Two Worlds
Score: 65% ESRB: Mature Publisher: Southpeak Interactive Developer: Reality Pump Media: DVD/1 Players: 1; 2 - 8 (Online) Genre: RPG/ Free-Roaming/ Online
Graphics & Sound: As popular as Oblivion and Morrowind have been, especially on the PC and Xbox 360, it is surprising how long it has taken for another developer to clone, or at least attempt to copy, Bethesda's RPG masterwork. Two Worlds attempts to do the latter of the two; though it does manage to get some of the elements right, not everything falls into place. One of Two Worlds' first major problems is that it was clearly designed for a PC and not a console. Though the visuals are pretty nice, if a little stiff, the interface is incredibly hard to see. Text is way to small, even on an HDTV, making it hard to read any of the text that pops up during the game. This is especially problematic when trying to read maps; especially given the world's massive size and sheer number of things to see in it. Technical issues aside, Two Worlds looks pretty good. The game world is huge and shows a nice amount of variation while keeping everything unified. You never get a sense that you're stepping out of the game world into an area that doesn't belong - even when entering some of the game's more exotic locales. Enemy designs are pretty nice, if a bit generic and there's enough variety in NPCs that you don't see many clones. Animation is pretty stiff, though the framerate often takes a serious hit when the action really gets going. The sound's vocal aspect is laughably bad, but not because of the quality of the actors, but the dialogue. The game is loaded with Old English words, which makes all of the dialogue sound like badly written Shakespeare mixed with old Errol Flynn movies. Voicework is all over the place; you'll get a large dose of flat deliveries balanced out with some cheesy delivery that makes even the more serious moments funny.
Gameplay: Two Worlds' story doesn't tread any ground not already covered by other RPGs. A god, Aziraal, was sealed in a tomb. Three hundred years later, the tomb is uncovered and as luck would have it, you're the only guy who can open it. Of course, you have little interest in what lies in the tomb or even that you're the guy with the keys to the place; all you care about is finding your missing sister. Two Worlds follows the same linear, but not-so-linear path as Oblivion. You can follow the main plotline or take on side-quests and discover new things around the world. Though the open-world structure is appreciated, Two Worlds takes a big misstep by almost forcing you to complete a number of side-quests if you want to enjoy the main one. Unlike Oblivion, there's no mechanism that balances difficulty with your character's level; instead the game is hard from the start. If you want to make it through the main quest, you have to take on side-quests in order to level up or find useful equipment. Taking another cue from Oblivion, Two Worlds gives you a blank slate to work with when it comes to your character's abilities. When I first started creating my character, I was disappointed that I was limited to one job. However, the job title is just that - a title. As you level up your character, you can assign attribute and skill points, allowing you to create whatever class you want. If you want a fighter, you can stick to strength and melee skills, or dump points into magic and create a mage. The system is pretty flexible and easily one of the game's better aspects. Interaction with NPCs is lackluster and not worth it unless you're talking to a quest-specific NPC. Most will repeat what others have said, so there isn't much new information to gain by talking to everyone. It doesn't take long before you're ignoring everyone but the specially-marked quest NPCs. Outside completing tasks and ignoring NPCs, you spend most of your time fighting enemies and collecting new items. The number of items in the game is pretty impressive, even if a number of them are just variations on one item type. It pays to read the descriptions attached to each item; a shield may resemble or even have the same name as another shield, but will have an attribute the other doesn't. Many items can even be combined to make even better variations, which is another cool bonus.
Difficulty: Although the A.I. and quest progression isn't overly complicated, Two Worlds is still a pretty tough game. Again, the game doesn't balance enemy levels with your own and enemies are pretty hard. I had to repeat the very first combat-oriented mission at least 3 times before I was able to win. Eventually, you'll learn to exploit the A.I.'s limitations, such as an invisible wall that seems to keep them trapped in a certain area. In these situations, all you have to do is hit them with ranged attacks from a safe distance. As I've stated many times already, a majority of Two Worlds' problems stem from the game being designed as a PC game rather than a console game. The interface has a number of issues, text is hard to read... the list goes on.
Game Mechanics: Two Worlds' interface suffers from the same issue as the interface - it wasn't made for a console. What's here works, to an extent, but the layout doesn't make much functional sense. Some of the more important button placements, like attack, are easy to get and work, though this isn't the case for everything. Equally puzzling is the inventory system, which is just as muddled as button placements. It took me at least an hour or two before I was comfortable with inventory management, something that shouldn't take more than a few minutes to get acquainted with. The funny thing is that if I was using a mouse and keyboard, I wouldn't have had nearly as many issues - it would have made sense. However, for a console-centric player, it may cause some problems. Interface issues also hamper the game's Alchemy system. In addition to items, you'll also come across various elements that you can combine. The system is fairly easy to use, though the interface doesn't lend itself to playing with a controller. It's a pain to scroll through a massive list of items to find the one you want. As far as combat goes, Two Worlds doesn't perform all that well. Those who choose to use melee attacks will find the system especially hard to deal with. Weapon selection is a pain and doesn't get much more complicated than pulling the right trigger. Two Worlds is also plagued with technical issues and bugs that detract from the experience. I've already mentioned the constant framerate drops and texture pop-in, but those are actually tame compared to some of the other issues. Whenever the game stops to load up a new area (which happens quite a bit considering the size of the world) the game freezes for a few seconds. I also came across a few quests that I couldn't complete because the game wouldn't recognize that I completed a certain task. Two Worlds faces a number of issues, though few of them are anything you can't work past. The longer you play, the more manageable the game gets. Hardened RPG fans might be able to handle the game's slow, broken start through sheer enjoyment of the genre, though others will do better to avoid the game if you can.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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