I only have ten bucks to spend on a Good Old Game and I want an open world action RPG. So I've narrowed it down to Two Worlds and Gothic 2.
So which one do I get? I've played and love all of Bethesda's games, so I have a really good idea what to expect with Two Worlds (watered down Oblivion). But I have never played a Gothic game before. I've been agonizing over which one to choose for a week now because they each have their pros and cons. This is what I know, both good and bad, about each game. Tell me if I'm off base here.
Two Worlds:
+ Huge open world, with most freedom
+ Tons of monsters to kill, with no scaling that do not respawn again
+ An enormous amount of freedom on how to upgrade your character stats
+ Lots of items to find with high customization
+ Dragons! (unlike Morrowind/Oblvion)
+ Less talk and more action!
+ Relatively easy to play
+ Great fog effects
- Crappy quests and storyline
- Horrible voice acting
- Repetitive hacknslash combat.
- World is mostly empty and bland (other than monsters)
Gothic 2:
+ Big, open world (but smaller than Two Worlds)
+ Lots of monsters to fight with no scaling
+ World has a lot of "character", with well thought out quests and good storyline
+ Tons of realism, where npcs follow schedules and day/night cycles
+ More detailed and atmospheric world than Two Worlds
+ Dragons! (unlike Morrowind/Oblvion)
+ Monsters are challenging
- Monsters can be really tough
- Controls are very difficult.
- Low rez, outdated textures
- Lots and lots of dialogue (I am not a big fan of dialogue trees)
- Static classes
- Less loot and item customization than Two Worlds
So if you only had $10, which game would you buy, and which game would give you the longest lasting fun and re-playability?

Having played both Gothic 2 and Two Worlds, I'd recommend Gothic 2 hands down. Two Worlds got really old for me after about 10 hours, while Gothic 2 took me about 60 hours to finish and kept me hooked all through it. Just keep in mind that discretion is the better part of valor and you really can't go wrong with Gothic 2.

I'll go for Gothic 2, but better to begin with the first one before, it's easier and still a good game and when you'll start the 2nd the story will makes more sense.
One of the most terrible downside of Gothic is that a certain character types such as archers are almost unplayable because of thier relative unability to stand in a fight and if you can't kill things there's few hope you'll get very far in this game. The game also require extensive character progression planning if you want to actually survive and accomplish something.

I have always hated Gothics, for the 'freedom' was rather limited and monsters horribly tough. It's not like I don't want challenge, but I prefer Morrowind's way: Do whatever, level up your stats and if you want challenge, go to harder dungeons. While in Gothic, you just won't progress without the ability to kill stronger things. Not to mention world is horribly crowded by monsters it's not nice.
I do like Two Worlds, however. I don't know why do people say quests are horrible: There's plenty of them and most of them are interesting at least to certain degree. It boils down to going somewhere and doing something of course, but it's fun. Two Worlds is like open-worlded Diablo to me, with whole lot of freedom and game doesn't actually push you to go or do anything.

So are you saying that if I run into a really tough monster, there's no way to go somewhere else and grind up my abilities for a while like Morrowind?
Also, how "open" is Gothic 2, and how large is the game world? Are we talking the size of Morrowind, or much smaller? Is there any kind of "zoning" or load screens to get to new areas?

No, there are definitely lower level enemies you can kill early on, but at the start even those require some strategy. Usually you'll have to separate enemies from each other and take them on one by one or you'll get steam rolled. Orcs will murder you when more than one is attacking you until fairly late in the game.
Gothic has a fairly large game world, its seamless, the only thing really preventing you from moving around much is the fact that enemies will kill you if you wander too far. It's not Morrowind size by any means, but its fairly large.

At least once in the beginning of Gothic an NPC offers to escort you to another camp. That's a good deal since he can deal with wolves etc.

On the contrary, there are plenty of lower-level monsters to gain experience killing so that you can come back and take on the tougher monsters (and it's always a great feeling taking down a monster that had given you a one-hit KO a few levels earlier). Additionally, there's quite a bit of strategy to the combat in Gothic, which will allow you to take down enemies much tougher than you once you find a good way to fight them (a good example here is trolls and dragon snappers, which can be taken out even at low levels with the right strategies, even though they can still pose a significant threat to late-game characters who just try to trade blows with them).
Definitely not as large as Morrowind, but still quite large. The world design in Gothic also makes very good use of space, with the result that the world feels much larger the first time you explore it, but then feels smaller and easier to traverse once you've cleared out and explored the various areas. The world is also mostly open, with most of the barriers on where you can go only being "soft" barriers in the form of increasingly difficult monsters as you get further from centers of civilization. As for load screens, there are three main areas to Gothic 2 (Khorinis, the Valley of Mines, and Jharkendar), with loading screens between these areas; however, aside from these transitions the world is completely open with everything being continuous.

Just curious, when you say, "cleared out and explored the various areas", do you mean to say that monsters do not re-spawn again after you've killed them? If so, that is definitely cool.
I believe I've made up my mind. I think the Hack-n-slash of Two Worlds would be fun at first, but would get boring really fast. Gothic 2 seems to have that "it" factor that could keep me interested and entertained for much longer. Thanks for all of your suggestions.

For the most part, yes. The way it works with the Gothic games is that once killed enemies won't respawn with time. However, when you get to a new chapter a few new enemies spawn, typically stronger creatures that reflect changes in the world due to plot events, or creatures spawned as part of quests that are newly available as part of the new chapter.

Two Worlds is far from watered down Oblivion....
Theres not really grinding in Gothic. Its a great series. Im finding the second a pain in the ass because its almost too open world for me so I find it hard to figure out what to do next or stay interested enough to figure out what to do next...but maybe Im just unlucky. Loved the first though.

Also note that any surviving enemies are still there when you advance to the next chapter regardless of how many new ones spawn, so you don't need to worry about losing out on experience by advancing the story. It's a good idea to leave the tougher enemy types for later when you are able to take them on without dying in a couple of hits.

I think he's referring to the "spam spell scrolls" strategy. Or possibly the "lure the enemy towards someone who's better equipped to kill it than you are" strategy.

Gothic 2 (and 1) is my favorite RPG of all time and the first time I played it was when it was released on GoG. It's the type of RPG that actually makes you feel like you are in a real world adventuring and exploring in a beautiful, real, living, breathing world. On top of that, the story is awesome, there are cool characters and the game offers a challenge. I also wouldn't go to say that Gothic 2 has outdated, low rez textures either. The game world is absolutley gorgeous. Plus Gothic 2 supports your max resolution without any mods.
As for my opinion of 2 worlds, just make every opinion I have of Gothic 2 the opposite :) and remember that it's my opinion. (I know there are alot of people who swear by 2 worlds here so I don't want to offend)
Also, I'd highly suggest playing Gothic 1 before Gothic 2. While the story's don't really connect that much there is alot of characters, events, lore and other cool things the developers did to really connect the 2 games. But while personally I kinda liked Gothic 1 more than Gothic 2... the flaws of Gothic 1 are much more apparent which may turn SOME players off from trying out Gothic 2. If you consider yourself a person who can adapt to a games flaws and enjoy the core game though, you shouldn't have a problem here.