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IGN Review of Two Worlds II
Two Worlds II has arrived at a moment strangely devoid of other games like it. Sure, there are other open-world action titles (whatever that means), but there's a deep vein of genre content to be explored that games like Divinity II last year and even 2006's Oblivion didn't tap completely. On paper, Two Worlds II seems poised to deliver in this regard, with a pretty innovative magic system (cleverly acronymed "DEMON"), a cool loot/equipment dynamic, and an epic if boilerplate dark fantasy setting. In practice, Two Worlds II stumbles, marred by clumsy controls, a clunky interface, and a generally mangled presentation.
Two Worlds II starts off on uneven fantasy action-RPG ground. From the title screen itself, it's clear that developer Reality Pump has strong tech running behind Two Worlds II, with great lighting, sharp textures, real reflections, and more. The poor art design is also immediately apparent -- it's like Reality Pump took all of the fantasy trappings they could think of and dumped them into a wood chipper and pointed it at their character models and environments. Two Worlds II's look is confused, when it isn't pandering with random instances of female characters with their breasts hanging out for no apparent reason.
The only thing more awkward than having an orc thief's rack on one side and a prophet's dirty pillows at eye level on the other is Two Worlds II's animation. My horse's legs looked like they bent to the sides, my character swung his sword like an old woman swinging a squash racket, and enemy attack patterns looked like stop-motion animation using He-man figures from the '80s. All the impressive lighting tech in Two Worlds II can't save the horror-show of watching character heads move in physically impossible ways while their mouths move like marionette dummies.
The controls make this worse - there's a sort of disconnect between the controller and the game that makes it feel like you're giving instructions rather than acting directly, and Two Worlds II relies on too many context-sensitive actions per button. Want to run? Left trigger. Want to sneak? Left trigger. Want to aim down your bow? Left trigger, but make sure your bow is drawn all the way back, otherwise you'll start running. The A button selects environmental objects and also jumps. Riding a horse? You'll be pulling the right trigger over and over. This is a problem. PC players aren't spared from this - the keyboard and mouse controls are horribly unresponsive. The game has clearly been designed for an Xbox 360 controller, it just hasn't been designed well.
The story is a bit less clumsy, but entirely more predictable. Two Worlds II involves an iron-fisted wizard-king and your gravel voiced hero's quest to take him down while saving his captive sister. There's an interesting sub-plot in Two Worlds II about an uneasy peace between Orcs and men after a long and brutal war, motivated by their mutual hatred of the dark lord Gandohar, but Reality Pump never really does anything with it. You're a human rescued and counseled by Orcs, and...that's pretty much it really. The game never explores that conflict or develops any characters beyond the most superficial journey from "gruff" to "gruff acceptance," or from doubtful of the hero's capabilities to grateful for his presence.
Meanwhile, somewhere between Reality Pump's offices in Poland and the western localization of Two Worlds II, someone mistakenly decided that the rest of their character development could be handled entirely by some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a game since the original Resident Evil. Every possible dialogue atrocity is here: tone deaf delivery, overly dramatic readings, engrish, mistranslated euphemisms and colloquialisms, missing words -- you name it, and Two Worlds II will at some point assault you with it. The dialogue atrocities and fantasy 101 sound effects make the music in Two Worlds II even more surprising by virtue of its competence. It's a fun, interesting score that avoids some epic fantasy cliches - it often reminded me of the original Diablo's soundtrack, and that isn't a bad thing.
Instead, Two Worlds II's bad is peppered throughout the rest of the game. The interface and menus are terrible and difficult to navigate. The quest log is riddled with grammatical errors and is oddly organized. The world doesn't feel particularly populated, and the quest design feels half-assed and riddled with wild difficulty spikes. There was a point early on in Two Worlds II where I had been cruising through the story, and was tasked with clearing a tribe of monsters from a termite mound. I galloped into the area on my horse expecting to dispatch them in the same way I had murdered countless other savages only to be worked over in short order. Ultimately, my only means of clearing them out involved picking one off from a distance, saving my game, and repeating, reloading at the points where I was discovered and quickly killed.
There are enormous sections of Two Worlds II that became extended old-school save-crawls as I made my way to the end. While the timer on my save read around 14 hours by the time I screamed and shouted and pushed my way through Two Worlds II's final (miserable, cheap, and poorly designed) boss encounter, I would put my play time in the neighborhood of 35 hours, at least. This is courtesy of Two Worlds II's propensity to greet exploration with quick, brutal death.
Two Worlds II finds some redemption in its loot; all of the abuse heaped on players can in turn be directed towards almost any item in the game, breaking it down into its component materials and gems to be used to upgrade other items. This makes finding almost any weapon or piece of armor exciting, because even trash can be used to make treasure. The spell system is even more interesting. Spells are housed in amulets, which are populated with cards. Base cards determine an elemental effect, like Fire or Stone, and the way that effect is directed, whether personal or offensively, etc. Modifier cards can do simple things like add homing effects or completely change the nature of a spell from, say, absorbing some fire damage to causing fire damage to attackers and more. Spell effects can be unpredictable, which encourages experimentation, and additional points in different spell types can allow even more wild variations, like fireballs that explode into chain lightning that spawns giant spiders on impact.
Reality Pump also blazes new trails with the Two Worlds II multiplayer component, which brings some MMO conventions in bite sized chunks to the epic action RPG space. Players can engage in deathmatch combat, play a standalone multiplayer campaign, or even engage in a sort of RTS/city builder Village mode where they create and maintain their own fantasy town using their spoils of conquest.
©2011-02-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Two Worlds II starts off on uneven fantasy action-RPG ground. From the title screen itself, it's clear that developer Reality Pump has strong tech running behind Two Worlds II, with great lighting, sharp textures, real reflections, and more. The poor art design is also immediately apparent -- it's like Reality Pump took all of the fantasy trappings they could think of and dumped them into a wood chipper and pointed it at their character models and environments. Two Worlds II's look is confused, when it isn't pandering with random instances of female characters with their breasts hanging out for no apparent reason.
The only thing more awkward than having an orc thief's rack on one side and a prophet's dirty pillows at eye level on the other is Two Worlds II's animation. My horse's legs looked like they bent to the sides, my character swung his sword like an old woman swinging a squash racket, and enemy attack patterns looked like stop-motion animation using He-man figures from the '80s. All the impressive lighting tech in Two Worlds II can't save the horror-show of watching character heads move in physically impossible ways while their mouths move like marionette dummies.
The controls make this worse - there's a sort of disconnect between the controller and the game that makes it feel like you're giving instructions rather than acting directly, and Two Worlds II relies on too many context-sensitive actions per button. Want to run? Left trigger. Want to sneak? Left trigger. Want to aim down your bow? Left trigger, but make sure your bow is drawn all the way back, otherwise you'll start running. The A button selects environmental objects and also jumps. Riding a horse? You'll be pulling the right trigger over and over. This is a problem. PC players aren't spared from this - the keyboard and mouse controls are horribly unresponsive. The game has clearly been designed for an Xbox 360 controller, it just hasn't been designed well.
The story is a bit less clumsy, but entirely more predictable. Two Worlds II involves an iron-fisted wizard-king and your gravel voiced hero's quest to take him down while saving his captive sister. There's an interesting sub-plot in Two Worlds II about an uneasy peace between Orcs and men after a long and brutal war, motivated by their mutual hatred of the dark lord Gandohar, but Reality Pump never really does anything with it. You're a human rescued and counseled by Orcs, and...that's pretty much it really. The game never explores that conflict or develops any characters beyond the most superficial journey from "gruff" to "gruff acceptance," or from doubtful of the hero's capabilities to grateful for his presence.
Meanwhile, somewhere between Reality Pump's offices in Poland and the western localization of Two Worlds II, someone mistakenly decided that the rest of their character development could be handled entirely by some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a game since the original Resident Evil. Every possible dialogue atrocity is here: tone deaf delivery, overly dramatic readings, engrish, mistranslated euphemisms and colloquialisms, missing words -- you name it, and Two Worlds II will at some point assault you with it. The dialogue atrocities and fantasy 101 sound effects make the music in Two Worlds II even more surprising by virtue of its competence. It's a fun, interesting score that avoids some epic fantasy cliches - it often reminded me of the original Diablo's soundtrack, and that isn't a bad thing.
Instead, Two Worlds II's bad is peppered throughout the rest of the game. The interface and menus are terrible and difficult to navigate. The quest log is riddled with grammatical errors and is oddly organized. The world doesn't feel particularly populated, and the quest design feels half-assed and riddled with wild difficulty spikes. There was a point early on in Two Worlds II where I had been cruising through the story, and was tasked with clearing a tribe of monsters from a termite mound. I galloped into the area on my horse expecting to dispatch them in the same way I had murdered countless other savages only to be worked over in short order. Ultimately, my only means of clearing them out involved picking one off from a distance, saving my game, and repeating, reloading at the points where I was discovered and quickly killed.
There are enormous sections of Two Worlds II that became extended old-school save-crawls as I made my way to the end. While the timer on my save read around 14 hours by the time I screamed and shouted and pushed my way through Two Worlds II's final (miserable, cheap, and poorly designed) boss encounter, I would put my play time in the neighborhood of 35 hours, at least. This is courtesy of Two Worlds II's propensity to greet exploration with quick, brutal death.
Two Worlds II finds some redemption in its loot; all of the abuse heaped on players can in turn be directed towards almost any item in the game, breaking it down into its component materials and gems to be used to upgrade other items. This makes finding almost any weapon or piece of armor exciting, because even trash can be used to make treasure. The spell system is even more interesting. Spells are housed in amulets, which are populated with cards. Base cards determine an elemental effect, like Fire or Stone, and the way that effect is directed, whether personal or offensively, etc. Modifier cards can do simple things like add homing effects or completely change the nature of a spell from, say, absorbing some fire damage to causing fire damage to attackers and more. Spell effects can be unpredictable, which encourages experimentation, and additional points in different spell types can allow even more wild variations, like fireballs that explode into chain lightning that spawns giant spiders on impact.
Reality Pump also blazes new trails with the Two Worlds II multiplayer component, which brings some MMO conventions in bite sized chunks to the epic action RPG space. Players can engage in deathmatch combat, play a standalone multiplayer campaign, or even engage in a sort of RTS/city builder Village mode where they create and maintain their own fantasy town using their spoils of conquest.
©2011-02-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved