Fable 2: Pub Games

September 5,2008 - With the release of Fable 2 only a month away, Lionhead Studios has given fans the chance to already interact with the world of Albion and customize your future character. Fable 2 Pub Games, a bonus for pre-ordering Fable 2 itself or from download on Xbox Live Arcade, gives players a chance to earn money and distinct items which can then be used by your own character in Fable 2. While the chance to earn money before the game is even out is surely engaging enough for any diehard fan, the games themselves make earning that lofty goal a very hard task indeed.

The Pub Games derive themselves on variations of classic casino games. Of the three games featured in Pub Games, only one actually feels like you can have a winning shot of leaving with more than you started with. That in itself is a major drag to an otherwise nifty idea. The three games featured are Fortune’s Tower, a card game where you seek to get the most points from cards lined horizontally without touching doubles vertically, Keystone, a unique blend of craps and roulette, and Spinnerbox, a sort of poor-man’s slot machine. The game’s themselves are original in the aspects that they offer new takes on classic gaming formulas, but sometimes the outcome is not always desired.

Fortune’s Tower is probably the most rewarding game, and is needless to say the one game that has the most people playing it. The game consists of a deck of 70 cards, all ranging from numerical values of 1-7. Among the deck are four Knight cards as well, bringing the overall total to 74. The rules might get complicated if you have not yet read the tutorial, but the game plays out like a simple game of black jack. Before the deck is dealt, you are allowed to wager your bet, and the game starts with two cards dealt out to one another on top of one card which is face down. This face down card is known as the Tower Card, and only is used if you happen to come into trouble (more on that later). The rows increase as they go along, so the first row will have two cards, the second row three, etc. After every row, the values on each card are added up into one final sum which is then multiplied by your bet. You can either choose to accept the offer or continue on.

Continuing on in Fortune’s Tower is both risky and strangely addicting. On one hand you risk losing everything, while on the other you can actually triple or quadruple your earnings. If you get past the second row you are vulnerable to double attacks, which happens when two of the same card touch each other vertically. If this happens, you end up with nothing. However, this one instance can be altered if you pull a knight card, which cancels out the double card rule, or still have the Tower Card in play. If no knight card is pulled, the Tower Card automatically disposes at your will and a new card is replaced. Sometimes it will replace your card with something new, allowing you to advance, or it will draw a similar card, in which case you fail. With only numerical values from 1-7, games end quickly, but some players have been seen walking away with over five times their starting pot.

Keystone is a simple take on the games craps and roulette, and unlike Fortune’s Tower, players really have no control on the outcome of this game minus placing bets. The game table actually looks like a craps table, with words indicating when players will hit certain factors, such as three of a kind, red, or even numbers. The actual Keystone table is set up in an arch, with numbers ranging from 3-18. Each number is located individually on its own tile, and if that number gets rolled by the three dice, then it is broken and discarded for the rest of the game. What makes the game of Keystone so unique is the high payouts (or losses) that can potentially happen. The numbers 3 and 18 are known are keystones, meaning if they are pulled the entire table collapses and the game is over. 10 and 11 are also keystones as well, but you must pull both of these numbers for the game to fail. However, if you happen to bid on one of these numbers, you can win the jackpot (which is upwards of thousands of dollars). Having three dice roll three ones or sixes is a hard and sufferable feat (the odds had them at 250:1), so imagining this jackpot to happen may take some time.

A neat instance occurs if a number is rolled that was already played, in which case the corresponding number has an arrow dedicated to it, which will turn destroy the tile of the next facing that direction. End games might not always happen by rolling keystones exact, rather than rolling a previously played number and having it point to a desired keystone. Bidding on the factors is implemented by achieving outside and inside bids, where outside bids have you betting on numbers that will be rolled, while inside bids have you betting on the various factors. There really is no strategy or adherence when placing bets, only in the hopes that most of your predicted offerings gets picked in the long run. Even still, you end up losing more money in Keystone than you end up winning.

Spinnerbox is probably the least skilled game of the bunch, and the one that simple requires nothing more than pushing buttons. Spinnerbox has you spinning between three and seven slots at a time in an attempt to match up pictures. As simple slot statistics state, matched pictures earn rewards. If you happen to match up three of a kind of more, a secret middle slot begins to roll which acts as a three of a kind of the picture displayed. So if you get the hidden slot and a picture of a cow appears (which is the highest value), the game will pay out as if you rolled three cows. It’s not the most diverse game out there, but it is much easier to handle then the previous two games, just don’t go in expecting much change.

As far as visuals and sound is concerned, Fable 2 Pub Games does a good job of adhering to the subject matter. The games all have a distinct pub-like style with old scripture writing, while the sound is actually quite relaxing, with an old Medieval flair grouped with a sense of an Irish Pub. It’s a decadent sound that will keep you entertained in the midst of losing all your money.

The idea of earning cash ahead of time for your pre-created Fable 2 character is a neat idea, but the structure could have been implemented better. Some players might find it extremely hard to walk away from the game without a debt amassed, while others will find their pockets lined with gold and exclusive items. It’s a give-or-take slew of games that manage to take the classic casino games formula and blend them up a bit, but ultimately fail in terms of playability and functionality.

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