Reviews

Review: Fable II Pub Games

The most one can say about the craps variant, Keystone, is that it's well presented, but nobody plays a gambling game for the visuals. Like craps, bets are placed around the table ranging from numbers to shapes, colors and the odds with a roll of the dice determining the outcome. The gimmick to Keystone is found in the arch that surrounds the field of play with each of its segments correlating to a number on the table. Should that number be rolled, the stone falls with special "keystones" preventing the arch from collapsing. Craps boils down to sheer dumb luck and only shouting quotes from The Wizard ("Spanky! Hard eight!") makes it even remotely entertaining. Keystone falls into this trap as well, with the odds feeling stacked against you all time.

Finally, there's Spinnerbox which is about as descriptive as you can possibly get. Much like the one-armed bandits found in Vegas, Spinnerbox steals your money, flips through the possible outcomes and then asks for more. As in Keystone, the odds feel against you as it's very much possible to blow straight through your initial set of chips without so much as a single win. It's the least interesting of the three games for both the obvious reasons (slot machines aren't exactly exciting) and that unlike the other two games, it doesn't put any twists on the old formula. Other than the fact that, you know, it's a box. With spinners.

Bottom Line: Pub Games is a great experiment for Microsoft but it doesn't seem to do anyone any favors. The games themselves don't hold enough weight to interest those not already interested in Fable II and the pay outs aren't big enough or frequent enough to be useful for those who are. Unless of course you're totally cheating.

Verdict: If you get this for free by pre-ordering Fable II then there's no harm in downloading and checking it out. But do not under any circumstances pay for this game under any form of currency. It may be a step up from the ill-fated Yaris, but it's still a promotional tool and a crummy one at that.

Jared Rea is a freelance writer who, like Fox Mulder, wants to believe, only not so much in aliens but in the quality of Fable II.