While all and sundry seem to be getting their knickers in a twist over the new WoW expansion, I've been in the world of Fable II — and what a lovely world it is too. This Fable is bigger and better than ever. Now we have a dog, more job opportunities – still no welfare state, but you can't have everything – and the chance to play a female protagonist. What more could we ask for?
It was welcome news when Lionhead announced that they would be including a female character in the new Fable. Even the most basic games offer a choice of gender and in a game that is all about choice, it seemed like a major oversight. However, reparations have been made and now we get to play male Sparrow or female er"Sparrow. This is the first indication that something could be amiss.
Fable never started you off in a dress-up box, like your average RPG. There's no sliding bar for the width of your nose or the height of your forehead, balanced with hair and skin colour and the shape of your eyes. Forget all that cosmetic tinkering, instead, when you load up Fable you get what you're given and it's mainly your actions that shape the look of the in-game character you eventually become.
I was only faintly surprised when I played through the beginning of Fable II as both a girl and a boy and was popped into barely distinguishable bodies. To say the female Sparrow is a ‘tomboy' is an understatement and offers nothing female to the role. Admittedly, I'm not very far into the game, but up to this point, I'm a little disappointed with the female character.
Ultimately, the Fable series is all about choices and where they lead you. If you kick your dog he will be afraid of you and become vicious towards others. If you steal from shop keepers townspeople dislike you and don't give you a good price for any goods or services. Steal candy from babies and blah, blah, blah. However, decide to be a woman and nothing really changes.
Perhaps Lionhead was going for a Utopian setting, where gender is no longer an issue. However, this theory doesn't really hold much water when you look at the other female NPCs. They are largely corseted ladies or tavern wenches, while the men are business traders and officials or gang leaders.
As female Sparrow I am fully accepted as a hero and seem to attract amorous advances from women as easily as I can men. It's one big love in, if you want it to be. My real pet peeve is the fact that my courting tactics include wolf-whistling and performing a bizarre Cossack dance. All well and good, but I'm a lady and I want to do lady things like laugh coquettishly and say, "Look at the lovely kittens."
There are more social expressions to be opened up, but somehow I'm thinking none of them are going to include something a woman would actually do. I don't know about the other women out there, but I for one don't often do a ‘victory pump' in order to win over male affections. Neither do I show off my biceps – not even for comic effect.
Considering Lionhead has paid such painful attention to detail, I'm astounded that one of the biggest choices in the game seems to have little bearing on anything other than your character's lady bumps. I don't want guys to open doors for Sparrow, but I would like to be able to use social devices that fit her character as a woman. I think it would have been fairly easy to put can-can, in place of the Cossack jig. Perhaps a flash of the ankle, rather than the strong man pose and so on.
I'm hoping that extended play will prove me wrong. Maybe a few more hours down the Fable II road I'll feel like the addition of a female protagonist wasn't just an aesthetic afterthought. I guess there's only one way to find out.
Most played: Fable II
Most wanted: Tomb Raider: Underworld