Fable II is day 13 of our series on 15 Xbox classics you can still play on Xbox Series X|S. Lionhead’s Xbox 360 sequel is in Game Pass, enhanced for current consoles, and a good place to start before the new Fable arrives in February.
Fable II at a glance
- Developer: Lionhead Studios
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Original release: 21 October 2008 (North America), 24 October 2008 (Europe)
- Original console: Xbox 360
- Xbox Store price: £14.99 / $19.99
- Game Pass: Premium and Ultimate
- Backward compatible since: 12 November 2015
- Enhancements: Xbox One X Enhanced
What is Fable II?
Fable II is an action role-playing game set in Albion, 500 years after the first Fable. Heroes have disappeared and the Heroes’ Guild is long gone. You play Sparrow, a child from the streets of Bowerstone who survives an encounter with Lord Lucien, the ruler of Castle Fairfax. Sparrow grows up to become a Hero and sets out to stop Lucien, with the help of the blind seeress Theresa.
The story runs from childhood to adulthood, and your choices change how your hero looks. There are two separate scales, Good and Evil, and Purity and Corruption, so a hero can grow a halo, horns or both. What you eat changes your build, and levelling up your Physique, Skill and Will stats changes your appearance too.
Fable II added a choice of male or female hero, a fast-travel system and a dog that follows you through the whole game. It finds treasure, fights alongside you and changes colour with your alignment. You can buy almost every building in Albion, run businesses, marry, have children and earn money from jobs such as blacksmith, woodcutter and bartender. Co-op lets a second player join as a “henchman” on the same console, over System Link or online.
Fable II’s history on Xbox
Lionhead Studios, led by Peter Molyneux, made Fable II as the follow-up to 2004’s Fable. Its cast includes Stephen Fry as the pirate lord Reaver, Zoë Wanamaker as Theresa and Ron Glass as Garth. At E3 2008, Molyneux showed off “Albion Orbs”, glowing markers that show where friends are in their own games and let you bring them into yours.
Before launch, in August 2008, Lionhead released Fable II Pub Games on Xbox Live Marketplace, with three of the gambling games from Albion’s pubs: Fortune’s Tower, Keystone and Spinner Box. Fable II followed that October. Online co-op wasn’t on the disc, so Lionhead released a free update on launch day to add it. Fable II became the best-selling Xbox 360 game following its release.
Two add-ons followed: Knothole Island on 13 January 2009, and See the Future on 12 May 2009, which included potions to change your dog’s breed. Both were included in Fable II: Game of the Year in September 2009. From September 2009, Fable II was also released in episodes on Xbox Live Marketplace, with the first episode free. Fable III followed in 2010.
Why it matters
Fable II was a big Xbox 360 exclusive from a Microsoft-owned studio, and it’s the middle game in Lionhead’s main Fable trilogy, before the series’ return. Playground Games’ Fable is due on 23 February 2027 and will be in Game Pass from day one. Our guide to everything we know about the new Fable has the details, and our Fable hub will follow it to launch.
How to play Fable II on Xbox Series X|S today
Fable II was part of the Xbox One backward compatibility launch on 12 November 2015, and it runs on Xbox Series X|S too. You can buy it from the Xbox Store for £14.99 or $19.99.
It’s included with Game Pass Premium and Ultimate. See our Game Pass tiers guide for what each plan includes.
The store lists Fable II as Xbox One X Enhanced, so it runs at a higher resolution on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X. It doesn’t have FPS Boost.
If you own the Xbox 360 disc, an Xbox One or Xbox Series X will recognise it and download the backward-compatible version.
More on Fable II
Our Fable II hub has the essentials and will collect future coverage. Tomorrow, the series heads to the Capital Wasteland with Fallout 3.
