In an interview with Kikizo, Peter Molyneux of Fable fame discussed the combat system in Lionhead Studios’ upcoming RPG, Fable 2. He first bashed just about every single RPG and fighting game because players didn’t know how to play them or that the combat mechanics were just poorly implemented.
"Stupidly, the ambition on this thing is I want you to measure this against any fighting game. It’s amazing for a role playing game, because most role playing games are sh*t! Oblivion was a great game, but the combat was rubbish; we all talked about it being rubbish. So imagine you had a great role-playing game and really, really good combat system."
Molyneux, then, stated that he had rather high ambitions for Fable 2. "As a designer I want as many people to enjoy my game as possible. I’ll put a number on that: the number is five million; that’s pretty ambitious, and to do that I need to innovate." Hopefully innovate doesn’t mean hype with no delivery.
Talking about the percent of combat in RPGs, Molyneux said that combat takes up at least 50-70%. If the combat system stinks, then the RPG will stink, and, of course, Molyneux is on a rampage trying to blend those two together. "They’re [hardcore gamers] requiring ultimate balance, enormous depth and love experimenting throughout the whole of the game… How can I create a combat system that combines both together?" It’s tough, but do you think appealing to the hardcore gamers will net you your 5 million player base mark?
If you missed it, during E3, Molyneux showcased Fable 2’s ‘one button’ combat system. It’s what it says; you use one button to fight. Some forms of button mashing will still be in Fable 2 — to initiate a fight, for example, but most of combat will be done through as little buttons as possible.
The death system is being tweaked too; if you die in Fable 2, you can either take an experience points cut and respawn instantly where you died or, instead, have your character don some rather nasty looking scars and battle wounds. These wounds will have an effect on townsfolks and it apparently has an emotional effect on players, "We tested with loads of kids, and most people loathe looking like it, and the interesting thing is how that makes you feel."
For those who missed it, here’s a combat demostration video of Fable 2.
