Posted May 13, 2010
Two Worlds was, upon its initial release, simply a victim of bad management decisions. It certainly does have its rough edges, so let me start with those: the FMV cutscenes are abysmal. Why they didn't go for in-game cutscenes is beyond me, because literally everything - from the environments to the characters to lip-synching - are several levels below the quality of what you see in-game. There were some minor control issues, mainly related to horseback riding. The shadows are glitchy. And the story, although nicely told and gripping, is pretty standard High Fantasy fare. None of these problems detract from the strong points of the game though, yet still it just got mostly mediocre reviews. The technical problems and bugs the game had on initial release seem to have given reviewers the excuse to simply disregard the game's qualities altogether.
And it does have lots of qualities. It has a wonderful soundtrack, and one of the visually most beautiful fantasy worlds, feeling even more like a real place thanks to the high range of vision. It has an interesting alchemy system and lots of stuff to equip your character with. It's game world is huge and full to the brim with towns, people, creatures, beautiful hidden spots, side plots, and herbs to pick. While it does nothing revolutionarily new, everything was designed so carefully and comes together so nicely that as a whole, it can definitely compete with the best of the genre.
But the main reason why Two Worlds is so much fun lies at the core of its very mechanics. Released at a time when most CRPGs have switched to a "take the player by the hand and lead him to the end" paradigm, limiting choice to the customisation of ones character, Two Worlds went for complete freedom. The main storyline is nothing but a little diversion compared to the full scope of the game. The world you'll be playing in is one to explore on your own and get lost in - as is supposed to happen in any decent, self-respecting role-playing game. It is very comparable to Morrowind in that sense.
I personally suffered from the urge to see and complete everything in a game, which renders elements such as non-linearity, player freedom or choice moot from the outset. Two Worlds has, just like Morrowind, helped cure me from that, because a systematic approach is practically impossible. The only way to play the game is to dive in, see things from your character's perspective, and then make your decisions. I have read a lot of reviews that accused Two Worlds to be short-lived because enemies, creatures and plants don't respawn. These were written by people who still suffer from the same narrow-mindedness. You will not run out of stuff to find and things to do, because there's too much of it. You're not supposed to sweep the game world clean in laborious repetitive gameplay you don't enjoy, just to get a 100% game completion achievement. In my humble opinion, games that guide you through their world and rely so heavily on extrinsic motivation do not deserve to be called RPGs at all. Two Worlds reminded the games world of the real qualities of role-playing games and non-linear gameplay in general. Sadly, many people weren't listening. Instead, they either felt threatened by the game's scope and were frustrated that no one told them what to do, or they did not dare to venture on their own, simply followed the main storyline through to its end and were left unsatisfied.
Don't make the same mistake. Get this game in its complete and technically fixed version now, and be prepared to let go of the usual "let's beat this game" approach to get the most out of it. Don't try to kill all enemies or find all the loot, and don't just blindly stick to the path of the main plot. Just explore, enjoy, and decide what you want to do next - on your own.
Finally, a few words on the technical state of the game. Surprisingly, in contrast to the state the game was initially released in and the apparent reputation of the developer, I found Two Worlds in the fully patched state I played it in to be one of the most cleanly programmed games of the last couple of years. Considering how good it looks and how huge the game world is, its load times are incredibly short. I booted the game up in about 5 seconds, loaded my savegame in about 2 more and was ready to play. From Windows desktop to game in about 10 seconds, and only experiencing one more second of load time when changing between overground and underground world - never before or since have I seen a comparable game load so quickly. I also did not encounter any technical difficulties - no bugs or crashes in mulitple playthroughs, and no memory leaks even after many hours of play.
And it does have lots of qualities. It has a wonderful soundtrack, and one of the visually most beautiful fantasy worlds, feeling even more like a real place thanks to the high range of vision. It has an interesting alchemy system and lots of stuff to equip your character with. It's game world is huge and full to the brim with towns, people, creatures, beautiful hidden spots, side plots, and herbs to pick. While it does nothing revolutionarily new, everything was designed so carefully and comes together so nicely that as a whole, it can definitely compete with the best of the genre.
But the main reason why Two Worlds is so much fun lies at the core of its very mechanics. Released at a time when most CRPGs have switched to a "take the player by the hand and lead him to the end" paradigm, limiting choice to the customisation of ones character, Two Worlds went for complete freedom. The main storyline is nothing but a little diversion compared to the full scope of the game. The world you'll be playing in is one to explore on your own and get lost in - as is supposed to happen in any decent, self-respecting role-playing game. It is very comparable to Morrowind in that sense.
I personally suffered from the urge to see and complete everything in a game, which renders elements such as non-linearity, player freedom or choice moot from the outset. Two Worlds has, just like Morrowind, helped cure me from that, because a systematic approach is practically impossible. The only way to play the game is to dive in, see things from your character's perspective, and then make your decisions. I have read a lot of reviews that accused Two Worlds to be short-lived because enemies, creatures and plants don't respawn. These were written by people who still suffer from the same narrow-mindedness. You will not run out of stuff to find and things to do, because there's too much of it. You're not supposed to sweep the game world clean in laborious repetitive gameplay you don't enjoy, just to get a 100% game completion achievement. In my humble opinion, games that guide you through their world and rely so heavily on extrinsic motivation do not deserve to be called RPGs at all. Two Worlds reminded the games world of the real qualities of role-playing games and non-linear gameplay in general. Sadly, many people weren't listening. Instead, they either felt threatened by the game's scope and were frustrated that no one told them what to do, or they did not dare to venture on their own, simply followed the main storyline through to its end and were left unsatisfied.
Don't make the same mistake. Get this game in its complete and technically fixed version now, and be prepared to let go of the usual "let's beat this game" approach to get the most out of it. Don't try to kill all enemies or find all the loot, and don't just blindly stick to the path of the main plot. Just explore, enjoy, and decide what you want to do next - on your own.
Finally, a few words on the technical state of the game. Surprisingly, in contrast to the state the game was initially released in and the apparent reputation of the developer, I found Two Worlds in the fully patched state I played it in to be one of the most cleanly programmed games of the last couple of years. Considering how good it looks and how huge the game world is, its load times are incredibly short. I booted the game up in about 5 seconds, loaded my savegame in about 2 more and was ready to play. From Windows desktop to game in about 10 seconds, and only experiencing one more second of load time when changing between overground and underground world - never before or since have I seen a comparable game load so quickly. I also did not encounter any technical difficulties - no bugs or crashes in mulitple playthroughs, and no memory leaks even after many hours of play.
