A couple things: I am not a skilled writer, so if my writing feels stilted, don't die. The following may contain spoilers. I don't think there is really anything to reveal, as I am commenting merely on the gameplay dynamics, but there may be things that I unwittingly unlocked that you wouldn't have known about, otherwise. And I don't mean to steal Mayflower's steam by posting my thoughts on this game, it's just that this thread appears to be the main Two Worlds thread, at least until the release for Americans. Nevertheless, if I committed some error, that is what the delete button/key is for.
My thoughts:
I love this game, although I cannot help but realize it has several things that are definitely wrong with it. Here are some of the pros and cons I found for the English, subtitled game. (My speakers are broken, at the moment...) And let it be known, I haven't beaten the main quest. I never even started it. So, everything I am listing, it is all side-quests and wandering, therefore as little character speech as one can not experience. Anyhow....
Pros:
The first thing I noticed about this game that really made me enjoy it was the extremely far view distance. That was actually why I skipped the main quest. I had climbed up to a high point, then looked south, and there, spread before me, was my future. So, I just took off running for the river. Fifteen hours later, I'm sheepishly heading back to get the teleport activator....
The Magic system is nice, although it can be over-powered, depending on your chosen school.
The melee combat is interesting, with certain weapons being able to discernibly do things that other weapons cannot due, instead of solely different damage types.
Live environment. This is something I found lacking in Oblivion, and Gothic 3 didn't quite due the trick, either. Although the game doesn't live up to its self-proclaimed dynamic environment, it does feel alive, be it the fox sitting on the knoll above you, or the rabbit jumping out of your way as you run to or from the batch of bandits who deemed the crossroads as the best place to locate their roadblock...or the ghosts that show up in the middle of the night, for that nice, eerie touch.
One more thing was the monsters themselves. The abundance of wolves, the occasional bear, which, if you are careful, you can observe actually attacking other creatures, usually winning. One monster that stood out in my mind was the Stone Dragon. I usually use a fire spell instead of a torch, so I just go lighting up the ground as I go. Then I lit up a bunch of stones. Half a second later, my level 23 was crumpled over, heading for the nearest Mariel Shrine.
Cons:
There are a lot of these.
1. Lack of a true physics engine. I believe this to be the cause of the horse clipping issues when encountering slopes. That is the only really noticeable effect, except for jumping from city walls, and only losing 300 or so health...
2. Inventory. This is a so-so thing, as I have never hit my weight limit. I always run out of space in which to place items. I found it annoying, but then again, I was the idiot who didn't grab the teleport activator and stones...
3. It's too easy. This game is a cakewalk once you figure out the right strategy. I will just sit on a magic source and fire off fireballs and firewalls until doomsday.
4. The no penalty for death factor. I actually had to decide I wasn't going to die to make this game even slightly challenging.
5. Crime. I can take an entire city of guards and civilians, but why would I need to do that because I picked a lock on a door? Especially when, in a city, your stealth stat counts for, if anything, very little.
6. Archery. Okay, I haven't found a single reason to pursue this side of the game. I just keep a bow with a really powerful poison enchantment, in case I come up against a really powerful monster. Other than that, I have yet to see a single reason why one would bother to draw back their bow every single time, just to injure someone, when they could be hacking or slashing. Archery feels sloppy and, due to the lack of true physics, takes a special touch.
7. Alchemy. Here is where the bulk of my saves resides. Figuring out what each combination is going to come out to is essentially a guessing game, almost frustrating, but more annoying. Something that would at least tell you if what you are getting back is going to be an augmentation or a potion would be nice.
8. Skill descriptions. Written as if to funny, they can get annoying, and are usually not incredibly informative.
9. Trainers. These suckers are hard to find, annoying, sometimes expensive, and generally just a pain in the butt, especially if you don't have the money to pay them. They won't even tell you what they can teach you.
8. Item Stacking. I have figured out that a dedicated stacker could become god-like by level 10. Others have pointed this out. I saw one poster suggest making leveling up take longer, to make the game slightly harder. I don't think that is the answer. I think you should level up faster. Why? Simple. I can't find leather equipment anywhere. If I had a class 50 leather helmet, with uber stats, it is stuck in inferiority because I can't find anything to keep it competitive. If the player leveled up so fast that they would literally have to change their style of armor every five levels or so, just so they could find something to keep their armor competitive, uber armor wouldn't be a problem, until, say, level 70? By then, you need to be awesome. You don't want the Oblivion issue, where you can't find anything that you can really just massacre. By the time you reach level 70, you should have beat everything, killed thousands of monsters, and being that high of a level is just so you can say that you can kill anything just by looking at it. But, until then, you are in a constant arms race, trying to keep ahead of your foes, killing them to take their armor, which gives you experience, which in time makes it impossible to find your current armor, so then you have to upgrade again. Same with weapons, maybe even rings.
I probably missed some stuff, but I need to get some more screenies for my desktop.