What would you do if your sister would be kidnapped? What would you do if the world you know would suddenly change? These are the questions that drive the Two Worlds story and give us a RPG which combines some elements that great games of this genre had.
Developed by Reality Pump, the ones who also created the Earth series, and published by SouthPeak Games, Two Worlds takes place in a medieval universe where humans and orcs are fighting for a land full of ancient mysteries.
As I said, the game begins with your sister being kidnapped. No idea who did it and no clues what so ever. Another aspect of the game is that the hero's sister is a lovely, nature gifted woman (too bad for her face). As you start your quest to discover the motives of this action, you find that the world you knew has changed.
Soon you will discover that the land of Antaloor is actually a battleground between the former rulers of the land (the Karga Clan) and the current rulers (House Skelden). Between them, other guilds or factions try to establish their domination and will use you for that.
Item Stacking
While slaying your enemies on your ways to solve the quests, an interesting feature takes place: items stacking; you will be able to stack the items that are similar. For example, two identical swords can be stacked and you will get better sword. The stats will be increased a little but this helps the gameplay as you won't have to carry all the items to the merchants in order to sell them. On the long run, by upgrading your items you will get even better equipment than most items found later in the game.
Alchemy
The collected herbs and minerals found in the game can be used through alchemy to create powerful potions. You can create temporary effect potions or permanent effect. Regarding the temporary effect you will heal, restore your mana or increase temporarily your stats. The cherry on top of the cake represents the potions that give you permanent attributes. As you combine more and more items you will get a very powerful potion. I can't tell you the exact formula but adding three diamonds for example won't increase the benefits three times but more. This allowed me to create a potion so strong that I walked in the middle of an orc camp and they had a very hard time killing me. Without me to even moving a finger to attack them. I don't know if they meant it like this or they didn't considered that someone would collect so many ingredients for the potion. As you can see the alchemy skill is really important, and you shouldn't take it easy. Spending skill points here is really advised.
The minerals you find can be used to improve your weapons stats. For example, you can make your fire sword to deal more fire damage, to increase your cold damage on your spear and so on.
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The things that make the difference
As any respectable RPG, you will have skills to use. Here you have 39 skills to use and to improve. This means that you will be able to play the game as you want. You want to be a mage? There are 5 magic schools you can use: fire, air, earth, water and necromancy, each with its own spells. Want to be a sneaky rogue? Or an archer? No problem, you can be whatever you like. For the warriors the game has a lot of skills, more or less common, making it very replayable.
As you improve your skills, you will transform into a killing machine, adapting to each action just for fun or because you need to. Some missions involve silent killing, brute force or a little magic.
The primary attributes are vitality, dexterity, strength and willpower. These four will increase your stats because you will face more and more powerful and dangerous monsters.
Second Opinion
By Emanuel Avram
When I saw my colleague playing this game, I had to try it for myself. I was really disappointed with Gothic 3, and while I haven't played a ton of similar games, I did enjoyed Gothic 2 very much. I really hated that the latest Gothic game was so poorly optimized and I couldn't enjoy it at home even if I had a decent system. I guess that I really needed to play something similar, but nothing competitive was on the market.
Two Worlds manages to recapture some of the magic from the Gothic universe, without requiring an extreme gaming system. The game looks incredible and vast, and it runs decent on almost everything.
I've seen some bad comments coming especially from Oblivion and Gothic fans because I guess they feel threaten a bit by competition. I'm not suggesting anything else than to actually give this game a chase. Who knows, you may enjoy actually end up in enjoying the experience.
Amongst a few ideas that were taken from similar RPGs, there are some brilliant shining new ones. The alchemy for instance. There is no rule of what potions you can create. Add this and that and this and you get a new potion. Add a mana potion, some fire resistance stuff and some cold resistance stuff, you get a potion that increases your fire and frost resists, and your mana of course. If you increase your skill you can get some amazing results. So the results are predictable, while you still have fun in experimenting. For example, it's only logical to obtain a temporary increase ins stats while drinking a potion made out of herbs that have temporary effects. It's also normal to obtain a temporary effect potion out by mixing another temporary one with a permanent one. And isn't mix-n-matching and trying stuff what alchemy is all about? (besides turning stuff to gold, which no one seems to care these days).
Then there's the whole “stacking weapons” of the same type innovation. You can upgrade weapons by merging those of the same class/type. That way, you can choose to keep your favorite weapon for a long time, and it also helps with clearing up your bag space a bit like my colleague said. Furthermore, if you magically enchant it with some sort of elemental damage, you won't have to lose it.
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Money is no problem in the game and you will find so many items that you don't need to ever worry about them. You can even save before opening a chest and try to open it several times, because the loot is random and you can play it so you get exactly what you want.
One “funny” thing is that if you look carefully, every character in the game sort of looks like your main character. Sure there are a few differences like hair color, bigger cheeks, etc. but in essence, it's kind of the same model. Even the sexy woman on the cover, that you find out it is your sister (what were they thinking?!) looks like a man with big... well... you know.
Another thing would be the lack of multiple fighting styles with one weapon: he swings the sword great, bit there's only one move. Then again, it looks better than in Gothic - at least he does it like a real warrior.
The story isn't great, but it's made in a smart way, and it takes you to different locations through quests, helping you discover the world.
Two Worlds really shines on making the game world come to life. You see people going on their businesses and performing normal activities like a real society. Cities or factions rival to each are in need of your services, and you get a reputation level with each of them. You can decide to help either side, and gain its benefits. However, even without your presence, there will be wars, and fighting, cities conquered or people killed. This idea also applies in multiplayer, and although we weren't able to test it, it sounds really intriguing if implemented properly.
Conclusion
A surprisingly good game that came from nowhere. RPG fans will love it - assuming they will give it a chance. It has some great ideas and a promising multiplayer mode. It's visually stunning sometimes and it runs decent on almost any system. I've long awaited an RPG where I would look good in every armor I wear!
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Gameplay: 86
Two Worlds in a very interesting RPG. It has a lot of interesting features and this is what makes it an candidate for the RPG of the year. As you blend into the world you will notice that your are just a pawn, but a pawn that will change everything, that will turn the balance on one side, not like in Oblivion where you meet with the king as you escape from the cellar.
Graphics: 88
The first thing that blows you away is the attention given to the detail. The world looks amazing, the armor is gorgeous designed and i must tell you that are a lot of items in the game and all look fabulous. Each item you equip changes your appearance and contributes to the gameplay, making you to get involved in the game.
Sound: 83
The only aspect of the sound that doesn't feel right is voice acting. I can't say that it's bad but perhaps it could be better. Something about the sudden difference between ancient terms used in dialogs and modern ones. The menu music is excellent, very medieval and very potent, the sound effect are as they should be, all creating an atmosphere that suits the game.
Multiplayer:
Although we weren't able to test it, the idea sounds great. Fight along side with your buddies in an attempt to conquer whole towns, or fight against each other, with the help of NPCs.
Hardware: 87
The system requirements are really low for a game of such magnitude. The game has a few problems indeed, like physics for example, but it runs decent on almost everything. The movies are kind of pointless because they were rendered with the game resolution anyway, and the game could have been much smaller if the cinematic moments were done in-game.