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81 of 82 people found the following review helpful.
A good choice for gamers with a bit of patience
By R. McAtee
(I have not tried any of the online play, so this review is essentially for the base game with the included patches that are otherwise downloadable.)I am a HUGE fan of single-player PC action/adventure RPGs, especially the Elder Scrolls and Gothic titles. Although I have yet to dig into Oblivion's Shivering Isles expansion, I have since tried to find a few "bargain bin" games to play in between Lord of the Rings Online sessions. The Witcher was fantastic, Fable too short and too buggy. I stumbled upon Two Worlds by accident, but I'm glad I did. As another game coming out of Europe, it isn't exactly a household name, and it's certainly not the most original game you'll ever play, but it is quite entertaining . . . if you can tolerate some of its shortcomings.For starters, Two Worlds might not be quite what you'd expect from the box description or installation process, which is sometimes funny and sometimes frustrating. During the installation, there is a splash screen with a busty young woman. If you've played The Witcher or Fable, you might think that to be a hint of in-game "conquests" to look forward to, but it's your SISTER. It's also (after 50 hours of gameplay, anyway) the most revealing display you'll ever see. More on that later. There is a reference to four character classes, but unlike traditional RPGs where you pick a class and stick with it, Two Worlds doesn't adhere to strict character design limitations. For that matter, don't expect much guidance as to what path you take; after a lot of time spent playing, I have yet to find any advantage to straying far from the hack-and-slash route. Magic certainly has its place, and you can of course follow a more archery-heavy ranger approach, but sooner or later you're going to find yourself in the thick of a dungeon brawl where a sword and heavy armor are your best resources. Fans of a rogue/thief/assassin approach will probably be disappointed, as stealth and backstabbing are not viable for getting through most encounters.Much has been said about the use of horses for travel and combat in Two Worlds, mostly negative. While a horse understandably can't scale a sheer cliff or jump over a castle wall, there are situations where your horse will abruptly stop in its tracks or change direction rather than continue where the path slopes a bit or a small obstacle blocks it. This is also true in combat, as your steed will charge headlong through a squad of orcs without hesitation, and then slam on the breaks as you ride past a single opponent. You might have the best armor in the game, but a couple of orc arrows or swipes from a dragon will kill your horse quickly. I also found myself being pursued by guards after my horse apparently trampled innocent bystanders. This wouldn't be so frustrating if the horse wasn't so bloody useful. Pathing issues aside, a horse will greatly reduce travel time, and the damage bonus available when fighting from the saddle can be quite significant. Carving your way through a pack of wolves or slaughtering a band of outlaws is very satisfying - if you don't get hung up halfway through. Different types of horses (including orc lizard-mounts and armored skeletal horses) have varying cargo capacity, and are pretty much a must-have for any dungeon adventurer.Other interesting features are alchemy and equipment enhancement. Alchemical ingredients can be found all through the land, generally fare less scarce than in Gothic. Gems can be found to upgrade weapon damage, and armor and weapons of the same type can (usually) be "stacked" numerous times to increase stats. Unfortunately, some of the gems used in alchemy have misleading stats, because they don't mix to create potions or enhancements, but rather traps and bombs that may not be of particular use to you. Even with your strength boosted by potions and level-ups, carrying capacity is limited, so it's often best to find a safe storage place (abandoned buildings are great for this) and place a portable teleport stone there for easy access. It won't take long for you to accumulate some serious wealth, but some items are best held onto for future upgrades.In terms of story, look and feel, Two Worlds could just as well have the Gothic logo on the front. Seriously, someone unfamiliar with either game could read the plot synopsis from the first Gothic game and play Two Worlds all the way through without realizing they are different games. Orcs are poised to invade human lands, while rival human factions do battle in forests, mountains and villages. The orcs' god is imprisoned, necromancers are up to their usual business, and now an anonymous newcomer has arrived on the scene to do everyone else's dirty work while pursuing some noble plot. There are wolves, lizards, dragons and various other critters cluttering up the Euro-styled landscape, which is liberally stocked with healing shrines, magical monuments and teleport rings. All the standards are here.Unoriginality aside, Two Worlds is fun. There are many, many quests in the villages and cities, and even in the wilderness, all in addition to the main storyline. I found myself engaging mostly in side quests, coming back to the main plot when it looked as though a particular mission might drastically affect faction standing or travel options. Although far more of the game world is dedicated to wilderness and wildlife than to villages, cities and dungeons, there are roads and trails crossing the landscape, with ruins, bandit camps and houses here and there. Even with a very modest hardware configuration and scaled-back visual settings, you can see for incredible distances, often being able to see a route from your current location to a fortress or city that appears to be miles away on the map. Caves, tombs and graveyards are often tucked away off the beaten path, so exploration is key if you want to see your stats and equipment improve without spending your hard-earned coin at the town vendors. The various dungeons are loaded with monsters who carry all sorts of loot, and treasure chests often contain some of the best spoils. This does require some skill with the lockpicks, which can be hard to come by early on.There are few blatant bugs, although nothing as severe as was found in Gothic 3. Stability has been quite good - I've only had one crash in over 50 hours of play. The main problem is that corners were cut here and there. The dialog is atrocious, and the characters' mouths don't even move in a lot of the cut scenes. The character models look quite good in third-person mode, but not so good close-up during the cut scenes. Remember when I mentioned the woman during the initial installation? This far into the game, she's the only female who isn't wrapped up head-to-toe in some overzealous attempt at modesty. This isn't a game that needs to rely on T&A to make it interesting, but in a world where male characters are encased in staggering suits of armor, the females are extremely uninspired. What's worse is that almost none of the female denizens will talk to you, which is something right out of the original Gothic. Your sister? She communicates you mostly as a ghostly greyish apparition via cut scenes. I wasn't expecting The Witcher's level of interaction, but every woman in every town need not threaten to call the guards when I approach. Because of the way the inventory screen is arranged - poorly, as is typical of the genre - dealing with vendors can be a huge hassle. The save-game menu isn't very intuitive either, when it comes to overwriting or deleting old saves. Definitely don't skimp on the saves, as the autosave function works on a timer rather than when you enter new areas.If you're still reading this, you are probably very patient, which is a good thing if you're going to get the most out of Two Worlds. It really is a good game if you don't mind the generic world and plot, but it takes some time to get used to the quirks and move past them to the good stuff. I like games where I can wander freely, and still get many hours out of the quests. This is definitely more open-ended than The Witcher or Fable, more on the scale of Gothic or Elder Scrolls, and there is more room for replaying due to the reputation system and its bearing on faction and quests. Basically, buy this if you have the time to dedicate to a huge game and are willing to work around the problems.
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
Good game, couple of flaws
By Rinimand
I'm a gamer. This is a well made game. It's a bit linear as you have to do certain story parts to open up new areas. It does have replayability however, as you will pick one path and then try another path the second, third time. It's great to be a caster and attack a horde of orcs or a dragon with 8 conjured minions. I have primarily played a mage in this game up to a pretty high level. I did fighter for quite some time as well, but it gets repetitive and is actually tougher than the mage. Thief is useless. The game doesn't force you into one of these archetypes, you are free to mix / match skills, but a hybrid in this game is weaker than a pure character. The game is good enough that I bother to write a review so that others will try this game. At $5 it's a steal. Skip the $5 cappuccino and buy this game instead.Flaws: I ding this 1/2 star start for the magic card system, and 1/2 star for the flawed sneaking/thief system.1) Magic card system is weak. During combat, a caster is opening the magic window every few seconds to swap spell cards or enhancement cards. That said, the magic in this game is well thought out and looks great. I love firewalls!2) Item collection becomes tedious and at higher levels you just give up on it. Early in the game you almost obsess over it. Later, you ignore all but the most intriguing items.3) AI is weak. Mostly get bushwacked and charged. But, combat is interesting and looks great.4) Sneaking is useless. Take it from someone who primarily plays thief/rogues in games like PnP D&D, D&D Online, Everquest, Neverwinter Nights, Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall, you name it. I gave up on thief here after 1 hour.
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Flawed Gem
By N. Diamon
Let me clear the air right off. I do not own this edition of the game. I own the first PC edition. The only difference between the two is the addition of a few more multiplayer maps and options and the improvements in the 1.7 patch which can be downloaded for free if you own the previous version. For that reason, I will not be discussing the mutiplayer beyond what I have experienced in the original.This game got a pretty bad rap when it first came out for PC and 360 in August of '07. It was buggy, rough, and very prone to crashing. The multiplayer was an empty wasteland due to the poor connection issues and aimless gameplay.Fast forward to a year later. Is Two Worlds any good? Well, it's not a bad game. It's a surprisingly fun (but mindless) romp through thick euro-fantasy tropes and hack & slash gameplay.Your character wakes up after being attacked and having his sister kidnapped by ne'er-do-wells. You gird yourself in a gravelly voice and oversized armor and head out to chop your way through the countryside. That's about it for the story. It suffers from the normal complaints in the European low fantasy genre, namely that the VO work is stilted and hammy and the plotline makes little sense. But you didn't really pick this game up for the stirring script did you?The game shines in the implementation of a completely open world similar to Oblivion with simplistic action RPG combat. As you level up in your quest to rescue your sister and defeat the overdramatic Evil Force, you'll ramble over the landscape and trounce enemies using either magic or weaponry and your upgradeable skills.The skill system isn't quite as advanced as the one in Oblivion, but it's deeper than many other action RPGs. You'll definitely not be able to max out all the skills in a playthrough, so you'll have to allocate points wisely with each level.The loot is widely varied and very cool. You can upgrade your weapons and armor by imbuing them with gems that add various effects. In a very innovative move, you may keep adding the same type of gem to a previously upgraded item, so you can keep improving the stats on a low level piece of kit beyond the point at which you normally would trash it. You can also "meld" the same type of item to improve the base stats if you pick up a repeat of something you already have. This is something I wish more loot heavy games would do.It appears SouthPeak wisely took the picture of the protaganist astride the warhorse off the front of the game. Mounted travel and combat was a feature marketed in the prerelease of the game, which turned out to have all the attraction and practicality of building your own Model T Ford. Stay away from the horseback riding. You'll save yourself a lot of stress.The bugs have been ironed out for the most part. there are still a few quest glitches and random graphical bugs, but there's nothing too upsetting at this point. I haven't crashed yet since upgrading to the latest patch.If you play this game as a simple action RPG rather than some kind of epic roleplaying story, you'll have a blast.
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