Combat
Melee combat takes place on the X button, ranged combat runs on the Y button and magic on the B button. Flourishes will be shown in a different perspective and time will slow down to show finishing moves. All combat is context specific, so that, if a player is on top of a tower, pressing 'X' may cause the player to throw an enemy off of the tower rather than attack with a weapon.
Additional features are included:
Positional advantage: if an enemy is above the player such as on stairs, they have a tactical advantage[5]
Skill increases: better combos and flourishes become unlocked as the character progresses
Weapon specific attacks: the character's combat style will change according to the kind of weapon they are using.
Ranged weapon targeting: while using a gun, the player can aim more accurately by using a crosshair.[6]
Weapons include: guns, axes, swords, hammers, pole arms and maces. Longbows will not be in Fable II due to the appearance of guns in Albion, however, crossbows will still be available.[7]
Dog
Early on in the game, the player will encounter a pet dog that will stay with him or her for the rest of the game. Every dog will be unique in some way and will change appearance depending on a variety of factors, including the player's alignment.
Obeying three built-in laws (do not irritate the player, unconditionally love the player and self-preservation), the dog features advanced AI. Behavior is context-specific; the dog will stay much closer in towns or when the player is hurt in battle, and if the player goes to a shop the dog will wait outside until the player leaves the shop. He is, to a degree, trainable using expressions.[8]
The dog will assist the player by performing a variety of tasks, for example:
The dog can alert the player to threats without alerting enemies of the player's presence; as such the dog has replaced the mini-map which was present in Fable.
The dog attacks whichever enemy the player is most vulnerable to. If there are two enemies ahead, one with a gun and one with a sword, a player wielding a sword would be vulnerable to the enemy with the gun, so the dog would attack the gunman.
The dog also uses hundreds of different barks, growls and whines each informing the player of something of particular interest or importance.
The dog will be programmed with advanced AI so it can gradually learn different behaviors. For example it will eventually know how to call the player's attention in a time of threat or to let the player know of any hidden treasures.
Some of the interactions players can have with their dog include buying toys, playing fetch, rewarding or punishing their dogs for their actions, and hiding from it.[9]
Death
On the 24th of June 2008, Dene Carter, creative director of Fable II, revealed the new design. Upon losing all health, the hero falls and loses an unspecified amount of experience; this experience is exchanged for a 'burst' of energy, allowing one last 'heroic struggle' in which the player rises to their feet and knocks all enemies away, leaving the player momentarily safe from harm.[10]
Co-op 
Online
On July 14th 2008 at E3 2008 lead designer Peter Molyneux demonstrated 'Ambient Orbs'.[11] These orbs show where other players are in their respective worlds and allow you to, at the press of a button, bring them into your world to co-op with. The actions of visiting players are permanent in the game, unless the safety feature is activated. Players will be able to give items to visitors. The players' dogs will not accompany them into another player's game.
The mode of co-op is somewhat similar to that of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game; in that players will be able to drop in and out of other player's games at will. The host player can set certain rules; eg. how loot gained is split between the players and if friendly fire is active or not.
Offline
While on the same console, a second player with their own account can drop in and out as a "henchman" to the first player. If the second player on the same console does not have an account of their own, the henchman is made in a brief create screen that pauses the game. Henchmen created this way are not saved into the main player's game. The first player also decides how much bounty the henchman will obtain, e.g. gold and renown. The second player will also be able to port any experience, renown and gold to their own Fable II game via a memory card if they have imported their character and not created the henchmen from scratch.[12]
Family
The family aspect of the Fable series will be further built upon, it will be possible to get married, have sex and have children.
The sex aspect, relatively unimportant in the first game, has also been built upon significantly. Players will be able to choose to have protected or unprotected sex, and by extension choose whether or not to have a child. Female player characters will become pregnant, and they will undergo the relevant physical changes.[13] Sex will, however, fade to black as in Fable.[14] Same-sex marriages, as in the first game, will be possible.[14]
The player's child or children will look upon the player as an example and will also follow their alignment, looks, etc. A player's family can be killed by a co-op player but only if friendly fire is made active by the host player. If the player's spouse is killed the player's child will go to the orphanage.[15]
Fable II will also have sexually transmitted diseases (the player can choose whether to employ safe sex), and adultery will be "fully support[ed]".[16] Divorces will also be possible, as in the first game, but this time the former spouses will take half of what players have got in the game, and Molyneux confirmed that it would be cheaper if the players murdered their spouses instead.[16] Polygamy is also possible.
Character morphing
Fable II enhances the system of morphing one's character based on their actions introduced in Fable. Character morphing revolves around two main alignments: Good and Evil. New aspects of the character alignment system include corruption, purity, wealth, poverty, kindness, and cruelty which will enhance or degrade a character's features. The player can be good but cruel, or be evil yet pure, etc.[17]
Expressions
Like in Fable, there are a lot of expressions that can be used by the player in order to communicate to other people, these include dancing, laughing, taunting, etc. This feature has been improved as shown in E3 2008, the player can use a button to access the expression menu at any time, which is a circular set of buttons that each lead to a different category, new expressions are included like "Who Are You ?", that when asked shows some information about an NPC's personality, and their interests towards the player. For example, it may be shown that if the player can get a NPC to laugh, he will give him a reward, or if he can make her love him, she may marry him, and the way of making a NPC laugh or love is by using expressions. There is also an extended expression mini-game. Some expressions have been taken to yet a further level of depth. In an interview with Game Informer Magazine, for example, it was revealed that you could even adjust the duration and tone of belches and farts.
Content
According to an IGN preview, Albion will be about ten times the size as the world of the previous Fable title.[14] While Molyneux has stated that the player can complete the main story in 12 hours if they rush through it, it would take 100+ hours to complete everything in the game.[6]
Cutscenes
There will be both interactive and a few non-interactive cutscenes in the game.[18]
In the fully interactive cutscenes a player can use their expressions during the dialogue or even run away from the scene, thus skipping it.
Dynamic world
The world in Fable II will be fully dynamic, interactive and free roaming with no set quest path to take.
Since the game will take place over a hero's lifetime, many things will change; Molyneux gave an example of a trade camp that the player could either help or destroy. Trading in such camps would increase their profit, resulting in a small town growing around them, while stealing from the camp or massacring the camp will result in the abandonment of the area.
Additionally, every accessible property (properties that can be entered by the player) in the world is ownable, and ownership often unlocks further quests. Players will be able to furnish the houses with furniture and other items available for sale. In addition, titles will be awarded for buying property; if one were to buy every building and piece of land in a town he may become the mayor of that town; owning more land leads to higher titles such as king, and eventually emperor of the entire land of Albion.[19]
The environment in Fable II will feature trees with branches and leaves that are individually animated according to their own physics, each tree having roughly 120,000 leaves. There are also around 15 million poppies in Albion. [6]
Peter Molyneux also has revealed the "bread crumb" trail, a feature that shows glowing sparkles in a line in front of you to guide you back to the main story line. Peter also said players are free to turn off this feature at any time and venture on your own path to that quest or just completely ignore the quest and explore more of Albion or partake in a side quest.
In Fable II Pub Games, an unlockable concept art shows a map of a coastline unlike the one from the original game. Whether this is a new area or a revamp of the original is unknown.
