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Playing Two Worlds for the first time

Which of these games is the best (or least bad)?

  • Two Worlds

  • Gothic 3

  • TES: Oblivion

  • TES: Skyrim

  • Divine Divinity

  • They are all bad beyond redemption.

  • They are all bad beyond redemption.


Results are only viewable after voting.

Kliwer

Savant
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
215
Sooo… I was looking for some light game to make a break from more “serious” cRPGs (Wizards and Warriors, Amberstar), something more action-oriented. I have noticed that near Christmas I had bought a few games on GOG (very cheaply), Two Worlds among them. So I have tried. And, well… I’m very impressed.

In general I do not like open-world cRPGs, for many, many reason. I truly HATE all TES titles (especially Skyrim), as well as Witcher 3, Gothic 3 etc. The only exceptions are Gothic 1&2 and Risen 1. But Two Worlds, for some reasons, is quite enjoyable for me. I can’t call this game a masterpiece or anything but its gameplay is very solid. I’m really surprised by so bad reviews. The same authors who appreciate Oblivion and Gothic 3 criticize TW very much. “Poor man’s Oblivion” they said. For me the quite opposite is true: Oblivion is a “poor man’s” Two Worlds.

I will mostly compare TW to Gothic 3 because both games look and play in a similar way: we have partially-specified main character, third person view, simplistic action combat, quite big open world with many small towns, faction reputation, character development based on XP and trainers etc.

I’m not very far in the game, so I will share only preliminary impressions with You (and we know that are numerous games which make much better first impression than they really deserve). I have reached 20 level of experience, I have already explored most of the northern regions and have not visited any of big cities yet (only a couple of villages).

So let’s go with some random comments.

- Manual is one of the best I have seen from a long time – it explains all mechanics and describes a bit of a cool lore. PDF map of the game world is very charming; I wish to have it in a printed version (sorry, I truly love extra game materials, especially maps; there are a few cRPGs which I have started to play only because of cool world maps).

- Music in only ok, voice acting is quite bad (which means nothing to me); the song in the main menu is great. Graphic is very nice, with long distance view. It is probably no important for a modern player, but the game is greatly optimized; my old laptop runes it without lags or overheating (to compare: Dragon Age: Origins and Oblivion burn this machine to ashes and M&M X: Legacy runs terribly slow).

- The world is a high-fantasy standard, but I like it. There is enough lore behind the land to awake curiosity. General atmosphere is like a cross between Forgotten Realms (dwarves, elves) and Gothic (war of gods, sarcastic main hero, orcs invasion, rough NPCs).

- Quest are a mixed bag: some are very basic stuff (go – kill – return), others have a quite interesting background and some C&Cs. All quests are much better than anything in Gothic 3; for now almost no stupid stuff like: collect 10 wolf skins.

- The game map is diverse – also more interesting and natural than three regions of Gothic 3 (or featureless woodland of Oblivion). The world looks reasonably vast. There are settlements of different races, mountains, lakes, rivers, deserts, glaciers, swamps (I’m judging mostly from the in-game map; for now I have only explored a northern corner of the land and made some quick trips to the south to see th landscape).

- For now almost all special locations are connected to the road system. Whole landscape between roads looks like a filler, good only for grinding and looking for some rare alchemical ingredients. The game has not as dense content as Gothic 2, but still there is much more points of interest then in Oblivion. For me it has a good balance between traveling, exploring and combat. Thanks Crom for no respawn (I have abandoned a few nice action-RPGs because of my hate for respawns, for example Sacred). Enemies are maybe a bit too numerous (in a dwarf mine I have slayed about 40 dwarves in 5-10 person packs).

- Thanks to stationary teleporters, portable teleporters (something similar to “pyramids” in Divine Divinity) and horse riding it is very easy to come back to any necessary quest-giver or trader. Horse riding is nice, although I still cannot efficiently fight on a horse back. The possibility to store equipment and loot in horse yucca is extremely handy.

- Dungeons, for now, are very primitive: just small systems of boring corridors filled with enemies. It’s quite lame: enter a chamber -> defeat 3-8 enemies -> loot the chest -> go to the next chamber.

- I’m playing this game on hard difficulty. For now the game balance is quite good. Firstly, as usually, everything was killing me. But after some level-ups the world opened a bit. Now (20 level) some fights are a piece of cake, some are moderately difficult; I’m finding here and there a monster much too strong for me (cyclops, ogre, bigger groups of enemies with spell caster) to come back later. So everything is as it should be in an open world cRPG. I can explore reasonably freely, but not without a sense of danger.

- Melee fighting mechanic is good enough, a bit more dynamic than in TES games, obviously much less broken than in Gothic 3. It’s based on dodge abusing (which completely negates usefulness of shields), but despite of it some monster are almost impossible to beat on lower levels.

- The game system has funny numbers inflation. On first level my damage were about 8-12, on 20 level my weapon inflict almost two thousands of damage. Wow. This means that those skills which are not actively developed become completely useless. I still have only 1 point in setting traps so it is not even worth to use them (they could inflict about 200 damage – it was impressive on a first level, but not now). So either develop a skill all the time or forget about it (with some exceptions).

- Most skills are battle-centric (general categories: close combat skills, archery skills, magic skills), only exceptions are thieving skills and swimming. Because of previous point (numbers inflation) it is not as easy to become ultimate fighter-wizard-thief, which is nice (but I’m guessing that it will be a case in a long run). My current build is something like that:

Stats: strength (melee damage + encumbrance): 40, endurance (HP): 30, dexterity (attack/defense + usage of some weapons): 30, willpower (mana): 15. I’m developing mostly melee skills + lockpicking + a bit of Air Magic (for buffs and heals). When I find a trainer I will develop also an alchemy skill.

- Magic system is quite interesting. You can collect one spell more than one time (which improves its effect but also raises mana usage). You can also improve your spells with special “cards” (some of them improve spell effects, some reduce mana consumption etc.) Only drawback of this system is that you can only have three spells ready to cast. It’s ok for my fighter (I only need a healing spell + 2 buffs), but it could be a problem for a dedicated spellcaster.

- There are no weapon skills per se, you could use any type of weapon. But there are some skills that could be used only with some specific type of weapon, for example a stunning attack could be perform only with blunt weapons. Enemies also have some immunities, so it is important to carry more than one type of weapon. Currently I’m using my main two-handed sword (fast, heavy-hitting, long range, enchanted by shock damage), but I also have in a backpack a heavy club (blunt damage + spirit damage enchantment – so it is a weapon to fighting skeletons and ghosts) and a one-handed sabre (to fight from a horse back). I wish more games would use such approach instead of marrying our hero with one beloved type of armament.

- I think that there are not many special artifacts in this game, for now everything I found was randomly-generated. It is of course a shame, but the game has also a unique “combining system”. It works as follows: you can combine every two items of the same type to receive one a bit more powerful. Example: you have two short sword (8-10 and 10-12 points of damage); after combining you will receive one short sword witch 12-14 damage. It is, indeed, pretty abstract mechanic but it works quite good from the gameplay perspective. Take Skyrim: you really have no motivation to fight witch tenth group of bandits because no part of their equipment is attractive to you. But in TW almost every fight brings you a small equipment upgrade. You have just found next two handed sword? Great, it will improve your current weapon a bit. Add to this that the game is not level-scaled (I think?) and you will see semi-good loot system. Another example: I have found a cave with an ogre (much too strong for my character) guarding a chest. I was able to sneak behind him to loot this chest and items inside were truly great on my level. Some items have attribute or level requirements, but leveling in this game is fast so delay between finding a powerful item and possibility to use it is short.


Enough for now. To summaries: Two Worlds seems to be a good, light open-world cRPG. It’s all about exploring, slaying monsters, gathering loot end experience points. Writing is simplistic but good enough for action-RPG, quest are usually more interesting than simple fetch tasks typical for this type of game, sometimes even generally good. Itemization, although pretty weird, is functional – you are almost constantly finding small upgrades (but of course it is not even close to good-designed, hand-placed artifacts from, say, Baldur’s Gate). Enemies differ in stats, numbers and movement patters so they require some tactics to defeat. All in all the game is similar to Gothic 3 (but, in my current opinion, much better) or Divine Divinity (but in 3D). It’s also ten times better (for now) than any TES game.


I must admit that I've been sucked in and can't stop playing. What’s your opinions? Does this game keep its quality to the end?
 

Kliwer

Savant
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
215
I fucked up in the poll. Would the Administration delete a repeated reply?
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
All I remember was the horses are broken, the combat sucked, and the item comboing system allowed you to get ludicrously overpowered in the first 30 minutes.

There's some funny C&C later where you go in a dungeon and when you come out an entire city gets wiped out because lol you released a demon or something.

Overall bargain bin game that's only fun for how bad it is.
 

Kliwer

Savant
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
215
Well, it is a quite typical opinion, as I have noticed. It is a bit strange to me, to be honest. The fighting mechanic is not that bad, a bit similar to Divinity 2 (but worse) or Gothic 3 (much better in this case). Dodge-abusing is an obvious problem, but I have seen much worst systems (Morrowin, Skyrim), even in good games (Arx Fatalis).

For now I do not feel overpower. It’s too early to judge but, as I said, there are easy enemies as well as very hard encounters. I have read that combining items and alchemy have been nerfed in comparison to initial release, so maybe it is the reason.

For me horses are functional. As I said – it is hard to maneuver them in battles, but they are useful as a mobile storage as well as a mean of transport. I’m fighting from a horse back only witch easy enemies; and on foot against more serious ones.
 
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passerby

Arcane
Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
2,788
The first region is the best, it has fleshed out factions and conversations with necromancers and their quests are hilarious. The desert and asian themed regions feel very rushed in comparison.
It's probably a good idea to abandon it after the first region, but the game is strangely addictive in "so bad, it's good" way, that it's hard to let go, but the further you play after the first region, the worse it gets.
It took me 90h to clear everything and I don't think it was worth it.

If you are completionist the level scalled road bandits will become hilarious and dreadful at the same time, regular monsters are not level scalled, but bandits and their random gear are and by the end of the game they'll become the most powerful enemies.
You'll be two shooting demons in dungeons, while having 10 minutes long brawls with barechested bandits wearing epic magic full plate pants and peasant hat, while throwing at you armageddon of spells.
 
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Dodo1610

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
2,155
Location
Germany
Two Worlds is one of the worst "RPGs" I have ever played:
-horrible voice acting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So1LF6AbYbc :lol:
-floaty combat that just requires mindless clicking
-empty open-world
-endless bugs
-generic art

+cities that look like cities
+hot sister
-no incest

I seriously don't understand why TW has fans, it's just the unholy marriage of TES open world with Diablo combat, cheaply made of course.
 

Kliwer

Savant
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
215
I seriously don't understand why TW has fans, it's just the unholy marriage of TES open world with Diablo combat, cheaply made of course.

I think it is almost the answer. TW is something like an open world Diablo (+ some quite good quests), which is enough to be fun. Its gameplay is better than TES because you have a motivation to explore. In TES games (especially Oblivion) you have no reason to fight random battles and run through dungeons because:

- there is no XP; this stupid “develop by using” skill system results that fighting with strong enemies is pointless; in TW you are eager to collect every experience point and every spell card, moreover you get plain skill points for quests and even exploration.

- there are not enough item upgrades during exploration; you can find the most powerful sets of equipment without much trouble (Morrowind) or craft super powerful weapons by your own (in Skyrim) which makes exploration pointless; in TW equipment progress is constant.


And in comparison to some other open world slashers (as Sacred 1 and 2) the gameplay is a bit dipper and more similar to real RPG; and there is no respawn in TW, which is (for me) a priceless virtue.

It’s not a great RPG. But a quite good “hiking-slashing” game (ha, such a cool neologism).


About voice acting – who cares?

I also can’t see those “low production values”; graphic is nice, music is mediocre, environment sounds are far above average (very suggestive wind howling for example).
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
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Frostfell
People here in codex seems to have too much high standards as if anything worse than BG2 doesn't worth be played... Two Words 1 doesn't have stats 100% tied to gear, cooldowns and other BS. In fact, I enjoyed quite a bit the magic system. Is rare to see a game where water based elemental magic is great and TW1 is one of then
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,307
Two Worlds might be dumb and barely and RPG in many people's eyes, but I finished it and had a blast the entire time. It's really charming and easily broken ala Morrowind.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
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Messages
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New Vegas
I hated Two Worlds and only lasted a few hours, but I barely remember why. I have a high tolerance for Eurojank usually. Two Worlds 2 I actually enjoyed and finished. The magic system was pretty cool.

Gothic 3 I couldn't get to run to save my ass when it came out. Trying it with the fan patch is on my to-do list.

Skyrim's stealthy archery combat is kinda fun. The writing and atmosphere is better than Oblivion at least. Far from amazing but I'm not gonna pretend I hated it for Codex Cool Credits.
 

Funposter

Arcane
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
1,773
Location
Australia
It was enjoyable in spite of (or because of) its various broken mechanics, but I'd rather leave my memories of it back in 2008 where they belong. I bet that if I played it again today, I quit out of frustration within an hour or two.
 

JDR13

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Location
The Swamp
Ironically, Two Worlds seems a lot better now than it did back then if you compare it to the more recent open-world games that hold your hand every step of the way.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
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Frostfell
IDK why Eurojank is a pejorative therm. Retarded game journalists(redundancy) often say that games like Gothic are a "poor budget skyrim" games, when those Eurojank games like Elex, Two Worlds, etc; tends to have way more depth than this mainstream AAA games
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
IDK why Eurojank is a pejorative therm. Retarded game journalists(redundancy) often say that games like Gothic are a "poor budget skyrim" games, when those Eurojank games like Elex, Two Worlds, etc; tends to have way more depth than this mainstream AAA games
because europeans are poor and can't afford food therefore they cannot afford good gameplay mechanics like regular movement controls instead of tank controls
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
14,474
Location
Frostfell
IDK why Eurojank is a pejorative therm. Retarded game journalists(redundancy) often say that games like Gothic are a "poor budget skyrim" games, when those Eurojank games like Elex, Two Worlds, etc; tends to have way more depth than this mainstream AAA games
because europeans are poor and can't afford food therefore they cannot afford good gameplay mechanics like regular movement controls instead of tank controls

There are a lot of European countries richer than USA. Switzerland for eg. And games like Elex, M&B Bannerlord and Metro are well more polished than Faggout 76 and Anthem. Despite having smaller budget.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
IDK why Eurojank is a pejorative therm. Retarded game journalists(redundancy) often say that games like Gothic are a "poor budget skyrim" games, when those Eurojank games like Elex, Two Worlds, etc; tends to have way more depth than this mainstream AAA games
because europeans are poor and can't afford food therefore they cannot afford good gameplay mechanics like regular movement controls instead of tank controls

There are a lot of European countries richer than USA. Switzerland for eg. And games like Elex, M&B Bannerlord and Metro are well more polished than Faggout 76 and Anthem. Despite having smaller budget.
Please don't spread propaganda like that
 

Konjad

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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The game has a very disappointing storyline that is boring and forgettable. It only serves as a background for a player to do stuff. NPCs are quite shallow and without characters too. In addition, dialogues are horrible, not only writing is unsatisfying, but also dubbing is horrid. Although it sometimes is quite entertaining, it’s so bad that it’s good as one might say. Nonetheless, it’s definitely not a reason to play this game.

Two Worlds has some strong points though, and ultimately whether you will like the game or not depends how much you like exploration. If you love it as much as I do, then you will have a blast playing this game as it’s one of the better implemented exploration in RPGs. Not only locations are varied, but also there is no annoying level scaling of enemies or loot so prevalent in many modern RPGs and so annoyingly killing any challenge, joy and excitement out of discovering new lands. In Two Worlds you might encounter an enemy that is way above your level, however, if you are pertinacious enough, then you might kill them with use of some tricks anyway, but it might be a tough fight. Moreover, challenge is well worth it as loot that you might gain might make you more powerful. The game offers a huge gameworld and seems to be the first third person RPG that offers a decent horse riding and combat (Yes, you can fight while you are on a horse, unlike in Oblivion). Needless to say, that exploration is very satisfying, and so are combat encounters, although the combat itself is a bit too simple. However, in late game the player becomes too powerful and challenge perishes, unfortunately.
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
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At the end of the day the purpose of the video game is to provide entertainment. And Two Worlds delivers. That's why it is so addictive despite considerable flaws.

I liked it enough for a full playthrough and the effect lasted far into the second game (more competently made, but somehow less fun), which I also finished, with both single player DLCs.
 

Miner Arobar

Educated
Joined
May 28, 2015
Messages
64
Too much stuff annoyed me about Two Worlds when I tried it. Voice acting, weird day-and-night cycle, inability to wait or rest, resurrection shrines and mana shrines every few steps, weird design decisions such as virtual absence of female NPCs, etcetera. Some of the quests were good, itemization was nice, but all in all it gave an impression of being a sort of random collection of fantasy clichés without plan or coherence. For all its numerous flaws, Oblivion held my attention for much longer.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
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What I don't like about two worlds is the low lethality combat. Nobody deserves taking and needing 5 meteors to kill an enemy...
 

Tweed

Professional Kobold
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Pathfinder: Wrath

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