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The real time combat is dynamic with these and other attack options at your disposal, and sometimes hordes of enemies to take down who aren't above using special skills to blind or disarm you. Most fun is the fact that various groups of enemies don't particularly like each other, so leading a group of bandits into a pack of hungry wolves might leave them to get eaten, and you free to loot their fallen corpses. While you can't hire out any mercenaries to fight alongside you, there's plenty of summon cards to play. You can even cast multiple summons at once, chasing down that wyvern with your pet steel and stone golems while you pelt it with arrows from a safe distance. Two Worlds borrows Oblivion's quick select wheel, allowing you to have up to eight spells, skills, potions, or weapons to choose from, as well as a quick back jump to help you avoid incoming attacks. This tense and challenging atmosphere is all but ruined on easy and normal difficulty levels, however, as the shrines scattered over the map pop you back to life a few moments after death. That means you never have to worry about anything, and can just bash - die - bash through the entire game. Hard removes these training wheels, sending you back to the main menu on the moment of death.
The world is vast, and the quests plentiful. While some devolve into "go here and kill the monster/ person/ thing," Two Worlds mixes it up with tasks like settling a dispute between two brothers, and taking sides between warring factions, such as the two clans seeking to gain control over the land, and the underhanded group of thieves against the not entirely respectable merchant's guild. Outside of that, there's a vast landscape to explore, full of monsters waiting to die, bandits out to rob you, and caves to pillage for their forgotten wealth. The main quest can be completed in about eight hours, though that's just a drop in the desert compared to all the "optional" content here. The landscape is a bit heavy in the "typical fantasy forest," but there are deserts, wastelands, and other interesting vacation spots, full of their own particular brand of unfriendly natives, waiting to greet you with a closed fist or claw. Nothing makes you feel more at home then running into a dozen necromancers and their undead pets.
One much touted aspect of Two Worlds was its online abilities, where up to eight players would be allowed to engage in PVP or cooperative battles in smaller sections of the game's massive world. While the wealth of options are impressive, PVP containing several challenging modes such as deathmatch and assault while RPG mode is full of quick quests for great loot rewards, good luck in actually getting a match going. The interface makes it difficult just to get into a match, while any game with more than two players will often suffer crippling lag. Actually, you're lucky if it's clear sailing for just two. So a potentially incredible mode is rendered nearly unplayable.
Speaking of issues, while they adapted the control methods to suit its console status, the menus from the PC version have been left untouched, and never rise above awkward. Trying to work the quest log, shoved over to the side of the map screen, just to locate where the exact objective is of some quest you received an hour earlier is tedious. While most of these quests go off without a hitch, there are a few that could have used more testing. For example, you're given the simple errand of taking a package from one town to another, only to find the person you're supposed to give it to is behind a locked door. If you pick the lock, you'll be arrested...for stealing (huh?), with a fine more than five times what the quest will pay out. Then when you've finally sorted all that out, the game will crash. Two Worlds has crashed on me six times, with the total loss of between three and four hours of progress. That's below the standard I expect from most PC games, much less something which passed Microsoft's certification process.
If you can ignore the occasional glitches and poorly thought out menus, Two Worlds can be a fantastic single player experience. Just don't buy for Xbox Live...at least not yet. There's been the whispered announcement of a patch underway that will fix all the major issues, so if that's arrived by the time you read this, add an additional half point. I would have given them a full extra point for a bug-free experience straight out of the gate, but such is the penalty for rushing potential greatness. |
