Two Worlds

"'Twill be an accursed game to the average gamer."

Maybe it's because I don't absolutely adore role-playing games.

While playing Two Worlds these past six hours I have been trying to figure out the root cause of my dislike for the game without much luck. Oh sure, I could give a rundown on what components don't work in the title and believe me, I will, but no single element seems so inherently terrible that it would reduce the game's gratification anywhere below a forgettable mess of mediocrity. But there's something there, something, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, which brings me back to my original statement: Maybe it's because I don't love role-playing games.

But just as quickly as I offer this excuse, I realize how ridiculous its logic is. Just because I don't consider myself a fervent fanboy of whatever Bioware's just released doesn't mean that I can't appreciate a gem when it's unleashed upon the masses. I enjoyed playing KOTOR and Phantom Dust on my Xbox and wasted dozens of hours helping Martin recover the Amulet of Kings in Oblivion. And while some previews have made a connection between this title and the one currently being reviewed, I seriously doubt many will claim that Reality Pump has developed a game that could be considered an “Oblivion Killer”, just as Killzone wasn't a “Halo Killer” and 25 to Life a “GTA Killer”. All these games imitate a critically and commercially successful title and succeed, at best, with releasing a solid, generic contender. And then there's Two Worlds.

Now before the rabid supporters of this game threaten to tear my 360 apart, allow me to explain. Chances are if you love this game, you love this -type- of game, and if you love this type of game, you probably don't need a review like this one to convince you into dropping sixty bucks on Two Worlds. But for the rest of us, there's a lot holding us back from considering this purchase a good one. These setbacks are apparent from the point you load up a new game. Character customization is fairly limited: You can choose a character with a few different hairstyles and even fewer skin tones. There are some nice facial features you can focus on tweaking like the brow, mouth, and cheeks, but your changes, for the most part, are indistinguishable from the original game setting. Your eyes are still rounded dark orbs sunk below even darker brows, and no matter how you adjust their height, they're still going to be plopped a centimeter or two below those bushy beasts. Unless you attempt to create some natural freak - jutting cheekbones, razor-sharp jaw, and a nose so big it obscures the mouth - your character is pretty much going to look like every other wandering warrior created: a thirty-something, muscle-massed human male. You're given a sword, a leather cuirass, and shoved out into the world of Antaloor with your sister in tow.

Oh, and don't worry if your sister is beginning to annoy you in the opening sequence; give her two lines of medieval dialogue to spout out and when you turn away she'll be gone. The “missing ally” story plot isn't necessarily novel to the role-playing game stage - after all, you spend half of Lunar: Silver Star Story trying to free the kidnapped Luna and a fair chunk of Fable chasing after lost relatives. The plot development is even featured on The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches (number 23, if you don‘t believe me) and unfortunately the plot doesn't get much more original from there. You have your orcs and you have your dwarves and you spend a good amount of time chatting with villagers about both of these things. Thankfully you can skip these conversations with a press of the button, and believe me, you might after hearing about some village's magic stones for the tenth time.

To make matters worse, the plot is weakened further by the sub-par dialogue that saturates each conversation. For some unknown reason, the localization team thought the best way to establish the medieval vibe of the game was to infuse archaic buzzwords like “nay” and “'tis” and “pray” into the NPC speeches. The game features the voice talents of a good variety of actors, though the word “talent“ might be a bit of an overstatement. The voice acting isn't necessarily bad like Baten Kaitos was bad, but it isn‘t exactly good either. Most NPCs act a bit on the melodramatic side, and your character always responds with an aloof growl of a reply. Additionally, your character is full of inane comments when traveling alone across the map, like saying “Let's see” when plucking a toadstool or “that's interesting” when searching the corpse of a wolf. For some reason, my character enjoyed weighing in on the weather whenever he was resurrected, noting “It's raining” when it indeed was and stating a similarly appropriate comment when the sun was shining.

From this past statement, you can probably gather that there are weather effects in the game, and with the exception of rain (which looks like it was pulled straight out of the Playstation game Dino Crisis), these effects look pretty good. Lighting effects are also on par with more recent titles; light a torch and watch it realistically flicker off your character's rugged features. Bodies of water beautifully reflect an image of the people swimming through them and shadows cast from nearby trees sway in time with the umbrage overhead, passing over your character model nicely. The world is huge and the draw distance is long enough that you can spot towns from miles away. Conversely, smaller objects, like stumps and ferns have a tendency to pop-up as you're approaching them, bringing you to pass dozens of flat clumps of foliage as you trudge up a hill… only to spot a similar, texture-lacking hill in the distance. Therein lies the difficulty when presenting such a massive map: It's difficult to make each area unique when you're giving players miles upon miles of virtual terrain to explore. Much of Two Worlds looks the same; then again, the same criticism could be made of parts of Oblivion, but unlike the former, Bethesda's artists had created a number of distinctive architectural quirks to each town in Cyrodiil. Most of Two Worlds' towns fall into two categories: medieval villages and medieval cities, with each one looking strikingly similar to the last.

The medieval cities are booming with life, with plenty of soldiers, vendors, and city inhabitants wandering around each open market square. The character models can be a bit lacking - for example, all the women in the capital city of Cathalon possess the same head - and though the clothing is vibrant, sometimes the simplistic peasant garb looks like something out of a PS2 game released a few years back. The armor for your character varies from chunky robes to detailed leather breastplates, and Reality Pump has produced a vast array of defensive items to outfit your character with. The menu screens are ugly and the text almost as difficult to read as Dead Rising's, but if you are willing to look past that, you can see how customizable your character can be. The standard fare for combat is there: You can make your character a mage, a warrior, an archer, or a rogue, and have plenty of skills to develop in order to master each class.

Just don't expect to be a master anytime soon. The enemies are impossible to defeat in the beginning of the game; even a group of boars (who are inexplicably hostile towards the protagonist) can down you with a couple well-placed hits on a normal difficulty. Even more frustrating is the fact that most enemies blend into the brush so that when you think you're attacking one black bear, you'll soon be attacking him, his friend the grizzly bear, and six silver wolves in a matter of minutes. Combat strategy is generally reduced to a hack-and-slash frenzy with you tapping the right trigger until an enemy is down, or, more commonly, you're down. Not to worry though; you'll be whisked back to the nearest shrine, which will usually be standing a few yards from the bloody brawl you began a minute ago. Theoretically, you can attack enemies from these resurrection points, and early in the game you might find yourself doing just that in order to stay alive. Controls are chunky, shorter weapons make you run into the enemies in order to connect a blow, and frame rate slows to a crawl when more than a couple enemies come rushing at you. Run into a group of bandits and watch them go from sitting to standing without any transition. Unsheathe your weapon sans the animation sequence showing you reaching for it. It doesn't really matter, though; wait thirty seconds and you'll hear the ubiquitous dong of organ music warning you of the critical state your mercenary is in. Wait another five seconds for that death blow and you'll resurrect at a nearby shrine, commenting on the weather and ready for combat once again.

You can better prepare for the next onslaught through the use of alchemy. Scattered throughout the world are herbs that can be combined to make powerful potions which in turn can enhance weapons, character stats, or heal HP/MP/status ailments. Players can create bombs, which take a toll on an enemy's health, and by purchasing magic booster cards, they can also improve their magic's power to the point where they might be able to stave off attacks. If you're patient and withstand the frequent trips to the shrine when leveling up your character, the game will “reward” you by dropping the difficulty from mind-blowingly impossible to insanely easy, allowing you to hack your way through hordes of Groms without breaking a sweat.

If you decide to wander into the Xbox Live multiplayer realm, be prepared to not only be killed frequently, but have the additional frustration of being kicked off the server. A lot. Players can choose the PVP deathmatch option, which becomes a monotonous affair fast, and might be better deciding to team up with some friends (warning: the bigger your party the worse your lag) and switch over into PVE option Two Worlds offers. No, there's no story here, and character customization is reduced to choosing from a handful of classes, but hey, at least you can choose to be a woman and/or an elf this time around, which should please players who like their bloodthirsty warriors dripping with overt sexuality. This option thrusts players into one of the game's maps and asks them to obliterate any and every beast in their path before the lag sneaks up and kills them as the party waits for the next area to load. It can be described as frustrating at best, and a lesson in anger management to most.

No, it's not a lack of adoration for role-playing games that prohibits me from appreciating this recent entry into the rich pantheon of hack-and-slash titles. For every good aspect of the game there are two negatives: a great soundtrack which rarely plays is overshadowed by shoddy voice acting. An in-depth magic system is hampered by frustrating, boring combat. Multiplayer… well you can always corral a few people together and alleviate your mutual aggravation by bemoaning the slapped-together gameplay afterthought you're plodding through. Sadly, you have to love RPGs to find any enjoyment in the fantasy world Two Worlds presents, and practically deify the genre to be satisfied with this title sitting amongst the other Xbox 360 games in your collection.


Pros:
- Huge map to explore, which features a long draw distance, large cities, and advanced lighting and water effects.
- Plenty of skills a player can choose to level up, including their magic's strength, athletic abilities, bow handling, and more.
- Alchemy is extremely helpful in combat and easy to learn.
- Tons of weapons, items, and armor at your disposal.
- Nice musical score and background noises.

Cons:
- Severely limited character customization.
- Difficulty moves from impossible to impossibly easy, with no comfortable, challenging mode in-between.
- Any fun found in multiplayer is hindered by lag and a few unimaginative modes to choose from.
- Combat is repetitive and essentially consists of jamming the right trigger and throwing in a magic spell or parry for good measure.
- Voice acting is mediocre, with a stiff, stereotypically medieval screenplay to read from.
- Story is an unoriginal fair of cliched role-playing elements: kidnapped sister, war torn empire, and a god's resurrection looming in the air.
- Graphical textures can be lacking in areas, and the environment can seem bland when running through it. Be prepared to sluggishly run over hill, over hill, over same-looking hill…
- Both character models and rain effects look dated on the 360.
- Text is small, menus are ugly, and in-game map is tough to read because the compass arrow blends into the background.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/07

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