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This game's major problem is that it doesn't make a good first impression. The intro sequence is somewhat disjointed, the dialogue is sometimes cringe-inducing, and so on. But keep playing, and you'll find a surprisingly enjoyable game.
From the standard "wolfs in the woods" beginning, you'll work your way out to regions with soft-lit bamboo forests, shimmering deserts, creepy fog-laden swamps and graveyards (this game has THE best ground-fog I've ever seen), and frozen mountains (not necessarily in that order). I also enjoy the inventory system, though I've since been told that it was done in other action RPGs that I just never played. In particular, the ability to combine items that are the same to increase the damage or protection of those items (makes the 100 leather vests you inevitably end up with actually somewhat useful). But it's a tradeoff -- if you're loot collecting, it's better to keep 'em separate. Enhancing weapons with elemental crystals for special damage types is also quite useful. If you get your character build wrong and don't feel like starting entirely over, the larger cities have people that will wipe your brain and give you your development points back -- semi-randomly and expensively, but it can be done.
So, as another reviewer said, there's probably nothing here that hasn't been done elsewhere. But (other than the dialogue :P ) they seem to have taken the best ("most fun") parts from various games and put them together.
Oh, and the expansions do make the game very solid and fill out the desert region. In the original release, it's clear they had to cut and ship, because the entire desert is empty. Some un-populated ruins and other signs that development was in progress, but absolutely nothing there worth looking at. With the expansions, there are actually multiple villages and several quests, and part of the main quest actually goes through it.
If you already own Two Worlds AND you've already patched it up with the latest patches, I believe you have the equivalent of this edition. But having it all in one single installer and DRM free is still tempting to me.
If you don't already have it, and you liked Oblivion, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet for your $10. It'll keep you busy for a LOOOONG time.
For context, because my idea of a great RPG may not be yours, here are my thoughts on some other major RPGs:
Morrowind -- my all time favorite for blend of openness, story, varied settings, and user-expansion-based longevity.
Oblivion -- pretty, but I've only played it twice compared to the 5+ times I've played through Morrowind. Two Worlds is at least as pretty (to my eye) and is more varied and more fun than vanilla Oblivion. Shivering Isles balances the two out closer together. The only reason I'd place Oblivion over Two Worlds is because of the huge mod scene for Oblivion and the inability to mod Two Worlds.
Betrayal at Krondor -- for you old schoolers, I love this game. Hard to compare, because the graphics are 20 years different and the combat is turn-based. I only mention it from the "poking around the wilderness looking for stuff" standpoint, I suppose.
Gothic 3 with the latest Community Patch (and not Forsaken Gods) -- just finished this, and with all the hard work of the community, I've gotta say it was quite nice. The difficulty/grind/tedium factor kinda shot up about mid-way through, and I ended up god-moding it because that started boring me. I just don't get that much out of "fight these twenty guys all at once, and don't ever mess up or any one of them could kill you in two hits". But the first half was fine and the variety was fun and it's a huge game. But definitely get the latest and greatest community patch. And stay away from Forsaken Gods unless you just get it for free and want a good laugh...
Jade Empire -- I enjoyed it. Very linear, so not directly comparable.
Silverfall -- sorta fun for a couple of hours, then grind-tastically annoying. Never finished the first "level" because re-grinding through the swamp over and over just wore me down.
Guild Wars and probably any MMORPG ever made -- I believe I mentioned that I dislike pure and obvious grinds, so, um, none of these really work for me.
Drakensang -- another surprisingly enjoyable game that many people have probably never heard of.
NWN -- hosed me part way through Undrentide, when they stoned my melee follower and told me to go kill a bunch of magic immune golems to get them unstoned -- not helpful for my magic-only character... More fun when I started a new char in the last chapter (so I got the free 15 starting levels) and then blasted my way through everything with my invincible monk...
NWN2 -- too highly scripted, I always hate knocking somebody down in two rounds and then the script pops up and magically kicks me down and tells me that my opponent is just so tough that I can't win and then stuffs me in a dungeon somewhere with no equipment. Major suckage. Complete break of any self-determination and role playing... Haven't finished it.
BG/BG2 -- similar, but older, experiences to NWN and NWN2.
On the whole, AD&D-based games have not been my favorites, mostly because I like to be a magic user in my RPGs, and (computerized) AD&D wants that to be a pain.
Planescape:Torment -- Really, really enjoyed it. The last stages are kind of annoying, but the story was incredible.
Sacred -- fun for awhile, grind and respawning wore me down.
Divine Divinity -- can't seem to force myself through the opening village -- user interface seems to annoy me for some reason. Too much clicking, or too many tiny things to have to slowly pan over, or something. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I know it makes me tense and annoyed very quickly.
Sorry for the rambling, but maybe it will help you know if you're like me or not, which might help you guess if you'd like Two Worlds or not.
Thanks for the great overview of RPGs, my experience was almost consistent with your one. I also prefer charaters using magic over fighters or thieves.
The biggest exception though was the Divine Divinity, which I have absolutely loved after getting over the beginning of the game. The game is also very nonlinear - you can do what you want in the world in any order you want (except of the main story steps and some quests dependent on other ones).
Most of the times, when I had really hard time overcoming some monsters, just getting some more experience elsewhere or using proper spells solved the problem.
Another great aspect of the game is the music, which is very nice.
So I believe if you gave the game another chance, you'll really like it. One thing that helped me a lot was the "Alt" key which displays descriptions of useful items around the character so that you don't have to do a pixel hunting.
Thanks,
Jan
I thought it seemed awesome from the start. =P
I was also pleasantly surprised with this game. I'd heard a lot of poor reviews and posts about it, but it always looked like an interesting game. Sort of a hybrid between Oblivion and Gothic. Now that the unacceptable DRM has been removed, I picked it up at GoG last week and I'm really enjoying it.
Most of the voice acting is bad, but some is actually pretty good. The combat is a strange concoction though. It seems that you're always fighting at least 3 enemies at once, which makes it difficult for a melee fighter. It would have been nice if blocking were an active tactic available to you in order to give the fights some more player involvement. The way it currently goes is you take a quick swing, then dodge back, hoping you didn't get hit. When there's a lot of enemies, I run away and hit them with fireballs until the ranks have thinned. Then there's the method of hanging around a magic or health regen shrine and fighting your opponents while constantly regenerating. That feels really cheap, but I'm not sure how you're expected to take on so many opponents at once otherwise.
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ekj7: The combat is a strange concoction though. It seems that you're always fighting at least 3 enemies at once, which makes it difficult for a melee fighter ... The way it currently goes is you take a quick swing, then dodge back, hoping you didn't get hit. When there's a lot of enemies, I run away and hit them with fireballs until the ranks have thinned. ... I'm not sure how you're expected to take on so many opponents at once otherwise.

Try finding a combat spear, halberd or some other weapon with a large, sweeping attack. That should allow you to hit several enemies at once (and makes critical hits particularly devastating - it appears that a critical affects all enemies that are struck within that single attack).
Oh man. I see someone else already suggested this but ... man ... Divine Divinity was something really really special in my life. You just need that first 2 hours to get you familiar with the game. At first I didn't like it but then I said ... let's give it a try and man ... what a joy ride that was.
About Two Worlds ... I just noticed this game here and I'm thinking about it. Thanks for the review.
Well, diablo-like games always pleased me....Divine Divinity wasn't an exception, but I remember picking up a copy of Sacred (then Underworld, then Gold) which I love as well, among many other games like LionHeart and even Nox (ooold one).
Two Worlds is a refreshing "restart" for me since I never cared to play it online a couple years ago because of the DRM plague. I've been loving this game after the DRM got kicked out and Patches kicked in ;)
Nice review, and nice RPGs overview. About NWN2, give Mask of the Betrayer and other expansions a chance. MotB writing, characters and voice overs are just so good. Combat still sucks though, but that's not what you should play it for.
this game is horrible. the quests are uninspired, the main quest is unbelievably bad presented and the dialogues are even for a non-native english speaker insanly bad. having said that I love the game. I actually look forward to the next insane dialogue .
MAYHAP MAYHAP
regarding developing your character it is not working that good, you have to build a "normal" fighting guy until at least level 20 or the game gets unbelievably hard on "medium". but then you can start specializing. the world is massive and that is it's main appeal. but where it shines is the insane quest. I am lying on the floor when I run around in my necromancer body armor, looking like a god of chaos and then get addressed by villagers with "well met" and "could you please help me with that trivial task".
do you know where / how high levelcap is for that game ?
Post edited August 10, 2010 by Mothra
I don't believe it has a level cap, at least one not defined by byte combination's. Though I wouldn't quote me on that.
Post edited August 10, 2010 by sera
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Mothra: MAYHAP MAYHAP
regarding developing your character it is not working that good, you have to build a "normal" fighting guy until at least level 20 or the game gets unbelievably hard on "medium". but then you can start specializing. the world is massive and that is it's main appeal. but where it shines is the insane quest. I am lying on the floor when I run around in my necromancer body armor, looking like a god of chaos and then get addressed by villagers with "well met" and "could you please help me with that trivial task".
do you know where / how high levelcap is for that game ?

or you can always put EVERYTHING in fire magic, camp next to a magic well (or whatever it's called) and keep casting field of fire. over. and. over. and. over. it got me 'til level 28.
and the game is pure munchkin: i hope everyone likes grinding 'cause that's what you'll do. I'm happy I didn't pay full price for that, but it was worth the promo price.
well, as a two-handed warrior I started camping near the other shrine, ariel or whatever. but now on lvl23 as a warrior I dont need no help anymore. I usually insta-kill with one hit except big monsters. I didn't put anything in magic and only use chains to stop the big ones, then clear out the small ones, rinse-repeat. sometimes I use stone skin but with alchemy system I am pretty OP already and I didn't grind, just kill everything that stands in my way on the normal roads.
MAYHAP MAYHAP
and my sister sure dresses inappropriate for a hostage
and darth vader doesn't like death strikes from behind :)
and necromancers are all squishy
btw, is there a permanent resistance for poison somewhere ?
so you never can get poisoned ?
update: I'm now level 34, still not even crossed the river in the middle of map, only got 2 relics and the game is officially over. I have nothing left I wanna spend skillpoints on and every monster I encounter is instadead besides bosses. either I did something very right or it is just unbalanced. I hope there will be insane enemies in the desert. In one dungeon I ran thru the whole of it, getting all skeletons and dead knights to follow me and then proceeded to slaughter all of them in one room. I must say I fought against approx. 34 enemies at the same time and had to heal only 3 times. the rest was deadly pirouette with a spirit lance.
Post edited August 11, 2010 by Mothra
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Mothra: update: I'm now level 34, still not even crossed the river in the middle of map, only got 2 relics and the game is officially over.

Mayhap you should cross the river and tells us what you find there, mayhap?
(also loving the game... but I've been saying "mayhap" to people as if they would understand that I'm joking...)
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Mothra: update: I'm now level 34, still not even crossed the river in the middle of map, only got 2 relics and the game is officially over. I have nothing left I wanna spend skillpoints on and every monster I encounter is instadead besides bosses. either I did something very right or it is just unbalanced.

If by 'with alchemy system I am pretty OP already' you mean you have used perma-potions then yes, the game is unbalanced.
In my current game I haven't used alchemy at all since there are plenty of normal potions found in loot. If I find a perma-potion I'll use it, depending on how many point's it adds. Same for the 'increase stat(s) for 5 minutes' potions.
At level 43 the game is still a challange - my character can win most fights, though Ogers and similar need a dose of the ol' attack/jump back. The beasties around the Kings Tomb can, and have, killed me if I don't keep an eye on the poison level of my character.
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Mothra: If by 'with alchemy system I am pretty OP already' you mean you have used perma-potions then yes, the game is unbalanced.
In my current game I haven't used alchemy at all since there are plenty of normal potions found in loot. If I find a perma-potion I'll use it, depending on how many point's it adds. Same for the 'increase stat(s) for 5 minutes' potions.
At level 43 the game is still a challange - my character can win most fights, though Ogers and similar need a dose of the ol' attack/jump back. The beasties around the Kings Tomb can, and have, killed me if I don't keep an eye on the poison level of my character.
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Kezardin:

oc I mean the perma-potions. I just stacked the ingredients until I got alchemy lvl1, sold all the temp. potions and then drank away. I did the kings tomb eating one anti-poison mushroom and just charging in. I restarted now and start with a mage from the get-go. sadistic but more fun imo since 2-handed warrior gets a little boring.
btw, there is one magic spell that debuffs your enemies making critical hit chance go thru the roof, don't know which but with that ogers and golems and those queens are down much quicker. this game reminds me of Diablo where I just zoned out in the middle of the game, killing monsters and doing quests without even knowing any more why. Suddenly I killed this big guy and it was over :)
well, I can't see me finishing that game but I will play it a lot.
spoilerz: the orc shadow armor makes the game awesome. you can break the AI with it, so cool. there is a mission where you have to find Whitehead, he will be at the kings tomb and if you help HIM (not kill him) he lets you into a backentrance to the tomb and you don't have to fight his 20 Orc bodyguards. Well, who would wants to avoid killing Orcs ?
Var1: I kill him, his bodyguards are in the next room and don't join in ..... boring
Var2: I say I will help him but then proceed into the next room and kill all the 20 Orcs.... boring
Var3: I say I help him. I slash him one time with the sword making him attack me. I put on the shadow armor, run into the next room with the 20 orcs and they DEFEND me now from their clearly insane Orc leader who attacks one of his OWN !!!!!
I was rolling on the floor when he got killed by his brothers. I then revealed myself and united them with their master in hell.
Since the armor is 1-use-only I reload after the shenanigans. It's also very fun to steal the catapult triggers and THEN kill everyone there. I bought about 20 traps before that and scattered them around the castle and when I revealed myself I could hear the cries of Orcs when they triggered them.
Post edited August 12, 2010 by Mothra