The game's setting takes inspiration from the historical late colonial era, in terms of architecture, social quality and basic firearms such as flintlock pistols.

Alongside the main story, players can engage in several side quests and repeatable jobs to earn money and rewards, build up a property empire, and customise their character with various clothing items, hairstyles, tattoos and makeup.

New features to the game included the opportunity to choose between playing as a male or female character, a fast-travel system, and a canine companion who can detect treasures and alert the player to nearby enemies.

Fable II was released in October 2008 and achieved critical acclaim, many citing its adherence to the original while praising the changes that redefined the game system.

Additionally, every accessible property (those that can be entered by the player) in the world can be purchased (except for the Tattered Spire), and ownership of unique buildings can unlock further quests.

There are no other animals in the game, save for neutral rabbits and birds, a fact commented on by one NPC who notices the oddness of carriages with no horses.

The player may also choose to perform any of the many different jobs, gambling-based mini-games, participating in the arena-style minigame called the Crucible, explore dungeons, tombs, and caves, or roam the countryside.

All of these optional diversions can result in rewards for the player in the form of additional wealth, items, experience points, or character-altering attributes.

Exploration is essential to discovering much of the game's hidden content, in the form of 50 silver keys, special treasure chests, 9 Demon Doors, and 50 gargoyles that can be destroyed.

[8] Fable II did not ship with online cooperative, but a free patch has been available from Xbox Live since the European and American release date which adds this functionality.

The second player is also able to port any experience, renown and gold to their own Fable II Hero via a memory card if they have imported their character and not created the henchman from scratch.

Since then, the land has seen changes to science and philosophy, with new religions replacing the old ones of medieval Albion, and new technologies being developed, including the creation of firearms.

The game's story provides further background upon the "Old Kingdom" which existed centuries ago, but was destroyed following the activation of a large structure constructed by its inhabitants to magically grant a single wish to its user.

During a cold winter in Bowerstone, a young child known as Sparrow lives in poverty within the city's poorer district alongside their older sister Rose.

An old woman convinces the pair to acquire the money needed to buy it by doing odd jobs around the district, during which time Sparrow rescues a dog from a local bully.

Discovering that one of the pair is the fourth Hero who will stop him, Lucien kills Rose and wounds Sparrow, sending them out onto the city streets.

Ten years later, now that Sparrow is a young adult, the old woman instructs them to enter a cave system beneath a large lake, which houses the ruins of what was left of the Heroes' Guild.

Once inside, the old woman introduces herself as Theresa, a blind seeress, who explains that Sparrow is a descendant of the Hero of Oakvale who defeated Jack of Blades.

After they prove themselves by defeating a prominent bandit leader in the region, Theresa reveals that they are the only ones who can stop Lucien from destroying the world with an ancient structure known as The Spire - a building that channel magical energy to grant its user any wish they desire.

Theresa reveals that Sparrow is destined to defeat Lucien by finding the three heroes he seeks, each defining a specific parameter  – strength, will, and skill.

Discovering them to be a female monk known as Sister Hannah, they work to prove themselves to her father the local abbot, before providing her with protection as she undertakes an important ritual.

With her help, Sparrow proceeds with tracking down the hero of will - a scholar known as Garth, who worked with Lucien to rebuild the Spire, but fell out with him over time.

Successfully winning a place amongst the latest recruits, Sparrow leaves their possessions and dog with Hammer and travel to the Spire to find Garth.

Made a slave in their new role, Sparrow endures ten years of servitude, making a number of tough decisions in the process.

With Garth's help, Sparrow uses a cullis gate - a teleportation system used by the Heroes' Guild - to reach the marshlands that border Bloodstone, dealing with the undead in the process.

Finding themselves back in the Spire, Sparrow tracks down Lucien and uses the music box to defeat him, whereupon he dies at their hands or Reaver's.

Before the game was released, there was a production problem resulting in the Hobbe figurine, special box, and fate cards being removed from the collector's edition package.

[13] There was another supply chain issue that occurred in North America that caused some Limited Edition games not to have the token card for in-game content.

Eurogamer welcomed the "bread crumb" trail feature in the game, "as leads you ever onwards to your next objective, but even though you can't get lost it still allows for deep exploration".

[16][41] According to NPD, the game attained the status of best-selling title in the United States across all platforms for its debut month of October 2008 with 790,000 copies sold.