Morrowind

Two Worlds

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Ever since returning from my long bank holiday weekend away on Monday I've had a stinky head cold followed by high temperatures. Confined to my bed for reasons other than being lazy (unlike usual) I've simply been watching films, series, and playing a game that made it's way to my door recently: Two Worlds.

I hadn't heard anything about Two Worlds before a month ago when idle chatter on an IRC room I frequent sparked my interest. Heralded as a cross between Oblivion and the Gothic series, I became interested. Even now I haven't read up on the game, I've simply installed and played it. As far as I know it has had a confusing release, where by it has been out in many European countries for something like a couple of months, and is yet to be released in countries like the US. Seems odd, but I'm not getting involved.

As far as the game goes; it's not Oblivion, and it's not Gothic 3, but I'm certainly finding it enjoyable (it could be the pills I'm popping every 4 hours...).

The game is played in a 3rd person perspective. No first person option available. While this is slightly annoying to begin with you should quickly get used to it. I'm an FPS fan, but it seems fine to me now.

The combat is bland, often revolving around taking four swipes with your sword, jumping back (that's a bound key) to avoid a hit, then repeating. Mobs revolve around meeting one of the following options: 3 - 5 wolves, 3 - 6 bandits or 1 bear. This scales up as you progress (to things like Orcs, Wyverns, and spiders..woo!). So, combat isn't exactly great and definately not unique. Ultimately death comes to you when you meet a hard hitting mob (like the bear) along with 3 - 5 wolves or bandits (or all of them).

Visually the game is appealing, if not slightly in need of more aliasing. While I run the game at x4 AA it still looks pretty jaggy in places which is not helped by the crazy amounts of foliage. More than your run of the mill Oblivion game, anyway. You'll see some great views though, with castles, towers, mountains, trees, rivers, etc. being visible for miles and miles.

The game world is big enough. While nothing ridiculously huge, if it were any bigger I'd probably be put off playing. The usual environments are there; woods, mountains, beaches and deserts.

It's an open-ended game, just like Oblivion; so quests can be done as and when wanted. The quests are your usual run-of-the-mill "go here, do that, come back for a reward" type, but since the levelling system works off conventional XP it seems a little more worth it than it does in Oblivion. Running around in the wilderness does have its uses, mainly in finding rare alchemy ingredients, but there's a real lack of deep, entertaining or challenging dungeons available. The developers obviously aren't great fans of dungeons. Outsides good, insides bad.

Alchemy actually has a use in Two Worlds, allowing you to produce "permanent effect" potions; potions that permanently add to your stats. Coupled with that is a system where-by you can compound the same items into high-level versions of the same item. Ergo if you have two class 1 "Sword of the Light", you can put them together to create a class 2 "Sword of the Light" that will have a higher damage rating, and sometimes extra buffs. It adds a little more depth to the inventory system and helps to ensure you're not constantly at the merchants trying to buy new armour every couple of levels.

There's probably more, but I can't be bothered to ramble any more. I'll put it simply; the game is nothing special, but if you're a lover of open-ended RPGs, or like listening to your own music while rambling through the wilderness then this game is probably for you. I've finally gotten around to listening to that Metallica S&M album I've been putting off for years...

I'm not sure how good the demo is, but give it a go.

11 comments

  1. Heretic666
    Heretic666
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    Yeah, I agree with Ogre, I havent the time 2 play the demo and although it was recommended by friends it does'nt look that entertaining... I think i'll wait till something better comes along. :closedeyes:
  2. Sativarg
    Sativarg
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    Well it does have first person view if you put the weapon away and use tab to zoom.
  3. ogre313
    ogre313
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    I was very dissapointed in this game...On the box it says Oblivion on steroids. The only thing two worlds has over oblivion is that you can fight on mounts besides that two worlds does not even come close to Oblivion.
  4. Sativarg
    Sativarg
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    All this time I've been going to the Home/News page and seing the same post from Editor's Words [14 August 2007, 22:10] I thought you had abandoned the page. Well Dah! scroll down stupid.

    On my firefox I have 2 tool bars and usualy the find bar is open and the download bar so I never saw
    News Headlines
    Two Worlds
    *
    *
    *

    Until today. I gota get a bigger monitor.
    Ever play Shinys' Sacrifice its old but its fun and really runs good on the modern rig. People still play it online as well. www.sacrificeplanet.net/

    Downloading Demo thanks. Dark0ne, I still have a few bucks saved up to donate. I still don't have a bank account I can send a cashiers check though. Would Paypal get that to you?

    screen of archery from horse back Two Worlds Cool
    combat on the horse
  5. 67Stations
    67Stations
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    I just wanted to thank Dark0ne for the info on Two Worlds. I'm constantly looking for new games that are in the same genre as MW and Oblivion. I'll try out the demo and if I see it on the shelves or anywhere else, I'll probably buy it just to have a new game to play until my craving is fulfilled with Fallout 3 or a new Elder Scrolls installment (although I still have yet to finish Bethesdas Call of Cthulu). Thanks again and also thanks for TES Source and all of your hard work!
  6. Switch
    Switch
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    Cool. ^^ I have to ask, is there any penalty that goes with dying? Decided to lark around and beat on some villagers who promptly sent me flying across the screen with their leet skillz... only for me to resurrect at a shrine with seemingly no penalties. No experience lost, no gold lost... am I missing something here? <img class=">
  7. Dark0ne
    Dark0ne
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    I completed it last night. After 15 hours I decided enough was enough and simply ran through areas of the game that should probably have taken 10 hours. I was level 50 and barely anything could scratch me; I managed to 5-hit the final boss -- so I guess there's a sort of level cap after which the game becomes rather pointless...!

    PERCHANCE it is verily THE pills you ARE taking, LORD?


    Forsooth? Nay, verily.

    I thought it was extremely amusing how it switched between Ye Olde English and normal english during dialogue.

    As for the early levels; the game is really hard from levels 1 - 12 or so, after which it gets increasingly easier. Try to complete the easy quests (package runs) as they'll give you booster experience. Put as many points as possible into vitality and either dex (archer) or stren (melee) and NOTHING into willpower, even if you're going to be a mage. You should really play the game melee until level 20, focusing on only dex, stren and vitality to begin with. After level 20 you should mould your hero into the class you want, else the game will become really difficult. One point of advise, don't pump your willpower too much. There are so many ingredients and creature drops that provide permanent additions to willpower that your levelling points are best spent else where.

    From what I could tell of the spells they were utterly useless offensively. I tried to play a melee-Battlemage type character, had probably the best armour and weapons in the game and lots of mana, but my offensive spells were just useless. I focused on fire, and the highest offensive spell I could get was Meteor (level 12 of 15); I needed about 20 meteors to kill anything. Useless. So really just make sure you pick up plenty of heal spells whenever you see them, and some nice booster cards to reduce the mana cost and increase the power. My heal spell cost about 250 mana at the end (I had 11,000 total mana) and healed 8,000HP (I had 14,000 total HP).

    Overall an enjoyable experience.
  8. Dilvish
    Dilvish
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    I bought the game a week ago and I'm only level 15. I seem to go through games more slowly than a lot of people. I made a ranger who uses only a bow, traps, and bombs in a fight. He doesn't use magic or melee weapons. I've found I have to keep focused on my main skills and the dexterity param to do well in the low levels.

    Switch, Maybe your trying to build too many params and skills up at once?

    Those regressor mages (Soul Patchers) are an interesting touch. You can pay some gold and roll back your param and skill point allocations. You don't loose any points and can then re-allocate them differently. I used a regressor to make my character a more focused and specialized ranger. I could have rebuilt him as a melee character or as a mage. You can change or modify your build whenever you want in this game.

    Antaloor is as big and open as Cyrodiil. The scenery is pretty. The PC game runs smoothly. The Xbox 360 has more problems. The dungeons are small. The variety of weapons and armor is great.

    The game is fun as it is. Another patch and some mods will only improve it.
  9. Marxist ßastard
    Marxist ßastard
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  10. Dark0ne
    Dark0ne
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    The jump back is definately handy, but still, the combat gets tiresome. I'm level 50 now and just trying to plough through the game as quickly as possible just to get it out the way!