Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress released
 

Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress just appeared on the various digital download sites.

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/200440/
(the basegame is 50% off on Steam right now and the expansion is %10 off)

Gamersgate: http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-TW2PFF/…lying-fortress

Direct2drive: http://www.direct2drive.com/11469/pr…tress-Download

Hmmm… 12+ hours of main quest… And maybe, hopefully, another 12 hours for side quests? I might have to get this. I actually really enjoyed TW2, despite losing interest during the endgame. But it was a lot fun.

25% of the map size of the original game sounds disappointing. But then again, this is an archipelago, so the islands might be small, but there might be a lot of them.

And the pirate setting sounds like fun variety from most fantasy games.

Started this again after the 1.3 patch due to massive fixes and general improvements, was surprised to see this came out today. Lonesome Road for F:NV hit stores today as well.

I'm playing it now but I just started. There's no manual (at least on Steam) but I posted about it at the Zuxxez forum and someone from support replied they are looking into it.

When I registered the expansion it gave me a code for a bonus item although that wasn't noted anywhere on any of the digital download sites that I saw. It's a "Soul Song" a 2 handed hammer that returns 500 spirit damage every time you get hit.

The Pirate quest is a separate campaign, you can't access it from the main campaign as far as I can tell. I started it at level 42 (my main character is 36) and it gave me some equipment that wasn't what I had in the base game but was relatively decent. I'm not sure if what you start with is random or not.

The main character's voice actor has change but only for the Pirates campaign. It is the same for the main campaign. The new actor is, well he delivers the lines really flatly just like the original voice actor though he has a little less of a Geralt wannabe sound to his voice I guess. I will give them credit for at least trying, but honestly I think not that great voice acting in English is sort of par for the course for these Euro developers. They never seem to get it right but maybe that is because English isn't their first language so they don't really notice all the nuances. *shrug*

It looks like they improved the visuals a bit. The people look better. I haven't gotten very far into the pirate quest but I like it so far. I like the atomsphere. Seems like a decent update.

It's far too expensive for a small expansion.

Thanks for the update. I'm still waiting for the Velvet CE to be released..

So it's basically a separate game that you have to access from the main menu? That's somewhat disappointing…

Ya, you import a character into the expansion, or start a new 42 as Moto said.

Started playing it last night (got it from GamersGate). So far, so good. The graphics are stunning, the music is good, and the overall atmosphere is better. The combat system is still a bit dodgy, and I've seen no changes to magic. Mana was already a major concern at 30+, it doesn't seem better now. Am I missing something? Magic really is a lot of fun in the game, but it's useless when it takes five minutes to regenerate the whole mana pool.

I've seen no real choices so far, so I don't think the replay value is very high. That could change though.

Ah well, I'll continue playing later on. Hopefully I can complete it this weekend.

A couple of questions for those that are playing the expansion to better inform my own choices:

(A) Has the dungeon design improved at all from the main game? Meaning, are the locations not only varied in style, but more distinct with some individual aspects keeping them from just seeming like xp monster dumps?

I'm playing Hunted: The Demon's Forge at the moment and whilst it really is just another average streamlined action hack and slasher, what sets it apart slightly is the old school nods that have gone into the dungeon design. There are riddles, pressure plates and optional parts for exploration. It features some of the better dungeons in action rpgs for me; meagre and repetitive as they tend to be.

(B) What's the variety of pirate characters like as compared to those featured in PB's Night of the Raven? Or what kind of tone have they gone for in general?

(C) How does the main quest compare to Chapter 1 in the main game? (Which I felt was the strongest part, particularly the Hatmandor stuff.)

(D) Any interesting choices and consequences to speak of?

That'll do for now. Interesting to hear some responses. Thanks in advance Watchers!

I'm a few hours in. Impressions overall are surprisingly positive :)

It looks even a little better than the first game, runs very smoothly, attempts some interesting quests and dialog, interesting archipelago setting, boats made a bit more usable, all the patch improvements are there, but…

variable voice work and writing/translation, and if you thought the game systems were clunky before, well, they're the same here. Some of the quests are more concerned with being amusing than with letting you find your own way through them, i.e. some over-linearity there.

As I didn't have a save I went with a preset Ranger build and I don't think archery is the strongest part of the game. Fortunately I've just discovered NPC Mr Respec, so I might try with something more like my original character.

But so far, thumbs up. The original game kind of lost it in later sections, so I'm interested to see if this holds up.

Allistair, if you want/need the loot of a character who actually finished the game, I could send you a save. My guy was mostly a mage, but he was carrying a lot of junk towards the endgame. Since you know where Mr. Respc is, you could just get to him quickly and build out my level 42 dude however you want.

I haven't been in any dungeons yet, though I found one at the bottom of a well, but didn't explore it yet. I'll probably go back to the main game and buy as many magic cards as possible and start over. I think I had sold a bunch of cards in the original because my spells were powerful enough. Creatures in the expansion have tens of thousands of hitpoints, so I might need sturdier versions of my favorites.

And ? Does the "Fortress" really fly ?

It's off in the background sitting mid air. I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm not even sure if you can. I suspect the pirates are trying to get it but it seems more a plot point than a vehicle. I don't think we'll be flying around on an airship Final Fantasy style or anything but we'll see I suppose.

I'm liking the quests so far, they quirky and amusing but not over the top silly (well okay maybe the undead dancing girls were ;) ). I'm not sure if I am just getting used to it, but the voice acting seems to get better almost like the actors started out kind of shaky and then found their groove.

I haven't really had any problems with the combat so far other than having to use potions when swarmed, but that wasn't a huge deal for me. I find that alchemy really helps. Unlike say Witcher 2, you can use potions in battle. I do use hp ones quite a bit. I imagine for a mage build you can use mana ones without having to wait to regen as well. I imported my character and he had a TON of potions and ingredients, but there's a fair bit around the island too.

I just wanna know if mobs respawn in the expansion. Because the reason I didn't buy the game was… Um… I kinda forgot it this very moment… Ah! Got it! It was respawns!

Two Worlds 2 has much bigger issues than respawns.
Actually, iirc, respawns were quite mild in the game and only used for easily ignored wildlife.
Now, utterly meaningless (and limited anyway) exploration, rigidly linear (level scaled) loot progression, bland writing and general lack of interesting story elements, or unimaginative quest design, those are some reasons :).

It wasn't your favorite game ever, DeepO? :D

It has its faults, but I don't have anything else to play till Frayed Knights gets released and I enjoyed 2W2 quite a bit. It should keep me entertained for a week or two.

I haven't noticed much in the way of respawns for quest enemies. The only things I noticed respawning were some assorted aggressive plants on the road that are stationary and easily enough ignored. Probably the wild life does too like the foxes and deer and so forth but the enemies you fight for the story line don't seem to.

Thanks, but I think I'll just see how the built in options go. They give you a lot of skill points to play with and a fairly full inventory if you don't import anything. So far it's been fine.

The only tweak I'm using is the fov, plus a file to make the giant golden cursors smaller.

I've been looking for some news on the Velvet Edition and all I can come up with is a link to Amazon.de: http://www.amazon.de/Two-Worlds-II-V…6739190&sr=8-1 (October 18th release).

There's nothing on Amazon.com or even Amazon.co.uk. I hope this doesn't become yet another case of having to wait a year for a North American product release.

p.s. Besides Gogamer.com which is STILL down, what is another good importing game site?

You can order it directly from Zuxxez

https://secure.zuxxez.com/shop_new/p…a7ochs58ib7cb1

It says it will be in stock October 18th. The price is 42 Euro and then the shipping to the US is another 10 Euro so total combined comes out to about $70 US.