Two Worlds - Impressions
 

Just thought I'd start a thread where people who have played the game (or not) can post their opinions. Thanks to Rendelius for posting his early impressions already under one of the news comments. Hopefully, we'll soon get more details from those people lucky enough to own a copy of the game.
Until then, I'll post a few random impressions I got of Two Worlds from reading through the German forums. Bear in mind this is all hearsay (and opinions vary greatly depending on which thread or forum you read), so believe this at your own risk!

On the performance side of things, most people are pretty satisfied. There are some folks with high end systems that report very low frame rates, but others with fairly old machines (Athlon 64 3200, Nvidia 6600GT), report that the game runs smoothly on medium settings. In any case, Gothic 3 style stuttering isn't an issue, save/load times are very short (someone said about 2 seconds for an autosave and 5 seconds for a load), and the game doesn't seem to have a problem with 1GB of RAM.

As for the gameplay, most people describe the combat pretty much as Rendelius did - lots of clicking, lots of mobs (which often chase you over long distances), and I've seen at least a couple of Diablo comparisons. Other people argue that the use of spells, traps, and a very good alchemy system can add some tactical variety to combat, especially against powerful individual opponents such as bears and cyclops.
The difficulty is also a matter of debate; some find it way too hard and unbalanced, whereas others like the fact that it's quite difficult at the start, thus providing a stronger sense of progression than games which use leveled opponents. One player described an encounter with a cyclops in which he died twenty times trying to defeat it, but when he finally succeeded, it rewarded him by dropping some very powerful items (an experience that was largely absent in G3 or the big O).
Horse riding is one of the biggest complaints with most people finding the control scheme awfully clumsy, and horses apparently get stuck a lot when riding through the wilderness.
The quests are usually described as varied and interesting and the story has received a lot of praise.
Multiplayer, at this point, appears to be a mess, but will hopefully be patched in the near future.

The graphics are a matter of debate; most find them to be quite good, but nothing that would blow away Gothic 3 or Oblivion. Vegetation draw-in is apparently quite noticeable with grass and other flora frequently popping up only a few meters from the hero, even with view distance settings on max. Textures are also a mixed bag, with some being highly detailed and others appearing very low res. Animations are somewhat clunky, and lip synchronization is sometimes off the mark. Another complaint I came across frequently was that NPC faces are somewhat blocky and ugly looking, though some posters are adament that they're still vastly better than the terribly unnatural looking visages of the characters in Oblivion.

So in summary, the overall impression I get of Two Worlds (based entirely on second hand accounts which should by no means be considered reliable) is a positive one: It's nothing revolutionary, it draws on many timeworn fantasy cliches, it's a little too combat heavy for my taste, it's not as polished as Oblivion, and it doesn't match the visuals and atmosphere of Gothic 3.
But, it has a greater emphasis on story, more interesting and better developed main characters, and a more rewarding leveling system than either of those games. For me, it probably won't make up for the immense disappointment of Oblivion and Gothic 3, but I predict, I'll probably enjoy it more than those two games.

*Oh and as a final note, when reading this, bear in mind that Germans, by nature, tend to be very critical;)

How exactly is melee combat handled? Do you just left click to swing your weapon or is there any other keys involved? Please tell me it's not point and click where your character attacks on his own.

Good summary, I'm eagerly awaiting the end of JUne when the game becomes more generally available!!

I heard the opposite about the quests, I heard they are very vague (not vague in a good sense like you have to figure out things for yourself but they don't give the required information) and you end up just following around a compass (like Oblivion) that points EXACTLY where you need to go to finish the quest.

Is this true?

Great thread, I hope more people will add their experiences soon. Hopefully I can get my hand on a copy soon (if I'm lucky), and I'll definetly add my opinion if I do.

I just have to add: Ugly faces is a very common thing. In certain games, like sportsgames and FPS games, you can see very detailed faces, but these games don't have as much to develop in other areas and can focus more on graphics. In general, faces are very difficult to design. A good example is, of course, Oblivion, where faces are so ugly they're borderline disgusting. The whole "make your own face" feature doesn't work at all; regardless of how much you tweak, you just edit a basic face, you don't actually change the original appearance.

After reading the official German Two Worlds forums and some fansite forums over the last few days, I get the impression that Two Worlds is received pretty well by German gamers but the game is also not exactly knocking anyone's socks off. It doesn't seem to be offering anything substantially new but seems to be just another "me too" game with similarities to Oblivion and Gothic.
Actually, the only site on the net where I have seen any level of hype about the game is here at RPG Watch. Otherwise the game is getting a moderate level of attention from the German gaming scene and almost no attention from other English gaming sites (as usual for Euro projects).

From my research, I've come to the conclusion that I will hold off on buying Two Worlds. I have Gothic III, NWN 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R lying around here, all unfinished because I'm waiting for further patches to address various issues that I find disturbing. I don't think I need/want to add another game to that pile ;) .

Yes, it's right that there's some hype here at RPGWatch. It was also here it caught my first attention, and pretty fast I became hyped too.

But I don't think you're right about the moderate level of attention it has gotten in Germany. I can see you're from Germany so perhaps I should watch my mouth, but to me the game seem very big in Germany. A lot of websites cover the game and a lot have separate sections about it too. For example Cynamite.de and gamaXX.
From my experience with working together with some Germans at twoworlds-game.de, it seems very big.
ZUXXEZ Entertainment hasn't done that much PR, which would account for most of what you say and definitely about the English websites. There have been a lot of turmoil at the official forums, where people literally screamed for some marketing.

okay - my impressions so far:

I'm only a few hours in the game - level 13

Compass:
you get a quest location on your map, if the quest giver knows the location

Combat:
click them to death - your stats, weapons + aktive and passive skills + a random factor determine the outcome

Enemy AI:
not that bad - archers try to avoid the hand to hand combat for example

Enemy level scaling:
none

World:
free huge and detailed - it makes fun to explore and find new places

Travelling:
by foot, by teleporters, by horse, by teleport stones (-> like Ultima)

Class system:
none - learn and develop skills you like - you're always playing a male character

Fun:
yep - some nice comments from the hero (-> like Gothic)

Stability:
very stable - at least on my system

Graphics:
nice out of the box -> great landscape, mediocre dungeons -> no excessive tuning necessary

Game interface:
easy too learn

Saving and loading
fast, with autosave option

Items:
a lot -> items of the same type can be combined to make them better.
An alchemy system to make potions is implemented, too.

Respawning monsters:
none -> but your hero respawns at the nearest holy place if he dies.
(to avoid this: play on the highest difficulty level)

Difficulty:
challenging, but fair -> you can always stumble in high end enemies (no level scaling). Enemy archers are deadly -> get them first.

Performance:
good on this older system:
Athlon 2600+
ATI x850
2GB RAM
(playing with a resolution 1280x1024)

Atmosphere:
not on Gothic 1 level (so far), but better than Oblivion IMO.

Bottom line:
nice game so far, not a blockbuster, but the programmers have done their homework, copied some things from Gothic, Oblivion, Ultima and Diablo and mixed them with their own ideas.

If you like to play a lone wolf in a huge open hack'n'slay world, this is a game for you.

"Very big" is something else in my personal opinion. I chose the term "moderate" deliberately because in comparison, games like Gothic, Anno, The Settlers, Crysis etc are getting TONS more attention and coverage than Two Worlds. The response seems to be generally positive but with very few exceptions, you rarely see anyone running around posting that this is the game of the year and that everyone needs to give it a try etc which would be a requirement for calling it "very big" IMHO.
That high level of response is almost non-existent. People are more moderate. They are calling Two Worlds a "good game", a "fun game", an "entertaining game" etc but it's rare that you see anyone who gets really enthusiastic about it. That's why I said "moderate" response/attention.

But as I said, it's just my very subjective impression from reading the official forums and some fansite forums (plus news comments at a few larger sites like PC Games or Gamestar and 4Players) so opinions may vary depending on which sources someone is checking. Obviously, Inside Two Worlds and TwoWorlds-Game.de are mostly attracting the real fans so the response will seem more positive than when you include general gaming and news sites.

Interesting HiddenX, so overall it's not quite Gothic, but closer to Gothic than it is to Oblivion?

How are the NPCs and factions? Completely irrelevant like in Oblivion, or with some purpose?

wahhh? a big game like this? what about multiplayer?

You can play anything you want in multiplayer, even other races as far as I know. The main story is just based around a male human in the SP campaign to deliver more "personal" storytelling (they mentioned an example - it would look silly if an NPC said "you look like a trustworthy type" to a big orc brute).

I'd say the reason there isn't much english coverage outside of here, is that it's not yet released in English!!

What are the controls like? Is it all mouse driven or is it WASD? Hopefully mouse driven as I have serious back issues and can hit the keyboard on occasion but can not continously hold down keyboard keys.

@Icefire
keyboard for movement and world interaction
mouse for fighting, spells and communication

@Maylander
Too early to tell, I'm not into the main story yet. The handbook says there are several different factions with their own interests and rivalling goals.
I am sidequesting at the moment to get comfortable with the game, heck I don't even know who is friend and who is foe exactly :)

From what I've read it appears to be pretty basic. One click to strike, and multiple clicks to execute special moves such as combo attacks, disarming of the opponent, kicking dirt in his face…etc. Shield blocking is handled automatically by dice roll and can't be controlled by the player. You can also set various traps from simple snares to steel bear traps and try to lure your enemies into them.

Another thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of complaints about the game being too difficult at the beginning (especially bears and archers). However, there are just as many who claim that after playing for a couple of days, the game becomes far too easy and they can no longer find any challenging opponents.
The main reasons for this seem to be that the item stacking feature allows you to create ueber powerful weapons as well as the fact that enemies seem to have virtually no magic resistance, allowing a powerful mage to easily lay waste to everything in sight with area effect spells. In any case, it appears that, barring future patches, the game isn't very well balanced for powergamers, so you'll likely have to show some restraint.

Thanks for the feedback HiddenX. I will be interested to hear what you think of these difficulty/balance issues once you get further into the game. I also look forward to hearing more about the quality of the quests, characters, and main story.

I think we've misinterpreted each other. I wasn't talking about the response but about the attention. Two Worlds has received a lot of attention in Germany, but the response to the game has perhaps not been overwhelming.
Oh, and I have seen some people say that Two Worlds will be the RPG of the year.
And yes, it depends upon which sources you look at, so perhaps Two Worlds hasn't received "huge" attention, but it has received a bit more than "moderate" attention in my opinion.
But this is perhaps to give the small detail too much focus.

Regards Asbjørn

How does the blocking work? Is it like in the jediknight?

combining dice rolls based defense and played skill based offence doesn't sound very good :/

Defensive skills work just like they do in Morrowind.

Is it true that the game contains some sort of "activation stuff" like U've read today ?