolutionary, but a definite solid play through.  I give it an 8 out of 10, with the main reasons for a deduction being the length and the frustrating co-op.