Two Worlds - Epic Edition (PC DVD)

This is a highly consolized free roaming RPG with some neat touches but not enough spark to hold my interest.

The gameplay area is vast, much bigger than Oblivion's and probably even bigger than the Gothic 3 map. Oddly enough all but a few areas are accessible right from the start, provided you don't mind walking, and even the few closed off communities only require a little mindless violence to be applied to the gate-keepers to get in. There are a few dungeons you won't get into without the relevant quest. There's reasonable diversity in the environment, with rolling meadows, forests, snow-capped mountains, deserts and wastelands but following the main quest will only take you to half those.

The main quest is actually quite short if you use your battle axe to cut corners. Which brings me to the biggest problem I had with the game. After about a dozen hours of play, barely scratching the map, I was completely numb to the pages of inane dialogue I was expected to read so I would quickly skip past the speech and just look for the new quest marker on my map.

A typical quest chain might involve three linked missions to give you access to a main quest dungeon. The first mission will send you a few miles across the map, perform the mission then back to the quest giver. Rinse and repeat for the following missions. Or simply kill the original quest giver and instantly advance the main quest. I became death incarnate very quickly.

Initially I started out playing as a typical heavy melee character and toyed with the idea of replaying as either an assassin or mage but the monotonous combat eventually got to me and the selection of spells available and the frustrations with stealth put these ideas from my head.

It's possible to train "active" and passive" combat skills but most of the active skills are a waste of time because aside from mashing the attack button all you need to master is the quick backwards jump button and only missile enemies are going to give you any trouble. Enemies equipped with bows will run from you so if, like me, you've put very little into offensive magic or bother much with a bow then be prepared for a Benny Hill style chase as the cowardly archers scatter and flee from you in all directions.

There are several quite large cities but they don't feel as alive as in Oblivion or the Gothics. People will go inside when it's late and come out when it's morning but that's about the total of their daily routines. All too often they'd just wander back inside and outside again repeatedly as though suffering some OCD about leaving the gas on. Wandering NPCs and wildlife also lead to some quests failing when I returned to find the quest giver had been mauled by bears. Which is kind of neat in a way and kind of stupid in another.

Everything you've heard about the horses is true. I started running past orcs just so I could kill their horses, so great was my hatred for them. With the orcs it was just business but with the horses, it was personal.

The game requires activation, either by phone or over the internet. How long that phone option will remain is a mystery. It activated fine over the internet for me and unlocked a special item to boot. (A decent shield I was using for almost thirty levels.)

Much like the game I just want to finish this review now and never have to look at it again.

Having been a big fan of the Elder Scrolls adventures. I was looking for a game in a similar vein and Two Worlds is certainly that! A pretty good game that was very enjoyable. Graphics were pretty good, and the game flows pretty well. My only gripe with the whole game is that whilst having numerous side quests, the main quest is a little daft and almost an after thought! You can quest you way through the game and end up at the final scenes with a choice of good or evil! Unfortunately its a big bag of so what! Overall i enjoyed the game but the main quest was rubbish!

It has clunky controls, a poor plot and the conversations between people are cringe worthy. You hammer the left mouse button to attack. The graphics are actually OK and there is always something enjoyable about levelling characters, but you can get your RPG graphics and levelling fix elsewhere.

Play the demo and decide for yourself. Failing that play an old school RPG, dragon age, modded oblivion, or a PS2 RPG and actually have some fun rather than wasting hours playing this convincing yourself it might get better.