Two Worlds

[Volourn]

I have been playing Two Worlds for the past week on the xbox 360 (it is also on PC). It is described often as an Action RPG or by those who want to bash it as a Diablo or Oblivion wannabe. I have also been reading the reviews for it - both professional and random joe - and it's been mostly uniformly trashed. I don't get. I personally find Two Worlds to be a fun game. I have played it for about 10 hours (not counting reloads after death) with no end in sight. I'll explain why I like the game, and for those who have tried it or decided to avoid TW; and explaination is DEMANDED (ok, not really, just asked for) on why you hated it.

 

Graphics: Solid. Nothing too fancy; but nothing out of the ordinary in awfulness for a game in 2007. The character/monster models look good, and the background scenary looks fine. Item icons look good for the most part except the really small things (plants and the like) because they're too small to really make out. 8/10

 

Music/Sound: The music is underrated. It fits the fantasy setting no doubt. The opening tune is pretty darn good as well. It kind of reminds of the Arcanum opening song in its effectiveness. Voice overs are okay ranging from horrible to good. Definitely not as bad as many claim; and I've definitely heard worse. Sounds effects are solid; but not really memorable. I love the way the main character often talks about what's going on including critical hits, day/night changes, seeing monsters on the horizon, and finding interesting new items, etc. 7.5/10

 

Character System: An awesome system. It has all the combat skills one would expect (weaponry, bonus damage, etc). plus some neateo ones including D&D stuff like knockdown, and balance (helps against knockdown). It even has some fun odd abilities like being able to kick the dust into enemies' eyes. Theres' even non combat skills like swimming, horseback riding (and combat skills to go with it), alchemy, and some others. Of course, it also has roguish skills like sneaking, thieving, and assassination (backstab).The only 'must have' RPG skills it is misisng are dialogue ones. Otherwise, awesome stuff with 30 or skills including 5 magic spell schools (basic ones like 4 elements + necromancy). You get 1 skill point per level (plus bonus one time to time based on quests, and achievements) to level up skills. Very nice, indeed.

The spells are nice and range from damaging spells to summons to defensive type spells. The schools seem to be well balanced though I've only seriously tried the Air domain. Magic also works with boosters which can improve your spells' effectiveness. This makes spell work even cooler to take part in.

The character has 4 attributes which are rather self explanatary (vitality, strength, dexterity, and willpower). You get 5 points to increase them each level so expect your mana and health to be really high (though monsters can hurt ya a lot). Items also play a huge part as well and will be explained later on.

The travel system is pretty good with the choice of walking(duh!), riding the horse, and perhaps the best teleport/portal system I've seen in a game. Thumbs up there.

Overall, like I said above the character system is amazing with lots of skills and abilities available lots of which have to be traind in by finding those willing to teach (get it by paying or completing quests). Very nice system. One of the best I've seen. Everything seems rather baalnced, and it only loses a point due to the lacking dialogue skills. 18.5/20

 

Role-playing: This is where TW is lacking, and is deserving in major criticism. There aren't usually, with some exemptions, different ways to complete quests. And, with no dialogue skills, there's not much differing the dialogue choices based on character. The SP game is limited by having to be male (for story purposes I guess *shrug*) The main saving grace here are the different factions that you can work with (or not work with). Your relationship with each one can limit or expand what you can or where you can go. Some examples include not being allowed to see the ruler of the area, or not allowed near the rebel leader, and even getting discounts from the merchant group. Overall, role-playing in TW is lacking; but it's there. 11.5/20

 

Story/World Setting/Characters: The story set up is rather basic. Your twin sister is kidnapped, and you are trying to find her. During that, you get roped into a large scale world effecting drama not to mention your family's history comes hack to haunt you. The world itself is HUGE with many towns, villages, and enclaves. The lore of the past dealing with the dwarves, barbarians, and others isa absolutely fanastic. One of the best parts of TW is learning about the world. The towns are varied nicely. The characters, for the most part, are basic townsfolk and guestgivers; but others are rather cool most notebaly a fellow you meet early on who has connections with those who kidnapped your sister.... The world in this game feels like a real world for the most part and is living/breathing. Creatures sleep at normal times, day/night cycles matter, and the law will punish thieves. Admittedly, some of the Olde dialogue stylings are so over the top I can't help but crack up while I roll my eyes at the absurdity of it all. L0L 9/10

 

Combat (everything that effects combat too like equipment): With a great character system, it is no doubt a great combat system follows. I enjoy TW combat. Early on, I found it challenging since TW doesn't pull punches as it is not linear at all, and you can go anywhere you want so be careful lest you go off the beaten path. Once you gain a few levels, and some nice stuff TW combat becomes much more manageable with most enemies/encounters not bothering you (like most games); but with a share of encounters that can be tricky including a certain beasty that can kill in one hit pretty much no matter what shape you in. I have encountered enemies like skeles, death knights (they love to disarm!), ghouls, ice orcs, dwarves (yeah, dwarves seem to be hostile as they aren't on friendly terms with the ever poaching humans, heh), ogers (ha!), as well as various animals. I have heard whispers of; but not seen stronger enemies like dragons though I have seen their bones.

Combat is in real time; but character skill does play a huge role in things. Though, being able to dodge attacks, and learning how to manage large crows is a must. Really ahrd to stand to toe with enemy packs of 3+ until you get high level as you'd like be knocked around. Magic is useful espicially boosting and area attack spells. Summons I'm sure are useful too though I have yet to use them myself. Mana regenerates though I think it's too quick. Helath only regens when your weapon is sheathed and does so slowly so prepare to heal.

Combat abilities are fun like knockdown, disarm, and the variant archery ones though I personally haven't tried them but seeing ane enmy archer shoot two arrows at me at one time cna be annoying. Heh. Using a horse in combat has its benefits too since a good trampling can instantly kill some baddies though, at times, a horse can be tricky to handle properly though it just takes practice to master.

Awww.. Equipment. TW also shines here. Equipment is varied and and awesome. Combining weapons, and armour is terrific and makes it less likely for one to ignore the common weapons thata re found. A normal axe is wimy; but a normal ax combined to the that has been double up to the 5th degree can be rather useful espicially if you decide to imbue the weapon further with an elemenal damage gem. Add this on to the alchemy potions you can craft, and you got an item system that is very great and useful in combat. This makes looting and purchasing at the HUNDREDS of stores worthwhile.

Some claim that TW uses scaling; but if it does it does so wisely more like NWN series than, say, the rumoured Oblivion method. Like I said ebfore, you can find really tough enemies like the cyclops at the start, and really easy enemies like wolves later on in the game. Items found in chests do seem to scale a bit to your level; but that seems reasonable in an exploration type Action RPG like TW. Overall, the combat, item, and scale system is terrific in TW. 18.5/20

 

Personal Bias: The more I think of it, I believe TW isn't just a solid bgame; but it's outright good. At least so far. Between the world setting/history, the character system, the fun combat, and exploration any flaws it may have (and it has a few) is well worth it. Some claim the game just plain sucks; but I believe they are wrong. They talk about things being unbalanced, buggy,

a rip off of other games, and whatever; but I simply don't see it. TW is also a huge game. Some claim to have beaten it in about 20 hours or so; and if they ahve more pwoer to them; but I see me playing this game far beyond that. 9/10

 

Overall: 82/100 = 82% A good game that seems to get a lot of flack for reasons that escape me. Hmph.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Volourn

[Sand]

How much control do you have in creating the look of your character? Is it like NWN1/2 which you choose basic heads/hairstyles, or is it more free form like Oblivion. I have consideredgetting TW but being able to control how your character looks, as well what he can and cannot do is equally important to me.

[Volourn]

You can change hair colour/style, face, body types (chest, arms, etc.).

 

You can pretty much to do what you want, and go where you want (except a few places with factions but you can work your way in various ways). It's an Action RPG so most quests are solved by combat (but, not always). TW is the type of RPG where the focus is mostly on epxloration, and discovering the world as opposed to multiple solutions though again there is some. Character types do make a difference in how you approach encounters I presume, and you can deal with the npcs you meet in various ways.

[Morgoth]

Since I horribly fail at Gothic 3 (Gobblins beat me dead, 1 min quickload, no fun), I'm gonna give the 2W demo a try. Maybe I'm gonna get the full version at some point since it's really cheap now and there's also a 1Gbyte patch that fixes most critical bugs.

[Spider]

My experiences with Two Worlds are vastly different from Volourns. But I played it on the PC which could make up for some of the differences. But certainly not all.

 

I agree that the character creation system is pretty solid. I certianly don't think it's amazing, but not awful either. Sort of like the one in Gothic.

 

Now to where I disagree...

 

I found combat to be pretty bad. The controls were clunky and it was difficult to a level which was absurd. Every fight there was a million enemies all just as strong as I was or stronger. If there was archers around, I was basically doomed from the beginning (unless I managed to lure enemeis out one by one or so). Walking along the road only to get assaulted by 10-15 bandits every now and then (and each such fight was as tough as they come) is not exactly my idea of fun. And I don't mind difficult combat in games, I played Gothic 3 for a lot longer for instance.

 

The music is ok, but doesn't stand out, but the voice acting, oh the voice acting. The voices here are the worst I've heard in any game since ToEE. But in all fairness, this may not be the actors fault, it probably has more to do with the horrible writing that they're forced to read. Seriously, listening to that trite almost made my ears bleed, forsooth! (What they did was throw in random old english words here and there, it just sounded so tupid and out of place)

 

Graphics were ok, but certainly not amazing. Performance was ok, but should have been better given the graphics.

 

The story seemed to be ok, but I didn't get far enough through it to really know. I did play the game for about as long as Volourn did, just didn't go along the critical path. And I do have this to say for the game, it is open and you can go wherever you want whenever you want. I just didn't really want to go anywhere at all.

 

My summary of it before was that I felt it took the worst design decisions made by Gothic 3 and Oblivion and combined them into one game, and I stand by that. So if one really liked both those games, maybe Two Worlds is worth checking out.

[Musopticon?]

"It's raining"

[Volourn]

"It's raining"

 

R00fles!

 

 

"My experiences with Two Worlds are vastly different from Volourns."

 

Nothing wrong with that. I did ask for differing opinions.

 

 

"The controls were clunky and it was difficult to a level which was absurd."

 

I'm sure controls were different on PC; but xbox 360 controls weren't perfect. switching between spells, and special abilties took awhile to get used to for sure. Levelling seems easy as I'm level 23 in about 9 hours of play. That's pretty quick, and the pacing of gaining the levels is smooth.

 

 

"Walking along the road only to get assaulted by 10-15 bandits every now and then (and each such fight was as tough as they come) is not exactly my idea of fun."

 

Hmm.. My maximum number of enemies I've faced thus far is about half a dozen (I think 7 was the most). Best way to deal with numbers is attack for a bit, back off, heal quickly, and get back into it. Make sure you have decent health though.

 

 

"What they did was throw in random old english words here and there, it just sounded so tupid and out of place)"

 

Heh. I agree. The use of Olde Englishe was silly. It was so silly, and over the top that in the end it simply amused me with the absurdity of it.

 

 

"My summary of it before was that I felt it took the worst design decisions made by Gothic 3 and Oblivion and combined them into one game, and I stand by that. So if one really liked both those games, maybe Two Worlds is worth checking out."

 

I liked G3 well enough; but eventually got bored of it. I hate the ES series so much I didn't even bother with Oblivion.

 

 

Coolio beaneos, good sir.

Edited October 3, 2007 by Volourn

[Morgoth]

My demo impressions are subpar at best. The voice acting is horrible, the writing just boring. Combat seems to be the same as Gothic 3 (click click click), and the performance is mostly bad. The inventory and interface are quite well done, though. Better than the Gothic series for sure. But it isn't really that sort of game that keeps me curious for a long time, so I think I'll pass.