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Two Worlds - One of the Most Underrated Games Ever!

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
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.
 

BigWeather

Augur
Joined
Apr 8, 2007
Messages
271
Agreed for the most part. I'm finding what was torn apart the most by reviews to be not so bad (voice-overs, for instance) and the stuff they glossed over to be great (item upgrade system, skills & spells, the world). The lack of a female lead and a really good story are the most noticeable drawbacks.

I think it's a solid 7.5 or so. So many reviews completely trashed it, but IGN and Gamespot gave it right around a 7.0. As for the others, I think just as some games are inexplicably praised (Oblivion) there are also those games that it becomes cool to hate (Two Worlds).

It's a shame, because it's really not that bad.
 

Zomg

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,984
How does the horseback fighting compare to M&B?
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
Never tried M&B. TW's horseback riding is probably nowhere as good since M&B is 100% focused on that while it's just one of many things that TW does. I'll say this - the horseback riding/conmbat can be tricky at first but it can be mastered.
 

Antagonist

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
Messages
484
Location
Glorious Vaterland
My girlfriend played the demo for some time now and really likes it. Just a quick question though: Do you know if the console version has been patched? From what I've been told some heavy rebalancing was done on the PC version post release which allegedly improved the game a fair bit.
 

BigWeather

Augur
Joined
Apr 8, 2007
Messages
271
The 360 version is patch 1.5, the current PC patch. Supposedly a 1.6 is due out sometime soon, no word on if that'll make its way to the 360.
 

Castanova

Prophet
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
2,949
Location
The White Visitation
1. What difficulty are you playing at and would you recommend a different one?

2. Do you recommend playing a jack-of-all-trades to experience the most in one play through or would it be too frustrating and specialization is a must?
 

Dhruin

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
Messages
758
I've played a couple of hours but I had too many other projects going on and put it aside. Anyway, as someone who sees a lot of RPG news, there is a definite and obvious skew with review scores. Reviewers that played on the X360 are significantly harsher than reviews played on the PC (Gamerankings says 48% vs 67%).

I think this probably means the average CRPG player is likely to see it as a 70-75% game, while general gaming sites that play the X360 version anticipating another Oblivion come down hard on the typical Eastern Euro lack of polish.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
"1. What difficulty are you playing at and would you recommend a different one?"

I'm on normal. I'd recommend hard though because while the beginning can be tough once you gain a few levels you'll be fine. Plus, I'm the type of player who reloads on death anyways and never sues respawn so that aspect of easy/normal modes are wasted on me.

2. Do you recommend playing a jack-of-all-trades to experience the most in one play through or would it be too frustrating and specialization is a must?

I think youd' be fine no matter what. Just try your own method at first and see how you do.

I'm going with a weapon + shield meleeer who is skilled with horseriding, some melee skills, lockpicking, and air spells. i've done good thus far. Just keep your health (vitality) at a easonable levl or you'll die in one or two hits.


As for bugs/stability. My version for the 360 really has no issues except for the quick pauses when it's 'loading' new overland areas as you travel. Otherwise no quest/game enders or anything nonsensical like that.
 

Zlaja

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,682
Location
Swedex
One appalling thing that accured while I was playing this game was when I was fighting some folks from House Skelden (go Karga) and noticed that I couldn't get hurt by them despite the fact I wasn't even touching the controls. I just stood there and the PC just evaded their swings by stepping back slightly. And no, I'm not talking about that special move that you can execute at will. And even when the PC was just standing still they couldn't land a hit on him because their aim was so poor. It's was like fighting a couple of drunks. The only way to get injured was to step in and start landing some swings myself. And no, it's not a bug. Fucking dreadful AI.

Another thing which was just bizarre was when I managed to finish the war between Skelden and Karga as soon as i started to work for Karga. I got to enter their camp after completing one simple task for them and then I was immidiately offered the quest to kill Skelden Houses's leader. And I was allowed in to see Karga leader armed with him alone inside of his house after only completing one simple quest for them. So much for those "sneaky" rebels.

Apart of these horrific design flaws (I'm sure there're more) the game is a decent hack and slash experience thanks to the skill system and the loot-mania. At least untill you hit level 25 or so. Since then I've killed everything with ease. Hopefully the game has some seriously bad ass enemies further south (apart from dragons).
 

Zomg

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,984
Volourn said:
Never tried M&B. TW's horseback riding is probably nowhere as good since M&B is 100% focused on that while it's just one of many things that TW does. I'll say this - the horseback riding/conmbat can be tricky at first but it can be mastered.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to put down Two Worlds, I just wanted to know if they use the same general horseback fighting template. I'm interested to see how that vision metastasizes through mainstream and semi-mainstream games.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
Yes. An enemy that can one hit kill you pretty much no matter your level is seen relatively early. Not to mention bears that while aren't super hard if you know how to kill them can be tricky for new players since they hit hard. There's a way to beat them easy though.

Conversely, you can encounter easy low level monsters later on too.
 

Castanova

Prophet
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
2,949
Location
The White Visitation
OK, so I needed a game to play while I wait for Guitar Hero 3 so I ended up getting this. I'm 2 hours in (2.5 if you count the 30 minutes I lost to the game crashing).

It's actually pretty fun. It feels like Morrowind + better game mechanics - atmosphere/creativity. Not a terrible trade-off for a an action RPG like this. I'm having fun running around exploring and doing random quests. The beginning part of the game is very nicely balanced although I hear it gets much easier later on.

Where the hell do I get replacement horses? The one that I got as a quest reward and the one I found on the side of the road have both disappeared and I have to walk around everywhere at the moment.
 

buccaroobonzai

Scholar
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
241
I've been thinking how Two worlds compares to some other fantasy RPG staples, and here's a short review/comparison on non graphical & non-interface features:

Quest logic_________Two worlds:7.5______Oblivion:5.5_______Baldur's gate 1: 7
Quest complexity____Two worlds:6.5______Oblivion:4.9-5______Baldur's gate 1:7
Main story_________Two Worlds:6________Oblivion:5.5_______Baldur's gate 1:6.5
Dialogue quality_____Two worlds:7________Oblivion:5_________Baldur's gate 1: 8
World history_______Two worlds:8________Oblivion:7_________Baldur's gate 1:5

I would say that in just these categories, Two worlds stacks up to Baldur's gate 1, and even surpasses it in a few areas, like non-linearity, world history, and quest logic. Though it is not nearly as good as Arcanum in questing, and dialogue, and a bit worse then Baldur's Gate 2 as well.

If you like Gothic, it is a worthy game to play.


Some other notes:
-The game world, sociology, economy, and politics are presented very well. There are very thorough descriptions of the various cultures and they're histories and they play a part in the game much more so then in Ovlivion, which had tomes of information yet little relevance to the game play.
-The dialogues and conversations are much better then in Oblivion, which is not a hard thing to be. However, they are good. The conversations show dramatic responses by the PC which adds to the storied feel. The NPCs have more useful and interesting things to say then the ones in Oblivion as a rule.
-Some of the non-human races are done very well. The groms have a cool language and they dialogue they use is immersive!
 

buccaroobonzai

Scholar
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
241
Castanova said:
OK, so I needed a game to play while I wait for Guitar Hero 3 so I ended up getting this. I'm 2 hours in (2.5 if you count the 30 minutes I lost to the game crashing).

It's actually pretty fun. It feels like Morrowind + better game mechanics - atmosphere/creativity. Not a terrible trade-off for a an action RPG like this. I'm having fun running around exploring and doing random quests. The beginning part of the game is very nicely balanced although I hear it gets much easier later on.

Where the hell do I get replacement horses? The one that I got as a quest reward and the one I found on the side of the road have both disappeared and I have to walk around everywhere at the moment.

-Did you complete the quest for the corral by Tharokin(spelled right?), you get one their.
-There's also a free horse by a Grom encampment near Goat's Cavern where you meet Reist who has info about you're sister.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
I hear the PC version and 360 versions are very different, so I won't presume to speak of your own experience with the console version, Volourn. But I played the PC version myself several months ago when it was released in Europe, and although it *looked* nice, I really found the voice acting and dialogue grating, I just couldn't get past it. And combat did seem like a clickfest, i.e. whoever clicks first/fastest wins, and while Gothic 3 also had that kind of combat it made up for it in its charming and open gameworld. Maybe Two Worlds has the same, if it does, I might give it another try.
 

The Dude

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
727
Location
An abandoned hurricane.
I think the game is quite a bit too easy, even on hard difficulty. I maxed out fire magic as fast as I could and kept most of my other skillpoints since I couldn't decide what I wanted to specialize in. I'm somewhere in the 20's as far as levelling goes, and I have had absolutely no problems with any enemies north of the big river. Might get harder though, since I crossed the river exploring and came upon some ruined city crawling with undead, and had a couple of close calls. Dunno what level you're supposed to go there though. Also, summonings are absolutely kickass, at least in the early-mid game. I got some demon summon pretty early on, and he's been one hell of a tank. It's not until recently he has been even close to dying before he goes back to wherever he came from. The game could also be considered a wet dream for the compulsive collector. I have parked 5 horses close to the gate where you meet the mage dude who you get the teleport stone from. Armors and leggings on one horse - boots, helmets and gloves on another. Then one horse for assorted weapons and one horse for ingredients and minor trinkets. The final horse I keep completed sets on. Yeah, I know, I'm one sick bastard.
 

ricolikesrice

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
1,231
....

i thought the combat was fun too, for about 2 hours or so.

once you notice how every enemy attacks basically the same you can even kill enemies far above your level (just takes ages with your pitifull damage) by pressing the backstep/dodge button every x seconds, heck could probably do that blind.

so what looks like a refreshing good dynamic action rpg combat system soon enough turns out to be repeative boring shit. even more so if you play a caster.

the whole item part looked really good in the start as well, lots of different armor/weapon looks etc but that soon enough is obvious to be an illusion as well as they all look very, very similar later on

its area design is better than oblivion for sure though, doesnt reach morrowind however.

in short: i never thought it d be a good RPG in the first place but an entertaining ARPG instead, sorta like diablo 3d. and i gotta admit its been fun for 5-10 hours so but then became way too boring, the story/world isnt good enough to keep you going and neither are the game mechanics as you get nothing new just bigger numbers later on.

still recommend giving it a try if you can get it cheap and dont expect too much.
i d agree with the average press ratings actually. the only part they get wrong is that if Two worlds derves 6/10, then oblivion should get 5/10 at best ^^
 

Grandpa Gamer

Scholar
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
190
My character is at level 49 by now, and I must say that the character development system gets silly pretty fast. You level up very frequently in this game, and the levels just keep on coming. Soon you get overloaded with attribute points and skill points and don't know where to spend them. My character has maxed out all useful melee skills and all four elemental magic skills. And yes, lockpicking too. Major opposition like lava dragons requre a few hits with a mace and most mobs go down with a single fire field spell. Sure, the game can be really hard in the beginning, but even at highest difficulty and without unduly powergaming your character it soon becomes a walk in the park.

Not that I mind the game being easy. What irks me is the the abundance of skill points. It makes character development choices meaningless. Want to play as a fire mage? Yes! Want to play as a water mage too? Not really. But those skill points have to go somewhere.

Still, the game is fun to play, and some features much maligned in reviews should rather be commended. The horse riding, for instance. I've seen lots of complaints about how bad the control system for riding is, but I'd say it's infinitely better than the one found in Oblivion for instance. Ever tried to ride a horse in real life? The system in Two Worlds is hardly an accurate simulation, but the fact that you control the horse in ways at least a bit related to how you control a real horse is a huge step forward.

I play the unpatched PC version, by the way. Performance is on par with Oblivion. Smoother than both Neverwinter Nights 2 and Gothic 3.
 

Fat Dragon

Arbiter
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
3,499
Location
local brothel
How does the game's frame rate hold up? Some of the reviews I've read said that it was pretty terrible. I've been thinking of buying this game, but a terrible frame rate can often ruin things.
 

Imbecile

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
1,267
Location
Bristol, England
Hmmm weird. I've completely ignored this because a review source that has always been reliable in the past gave Two Worlds 2/10, and described the dialogue as poor and contrived (prithee, for fucks sake?), the graphics and frame rate patchy, and the game generally as a buggy Oblivion wannabe.

Is this not the case?
 

cutterjohn

Cipher
Joined
Sep 28, 2006
Messages
1,629
Location
Bloom County
Antagonist said:
My girlfriend played the demo for some time now and really likes it. Just a quick question though: Do you know if the console version has been patched? From what I've been told some heavy rebalancing was done on the PC version post release which allegedly improved the game a fair bit.
And, IIRC there is a beta of 1.60 patch available for both the XBOX360 and Windows versions, if you want to be a guinea pig. Mostly fixes bugs with nothing new added IIRC.

I still say it's not a bad game, but it IS an ARPG and I have plenty, and there are plenty out ATM. The "big" thing about is the relatively open world, decentish graphics, better horse implementation that Oblivion(can't really compare to M&B as it's been a LONG time, and M&B never grabbed me at all...). I still say wait for it to hit $30 if you've REALLY REALLY JUST GOTTA HAVE IT, otherwise wait for it to go to $20 or less.

There aren't enough mods available for me to be really happy with the buy at $30, although if enough good ones come out it MAY just be worth $30 or a little more to some people...
 

Zlaja

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,682
Location
Swedex
I find some summons to be absolutely dreadful. I just summoned a "Hell Warrior" and he just kept swinging through thin air while I was fighting 3-4 opponents at once. The thing may look nice but it was fucking useless. Kind a like fighting along Jessica Alba wearing a costume.

Another annoyance is how some weapons simply keep blending with the armor while having them on my back. Looks really chessy.
 

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