I almost always play video games as a goody two-shoes.
But when I'm presented with the opportunity to play several hours of a morality-centric game ahead of its release, I wondered if I should change my approach.
When I play "Fable II" on my own time, I'll be good. When I played it for several hours last week in San Francisco, however, I went the other way: I was a murderous bastard.
Here's how that approach changed the way "Fable II" plays:
The way "Fable II" reacted to my evil-doing ways was mostly superficial, simply because it was too early in the story for deep ramifications. I didn't have a wife, I'd just come to grips with the magic system, and I'd yet to visit a town, treat it with kindness or cruelty and find out how I'm treated when I return.
"It's a consequence of your actions that couldn't have been predicted when you made them. That's interesting."
But there was one major difference in the first hour. Your first moments in "Fable II" are playing as a child version of the main character. At this stage, the morality choices are black and white, good and evil -- there is no grey area. Either you're doing something selfishly for the benefit of yourself, or you're helping out your fellow man. Yet it's these decisions that mark your first permanent impact on the world of "Fable II."
When you return to your hometown as an adult, it will have changed. If you were good, it's become a happy-go-lucky town of well-behaved citizens. If you weren't -- like me -- it's dirty, mostly deserted and run by criminals who rule by fear. There doesn't appear to be a way to change the state of your hometown, and it's a consequence of your actions that couldn't have been predicted when you made them. That's interesting.
I did not encounter a similar effect of my decision-making in "Fable II" during the three hours clocked with the game, but I'm hopeful there will be more of this to come. Being evil elsewhere produced the results you might expect. When I decided to start slaughtering a village of innocents, the townsfolk ran screaming from me, while calling out for their guards to come and take me down. I was able to defeat them, however, even though I'd just started out in the game. The only problem was they wouldn't stop coming.
Peter Molyneux told me I would be a happy gamer if I play his game as Han Solo, a character who commits acts of good and evil. If "Fable II" contains more of the world-altering moments hinted at in the first few hours, maybe that would be a fun path for me in "Fable II."
What path will you take in "Fable II"?
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