Fable 2 Co-op Details
With every preview I read for Peter Molyneux’s Fable 2 I keep getting more and more excited. Every tidbit and snippet of concept art or gameplay that makes its way to the internet gets me excited to journey back into the land of Albion (which by the way, was an ancient name for England). Every time I want to squeal with glee though, I remember the let-down of the original not being as incredibly revolutionary as I thought it was going to be. Either way though, I enjoyed the original enough to have played it through at least five or six times and if the sequel shapes up to be half of the game they advertise, I’ll probably play that just as much. One of the newest and by far most interesting features they’re including is a co-op option. If your character is having a bit of trouble with a certain battle or boss, or if you just like whacking baddies with a friend you can hire a “henchman” who can pop in and out at any time. There’s a benefit for both players as instead of taking control of a generic NPC henchman like the ones featured in the original, you’ll be bringing in your own character from another save file. You’ll be able to tweak who gets the rewards from slaying monsters and completing quests to fit your own needs. Splitting the money, experience and renown 50-50 is possible, but if you’re trying to get your character enough funds to become a major real estate baron in your own game, offering your friend a majority of the experience points in exchange for a bigger share of the cash is entirely possible. This of course could lead to some methods that would be considered ‘cheating’ like bringing a low-level character in alongside your human engine of destruction and giving them huge boosts in experience by slaying monsters far beyond their ability, but there were some ways to exploit the save system in the original Fable. When it comes down to it though, cheating’s not a big issue unless it’s in competitive online play. Unfortunately for co-op players who’ve grown extremely fond of their canine companion, you won’t have your own dog when joining another player as a ‘henchman’, mostly due to frame rate issues.