Two Worlds 2

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Two Worlds 2

Post by Funkmasterr »

I wasn't one of the people that hated the first game. Sure, it had many faults, but for some reason I played the shit out of it anyhow. The second one is definitely an improvement over the first.

First off, the voice acting is much much better. They dropped the whole corny Old English thing they had going on in the first one, and the actors are just better as well.

The graphics are a huge improvement, that was probably my biggest complaint about the first one is it looked like a game from the previous generation of consoles. The only graphic related issue I have with this one, is the UI wasn't all fitting on the screen, so finally I did a search and found out that the "make safe area on screen" (or something like that) option would fix this. Well, it does, but then it puts the stuff much more to the center of the screen and I kinda feel like some screen realty is being wasted.

Game play wise I'd say it's an improvement too. The combat is more in depth, and you can switch between multiple weapon/armor load outs, even mid fight.

The game isn't as polished as a Elder Scrolls title, but it's very much enjoyable so far. I'd say if this is your kind of game, you can't really go wrong as you have a fairly long wait till Skyrimjob yet.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Kluden »

I am a little bitter about the PC game not releasing with the console ones. I guess I'm still hanging on that pc games just still look and run way better to me than console games, plus the community mods for games too make all the difference to go PC on most titles.

But F them for delaying the PC release. I'll probably just wait till its $10 on steam.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Winnow »

Funkmasterr wrote:I wasn't one of the people that hated the first game. Sure, it had many faults, but for some reason I played the shit out of it anyhow. The second one is definitely an improvement over the first.

First off, the voice acting is much much better. They dropped the whole corny Old English thing they had going on in the first one, and the actors are just better as well.

The graphics are a huge improvement, that was probably my biggest complaint about the first one is it looked like a game from the previous generation of consoles. The only graphic related issue I have with this one, is the UI wasn't all fitting on the screen, so finally I did a search and found out that the "make safe area on screen" (or something like that) option would fix this. Well, it does, but then it puts the stuff much more to the center of the screen and I kinda feel like some screen realty is being wasted.

Game play wise I'd say it's an improvement too. The combat is more in depth, and you can switch between multiple weapon/armor load outs, even mid fight.

The game isn't as polished as a Elder Scrolls title, but it's very much enjoyable so far. I'd say if this is your kind of game, you can't really go wrong as you have a fairly long wait till Skyrimjob yet.
First the bad:

I've played a few hours or so of this game which is pretty much the tutorial part. The graphics are pleasing to the eye with nice effects but VERY unpolished. On my original xbox at least, the game stutters like a mofo. Considering how unpolished the rest of the game is, I'm betting it wasn't optimized well either.

Voice acting on the first game must have been super bad because this voice acting is bad as well.

I have the same issue with the UI being off the screen. Another example of a poorly coded game. I used the option to squeeze everything in.
Can't play a female character and a female orc looks to be only think you can try to hit on.

The good:

The game actually seems like fun in a traditional RPG sense. Combat is fun. Voice acting/story and gestures are bad. The game is pretty and there appears to be depth to the spell system and upgrade system in the game.

I like being able to move the camera around during the voice bits.

Thar armor/weapons/spells seem varied. Different looks to the armor.

4 areas to use your attribute points

6 main areas to use skill points with a variety of skills in each of the six (Warrior, Ranger, Mage, Assassin, Crafting and General)

Looks like you can taylor your character to how you like to play and the skills/attributes are clearly defined so you know how increasing them will help you.

Looks to be good reason to switch between weapons, blunt, slash, range, speed, etc. You can swap out skills for weapons when they're equipped and spells when staff is equipped.

You an setup different equipment sets and switch between them quickly.

I think most RPG fans will enjoy giving this game a try but not a full price. Wait for the bargain bin and then jump on it. I like it a lot better than Oblivion.

Two Worlds 2 in game Bonus codes:

2h Sword: 3542-3274-8350-6064
Heavy Armor: 4149-3083-9823-6545
Laby. Map: 6972-5760-7685-8477
1h Mace: 3654-0091-3399-0994
These will not disable achievements, they are in game bonus items which you enter through the pause menu in game. Worth noting that all the items require you to be level 11, so you may as well wait until then before entering them

* Dragon Armor - 4149-3083-9823-6545
* Elexorien (Sword)- 3542-3274-8350-6064
* Scroll - 6972-5760-7685-8477
* Hammer - 6231-1890-4345-5988
* Axe - 1775-3623-3298-1928
* Anathros(Sword) - 6770-8976-1634-9490
* Lucienda (Sword) - 9122-5287-3591-0927
Some of the above are repeats. I tried the Labyrinth scroll and it worked offline.
First is the Luciendar, which you probably already know is "the fabled weapon used to defeat the mighty desert dragon Tang'Raoul." Basically, it's a giant, super-powerful, two-handed sword that you'll be able to access once your character reaches level 15. Second is "the Labyrinth," an exclusive bonus area with its own set of quests that publisher SouthPeak has detailed to a hyper-nerdy extent after the break.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Winnow »

Damn, I'm really enjoying this game now.

You spend a lot of time trying to figure out best weapons and enchanting them. There's a lot of change happening with your armor and weapons which keeps things interesting. The magic system I haven't touched. I can see multiple playthroughs as you tend to focus on one area even though the system is wide open for what you want to do with your skills/attributes.

For melee based chars, blocking and counter striking is big. The mobs move around a lot when fighting you, they use their blocks/shields, making it more fun as you don't just pound away, you block/counter attack, break their defense, etc. I also like that you can see a fireball coming and have time to dodge it depending on what else you're doing at the time. Casters are pretty squishy up close as they should be. There's some skill/strategy involved in combat for sure.

The game gives you choices in how you want to proceed though areas...it' doesn't tell you. There are a lot of side quests you can skip.

At one point early in the game, you need to get past a gate that guards are preventing you from doing so. There are five different solutions for getting through, and one of the five solutions has two outcomes.

I'm not thrilled with the horseback riding in this game and, because it is pretty open, I spent a lot of time wandering around trying to figure out how to get to the next area on my horse (turns out you couldn't take your horse to the next area)

The alchemy part of this game seems pretty wild as well. You can combine petty much anything (tons of herbs and crap off mobs you gather) and create potions. If you like the outcome, you can create a scroll so you can make the same potion again just by clicking on the scroll. You can strengthen potions as well. For example, if one Cat's Heart gives you 10% strength for 1 min, 5 Cats hearts would make a potion giving you 50% strength for 5 Mins if you also add 5 Baboons Tongues for duration...but you can also throw in say...A Boar Tusk to add 50% fire resistance to that scroll. Pretty cool system although I don't know how much it will be used...in an MMO this would be huge...in single player, not sure how much experimenting peeps will do.

Here's a Guide to the game if you decide to play.

http://guides.gamepressure.com/twoworldsii/

Despite it's flaws, it's a fun game if you like Oblivion type games. It takes a good two hour before you're actually playing the game past the tutorial and start to get a grip on things. Up until that point, you're pretty much on rails going through the tutorial to the point where the game resets if you wander off the path...which doesn't happen after the tutorial is finished. Story isn't that interesting, voice acting not that good, but the game play is fun.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Winnow »

Combat in this game is fun.

I really like how arrows and spells come at you slow enough that you can dodge them and also are able to use cover to stay away from the ranged attacks, picking your spots to attack or drawing the melee away from the ranged attacks. It has a little Demon Souls feel to it in that respect.

I'm going to town on mobs with a duel wield attack. I definitely see the benefits of sword and board, two handed, and magic though. You can have three instant switch armor sets so you can set up one melee, one bow and arrow ranged, and one mage setup.

Making good use of break stance (breaking opponent's block) and your own block helps a lot. As with most things, tearing up the ranged casters and archers first is a good idea.

Magic seems so cool in how you create your own spells...throw in a fireball...add rain of fire, add timer cards to lengthen effect, etc....you can get creative. That said, I still haven't tried it and am still just in chapter one. A lot of loot drops in this game and I tend to stop a lot to check recent drops. You're inventory fills up quick but you can break down weapons into resources,,medal, wood, etc that you need to enhance your primary weapons.

This game does a great job of allowing you to power through or take advantage of all the crafting, enchanting, modifying, alchemy, etc that's available. You can waste time dying your armor and weapons as well which is completely unnecessary. I started on easy level. I can see playing through again on harder levels and also using completely different strategies. The world is pretty open with multiple paths to destinations as well of "off roading". As mentioned before, there's some quests with multiple solutions and a lots of quests that are completely optional to replay value is there. Even sticking to the main storyline doesn't make for a straight path. Takes awhile to find your destination sometimes.

Voice acting is still bad. Main character sometimes sounds like Duke Nukem after he makes a kill with his comments.

I also think the PC version of this game will be better because it's pushing the limits of the 360. Lots of shadows etc and the game could really use some anti aliasing which I'm sure the PC version can handle. The visuals also seem washed out sometimes during brightly sunlit conditions. There's a lot of lighting effects but I think some would have been better off left out (at least for the console version)

The way this game is improving, Two Worlds 3 would rock.Unfortunately, I don't think the game is selling well. Came out with Dead Space 2 which overshadowed it. It may be an Enslaved type victim. Good game, low sales. So far the game's getting better with time, not worse which is a good thing. Gotta tough out those first few hours and also maybe not get sidetracked on the first non main story quests until you get a feel for the game. After the first few hours, the game does not seem on rails at all. I still haven't gotten to the first primary destination of the first chapter and I'm running into all sorts of stuff, side quests, etc.

edit: stealing also seems like an interesting side thing to do. Lots of places to break and enter although people are sometimes in the buildings. You can pick a lock at night and then go back during the day to rob the place after people go to market.

edit 2: I was trying to figure out how to teleport back to my home/starting point. Zoom way out on the map and you'll see your home/staring point on the world map. Full map area is large.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Winnow »

This guy gives a pretty fair review of Two Worlds II

http://www.destructoid.com/review-two-w ... 2874.phtml
I hated my first hour or so of Two Worlds II. I believed I was in for a boring, dreary, aggravating eighty hours of wasted life that I'd never be able to get back. I was wrong. Two Worlds II is the perfect gaming equivalent to a diamond in the rough. It's ugly, it's coarse, and it's got one foot in the past, but it's just too damn lovable to be thrown into the trash.
He hits on the crappy parts and the good. He's dead on when it comes to the first few hours being crappy.

There's something about the game that makes it worth playing even with the flaws. The voice acting is almost universally bad but it's still funny to watch the main character make fun of the first Two Worlds. When you get to a particular bar, this guy starts ripping off nonsensical jibbersih while the main character makes fun of this voice saying things like, "who talks like that?"
Two Worlds II is not the best made game in the world, and if you have even a modicum of intuition, you'd have already guessed that. Two Worlds II knows it's never going to be an Elder Scrolls or a Diablo, but it does its thing regardless, without apology and without remorse. This plucky, heartfelt, can-do attitude permeates the game experience to create something that, truth be told, is pretty damn great.

Yes, you read that correctly. Two Worlds II is a great game. Its animations are awful, its combat loose, its voice acting ludicrous and its story inane. Yet somehow, it manages to become a rewarding, engrossing, absorbing experience at the same time, and the most amazing part is that you'll never see it coming.

The first hour or so of Two Worlds II is downright terrible. The game starts with a tawdry prison breakout mission, as your nameless Hero escapes from the clutches of Gandohar, the series' sister-kidnapping, stereotypically tyrannical villain. The game is slow, the Hero is weak, and the enemies feel imbalanced. Not to mention, the combat is a dire case of random button-mashing with a targeting system that only works when it wants to.

Once the prologue is over, however, something happens. The game slowly, surely, starts to get interesting. Then it becomes quietly enjoyable. Then it's downright fun. Eventually, and without the player even realizing, it has become buried in the mind like a vicious little parasite.

It is rare for a game to start out terribly and then become great -- it usually happens the other way around. Two Worlds II bucks this common trend and only becomes more delightful as it opens up. Once the player learns a few fighting skills, the combat becomes a lot more involved, and the variety of eccentric missions, while still relying on fetch-quests and backtracking, each carry their own strange and often humorous narratives.

The game's sense of humor is one of its most endearing traits, with Two Worlds II never quite taking itself seriously. While some of the voice acting can be genuinely bad, a vast majority of the performances are almost knowingly silly and over the top. The game is full of strange in-jokes and dry wit, and the overall story is lighthearted, despite being about a kidnapped sister and a quest to save the world. Two Worlds II has a very strong sense of individuality about itself, and that's more than can be said for many games with twice the production values.

Customization makes up a huge part of the experience. There's a limited character creation option, although all roads lead to ugly, and you can even paint your armor to give everything a personalized flavor. You can sink skill points into ranged combat, melee prowess or magic, and you're free to combine your skills in whichever way you see fit. There's an incredibly robust magic creation system, in which you mix various cards together to create new and deadly spells. Unfortunately, Two Worlds II suffers from a problem most Western RPGs have -- a magic character is useless. Enemies close distances too quickly, and spells just aren't powerful enough to put them down. Plus, since you need to switch to a staff to use spells, you're defenseless without constantly changing equipment. Ranged or close-quarter combat is the way to go, so if you're hoping to be a powerful mage, you might want to look elsewhere.

Reality Pump has put an impressive amount of effort into making sure you get to play Two Worlds II in your own particular style, provided you don't want to be a pure sorcerer. If you've spent a number of skill points on something you later regret purchasing, you can always visit a "Soul Patcher" to re-spec your character. Once I realized Necromancy was an awful skill to possess, my appreciation for a re-spec option was palpable. There's a lot of scope for character progression, with a huge range of weapons, bows and abilities to choose from, and if you ever get bored, you can always get your points back and start again.

This sense of personal progression is extended to your Hero's inventory as well. Weapons and armor can be stripped down to component parts and used to upgrade others. There's also a pleasantly simple alchemy system in which you combine thousands of ingredients picked up from enemies and plants to create all manner of potions, ranging from standard health items to more exotic creations, such as an elixir that lets you jump 500% higher than normal, or one allows you to walk on water. You're encouraged to just randomly throw items into the pot and see what you get, and you're never punished for playing around, nor do you have to spend hundreds of precious skill points to jump into it.

One major issue, however, is the rather awful inventory menu. Items are thrown into your inventory screen seemingly at random, and there's no way to sort through it. This issue becomes readily apparent once you factor in the propensity to collect dozens of alchemy ingredients and looted weaponry from just a single quest. Once you offload your loot at a vendor, it's easy to sell the wrong thing or forget what you're looking for, as you'll be absolutely swamped with inscrutable garbage. As the hours tick by, you'll get used to navigating through a veritable sea of inconspicuous swag, but it never quite stops being irritating.

Two Worlds II does get points, however, for being one of the very few games on Earth with a fun, simple and efficient lockpicking feature. I actually enjoyed picking locks, which is great because they're everywhere. It's helped by the fact that picking locks is mostly based upon a player's skill as opposed to pumping points into stats and building a dedicated thief character (that said, it's highly recommended you invest a little in upgrading your lockpick skills).

Once you strip away the customization and the quirky humor, you're still left with a game that's quite good. I barely encountered any notable glitches, and it's easily less buggy than a "Triple A" title like The Elder Scrolls IV. Its focus on loot, leveling up and simple hack n' slash combat is fairly standard for the genre, and it performs no worse in these areas than any other decent RPG. Most of the ways in which the game falters seem to come with the territory -- fetch quests, weak mage characters, and button smashing combat are issues that can be found in even the very best Western roleplayers, and it would be incredibly unfair to criticize Two Worlds II for committing these sins when bigger games get a free pass.

There are some larger flaws, of course. Navigating the world of Antaloor would have been more fun with a decently detailed map and markers that tell you how to get to places, rather than just point in a vague direction. There are random difficulty spikes that can make the game a cakewalk one second, and an overwhelming "three hits and you're dead" battle the next, which is absolutely aggravating when you become so confident that you forget to save. The character animations are almost distractingly terrible at times, and the console version has some rather miserable screen tearing.

While we're talking about graphics, I have no idea why the game is too big for a television screen, requiring the player to dive into the menu and locate an ambiguously named "Use Safe Area In Interface" option that'll re-fit the image. For the first thirty minutes I played the game with bits of the HUD and menu chopped off, until someone told me which hoops to jump through in order to get what should have been the default view.

None of these problems, however, hamper the overall sense of enjoyment and involvement that Two Worlds II spawns, and that is a testament to just how right Reality Pump gets it in the areas that truly matter.

I played using a console version, and I have to remark upon the rather decent Xbox 360 controls. Using skills in battle is quick and efficient, easily accessed with face buttons and triggers. The only major complaint is that it seems impossible to un-map something once it's been assigned to a button. I had buttons randomly giving me different potions, usually when they weren't needed, and I'm yet to figure out a way to stop it. I am certain one exists, but the game itself doesn't give you any information on how it's done.

In addition to a lengthy single-player quest, the game offers a fairly substantial multiplayer section. The online mode is treated as a separate entity, so you'll need to create a brand new character. You get a bit more freedom with this character creator, able to choose from a variety of stereotypical fantasy races and gaining the ability to play as a female. The various modes range from standard Player vs. Player matches to a series of co-op chapters that have their own storylines.

The co-op is where the online section really shines, as players can join a team of eight to tackle all manner of neat little sidequests. Matchmaking is fairly sluggish, however, and I found myself getting kicked from a lot of games as there's no player balancing and nobody wanted to play with a Level 1 Elf. If you can get into a game -- and there are quite a few people playing it -- you might find it just as absorbing as the story mode, if not more so.

The competitive modes suffer from the same issues as the co-op -- chiefly poor matchmaking and imbalanced opposition. My first match was against a ranger who could one-hit-kill me from a distance the moment I spawned. The combat is also exactly the same as the rest of the game, which means that most melee battles become rough, messy button-mashing that degenerate into a war of attrition. I can't say I recommend the PvP, as it's just not interesting or refined enough to be worth getting into.

If you can earn enough cash, you can also buy and maintain your own Antaloorian village. I'll confess now that I have not been able to loot enough in the multiplayer to check this feature out, but I'm looking forward to it. It makes for a very nice overall aim in the otherwise unstructured multiplayer.

Two Worlds II requires patience and forgiveness, and many won't give it the chance it deserves. One cannot deny the lack of polish and the archaic, old fashioned interface and features, yet one also must acknowledge the powerful pull that this game has. There's an appeal to this game that far outshines the ancient husk that it is presented in -- a truly rewarding, rich and amusing experience that takes hold of a player and never lets go until it's over.

I hated my first hour or so of Two Worlds II. I believed I was in for a boring, dreary, aggravating eighty hours of wasted life that I'd never be able to get back. I was wrong. Two Worlds II is the perfect gaming equivalent to a diamond in the rough. It's ugly, it's coarse, and it's got one foot in the past, but it's just too damn lovable to be thrown into the trash.

Two Worlds II is better than Two Worlds. By several thousand miles.

Score: 8.0 -- Great (8s are impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.)
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Dregor Thule »

Funkmasterr wrote: The game isn't as polished as a Elder Scrolls title
I just wanted to point out that gem. Bathesda games are some of the buggiest things I play, so that's not a ringing endorsement indeed! Still, I'd play this game.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Funkmasterr »

Dregor Thule wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote: The game isn't as polished as a Elder Scrolls title
I just wanted to point out that gem. Bathesda games are some of the buggiest things I play, so that's not a ringing endorsement indeed! Still, I'd play this game.
Haha yeah, I should have been more specific. The graphics and voice acting aren't as polished, but as far as bugs go, it's a lot better imo. Which is probably the biggest improvement over the first game, in the first game there were entire sections of the map you just couldn't go to cause of bugs, and it stopped you from getting some of the achievements.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Dregor Thule »

Hehe, actually, the voice acting in Morrowind/Oblivion/Fallout 3 drive me nuts, it's like 5 people doing all the voices! But I get what you're saying.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Funkmasterr »

Trust me, watch a few videos of the first Two Worlds, the voice acting is so bad it's distracting. It makes it worse that it's all "Olde English", it's bad.
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Re: Two Worlds 2

Post by Dregor Thule »

I'm playing Sacred 2, and wow, the voices!
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