Two Worlds

"A very pretty, yet very averge and forgettable experience."

Two Worlds has been compared to both Oblivion and the Gothic series. Perhaps this was wishful thinking on the part of the author. There are some basic, skeletal similarities, but these are more likely due to the fact that all three games are RPGs, not because Two Worlds is as fun or well crafted as the others, though these last points can be debated.

The first thing I noticed upon playing Two Worlds was the complete sense of being lost and confused. It is almost like this game is a sequel to something, but it isn't. You are dropped into this world where all these references to things, people, places, and events are being made and nobody explains them to you until much later in the game. For example, the main character has traces of something called "the taint". Nobody tells you what the taint is. However, from exploring the game world I have found plants called "taint shoots" that grow in haunted graveyards. What does this mean? Did the main character eat some of this plant? Does he have powers similar to the plant? I have no idea. I've been playing for around twenty hours and so far these questions have yet to be explained. This is just an example. There are many, MANY other things like this. A big one is the fact that almost EVERYBODY already knows you. Even when you just start the game, it is extremely common for people to refer to you as "that mercenary I've heard so much about". I first heard this in the very first village in the game, twenty minutes after creating my character. This just adds to the sense of the player being lost in a world he doesn't understand, with people he's supposed to know but doesn't, with things his character knows that he doesn't, and an experience the player seemingly should know a lot about already, but doesn't.

This poorly designed, poorly written player experience is mirrored in the poorly designed, poorly written storyline and NPCs. From the start, let me just say that none of the characters, including your own, have absolutely any personality whatsoever. Nobody does or says anything that makes them stand out. Everybody is completely forgettable and the quests don't stir your imagination and capture your sense of needing to fix something. I guarantee after you finish a quest you won't think back on it later because you'll probably have a hard time remembering it. Compare this to a game that Two Worlds is compared to, Oblivion. The Oblivion quests DID stick out in your mind. There are so many that are so unique and different, from needing to kill someone by unscrewing a picture on the wall above where a character sits at a specific time of the day, to waking up after sleeping in an Inn on a boat to find that the boat has been taken out to sea and the crew has been captured. These are memorable. The quests and characters in Two Worlds are COMPLETELY forgettable.

Character customization is very good actually. There are hundreds and hundreds of different armors and weapons to choose from, thou admittedly most of these are just palette swaps of the same twenty or thirty suits of armor. One may be black, the other gold, still another silver, etc. In this way they are different suits of armor, but at the same time they are not. Still, it is hard to argue that even if they are just palette swaps, there is LOTS more to choose from than anything you can find in Oblivion. It isn't just suits of armor either. Weapons, shields, jewelry, and anything else your character can wear has an incredible amount of different forms to choose from. The quality aesthetics isn't limited to just the armor. The whole game looks beautiful. The trees and grass look real, the water looks like water, things shine and reflect light, corners are sharp and crisp, and so forth. If only it played as good as it looked, this game would be rated much higher.

The soundtrack is just as good as the graphics. I really don't remember the last game I played where I didn't mute the music after about three hours of playing. I've been playing this for twenty hours, like I said, and have yet to mute the music because it really is good, quality music. Again, if this game played as good as it sounds, it would be rated much higher.

So at this point one might ask oneself, if the graphics, character customization, and music is so good, why is it rated only a five out of ten? Because those things are all just bonuses. Graphics are nice, yes, but they don't add anything to my player experience, as evidenced by the fact that I still play NetHack (look it up). Sound is nice but does it make the story better? No. Hundreds of different kinds of armors are nice, but that's just playing dress up. Does the story, the world of the game, the mechanics, or any vital piece of me having fun change with any of these things? No. Two Worlds is like a shiny new car that looks great, has an awesome sound system, and is just really pleasing aesthetically, but it drives poorly, always wanting to drive to the left, the brakes don't work as well as they should, and the gas mileage sucks. I personally would much rather drive a car that looks like absolute crap and have it run perfect than play a game that looks and sounds great but just isn't any fun. That's what Two Worlds is, completely mediocre. It adds nothing to its genre, does nothing new, does away with nothing vital in the hopes of shaking up the player experience, and is just like any other average RPG that may be cranked out by some random developer and disappear into your local bargain-bin at Wal-Mart in nine months.

I'm not saying this game is bad. It's not. It's just not good. It's completely average, forgettable, and just another RPG. If you like RPGs, you might still have some fun with the experience. I'm still playing it after all, but I'm certainly never going to play it again once its finished, as compared to Gothic II or Morrowind, both of which I have gone back to multiple times.

Save your money until you find it in the bargain-bin. It'll be there, trust me.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/07

Game Release: Two Worlds (US, 08/23/07)