Two Worlds II is an open-world fantasy RPG, and sequel to the original Two Worlds game that was released for PC and Xbox 360 in 2007. Underneath the plethora of bugs and glitches, the original Two Worlds was an average game at best, and received a critical mauling upon release. For Two Worlds II, developer Reality Pump decided to listen and learn from the criticism directed at the first game, and promised to produce a much more stable, enjoyable experience for Two Worlds II. So how did they do?

Deep down Two Worlds II is an impressive game, but right from the start it feels slightly unfinished. From unpolished features like the initial logo suddenly jumping up to fit in a loading bar underneath, to a couple of game-breaking glitches along the way, at times Two Worlds II feels like a beta version. Many gamers will find this level of development frustrating, potentially ruining their experience of the game. However, if you have the patience to look past the game’s faults and push on with the gameplay, RPG fans will find a lot to like about Two Worlds II.

This hut is on one of the many tiny little islands scattered about the game

The most obvious comparisons for Two Worlds II are with the original game and the Bethesda big guns, Morrowind and Oblivion. Clearly, Reality Pump have listened to gamers’ concerns about the first game, as Two Worlds II is much more enjoyable. The graphics are improved, the gameplay is more streamlined and there are many clever new features that could make even Bethesda turn a light shade of green. Compared to Oblivion, Two Worlds II is not up the same standard of polish, but there are times where Two Worlds II manages to come up trumps. For one, Oblivion’s faux-levelling system, where your enemies all level up with you, is thankfully not replicated here. When you enter a new area in Two Worlds II the enemies will initially be scaled up to your level, but they will then stay at that level for the rest of the game. If you’re finding a particular area a bit too challenging, just go away to do some levelling elsewhere and then come back later to make light work of the mobs. The downside to this is that you can simply plow through the main storyline as fast as you want and you will never encounter any areas that are simply impossible to get through. Some gamers may like this, but many RPG fans appreciate the challenge of having to work hard on levelling your character in order to progress through the game. Overall though, it’s a workable system of levelling that allows for a decent sense of achievement and development through the game.

The Savannah looks great - if a little too much like planet Earth

Graphics: One of the most striking  aspects of Two Worlds II is the graphics. There are moments in Two Worlds II where the graphics are nothing short of stunning. The massive open plains of the Savannah and the dense jungles around New Athos generally look fantastic, with some incredibly detailed areas to explore. There are some really nice  touches, like the way that long grass will part as you run through it, or when you’re in the water you occasionally see a sting-ray swim past. Chains and other indoor hanging objects react realistically to being knocked or moved, and the overall feel of the game’s many dungeons is very similar to that of Oblivion. The lighting effects are generally very  good, and although the day/night cycle is way too fast, it’s another nice touch that makes the game feel more real. There are glitches occasionally, and sometimes the graphics look a bit washed out – for example, entering the town of Bayan causes the games colour to become desaturated for no explicit reason.

When it’s running well, the framerate is very smooth and doesn’t feature any discernible screen-tearing at all. One way the game keeps running smoothly however, is by using a smoothing technique that adds a massive level of blur to the environment when things are moving too fast. Initially, this appears to be all the time because the default camera movement speed is so fast that it’s hard to keep track of your character. Thankfully, this can be changed in the options and once a slower speed is set, the game becomes much easier to control and the blurring is much less apparent. Busy areas of the game – towns for example, and mass brawls with several spellcasters – can cause the framerate to dip, but never to unplayable levels. Given the massive open nature of the world and the relatively high level of detail in the textures, Reality Pump have done a great job in developing the game for current generation hardware.

The University is one of the places where you'll spend a lot of time talking

The character models are generally pretty good, though there are occasionally some very clunnky animations. What’s worse, there appears to be a prolific bug in the game that cuts off the end of  spoken sentences for no reason. These glitches are then exacerbated by the truly awful NPC dialogue at the beginning of the game. Strangely, the voice acting seems to improve as the game goes on, but it could be that you simply get used to it as you get immersed in the game. Certainly to begin with, and to a lesser extent throughout the game, conversations with NPCs can be a pretty unenjoyable experience at times. It’s not all bad though, as occasionally the dialogue is so ridiculous that it’s actually funny. At one point in the game you come across a family burying what appears to be an ill but nonetheless living person. One of them approaches you for help, and as you go over to the burial site, the person’s grandmother turns into a massive monster, one family member simply explodes, and the others start running around screaming because grandma has started eating people. Once you’ve destroyed the crazy grandmother/monster, you walk over to the helpless bereaved NPC and, without a shade of sarcasm, ask, “Is everything ok?”.

You'll see a lot of dry grassland on the first main island

Single-Player Mode:The bulk of the gameplay in Two Worlds II is set on two moderately sized islands, several tiny islands, and a small part of one massive island. Strangely, the bulk of the largest island is completely out of bounds in single-player mode, which is  disappointing as it is enormous compared to the other islands where the rest of the game takes place. The game also becomes noticeably more linear as it progresses. The island where the bulk of the first chapter takes place is almost overwhelming in size, and it’s a real treat to explore the towns and the open areas around the island. You can (and probably should) use a horse to get around the massive Savannah area, but strangely you’re not allowed to take your horse past this point and you can’t get a horse anywhere else in the game! For the occasions when you’re able to use a horse, the horse-riding is pretty straightforward and not that unlike the style of horse-riding in Red Dead Redemption – you accelerate the horse by repeatedly pressing a button but if you push the horse too hard you’ll get thrown off. There have been reports of people finding the horse travel cumbersome but most of them appear to be from PC gamers – with a DualShock 3 pad it seems relatively intuitive and easy.

One of the many enemy camps scattered throughout the game

One of the clever but occasionally frustrating features of Two Worlds II is the controls. Instead of mapping a single function to a each button, multiple functions are assigned to each button depending on the context they are used in. For example, the L2 button allows you to run, block and crawl. Press L2 when you’re moving and you’ll speed up to a run. Press it when you’re fighting and you’ll block. Press it when you’re stood still and you’ll crouch down so you can crawl. Most of the time this is a clever, button-saving technique that works out pretty well. However, there are occasional problems with this system, sometimes causing some costly mistakes. The most frequent is using the X button – if you’re pointing at something and the ‘interact’ prompt appears, pressing X will interact with it. Should you move  slightly, causing the prompt to disappear, pressing X will cause you to jump. Trying to execute a life-saving jump can end in tears when you accidentally bring up the ‘interact’ prompt of an object in your line of sight and end up picking up a random crate while being stung in the spine by a giant scorpion. It’s not a game-breaking fault by any means, but it can be pretty annoying.

Everyone loves raptors, but what the hell are they doing here?

Flora and Fauna: The variety of wildlife in Two Worlds II is very impressive, though it often feels slightly out of place. Around the Savannah you’ll find cheetahs, rhinos and even ostriches in addition to the humanoid thugs and gangs that loiter in camps. They are impressively designed creatures, but often it does seem strange finding almost entirely Earth-based animals in an Earth-based terrain as part of a mythical fantasy world. This experience lessens as the game goes on, and you’ll start to encounter all manner of weird and wonderful creatures that are just waiting to tear you apart, though it’s still quite jarring when you eventually teleport to highly detailed replica of a Japanese village.  Likewise, coming across a set of Jurassic Park-style velociraptors in the middle of the jungle is kind of cool but also serves to jolt you out of the fantasy world the game tries so hard to immerse you in.

Careful use of fire will take down these undead cretins in the swamp

The game’s mobs all seem to have a variety of strengths and weaknesses, many of which are fairly intuitive based on the origin of the creatures. For example, anything that looks like a zombie and hangs around in a graveyard is probably going to have quite a high tolerance to undead (Necromancer) magic, while reanimated mummies with hastily applied bandages flapping about are obviously a prime target for a swift fire-based attack. Likewise, armoured skeletons are tough against swords but easily crumble to pieces when struck with heavy, blunt weapons.

The AI of your opponents varies wildly, and there are occasions when an enemy will simply stand still for no reason, allowing you to unleash a volley of attacks paying no heed to defence. Most of the time though, your enemies are pretty tough, and sometimes a bit of lateral thinking is required to bring them down. You can also use your environment to help bring down some of the tougher enemies if you can get to places that they can’t – though you’ll soon rue this decision if you end up next to a giant wasp’s nest!

Exploration: You can walk about and explore most of the massive landscape on foot, though it’s often easiest to get around using the clever system of ‘teleports’ that the game features. These teleports are scattered throughout the lands and once you find one you can instantly teleport there from any other teleport or by using a portable teleport that you can acquire during the game. It’s a simply system that forces you to initially explore each area but then allows you to quickly get around once you’ve done so.

If you’re bored of walking and teleporting you can even buy yourself a small boat and sail around the islands to get where you want to. It’s a small and well-buried feature of the game, as you can easily plough through the entire game without even knowing that it exists, but if you happen to come across the guard at the docks of the university you can buy a boat for 3,000 Auras. What makes the sailing aspect so fun is that it’s actually a pretty realistic interpretation of what sailing is like. You can’t just push a direction on your DualShock 3 and hope for the best; you actually have to turn your rudder and your sail in order to catch the wind, which will then propel you forward. If the wind isn’t blowing the way you want, you won’t be able to sail directly to your goal. Instead you’ll have to catch the wind at the right angle and then zig-zag your way across the ocean to wherever you want to go. It’s surprisingly relaxing to sail around the open seas, especially seeing fish and other marine life swim around your boat under the waves.

Once you get to this swamp you can't teleport away until you've finished that chapter of the game

Play Length: The story campaign can be finished in around 10 hours of play, though by spending time on side quests and other activities you could easily extend this to 50 hours or more, and that’s just the single-player mode. The quests you pick up are broadly divided into story and non-story quests, all of which are tracked in your journal. By virtue of the game’s semi-scaled levelling system you can opt to ignore pretty much all of the side quests and simply plough through the main story, or you can pick and choose what you want to do depending on your play style. Some of the game’s quests leave you with choices to make – usually involving the decision to kill someone or to let them live – but sadly these choices often don’t have as many repercussions throughout the rest of the game as you might expect. The gameplay also becomes more linear as you progress through the main story, and the first chapter of the game takes place in the largest open area you’ll find, followed by a smaller island for chapter two. Chapter three goes as far as confining you to a large swamp and prevents you from teleporting away until you’re finished with the whole chapter. Chapter four takes place in the final castle dungeon and, despite its short length and relatively small area, allows for some great dungeon crawler gameplay and is one of the most fun parts of the game. A great feature of the game is the way that the story and non-story quests are just bunched up together and when you finish the main story get to continue with the rest of the game to clear up any remaining quests or just explore any parts of the islands that you’ve not been to yet.

There's a lot to explore but only where you're allowed to

This continuation at the end-game of Two Worlds II makes a welcome change from many recent RPGs that force you to stop playing when you finish the main storyline. Coming back to the islands and locations you’ve previously visited is great fun, though it’s incredible to see how much unexplored land remains on your map once you’ve finished the game.  Unfortunately, one of the biggest disappointments in Two Worlds II is the eventual discovery that the vast majority of this unexplored land is unreachable in single-player mode. The majority of the land in the largest island of the game is reserved for multiplayer, and if you ever try to get there in single-player mode you are teleported away after being told you’ve lost your way. It’s by no means a deal-breaker, but it would have been nicer to just set the multiplayer content in another location that is totally separate from the single-player game and not give people the false impression that there is more to explore in single-player mode than there really is.

Two Worlds II looks great at night - especially if you have a torch!

Diverse Multiplayer: Two Worlds II features a variety of multiplayer modes, including Deathmatch, Adventure and Village modes. Deathmatch is more or less a PvP killfest, and sits alongside Duel and Crystal Capture (basically Capture the Flag) as the game’s adversarial multiplayer content. The multiplayer mode is totally distinct from the single-player mode, and you will need to create a separate character for multiplayer use. In some ways it’s great that you essentially get two games in one, and the opportunity to develop (if you so wish) two completely different classes of character, though it would also have been nice to have some level of interactivity between the online and offline modes. The variety of multiplayer modes means there should be something to suit almost every taste, though where Two Worlds II’s multiplayer content really shines  is with the Adventure and Village modes.

Japan. Textbooks say this is a series of islands in East Asia. Not anymore!

Adventure mode is a series of co-operative multiplayerchapters that feature MMO-like gameplay but set within a closed-off map – kind of like enormous MMO ‘instances’.  The first couple of chapters are relatively small but the later ones are absolutely huge, and filled with monsters, enemy camps, dungeons as well as a variety of plant and animal life. To begin with you can only access the first chapter but as you complete each section you are granted access to the next one. They lead on succinctly from one another, each telling part of an overall storyline. Being designed primarily for co-op gameplay, these maps get very tough very quickly and, although you can run through them on your own, you will have to team up with some other players at some stage if you want to make any real progress. There’s no level cap to any of the maps, so if you are lucky enough to team up with some really high level players you can pretty much breeze your whole way through all the maps, collecting a massive amount of XP along the way. You can also pick up some pretty fantastic loot, though unfortunately there isn’t any kind of loot management system – it’s first come, first served, and that usually means the melee fighters get their pick of the loot.

The game's many dungeons are great fun to explore and loot

Village Mode: Playing in Adventure mode is complimented nicely by the much touted Village mode. Village mode is a bit like Sim City, but instead of creating a city you create you own village, for which you need to manage resources and population. To play in Village mode you need to have amassed at least 10,000 Auras, and as it’s an online mode you need to do this with your multiplayer character. 10,000 Auras isn’t a huge amount, and you should be able to get more than this with a few playthroughs of the first couple of Adventure mode maps. However, you’ll soon find that 10,000 Auras isn’t anywhere near enough to build a decent village, and you’ll soon be blowing big piles of cash on farms, shops, guardhouses and other buildings. You need to build forges and shops to be able to create weapons for sale, but you’ll also need to build guardhouses to protect your villagers and mills to generate income. It’s all about striking the right balance between generating income and spending it to improve or protect your resources. Thrown into the mix is a nosey village-leader who sits outside your house and occasionally calls you over when there’s a problem to sort out – be it an invasion of giant spiders or reports of villagers being kidnapped. These problems show up as quests in your log, though not always accurately – on one occasion the journal gave orders to track down a pack of evil Wolfiends only to find a load of undead Necris to deal with.

You can go in and out of most buildings as you please

Village mode is also where you’ll acquire the best armour, weapons and potions for your multiplayer character – and the characters of others, whom you can invite into your village. It’s good fun creating your own little village and even though it starts to get a bit dull, using your village to access high level equipment means you’ll have a vested interest in continually coming back to improve it. Once your village is set up and running properly you should find it generates quite a bit of cash for you, though the maximum amount it can hold for you is capped, so you’ll need to keep withdrawing your Auras on a regular basis.

Custom Characters: Whatever mode you play in, you’ll have the opportunity to forge a character of whatever class you can think of. Unlike many RPGs that have set ‘Mage’, ‘Warrior’ and ‘Rogue’ classes, Two Worlds II allows you to custom design your character as you play, using a system of stats and skill points. Each time you level you can choose to add points to one of four main stats and dozens of skills. The stats increase your overall attributes, like the amount of health or mana you have (and their respective regeneration rates), while the skills are used to tailor the specific abilities of your character. By upgrading your skills you’ll be granted a range of new abilities, including improved dexterity at lockpicking, casting more powerful and complex spells and improving your melee attacks with tricks like using your flaming torch as a weapon.

These ruins look impressive during the day and even better at night

Strangely, as you unlock better skills you may not necessarily get any more powerful right away – many of the skills unlock the ability to use higher level spells and fuse powerful magic stones to your equipment but you still need to find these items before you can use them. For example, you can use Summon cards to summon monsters and soldiers to fight alongside you. The problem is, to begin with, these monsters are pretty weak and do little other than distract your enemies. By combining several Summon cards you can create stronger, more powerful monsters and summon multiple monsters at the same time – the trick is that you can only do this by upgrading your Summon skill, which increases the number of Summon cards you can combine by one with each upgrade. It’s a slightly complex but rewarding system that give you enormous flexibility in how you play the game.

It's great fun exploring all the coastlines by sailing around them

Unique Spells: Summoning isn’t the only spell you can tailor yourself – you can combine different elemental cards, with carriers and modifiers to custom build almost any kind of spell you can think of, and this is probably the most significant feature that Two Worlds sports over other contemporary RPGs. The system works using empty spell amulets, to which you can assign different spell cards. The most basic and obligatory cards are the elemental cards; fire, water, earth, air and necromancy, and each school of magic features various forms of elemental card. Once you’ve picked an elemental card you can add a ‘carrier’ card, which produces an effect. For example, add a fire card to a ‘missile’ card and you’ll create a fireball spell. Add a damage modifier and you’ll make it more powerful. Add a homing modifier and it’ll home in on the bad guys. You can then add another set of spells, for example a water card and an area of effect card and it’ll take out any monsters in the vicinity of the original spell with water magic. That’s quite a simplified example however, and by adding protection and time modifiers you can can change spells in some pretty incredible and unusual ways. This system is highly complex and rewarding, though many of the spell combinations product some very unexpected results so it will take most people some time before they truly get to grips with it

The excellent lighting effects make the forests looks great

Being a complex open world game, you can spend a lot of time messing around with your configuration or exploring for long periods of time, so a good soundtrack is essential to keep your attention through the less active moments. Fortunately, the soundtrack to Two Worlds II is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, it randomly seems to cut out and there are strange sections of virtual silence, compounded by the fact that combat sound effects also seem to randomly cut out. When the music and sound all works properly it creates a great sense of adventure as you run around exploring and fighting; it’s just a shame that this effect is so occasionally ruined by what appears to be a fairly common glitch.

Overall, you can expect to spend anywhere from 10 to 100 hours on Two Worlds II, depending on whether you want to simply run through the single-player campaign or want to fully explore all the side quests and multiplayer content. There are many people on the Two Worlds II forums who admit to having never touched the multiplayer modes, but this would be a real mistake – the mutliplayer modes are easily as fun as the single-player campaign and you’ll really miss out if you don’t give them a try.

There are still quite a few bugs in Two Worlds II, and there is an overall lack of polish, but underneath the problems lies a very rewarding and detailed game. If you’re not a fan of RPGs then obviously this isn’t for you. Likewise, if you like highly polished, linear games like Uncharted 2, you may not enjoy this. Even if you’re an RPG fan, you may find the various glitches to be too much. However, if you’re a serious fan of open world RPGs (especially fantasy ones),  you can tolerate the bugs, and you want something to sink a massive number of hours into while you wait for Skyrim later in the year, then you will find Two Worlds II to be a highly rewarding and absorbing game. It’s far from perfect, and definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s clear that a lot of time and effort and has gone into the game – for those with the patience, there’s a lot to get out of it too.


 

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