Two Worlds II - Thoughts / First Impressions

Played to the middle of the 2nd chapter, and quit mostly due to this:

Loot.
Unless it´s quest related, loot is always non-unique and leveled and while it may not seem so at first, there isn´t much variety of it either. It´s still useful for crafting and supports ranger/warrior/spellslinger stereotypes quite well, but I didn´t find this aspect much exciting after some time.
The fact that usage is level restricted doesn´t help here either.

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It's not terrible, but it was boring enough to get me to move on. I much prefer the fun loot system of the Diablo variety.

You know, I don't like massive loot drops of powerful items all the time.

I don't dislike the fact that much of the stuff you find in TW2 is mundane, as it makes more sense to me. What I don't like so much is the maintenance task of breaking down 30 items every few minutes. I guess you don't have to do it though. It's just weird that I can't find any of those crystals.

The absolute worst part of this game is the stupid sh*t the main character says as he's out killing stuff… I'm going to go crazy if I hear "That's rich" one more time. And the creepy simpering laughter… I wish there was a way to turn it off.

Otherwise it's a pretty fun game. Graphics are really nice. Too many of the battles involve tons of running around, but it's still pretty cool.

Nerevarine said:

That's about what i expected: The game feels better with an Xbox controller. I haven't progressed very far into the game and stopped playing until I purchase a controller, but honestly, with my back-catalog of other games that is getting far too large, it's not really on my list of priorities to spend money on something that I shouldn't need for a PC game. It's a shame too, because 2W2 has some real positives going for it, but I've lost patience over the years for poor interfaces/control schemes - especially (and mainly) when it is the result of pure laziness on the part of the developers.

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This is just my opinion and you are certainly free to do as you wish, but I'd say you might be better off just caving and buying the Xbox controller. Since it's Microsoft, it integrates really well with Windows and let's face it, more and more PC games are getting to be console ports. Even The Witcher 2 pretty much was, or at least a PC game heavily designed for a console in mind.

re: the Loot

I like how it works in this game. The crafting element let me keep equipment longer so I don't have to keep changing it every two seconds and the element of breaking down items you don't want for raw materials is great I think. I always hate having to run to sell stuff all the time in most games and here I don't need to do that. I can get rid of my extra junk and still have a good use for it without having to run to town or just dump it. I hate it when games force me to dump stuff and I get absolutely no use or money or anything whatsoever from them. It really bothers the frugal part of me.

Oh and about those crystals, merchants sell them too. Their item stock is random and changes though so if you see one you need then definitely grab it!

I like the crystal system and how you are not stuck with them but can keep swapping them out and also combining them for upgrades.

Honestly, for items and item management the way they did it in this game is one of the best implementations for my own personal style.

Motoki said:

This is just my opinion and you are certainly free to do as you wish, but I'd say you might be better off just caving and buying the Xbox controller. Since it's Microsoft, it integrates really well with Windows and let's face it, more and more PC games are getting to be console ports. Even The Witcher 2 pretty much was, or at least a PC game heavily designed for a console in mind.

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I think that you're completely right, and I agree 100% that it's time to just accept the fact that the majority of games are designed with a controller in mind and the PC keyboard + mouse interface is an afterthought. I'm just still in the "grumpy PC gamer" phase when it comes to finally giving in and getting a controller It just doesn't seem right to play a PC game with a controller if that's not a personal preference, but such is the way of the times.

Motoki said:

re: the Loot

I like how it works in this game. The crafting element let me keep equipment longer so I don't have to keep changing it every two seconds and the element of breaking down items you don't want for raw materials is great I think. I always hate having to run to sell stuff all the time in most games and here I don't need to do that. I can get rid of my extra junk and still have a good use for it without having to run to town or just dump it. I hate it when games force me to dump stuff and I get absolutely no use or money or anything whatsoever from them. It really bothers the frugal part of me.
...
Honestly, for items and item management the way they did it in this game is one of the best implementations for my own personal style.

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I too love the loot system of 2W2 for the most part. I really like the ability to improve my items with the things that I find, and it's great to able to break down lower-level gear that is no longer needed and use the components to upgrade the higher-level items in my inventory. This certainly fits my playing style, as I really don't like buying items from stores very often - I just think that it is far more engaging and rewarding to gain new equipment or improve existing items through gameplay and exploration. It certainly is much more rewarding then the "loot-sort-sell" cycle of other loot-heavy RPGs and the approach is very refreshing. It adds a decent amount of customization and it's certainly one of the high points of the game.

It's not a terrible system, and at least they tried something new. But upgrading stuff one little tick at a time isn't very interesting after hours and hours of playing. It's similar to those magic item drops from Dragon Age 2, where the next ring you get gives you +3% more protection versus fire or whatever. After hours and hours of upgrading stuff by tiny increments it's not that interesting anymore.

I wish we could go back to hand placed loot like the old Baldur's Gate type games. Who cares if some kid wants to go to a walkthrough and ruin his game by getting the Swordf of Awesome at first level? It's just more interesting that way.

The TW2 system is OK I guess. But I will likely have a different outlook on it at level 38...

Eh? I've got a 360 controller and I've tried using it in a few games but I always end up going back to the mouse/keyboard thing. It seems to be working fine here so far, too.

The party is well and truly over, but hopefully the music is still playing a slow bluesy tune… Decided to post my impressions here and join in the discussion.

I'm with Zloth. Keyboard and mouse works just fine for me. Movement in melee is slightly clunky which can make tactical maneuvers slightly awkward, but otherwise generally it's ok. The game runs very smoothly and thus far I've only experienced a single lock up.

I'm approximately 16 hours in and have just started chapter 2. I'm about level 25. I'm playing a pure mage, specialising in water/summoning and necromancy.
The game is mostly mediocre and reminds me of Dungeon Lords at times with the emptiness of its world. However, at least it's more fun and open to play than Arcania was, though.

One thing that struck me as a little odd was that my character with a strength of 5 is able to do more damage in melee sometimes than with spell-power (willpower of about 50), particularly when past level 20.
Perhaps my spell creation is somewhat lacking or I need to acquire more spell cards.
But then again I'm reminded that this is an action rpg and that stats only influence combat here and there. Damage is consistent, there's seemingly no invisible dice rolling, with player skill rather than character skill, playing the strongest role in deciding most outcomes.

Pro's:

- Quite attractive game world to explore and wander around in.
- Very polished, well optimised engine which performs well (on my pc). The high production values show.
- Solid plot with a couple of unexpected twists, if somewhat convoluted.
- Some nice mechanics and systems that enable player experimentation (crafting, spell creation…)
- A pleasant, reasonably effective soundtrack.

Cons:

- The lack of unique content found via exploration is a little frustrating when as others have stated, exploration is a central theme to the game.

- Melee is fairly weak and definitely inferior to Gothic 1-2 and Risen. My mage can switch to melee easily enough as described and this certainly wasn't an intention in my character build. (I have no melee skills whatsoever)

- Finding many locked doors in the world during exploration can be a disincentive, leaving the player with the feeling that the game isn't quite as open as it could be. In short, exploration doesn't feel rewarding enough.

- I've not experienced any choices and consequences so far. Choice appears similar to Bioware games, in that it merely acts as a means to give flavour to responses.

- Irritating Geralt meets JC Denton impersonating Dirty Harry voice actor for main character. There's also a rather silly nod towards the ass effect in Mass Effect at a particular romance plot point in the game.

- Very weak dungeon design. Seriously - you have to wonder if any of the designers have played pen and paper role playing games and actually experienced a well crafted dungeon, because most that I've found so far here have been sadly quite unremarkable.

Overall, the sequel isn't any where near as cheerfully chivalric to play as the first game and for me, the crafting and spell creation systems aren't quite as much fun this time around. But I'm still having some good honest fun with the game and anticipating the greater challenges to come, based on threads here at the 'Watch.

I'm still waiting for the in-game explanation for the sudden change of language and speech from the olde-english!

Pessimeister said:

- Melee is fairly weak and definitely inferior to Gothic 1-2 and Risen. My mage can switch to melee easily enough as described and this certainly wasn't an intention in my character build. (I have no melee skills whatsoever)

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I fully accept that I may just be impatient and/or suck at real time action combat, but the combat in the PB games is always a pain in the ass for me and frustrates me to the point where I just stop playing them. Early on in particular they are extremely unforgiving. For some people this is a plus that gives a real sense of accomplishment and I totally get that but for me it's annoying and if a game is not fun I will usually move on.

- Finding many locked doors in the world during exploration can be a disincentive, leaving the player with the feeling that the game isn't quite as open as it could be. In short, exploration doesn't feel rewarding enough.

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True, but then there are also other areas where the game is open and doesn't block you, allowing you to do things out of order. For example, very early on I water walked to the Asian continent and was doing quests that were well ahead of where I was at.

- I've not experienced any choices and consequences so far. Choice appears similar to Bioware games, in that it merely acts as a means to give flavour to responses.

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There's a few where it actually does matter. Sometimes a follow up quest is triggered or not triggered based on what you do or somebody even lives or dies. It's definitely not the majority though. Most are simply choose how you will react DA2 style.

- Irritating Geralt meets JC Denton impersonating Dirty Harry voice actor for main character.

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Haha, great description! There was talk that they recast the main voice actor due to fan reaction, supposedly in the expansion (and patch?) but I don't know if people miconstrued a press release on that point or what.

I'm still waiting for the in-game explanation for the sudden change of language and speech from the olde-english!

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No explanation but there was sort of a subtle, if silly, reference to it. There's a guy in the inn on the largest city on the first continent who is talking in Olde English and the PC ends up saying something like 'What the fuck is this guy talking about?'

I'm on to chapter 3 now, some 25 hours in.

Motoki said:

I fully accept that I may just be impatient and/or suck at real time action combat, but the combat in the PB games is always a pain in the ass for me and frustrates me to the point where I just stop playing them. Early on in particular they are extremely unforgiving. For some people this is a plus that gives a real sense of accomplishment and I totally get that but for me it's annoying and if a game is not fun I will usually move on.

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I understand and empathise with your predicament to a point - as I really do enjoy the 'pleasant frustration' that comes with the challenges which the first two PB games (and Risen to a lesser extent) provide. It makes overcoming obstacles and the character progression all the more enjoyable. I can only encourage you to persist if you can, because the rewards are surely worth it.

Unfortunately I just don't get the above described feeling with TwoWorld II's melee combat. It's very much a rinse and repeat that requires little thought; a diabloesque clickfest of timing.

Motoki said:

True, but then there are also other areas where the game is open and doesn't block you, allowing you to do things out of order. For example, very early on I water walked to the Asian continent and was doing quests that were well ahead of where I was at.

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That's cool to hear, I didn't consider doing that. Did you find it harder going as a result or were the monsters scaled to your level? Some of the fights in the darker section after the Scavenger camp have been the hardest I've faced so far in the game. Call me cynical, but some of the monsters did have a bit of a DA oriented darkspawny vibe though!

The dungeon which gives a humble bow to Indiana Jones was great fun - but all too short sadly! I wish more dungeons were designed in this manner.

I didn't much like the gaudy asian themed island to be honest. You have this beautiful Japanese derived setting replete with its own personalised musical themes. It's got some potential - yet it seemingly gets wasted upon the silly comings and goings at a fraternity/sorority house. Ultimately it felt very stale, westernised and trite to me. I didn't like Jade Empire much either though, so it's probably just my odd personal tastes showing!

Motoki said:

No explanation but there was sort of a subtle, if silly, reference to it. There's a guy in the inn on the largest city on the first continent who is talking in Olde English and the PC ends up saying something like 'What the fuck is this guy talking about?'

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Ha! Oh really? Forsooth, I must have missed that!

Any fellow mages care to share some of the contents of their grimoires? I need some new ideas for spell experimentation…

Must say I've had some great laughs dropping barrels and other assorted junk onto monsters heads with my "psyche-splitter". I've also come to rely on my dead knight army perhaps a little too much as the proverbial meat shields.

Pessimeister said:

That's cool to hear, I didn't consider doing that. Did you find it harder going as a result or were the monsters scaled to your level?

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Nope, there's no level scaling and those monsters there were tough when I first got there, but it did make the combat feel more rewarding so I suppose I should persevere with those PB games, even if I do get killed every 2 seconds and have to reload all the time.

I didn't much like the gaudy asian themed island to be honest. You have this beautiful Japanese derived setting replete with its own personalised musical themes. It's got some potential - yet it seemingly gets wasted upon the silly comings and goings at a fraternity/sorority house. Ultimately it felt very stale, westernised and trite to me. I didn't like Jade Empire much either though, so it's probably just my odd personal tastes showing!

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I didn't really do the main quest when I got there but just did a bunch of side quests so I didn't notice that as much, but when I did get to the main quest in that area, I agree it was a bit silly and insubstantial.

Good to hear that there's no level-scaling in this game. That's one of the things I can't stand in open-world crpgs, and unfortunately more developers are starting to do it. I can't think of another gameplay aspect that destroys the immersion more for me.

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