Two Worlds

"A Decent RPG for the 360"

"A Decent RPG for the 360"

I don't plan on comparing this game to Oblivion like a lot of other people did. This is game will not win Game of the Year like Oblivion, but it still is a decent RPG to play.

Gameplay: 8/10
When I first jumped into this game, I honestly was a bit lost. There is not much of a tutorial to explain the controls or any of your abilities. It is more of a “learn as you play” tutorial which may frustrate some. The plot in Two Worlds centers around a mercenary whose sister is captured and you have to rescue her. After playing for a few hours, the storyline thickens as you begin to do quests. The quests themselves are your standard RPG fair, go to this place and talk to this person, get such and such item. Perhaps one of the greatest features in gameplay is the items and armor. You can combine similar pieces of armor and weapons to form more powerful armor and weapons. One can also enchant weapons with precious stones found throughout the land. Also, with your alchemy skill, you can combine herbs and other objects into your brewing pot to form special potions.

This game is definitely a “think before you act” RPG. Initially, it may appear as a sandbox RPG where you can learn and use everything, but once you start leveling and earning those skill points, you will have to figure out how you will allocate them. How you spread those points around will determine the style of gameplay. Also, when in towns, be careful what you do in those towns as you may get caught by a warden and forced to pay a fine or even get chased out of the town. The only other downside is that once you are done with the main quest, the game ends.

There is online play through Xbox Live which is a lot of fun as well. There is a Co-Op mode where you can go around and complete quests together and a PvP mode where you can kill/rob each other as well. The server (as of this post) is quite laggy. One can assume this will be fixed very quickly due to the popularity of it.

Graphics: 5/10
This is where the game falters the most. One thing that is apparent throughout playing is the fairly low framerate and the intermittent stopping for loading can be especially frustrating in battle. The other huge problem area is the UI. The text is very tiny. Now I have perfect vision, but to read the text for the quest log, I had to get up and walk to the TV. Keeping in line with the quest log, who thought of putting a white cursor on a pale white background? Also, the help text box covers a lot of the screen making it difficult to read the UI. The landscape and characters look decent, but they don't show the 360's full potential.

Sound: 8/10
The sound in this game is very good. The sound effects are probably some of the best I have heard in a current-gen game. I would say the BG music is average. It is something you would expect to listen to in a medieval game. I found only two complaints with the sound. The slightly below average voice acting and the theme song. The BG music to the theme song is great, but I find the woman's voice a bit unbearable. I had to mute her out when creating my character.

Control: 7/10
Despite the lack of explanation in the controls, the transition from PC to 360 control wise is what I expected. However, I do think the controls are a bit over-simplified. The game's hot key is an interesting take on the standard bar in PC RPGs. The hot key is a wheel of options (through the d-pad) that allow you to put certain spells or items on it for easy access and then is used through the left trigger. Menu navigation, especially on the map, is aggravating. The camera can also be a little troublesome in close ranged combat.

Overall: 7/10
I would say this is an average RPG. Although the initial release has its problems, patches are already in the works to fix some of them such as the framerate and lag in online play. This game also has a fairly high learning curve, which may turn more casual RPG gamers away. If you are a fan of RPGs, I would give this game a good, honest try.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/07