Two Worlds

Two Worlds has been described in many ways: unforgettable, mediocre, and just plain bad. Unfortunately, it wasn’t unforgettable (at least in the positive sense), but thankfully it also wasn’t horrible, as it has its moments. Two Worlds attempted much, but only delivered on some; however, it is still a solid experience for any RPG fan.

The overall presentation is fairly simple. It’s something you’ve seen before, yet something different. The whole scale of the game cannot be described in any way other than epic. Despite its many flaws, this one part shines through. The scale of the game is immense. It will take hours upon hours just to fill in part of the map. While the game itself may be huge, the menus and map indicators are not. Even with a large TV, this may be an issue for some people.

One of the biggest issues with this game is the initial start. Unlike other RPG titles, where you are near god-like in your abilities, Two Worlds starts you off barely able to hold your own. If the rabbits attacked you even they would probably kill you. Ok, that may be a bit exaggerated, but until a few hours into it, the average gamer will struggle to kill even the simplest of creatures: wolves, boars and the goblin-like Groms. It seems that the enemies abilities and strength progress as you reach different locations, which does work; however it leave them either much to weak, or much too strong for any true enjoyment.

The combat system itself is rather simple, yet more involved that many other games. To survive, you will need to dodge and parry attacks regularly (especially in the beginning). After an hour or so, it is easily mastered and feels second nature. It employs hotkeys to switch between different weapons and magic attacks, allowing for a fairly streamlined and easy experience.

The game uses a couple gimmicks that in the end don’t work. You can fight from your horse (if you can actually move your horse, that is; I couldn’t), you can modify your weaponry by placing similar objects on top of each other, you can seamlessly transfer from indoor to outdoor (unfortunately, you get random loading stops throughout the game), or you can choose to be good or evil (this aspect is played up a lot from how it really works). In fact, the entire online is a gimmick. If you can find a game, you will probably lag out of it. If you can make it to an actually online game without that happening, you will see countless problems; however, neither of those issues are my main problem: the online is just boring. If we could have done multiplayer quests or something that would have been cool, maybe even use our single player character in the matches. Instead, we are given what seems to have been tacked on just so it could be called multiplayer enabled.

Go ahead… whip out your sword against this cuddly critter.

The graphics are lack-luster. They are not very strong, and often make no sense. While swimming, your shoulder pads will often decapitate your very head (at least they appear to be doing that), you can walk through most trees without hindrance (that’s not that weird, I guess), and a couple times I found myself stuck inside giant boulders. Most the time, your feet aren’t actually on the ground, and your weapon can hit someone without even touching them.

My biggest gripe with this game was the voice acting. With this being such an integral part in an RPG’s storyline, you would think it would help the game shine. Instead, it brings the game down. This one aspect kills much of the immersive nature of the game. When you combine it with your lack of options when communication it is devastating. Most of the time you have two options when talking (if even that many). The story is your standard stock type, and nothing revolutionary, leaving you with various quests to occupy your time.

In the end, this game could have been amazing, but instead it relied on gimmicks that were unsuccessful. That alone, does not make it a bad game, but it does leave it in the heaps of mediocre content produced. If you have the patience to make it out of the first two hours, you will probably enjoy the title; however, most people will not make it that far.