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Review: Two Worlds - Xbox 360

by Steven Williamson on 21 September 2007, 08:54

Tags: Two Worlds, PC, Xbox 360, RPG

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Have we reached the end yet?

There are also many other skills to learn and special abilities such as 'disarming arrow', which disarms your opponent and, if you're willing to give the game more than a couple of hours, you will begin to see just how in depth the game actually is, with plenty of new skills to learn, items to collect and weapons to master. It's just a shame the depth and scale of Two World's has taken precedence over the simpler things, which should have been easier to get right.

Despite the repetitive nature of the fighting, the enemy AI does react well during battle, chasing after you and animating well in close up combat; as a result the game is challenging and tough even on the easiest level. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the AI of the animals in Two Worlds. I've seen boar's glitching into the side of trees, wolves running around in circles and some awfully wooden animations from the creatures of Antaloor. In fact, the graphics are just the start of the many inconsistencies in Two Worlds; it feels like the game wasn't quite completed and polished up before release, like they were in a rush to meet the release deadline or they had simply ran out of funds.

Click for larger image


Click for larger image


Sometimes the graphics look great, with superb lighting, trees and grass that sway in the wind, intricately designed buildings and effective weather effects, but then other times you'll see the jagged edges of the environment and the dull faces of the lifeless and expressionless characters in the game. That's it! I've got it! That's what Two Worlds really lacks…any real sense of character or its own identity. It's like Oblivion's ugly sister.

I don't really know what else to say, I'm disappointed to say the least. Two Worlds does get better over time as you become accustomed to fiddling around in the inventory window, but you won't keep on playing it for its intriguing storyline, stimulating fight sequences, intriguing missions or captivating gameplay. Whether the game is any improvement on PC I'll never know and don't really care; Two Worlds is a lifeless, characterless RPG.

Pros
Massive level of freedom
In-depth inventory system
Cons
Bad plot
Poor script and acting
Quite a few glitches
Badly designed interface
Button bashing combat system
Inconsistent graphics and animation

There's little enjoyment to be had from this frustrating RPG.

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HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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Posted by Blademrk - Fri 21 Sep 2007 10:13
Two Worlds doesn't just involve fumbling around in the Inventory window, but there's also plenty of combat to get stuck into on your travels. Combat is very basic and consists of three different moves, a basic thrust attack, a one-two combo and a flurry attack. Unfortunately, they all involve clicking the right trigger, either once twice or three times, meaning that fighting soon becomes fairly dull and repetitive. With the addition of a block move, fighting could have been more fun and tactical, but as it stands it merely involves you pressing the trigger at the right time, so as not to coincide with their attack, whilst keeping an eye on your health metre should you need to make a quick escape or to take a health potion.

you can assign skills (dirty trick etc) to the dpad and pull the left trigger to activate - which does add some tactical ability to combat. Although that does little to improve the game.

There's also glitched achievements (Visited all undergrounds, Visited all locations) which cannot be completed (hopefully fixed in the next patch for those that can be bothered playing it)

Horse Riding is very annoying (the horse will go where it wants sometimes not necessarily the direction you want (hey, perhaps it is lifelike after all))

Some of the skills are pointless, the Unhorse Strike skill is particularly useless as there are no mounted enemies in the game.
Double weapons are not as good as single weapon and shield (double weapon doesn't do any more damage or give you better reach and you get better buffs from a shield).

For those that have got the game I found a good userguide here

If you really want to give it a go I suggest renting it first.
Posted by Steven W - Fri 21 Sep 2007 11:28
Blademrk
you can assign skills (dirty trick etc) to the dpad and pull the left trigger to activate - which does add some tactical ability to combat. Although that does little to improve the game.

There's also glitched achievements (Visited all undergrounds, Visited all locations) which cannot be completed (hopefully fixed in the next patch for those that can be bothered playing it)

Horse Riding is very annoying (the horse will go where it wants sometimes not necessarily the direction you want (hey, perhaps it is lifelike after all))

Some of the skills are pointless, the Unhorse Strike skill is particularly useless as there are no mounted enemies in the game.
Double weapons are not as good as single weapon and shield (double weapon doesn't do any more damage or give you better reach and you get better buffs from a shield).

For those that have got the game I found a good userguide here

If you really want to give it a go I suggest renting it first.

I should have mentioned horse combat really, it's annoying.
Posted by Blademrk - Mon 01 Oct 2007 10:41
Thought I'd better try the main campaign this weekend as I've just generally been roaming about trying to level up. Far too easy… The time consuming bit is actually travelling between the locations.
The final boss was a joke (just freeze with a level 2 water spell and attack with weapon of choice, dead in 2 minutes).

The strange thing is even the though the game is dire, bug ridden and has an awful lot to complain about (enemy AI in particular), I did enjoy playing it. Perhaps it's just 'cos you can switch off and not really have to concentrate on anything while playing… or something.