My Two Worlds 2 Review

[Gokyabgu]

High welcome to my little review of Two Worlds 2. This is based on the 20 hours playing time of the game.

TW1's biggest plus was the completely explorable open world. You could go anywhere you want and in this process you could come across with ruins, caves, temples, etc much like in Elders Scroll and Gothic games (minus 4 :) ). But, this time TW2's world is not big as its predecessor. But this doesn't mean TW2 has less content than TW1. There's enough space for you to explore as you please. And you can come across different dungeons that urges you to explore in this process. Also there's no invisible barriers or such like in Arcania, only the mountains that too steep to climb or sea to swim. There's also swimming in the game, a feature that pleases me so much after playing Arcania. While you can not dive like in the first two Gothics, you can find some caves and other secret places while doing that. Also, while there's jumping in the game, you can't pull yourself up to a cliff or a ledge.

The story is a standart fantasy stuff so far. From the part that I have seen writing is pretty good, there's some humor and sarcasm in the dialogs. But voice acting is somewhere between ok and terrible. Some of the characters were voiced without any emotion and the quality writing took some damage in the process. Main character's 'trying to be cool' voice is becoming annoying after a while. By the way, in dialogs the hand gestures of the characters can sometimes be pretty weird and they don't look straight in the eye to each other.

There're more than one way to solve the quests. It seems devs have tried their best to provide the player different solutions for each quests. For example in Savannah region there's a gate that you have to pass. You can get forgery documents or use a secret smugglers passage to pass the gate. And also there're several ways to get these documents or to learn this secret passage. I don't know some of the choices effect the later part of the game, but it's always better to have more than one options in a RPG.

For me the biggest problem of TW1 was the combat animations. The stiff animations in the first game really took all the fun for me in the first game. With second game I think devs went onto this problem and solved it because combat animations are much more smootly and looks natural now. Instead of swinging the sword plainly main character now making different moves, swinging, slashing, spinning, etc. But, there comes a new problem. Especially fighting with the humanoids are much more easy with constant button mashing. It seems whether you make block break move or normal attack, your rivals can not break your attack. So if you just push the attack button repeatly, you can beat tougher humanoids easily that have much higher levels than you. For a player like me who prefers calculating his every attack even in an action RPG this annoyed me a little. At least, this button mashing tactics can't be applied on non humanoid creatures, so hit and run tactics are much more effective on those.

Leveling system of the game is standard. You gain experience by killing monsters or solving quests, when you gather enough exp you level up, gain some points to distribute between your stats and skills. There're only four primary stats, so there's nothing difficult here. In order to invest some points in a skill, first you have to learn them. You can learn different skills from the books. These skill books can be found in exploration, or bought from a vendor. This provides some kind of challenge to the player and urges him to exploration. Like the first game there's alchemy and metallurgy skills. With metallurgy you can reinforced your weapons and armor with the right materials. Also you can dismantle your excessive stuff into its core materials and use it in future forging attempts. This prevents the overloading of your inventory in the middle of a quest or exploration. Although I have invested some points in alchemy I haven't use one single potion in the game yet. Part of this is because there's a health regeneration system in the game (TW1 didn't have such a system). When you sheath your weapon your health begin to fill no matter you're in a middle of combat or not and a few points in the health regeneration is enough for it. It fills so fast that drinking a health potion is meaningless in the game (at least at the early parts of the game).

Magic system in the game is interesting. There’re cards in the game and with combining these cards you can make lots of different spell combinations.

There're two things that I really hate in RPGs. One level scaling and second respawning of monsters. There's no level scaling in the whole game, so TW2 adopts more traditional approach at this. Also, TW1 had no respawning, but TW2 embrace more sensible approach. Respawning occurs only in the local wild life, but the monsters that you encounter both in the wilderness and dungeons stays dead. So these two aspects of the game win my heart.

There're horses in the game and you can travel on them. But riding the horse is difficult and also there's no fighting on the horse. So each time you see a monster, you have to jump off, kill the beast and then jump back on. At the end it's not practical and I prefered running in my travels instead of riding.

In your travels you can find different books for reading. You may laugh at me, but I like to read every books that I encounter in RPGs. I remember sitting down on my chair and spend hours while reading tales, lores in Morrowind, or codex in Dragon Age Origins. I always think these things deepening the immersion.

As for the graphics the first release of the game didn't have Directx10 graphics and came with an annoying bloom effects. These effects can be so annoying that I was feeling myself in a dream world and my eyes have watered after a while. Also there was no option to close this and only way to do this was the console commands. There was also a problem that AF and parallax mapping couldn't run at the same time. With the 'gold patch' came a Directx 10 mode, ability to close bloom in the options menu. With both AF and parallax mapping graphics really look impressive now. At the same time the optimization is perfect and I haven't seen any slowdowns in the game. By the way, I had a chance to try the game on Xbox 360 and game runs smooth without any slowdown or stuttering. Also apart from above mentioned graphical issues, unlike the first release of TW1, TW2 is pretty bug-free. And at this state I haven't encountered any single bug in the the game.

Apparently being a multi-platform game has some disadventages on PC. First, I don't like the general UI. Default key mapping is terrible, in order to open your inventory you have to press F2, F6 for map, etc. Of course you can adjust that to your liking. But then there's the inventory. It's not much practical and looks ugly. I always prefer TW1's traditional style inventory screen to this.

Anyway if you are a Gothic fan and was dissappointed by the latest Gothic game, Two Worlds 2 has the potential to quench your thirst. It’s the closest thing to Gothic until Risen 2 arrives. I strongly recommend this game to you, I’m sure you won’t be dissappointed with Two Worlds 2.

If you can find the game in the shelves of course. Alas the marketing of the game is terrible and unfortunately publishers are doing all they can to undermine the selling of the game. Two Worlds 3 is in the making, I hope devs can find much beter publisher in the future.

[Nerevarine]

Thanks for the review/first impressions, Gokyabgu. It was much more informative than many of the so-called "professional" reviews :D

[Gokyabgu]

Your welcome. Actually I must thank you for encouraging me for my future reviews. :)

[rune_74]

I pretty much agree with this, especailly going to state the UI is terrible.

[DoctorNarrative]

There're two things that I really hate in RPGs. One level scaling and second respawning of monsters. There's no level scaling in the whole game, so TW2 adopts more traditional approach at this. Also, TW1 had no respawning, but TW2 embrace more sensible approach. Respawning occurs only in the local wild life, but the monsters that you encounter both in the wilderness and dungeons stays dead. So these two aspects of the game win my heart.

This rings very true for me. The fact that the game does not scale and has no respawning makes it instantly a lot better of a game to me than it probably deserves to be.

Throw in an awesome magic system and some unique visuals and I couldn't help but like it.

[Nerevarine]

I'm kind of curious about something: What's the problem with enemies/monsters respawning after a certain amount of time has passed? I thought that one of the biggest problems with Two Worlds 1 was that after you cleared out an area, it was eternally an empty wasteland.

[Drithius]

I'm kind of curious about something: What's the problem with enemies/monsters respawning after a certain amount of time has passed? I thought that one of the biggest problems with Two Worlds 1 was that after you cleared out an area, it was eternally an empty wasteland.

For me, it feels contrived - a mechanic of the game and not of the world the game tries to create. If you cleanse an area of skeletons, for example, why should there be more skeletons in a week? …could there be a vile necromancer in an undiscovered dungeon raising them? If so, track him down and kill him… but too often, this is not the case and there are instead respawning enemies for the sake of game filler without any explanation.

For me.

Thanks for the review!

[Nerevarine]

For me, it feels contrived - a mechanic of the game and not of the world the game tries to create. If you cleanse an area of skeletons, for example, why should there be more skeletons in a week? …could there be a vile necromancer in an undiscovered dungeon raising them? If so, track him down and kill him… but too often, this is not the case and there are instead respawning enemies for the sake of game filler without any explanation.


Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I guess I would prefer a dynamic world that spawned enemies based on certain conditions, similar to Depths of Peril or Din's Curse, because it doesn't make sense and is boring to me that an area would forever be clear from danger, but I see your point that respawning the same enemies would be illogical and redundant. I understand that implementing a dynamic spawning system would be a much more daunting task for a large-scale game than it would be for a small-scale indie project, but i think it would be a good solution.

[DoctorNarrative]

I'm kind of curious about something: What's the problem with enemies/monsters respawning after a certain amount of time has passed? I thought that one of the biggest problems with Two Worlds 1 was that after you cleared out an area, it was eternally an empty wasteland.

For me it adds a hassle to returning to areas already explored. If I have already combed over that area or that dungeon and I'm back there again chances are I am running an errand or looking for something I missed. I don't want to bother with combat again in those situations… combat is only fun the first time I explore a place.

That's me though.

It's better in RPGs than some other genres I must admit. The respawning in Bioshock drove me insane. Limited ammo, limited life and I'm trying to get back to the store and oh look, 4 new enemies in an old area. ARG!

[Nerevarine]

It's better in RPGs than some other genres I must admit. The respawning in Bioshock drove me insane. Limited ammo, limited life and I'm trying to get back to the store and oh look, 4 new enemies in an old area. ARG!

Oh I definitely don't want that type of respawning.. that was pretty terrible in Bioshock. But in an open-world RPG with a day and night cycle, I think it's perfectly reasonable to have some respawning after a reasonable amount of time has passed. It just keeps the gameworld from feeling dead, IMO, but too much respawning would also be frustrating.

[wiretripped]

For me it adds a hassle to returning to areas already explored. If I have already combed over that area or that dungeon and I'm back there again chances are I am running an errand or looking for something I missed. I don't want to bother with combat again in those situations… combat is only fun the first time I explore a place.

Same here. I loathe respawns, unless they're subtle.
Such as the wildlife respawning that was patched in by the CPT, in G3.

[Gokyabgu]

I'm the type of player who likes to explore every nook and cranny in a game. When I clean an area completely from all the monsters it feels like an achievement to me. I consider that area as completed. But when I go back to this cleansed area and see that all of them respawned again, I feel like I returned to the beginning. But of course there're games that use this system cleverly and not so annoyingly. For example Divinity 2: Flames Of Vengeance comes to my mind. Also Morrowind or Wizardry 8.

This respawning system can be so annoying especially in action RPGs. Sacred games comes to my mind. This's the worst monster respawning method I ever saw in a RPG. Sacred 2 also added this formula the level scaling in its purest form. If Sacred 2 had no level scaling and respawning it would become one of my favourite action RPGs. But at this state it's a waste of potential.

[TheMadGamer]

Thanks for taking the time to post your initial thoughts. I'm also in my first 20 hours or so with the game as well.

And you can come across different dungeons that urges you to explore in this process.

I’m level 14 right now. There have only been a couple of caves where I wasn’t handed my ass. Most caves have enemies that one-shot me. I have a lot of caves on my map that I will have to revisit when I’m stronger.

Also there's no invisible barriers or such like in Arcania, only the mountains that too steep to climb or sea to swim.

Yay. My last game was Arcania and their liberal use of invisible barriers was really annoying.

There's also swimming in the game, a feature that pleases me so much after playing Arcania. While you can not dive like in the first two Gothics, you can find some caves and other secret places while doing that.

I agree with this. Games like the Two Worlds series, Gothic series, and TES series are as much about exploration as they are about character development and story. My view is that it is a missed opportunity when games like these do not make water exploration (both above and below) something the player can engage in and also include meaningful content when he or she does. Finding little under water secrets here and there in G1 and G2 was a lot of fun.

But voice acting is somewhere between ok and terrible. Some of the characters were voiced without any emotion and the quality writing took some damage in the process. Main character's 'trying to be cool' voice is becoming annoying after a while.

The voice acting is fairly bad. But at least the gameplay is compelling enough that I want to continue playing. This doesn’t work in reverse for me – games that have terrible gameplay are games I will lose interest in no matter how great the voice acting is.

I’m also irked about my character’s overall tone when talking to NPCs. Between TW2 and Arcania, I’ve had about enough of my character talking to everyone like a sarcastic asshole all the time.

There're more than one way to solve the quests. It seems devs have tried their best to provide the player different solutions for each quests.

I’ve been noticing this as well and I’m liking it!


Magic system in the game is interesting. There’re cards in the game and with combining these cards you can make lots of different spell combinations.

I think I will like the magic system eventually. Right now though, lack of resources (cards) and lack of skills really precludes me from making anything more than a fire/ice/lightening bolt. But I can see that the potential for creativity is defiantly there and looks a lot more fun than Oblivion’s magic creation system.

There're two things that I really hate in RPGs. One level scaling and second respawning of monsters.

I agree with this. Level scaling might be ok when implemented in a limited fashion. But Oblivion really ruined character progression because you never felt weak or strong at any time throughout the game – a BIG mistake in my opinion. Like you, I don’t mind respawning in limited ways.

There're horses in the game and you can travel on them. But riding the horse is difficult and also there's no fighting on the horse. So each time you see a monster, you have to jump off, kill the beast and then jump back on.

I’m with you here too. I gave up with the horse early on and I’m running everywhere. There’s really no use for the horse since there are teleporters you can use.

In your travels you can find different books for reading. You may laugh at me, but I like to read every books that I encounter in RPGs.

I like books in games as well. And I like how TW2 takes it a step further in that some books can trigger quests or progress quests. I’m hoping I’ll stumble on to books that will boost attributes and skills (like Oblivion) as well.

I remember sitting down on my chair and spend hours while reading tales, lores in Morrowind, or codex in Dragon Age Origins. I always think these things deepening the immersion.

I don’t mind reading books as long as they’re not too long. I understand that this is very subjective because one person’s ‘too long’ can be very different from another person’s ‘too long.’ So far I’m very comfortable with the length of the books I’ve been finding in TW2. I think books in games can really draw you into the game.

In the past (games from the 80s and early 90s), I could really be drawn into a game by having to take my own notes and draw my own maps. I’ve always felt that had I never had to take such extensive notes and make such meticulous maps when I played Ultima VII, I might not remember it as fondly as I do today – because the process of doing those things really connected me to the game in a real way (sort of like how you will remember the definition of a word if you personally look it up in the dictionary yourself as opposed to someone just telling you what the word means).

Since the games themselves accomplish map making and note taking, I think books in games provide a fun alternative to connect players to the game in a real way which can then provide for a deeper play experience. Not sure if I’m making any sense here, but I tried.

…I don't like the general UI. Default key mapping is terrible, in order to open your inventory you have to press F2, F6 for map, etc. Of course you can adjust that to your liking. But then there's the inventory. It's not much practical and looks ugly. I always prefer TW1's traditional style inventory screen to this.

I think the UI is the weakest aspect of the game. It is too bad because it really looks like they put some effort into the UI as there is quite a bit to it. But in the end, the TW2 UI is overcomplicated and under-documented.

I had to look on the internet to find out what the little icons mean when you hover your mouse pointer over a weapon or armor item – things like that should be in the game manual.

And as you pointed out, the default key mappings are strange to say the least. If you decide to re-invent the wheel, you should avoid creating a cube. But as you stated, at least you can reassign the key mappings.

My biggest gripe with the UI is that I constantly dismantle items that I have equipped. The way the inventory screen works, you can see weapons/armor that you have equipped because they are bracketed. But you only see bracketed weapons/armor for the current outfit you are wearing. You can have up to three outfits in TW2. The end result is that I have been habitually dismantling my archery outfit or mage outfit when I’m currently switched to my melee outfit. It’s driving me nuts. And it’s NOT so much because I’m being impatient when I go about the process of dismantling equipment by click-click-clicking all willy-nilly, but more because of how often you find yourself dismantling things. Just about everything you come across you end up dismantling.

It would be nice if the UI had a checkbox or something that would filter away all equipped weapons and armor for all 3 of your outfits. That way when you go into dismantling mode, you could check that checkbox and not have to worry about dismantling something you are wearing. And yes, I’m aware that there is an extra dialog box warning you that you are about to dismantle something you are wearing, but for me, that clearly hasn’t been a reliable prevention mechanism.

But I do remember my lesson from Gothic 1. That dismissing a game outright because of clumsy controls and a poor UI is a foolish choice. And I’m glad I’ve stuck it through with TW2 because I do find that I am enjoying this game.

[Thrasher]

Very informative review, Gokyabgu! Thank you!

Please give us an update when you finish the game!

[crpgnut]

One of the great things about magic use in 2W2 is that it's a great money sink. Cards cost 750 for the cheapest and 2000+ for some of the better ones. Once you buy a card from a vendor, the price jumps 20 for the next card for the cheap ones and more for the better cards. I've spent thousands of auras on cards. I'm a Magic™
card fan :D

[Sergorn]

I'd probably gonna be alone in this... but after completing Two Worlds 2 and enjoying it for the most part, I gotta say that much to my surprise I enjoyed the first episode more.

I've alway felt Two Worlds was rather underrated. Or rather that it suffered from having been released in a terrible state (and a terrible console version to boot). However I played it a long time after its release, so it was patched and bug free by then and it was a very enjoyable experience to me.

It followed a design philosophy reminiscent of the Gothic series (though with a more open world approach), and altough it fell short on many aspect (pretty bad writing all around and terrible voice acting), it worked on the whole and did some very interesting stuff in spite of obviously cut contents.

Now Two Worlds II is a more polished game on the whole... it has some good stuff, but it just feel to me to be lacking compared to the first episode. I mean it feels lifeless - the town in TW1 had many generic NPC granted, but you could talk to them all. Here the towns felt like something out of Assassin's Creed, with people moving around but with whom you can't interact with - and i hate that in RPGs. And even the content I mean: Two Worlds had many more towns or village, and they all came with their sets of quests. Two Worlds II has few actual towns or village... hell the first main island has many villages, but most of them are empty and/or overrun by monsters. Hardly exciting stuff.

And the quest kinda lack appeal. I still have a fond memory of the beginning northern area of Two Worlds I where you have this ongoing conflict between the count's men and rebels - and you can't take sides and solve it in different ways. This felt good and involving. I can't think of a single quest of Two Worlds II that felt that interesting.

Also TW1 had a crazy amount of lore all thing considered: whenever you talked to people you often learned a lot about the area or the mythology of the lands. Here, most of teh dialogues feel minimalist.

And the plot is meh. Now Two Worlds' was very basic (go get parts of the artefact, go kill bad guy), but it worked. They obviously try to do more here, but it feels very disjointed. And I'm still puzzled as to how it fits with Two Worlds - it feels you have missed an episode in between.

Oh and: worst end boss EVER.

Now I still think Two Worlds II was fun, but while I still keep very good memories of TW1, it feels to me TW2 is rather forgettable.

There were some mention or Arcania above, but I gotta say I actually enjoyed Arcania much more than Two Worlds II. Sure Arcania is more of an action/adventure game, and it's linear - but it feels to me what it set out to do, it did better than Two Worlds II which I think kind of dissapointed me. I was expecting something that would really improve on the good bases of the first episode but it didn't really : it's similar in many aspect (notably the hack'n slashy combat and loot, which is okay for me), better in some ways (writing, voice acting), but worst in other so...

Oh well. Bring on Risen 2 I guess.

-Sergorn

[Gokyabgu]

I'd probably gonna be alone in this… but after completing Two Worlds 2 and enjoying it for the most part, I gotta say that much to my surprise I enjoyed the first episode more.

I've alway felt Two Worlds was rather underrated. Or rather that it suffered from having been released in a terrible state (and a terrible console version to boot). However I played it a long time after its release, so it was patched and bug free by then and it was a very enjoyable experience to me.

It followed a design philosophy reminiscent of the Gothic series (though with a more open world approach), and altough it fell short on many aspect (pretty bad writing all around and terrible voice acting), it worked on the whole and did some very interesting stuff in spite of obviously cut contents.

Now Two Worlds II is a more polished game on the whole… it has some good stuff, but it just feel to me to be lacking compared to the first episode. I mean it feels lifeless - the town in TW1 had many generic NPC granted, but you could talk to them all. Here the towns felt like something out of Assassin's Creed, with people moving around but with whom you can't interact with - and i hate that in RPGs. And even the content I mean: Two Worlds had many more towns or village, and they all came with their sets of quests. Two Worlds II has few actual towns or village… hell the first main island has many villages, but most of them are empty and/or overrun by monsters. Hardly exciting stuff.

And the quest kinda lack appeal. I still have a fond memory of the beginning northern area of Two Worlds I where you have this ongoing conflict between the count's men and rebels - and you can't take sides and solve it in different ways. This felt good and involving. I can't think of a single quest of Two Worlds II that felt that interesting.

Also TW1 had a crazy amount of lore all thing considered: whenever you talked to people you often learned a lot about the area or the mythology of the lands. Here, most of teh dialogues feel minimalist.

And the plot is meh. Now Two Worlds' was very basic (go get parts of the artefact, go kill bad guy), but it worked. They obviously try to do more here, but it feels very disjointed. And I'm still puzzled as to how it fits with Two Worlds - it feels you have missed an episode in between.

Oh and: worst end boss EVER.

Now I still think Two Worlds II was fun, but while I still keep very good memories of TW1, it feels to me TW2 is rather forgettable.

There were some mention or Arcania above, but I gotta say I actually enjoyed Arcania much more than Two Worlds II. Sure Arcania is more of an action/adventure game, and it's linear - but it feels to me what it set out to do, it did better than Two Worlds II which I think kind of dissapointed me. I was expecting something that would really improve on the good bases of the first episode but it didn't really : it's similar in many aspect (notably the hack'n slashy combat and loot, which is okay for me), better in some ways (writing, voice acting), but worst in other so…

Oh well. Bring on Risen 2 I guess.

-Sergorn

I have played TW1, but I turned off at some point because of the combat system. From what I have seen, you're so right about the differences between TW1 and TW2. It occured to me that while devs were doing TW1 they had a combination of Elder Scrolls and Gothic games in their minds, but while doing TW2 they had The Witcher and Assassin's Creed it seems.

But after I'm going to finish TW2, I'm thinking of giving TW1 a second chance and playing it anew from the beginning. Large open world with no level scaling and no monster respawning really seduces me. Maybe I will be getting used to the combat after a while. I have both the boxed and gog Two Worlds 1 GOTY edition and they came with a map. I'm sure it will be very handy while exploring the game world.

[RivianWitch]

I'm glad to see that at least someone else is playing this game. After having started the demo earlier this week, I decided to get the game, but have not had time to start playing the proper game yet. From the demo, I'd say the game is rather more polished than the first one, nicer graphics, and the only problem I have graphicswise is that your player character seems to have a 'doll' body.

Both combat and magic seem deeper than the first game, though I suspect the magic "card" system might become a bit onerous.

I personally think the dialogue and voice acting has been improved since the first game. I didn't particularly enjoy the "Medievalspeak" one had encountered in the first game.

I've started looking forward to playing this... (- that is if I don't give in and buy DA2 this weekend. :P )

[Sergorn]

It occured to me that while devs were doing TW1 they had a combination of Elder Scrolls and Gothic games in their minds, but while doing TW2 they had The Witcher and Assassin's Creed it seems.


I hadn't thought of it in this way, but you're absolutely right. Both ways are equally valid - but TW2 just didn't appeal to me as much in spite of its obvious improvements in other ways.

I personally think the dialogue and voice acting has been improved since the first game. I didn't particularly enjoy the "Medievalspeak" one had encountered in the first game.

Yeah, the old english bits were awefully handled in Two Worlds. After playing that game I don't think I can stand anymore to hear the words "Forsooth" or "Prithee" :p They actually make fun of this in Two Worlds II, there's a NPC who speaks liked they did in TW1 and the hero is just dumbfounded, uncapable of understanding a word of it :D

-Sergorn

[RivianWitch]

Yeah, the old english bits were awefully handled in Two Worlds. After playing that game I don't think I can stand anymore to hear the words "Forsooth" or "Prithee" :p They actually make fun of this in Two Worlds II, there's a NPC who speaks liked they did in TW1 and the hero is just dumbfounded, uncapable of understanding a word of it :D

-Sergorn

LOL :biggrin: :cool:

[JDR13]

I'm glad to see that at least someone else is playing this game. After having started the demo earlier this week, I decided to get the game, but have not had time to start playing the proper game yet.

There's a playable demo for Two Worlds 2?

[RivianWitch]

There's a playable demo for Two Worlds 2?

I got it as part of a magazine cover disc, but this should be the downloadable version.
http://www.2-worlds.com/demo.php

Not sure though, so don't quote me on that.

[JDR13]

Nope, those are all links to the demo of the first TW game.

I did a search, but I couldn't find a downloadable version of a TWII demo.

[RivianWitch]

Sorry, will let you know if I find one.

[Dasale]

This thread bring back my curiosity to TW2, when I bought it and tried it, it didn't run on my computer. But I changed my video card, and now it works fine.

I have been impressed by the performance of the Mac version, my computer is almost 5 years old. I didn't finished the very long tutorial but I think I stopped at its end when you learn crafting. There have been worse RPG tutorial but it's still too long and too linear. Anyway the feeling is hugely different than what I remember of TW1. The voices aren't as bad than in TW1 but still not good at all in my language, but it's not enough to spoil the fun. I paused it to play DA2 but clearly it won't be like TW1 that I throw to trash rather fast, and I'll play TW2 much longer. Even fights seem fairly good, if past the tutorial there's more freedom it can be a game I'll really enjoy.

[crpgnut]

Freedom is nearly complete after tutorial island, with one caveat: You can only travel to the next island each time, but the islands are all HUGE and there are dozens and dozens of quests on each one. Once you've unlocked an island, you can always go back and finish up quests, buy more goods, etc. Whenever I run out of crafting materials, I generally go back and rob houses. I got caught thieving in one city, so they always try to kill me there. I guess I could just depopulate the whole place, but it's easier to just hit and run :)

[DoctorNarrative]

How do you get caught thieving? Whenever I tried to steal in front of someone they just gave me a naughty look and the game moved on.

[Dasale]

Freedom is nearly complete after tutorial island, with one caveat: You can only travel to the next island each time, but the islands are all HUGE and there are dozens and dozens of quests on each one. Once you've unlocked an island, you can always go back and finish up quests, buy more goods, etc. Whenever I run out of crafting materials, I generally go back and rob houses. I got caught thieving in one city, so they always try to kill me there. I guess I could just depopulate the whole place, but it's easier to just hit and run :)

In general I feel successive relatively large area a much better design than a huge one. But many modern RPG using such approach tend using somehow small area not favoring enough quality of exploration. But also quality of exploration and large area are two different things I hope it's well done in TW2.

[crpgnut]

It's fairly well done, Dasale. The game was rushed at the end, which is a trend for most European games and many American ones too. What seems to be happening is that the early islands are fully fleshed out and as you get closer to the end, there is less and less to do outside of the main quest. Remember Divine Divinity? 2W2 has that going on, to a lesser extent. I haven't finished the game yet though. I'm on island 3 or Ashos for those who've played.

[Dasale]

Lol yes Divine Divinity screw up a bit the game game because of last chapter. Well also the beginning discouraged many players.

[crpgnut]

@DoctorNarrative By stealing, I mean the pickpocket skill. Opening chests in front of npcs will have them looking around but no alarm. If you get caught pickpocketing, the guards are all on alarm and you'll have to leave town for awhile.

[Gokyabgu]

Last weekend I was searching the insidetwoworlds forum's modding section and I came across two small, but very useful mods.

One is solving the humanoid creatures can't fight back problem. In vanilla TW2 you can bash to death humans and humanoid creatures with constant button mashing. Because your attacks can disrupt your opponents attacks, and if you attack repeatedly your opponents can't do anything. Well, no more. With this mode your attacks can't stop your opponents attacks, and fights are more challenging and fun now:

http://www.insidetwoworlds.com/showthread.php?t=32232

Other one is for respawning. I tired of constant spawning of animals and varns in the Savannah region. And I found this mod which decreases the respawn rate to zero. It works perfectly in Savannah. After I began to use it I have observed no spawning. If you hate respawning like me definitely check this:

http://www.insidetwoworlds.com/showthread.php?t=32799

Note: Installing the mods are easy. Only copy the wd files in "Your-TW2-install-directory"/WDFiles and run the game. That's it, have fun. :)

By the way you must register the site to download wd files.

[Dasale]

Thanks for the links those two mods seem interesting options. I'll try them when I'll go back playing it.

[DoctorNarrative]

The Varns respawn? I thought only the animals did.

[Gokyabgu]

I had thought like that too until last weekend I saw the Varn's I killed in my earlier play times suddenly went back to life. The respawning of animals are annoying enough, but, respawning of Varn's were really disappointing.

By the way what's the point of killing baboons, ostriches etc over and over, I really can't see any fun in that. I nearly explored half of the Savannah and already killed more than the total wild life population of Africa. Somebody must stop this animal massacre. :P

[DeepO]

Anyway if you are a Gothic fan and was dissappointed by the latest Gothic game, Two Worlds 2 has the potential to quench your thirst. It’s the closest thing to Gothic until Risen 2 arrives.

I disagree.
Dragon Knight Saga´s where it´s at in this regard and it´s also a great game, unlike 2W2. In my opinion at least.

[DoctorNarrative]

I disagree.
Dragon Knight Saga´s where it´s at in this regard and it´s also a great game, unlike 2W2. In my opinion at least.

Divinity 2, in my opinion, is too clunky combat-wise to be that good. Also while Two Worlds 2 is also sectioned off at first it feels a lot more open than Divinity 2 does. Divinity 2 felt a lot more linear, is my point.

I'm not saying Divinity 2 is a bad game, I liked it very much and need to play the expansion content I bought but never started. I am just saying Two Worlds 2, for me, is a lot more fun to play due to a more open world feel and much better combat.

[crpgnut]

Wow, I really enjoy(ed) both games. I don't care for Gothic/Risen but 2W2 was the perfect stop-gap for me until Skyrim. I've played about 140 hours in 2W2 and I've just entered the 4th chapter. Chapter 3 was dull to the max, and I've heard 4 is just as bad. I definitely got my money's worth though. I found DKS to be about the same, the first part is very good and the latter areas are duller, but still okay. Both games suffer from a feeling of "rushed at the end". I'm already thinking seriously about playing through 2W2 again after finishing. I really enjoy the crafting and such and felt the Savannah was a great place to game.

I've got to try the no respawn mod listed above. There is enough combat without anything ever respawning. I'm not sure about crafting though. You need TONS of stuff for crafting high level gear. It might take 200 weapons dismantled to create a fully crafted weapon. Since I dual-wield most of the time, that's 400 weapons minimum to fully craft an item. If Varns don't respawn will I have enough materials....

[Gokyabgu]

Divinity 2 is a great RPG, I'm not arguing with that. Also Flames of Vengeance expansion was more satisfying to me than the main game and it is the best expansion I have played since Mask Of The Betrayer.

But, according to me Divinity 2 is very different than Gothic series and can not be taken into the same category. I won't go into details but as a whole Two Worlds 2 feels more Gothic than Divinity 2.

[DeepO]

But, according to me Divinity 2 is very different than Gothic series and can not be taken into the same category. I won't go into details but as a whole Two Worlds 2 feels more Gothic than Divinity 2.

Rewarding exploration and lack of hand holding are key aspects where Divinity 2 is much closer to Gothics than 2W2.

The only aspect where 2W2 is similar to Gothics is that early it´s possible to run into enemies which can one hit kill you, at least on the highest difficulty - but the majority of other opponents can still be dispatched easily right from the beginning.
If you play Dragon Knight Saga on nightmare, in the beginning virtually everything can kick your ass if you aren´t careful so DKS is closer to Gothics in this regard too.

And then there´s the question of general quality which in my opinion strongly favors DKS because I consider first two Gothics and DKS to be great games, whereas 2W2 barely mediocre.

In conclusion, according to my preferences DKS is in the same league as first two Gothics quality-wise and is quite similar in several aspects I consider key for Gothic series and that´s why I wouldn´t hesitate to recommend DKS to all Gothic fans. 2W2´s similarities are merely superficial and it isn´t a very good game anyway imo.

[crpgnut]

You and I are the antithesis of each other, DeepO :) I can't stand the Gothics, thought DKS was good but not great, and think Two Worlds Two is very good, but rushed at the end, and TES is the king of the crpg world :D Dragon Age can wait till I'm super bored and have nothing else to play.

[crpgnut]

I finally finished Two Worlds Two last night and the ending surprised me quite a bit. I hadn't read much at all about the game and was shocked at how it all turned out. I really enjoyed myself with this game and it might be my favorite European game since Amberstar. I'm almost jealous of those of you still playing. I hope you haven't ruined it for yourselves by reading ahead :)

[Dajjer]

COME ON!!!!!!

I get to the final monster and they pull a RISEN on me :furious:

Spent a futile hour on the last battle. Took awhile to figure out I had to use the ballistas let alone how to use them. Saw the final battle on YouTube and frankly it does not look fun to me. I know my gamer twix reflexes are lame and I'll probably have to cheat to win this battle.

I was all hyped for the 2worlds2 expansion - now, not so much.

Pretty sad coming from a long time Two Worlds fanboy.