I am really, really enjoying Two Worlds 2

[ghostdog]

So, you dye your hair blond, eh ?

 

[Jack]

I tried to make him ugly on purpose, with minimal success.
Or was that directed at something else?

 

[ghostdog]

Basically to blond hair+black beard.

 

[BeholderX]

Surprisingly enough I'm thinking of buying it, what DRM does it use?

Phone-activated CD key, like Windows 98.

 

[Jack]

Basically to blond hair+black beard.

Yeah, the problem is that there are no long beards in this game and blond stubble is practically invisible.
Wanted a bearded blond character, didn't go as planned.

Surprisingly enough I'm thinking of buying it, what DRM does it use?

Phone-activated CD key, like Windows 98.

Heh, yeah.
I remember now, derp.
Alternative was internet activation, can't decide if I should buy it or not now.

 

[bhlaab]

I don't think there's even a disc check after that, though.

 

[Blackula]

...ARPG here.

I stopped reading there.

What did you expect? There hasn't been an rpg in... well who knows how long

 

[Excidium]

The game's spell system is fantastic, in my opinion. The rarity of the better cards you need to construct more powerful spells keeps me going. More power! The unique combinations you can come up with are great (I'm still only just past level 13, so I haven't even scratched the surface yet). I love that you can add modifier cards, such as a time-lengthening one, to derive many possible combinations. Doubling, tripling and more of a Fire or Water effect card, for example, will simply add to that spell's damage. Very fun experimenting.

What bothered me is that the unique spells end up costing way too much mana (seriously, try adding a spray modifier) and while there are many different combinations, most spells are useless, few are more effective than a simple homing firebolt.

I thought it would get better later on when I would have enough mana to use the cool spells, but at that point I had to drink a mana potion every 4 or 5 casts because that mana regen talent is a waste of points. I stopped around level 20, maybe i'll pick it up later again, I don't know. I'll wait for your review.

 

[DefJam101]

From my ~12 hours of playtime.


Pros:
- Game is fun and the character system seems to favor replayability.
- Melee combat feels a little unresponsive but overall an improvement from 2W.
- Voice acting is serviceable to good. Turn subtitles off, whoever transcribed them was not a native English speaker and they do not do the voice acting justice.
- Solid amount of quests which, due to the improved voice acting, are very playable.
- Absolutely beautiful game. Probably the best CRPG game engine I've ever seen coupled with solid art direction.
- Magic system is unbalanced, yet interesting. You can project object-levitating bubble force fields around yourself. 'Nuff said.
- Quests do a good job of ferrying you to interesting locations.
- Huge world with lots of non-level-scaled stuff to kill.
- Melee skills are finally useful.
- Glowing uberweapons don't start showing up until later levels.
- The main quest feels more like a series of loosely connected side quests. It's not something you have to intentionally complete; you'll do it by accident. This helps the game's pacing.
- Solid amount of written material in the game world. If you like to read notes, books, etc., you'll find your fix here. 2W2 also borrows the notice board mechanic from The Witcher (it's tongue-in-cheek, thankfully), so you'll find additional side quests in the form of written notes.
- So far, the Necromancer's Guild is far more mysterious in this game than the last. I'm hoping the main Necromancer village isn't terrible (as in 2W1).

Cons:
- Equipment level scaling. Store inventories scale to your level, or they appear to, and locked chests scale to your level (or appear to). This sucks.
- The world isn't empty, but it certainly isn't exploration-friendly. Magically locked doors and chests are everpresent, there are only a few interesting locations outside of the main quest, and there are too many vast stretches of nothingness. Combined with level scaling loot / chests, this makes for shit exploration.
- The loot sucks, it feels like an MMO. Does anyone enjoy this approach to loot? Thousands upon thousands of items, almost all of them shit, and when you do find an "uber" item it is at best a 5% improvement over your previous equipment. There is almost no sense of progression, level scaling or not. This was a problem in 2W1 and it persists.
- Crafting is half-assed. Better than the previous game but that's not saying much. Again, similar to the looting system, you'll be scraping out 3% improvements at best. So really you'll never notice the difference.
- Still no division between weapons. Axes, staves, swords, hammers, two-handers — it's all the same.
- Some skills are useless. Mana regeneration, for example, is balls. It doesn't scale to your mana pool, and 45 mana per second with a mana pool of 7000 is useless.
- Cities are beautiful, but they need more characters and distinct locations. Outside of quests, they are dead.

Your mileage may vary:
- You cannot kill non-hostile NPCs. If you, like me, wish to become an evil necromancer, then you're shit out of luck. Town guards are also incredibly strong. They can be injured, but I haven't tried killing one yet (civilians can be taken down to 1 hitpoint, but never killed).
- The quest compass is strong with this one, very strong.
- 2W2, like 2W1, is a mage-friendly game. However, the mage class is balanced this time around: you are woefully underpowered for the first 20-ish levels. Basically, powerful spells are not restricted by level so much as mana. You can craft insanely powerful spells at level 15, but you will be unable to cast them efficiently. Until you can afford to brew hundreds of mana potions you need to manage your spells with care. I enjoy this mechanic, some won't.
- The intro is hilariously awesome, but none of the introduced characters seem to play any part in the rest of the game. Why is Dar Pha sitting on her ass while I run around busting giant scorpions with fireballs? Seriously.
- Lots of tits.

My favorite aspect of the game is the magic system, with the graphics engine a close second.

My most hated aspect is the shit exploration (magically locked doors, level-scaled loot, lots of empty places), with my inability to kill NPCs a close second.


We should start an RPGCodex Two Worlds 2 Iron Man Challenge thread.

 

[BeholderX]

From my ~12 hours of playtime.

- The main quest feels more like a series of loosely connected side quests. It's not something you have to intentionally complete; you'll do it by accident. This helps the game's pacing.
- Solid amount of written material in the game world. If you like to read notes, books, etc., you'll find your fix here. 2W2 also borrows the notice board mechanic from The Witcher (it's tongue-in-cheek, thankfully), so you'll find additional side quests in the form of written notes.
- So far, the Necromancer's Guild is far more mysterious in this game than the last. I'm hoping the main Necromancer village isn't terrible (as in 2W1).

- there are only two areas with side quests or message board quests (Savannah and New Ashos), everything after that is full-on main quest with nothing else to do

- the books are heavily front loaded, and you'll be finding fewer and fewer of them (not to mention duplicates) as you progress. I'd say 95% of the books are on the first island.

- there is no Necromancer village. There are five desert settlements on the first island, New Ashos and a tiny scavenger camp on the second island, and a Witcher-style medieval swamp village on the main island.

Weirdly, the magic academy of New Ashos doesn't actually sell any magic.

 

[DefJam101]

god damnit