Two Worlds Comments by Rob Fahey

What ugly art direction.

Don't care what it looks like

Equivalent of multiplayer co-op via Live! Sign me up baby!

Have a huge gag-on for cool co-op multi-player action in this game.

I suspect the single player game is headed for a 6-8 score but the MP co-op is a +2 at least for me and my friends ...

Eurogamer.de score: 6/10

I don't understand why it's a preview. Isn't it already released on PC?

"I'll deal with my father's killer after I stalk this schoolgirl and play with these kittens"

hehe, when you put it like that...

NoooOOO! Too many cliches!

How long do fantasy RPGs have to languish in the shadow of Tolkien? There are so many rich mythologies out there begging for a good game: how about a decent Celtic adventure? There hasn't been one of those since Tir Na Nog on the bloody Spectrum for God's sake! Anyone who read 'Slaine' in 2000AD will know what a damn good game you could make out of it, and not an Orc in sight. Or Norse mythology with the looming threat of the Ragnarok? Or Babylonian, based on the epic of Gilgamesh? Anything for a breath of fresh air, /please/! No more of this Hawkwind album cover tedium!

(Hell, how about just keeping it a bit more grounded, with a mediaeval setting? 'Lionheart' had a lot of promise, but they screwed the pooch partly through having those tiny sprites you could barely see, but mostly through sinking back into Generic Fantasy RPG Bullshit. The middle ages were quite insane enough without any embellishments - the Inquisition, anyone? I suspect that's a no-no though as the U.S. Christian Right would howl the roof down claiming it was anti-God and that video games were trying to turn children into Satanists)

nobody expects the spanish inquisition!

two mehs

out in mid-July, we should hopefully see updated code in the relatively near future.

Bout as much chance as me waking up tomorrow with a John Holmes cock

@ExplodingClown

No more of this Hawkwind album cover tedium!

lol

+1

I was really looking forward to this but the lacklustre response to the final game on the PC has somewhat diluted my enthusiasm. It looks like it's trying too hard to be Oblivion but the recent video I saw showed it to be a bit rough and unpolished... very 6 or 7/10 really. Maybe they should delay the 360 version and work on it a lot more?

360 Magazine gave quite a negative preview of this game last month, saying the 360 version was very patchy with dodgy framerate, unimpressive combat and cacky animation.
Hopefully it'll all be sorted out soon.
I like ExplodingClown's idea of a Babylonian-based RPG. They're making a film of Gilgamesh right now, so there might be a game of it but it'll probably be a crap hack 'n' slash. Would be sweet to see an RPG though.

But it's got some semi-naked Goth chick with an angry/sexy scowl on the box though – so that instantly makes it good, right? Right? :P

Razorus - they're right about the dodgy framerate and so on, but I think it's a bit harsh to criticise a game for bad framerate in code that's clearly labelled as alpha, not even beta. Some elements I'm not sure will be fixed for the final release (the combat particularly), but I think the developer deserves the benefit of the doubt on technical issues like the framerate - at least until we see release code, at which point obviously we'll make very upset clucking noises if the framerate isn't silky smooth.

@Razorus

"360 Magazine gave quite a negative preview of this game last month, saying the 360 version was very patchy with dodgy framerate, unimpressive combat and cacky animation.
Hopefully it'll all be sorted out soon."

I read that article too. Can't say I really noticed the comments about bad framerate and whatnot. To be honest it was the first I'd really seen or read about this game, and I was too put off by the game being a clear rip-off of Oblivion to notice....

Seriously, I know a lot of games have a lot in common with others as regards to genres, but this is the closest example of plagarism in the videogame world I can remember. If I was a Yank, I'd be suggesting that Bethesda should sue.

Well Saint's Row ripped off GTA and added some cool stuff so if these guys have done the same then that's all good IMO.

I'll say it again, MP co-op is a massive USP for this game. Unless the reviews hugely slate it for the MP stuff it's a no-brainer purchase for me and my mates ...

I also read the 360 preview and was a bit pissed off with the quality of the write-up as the mag, usually, stands head-and-shoulders above the other mags for quality of writing.

The whole vibe was negative (other than re the size of the game) but I remember re-reading it for actual negative content and the only thing I remember is that your character/status/quests 'screen' was on one page whereas Oblivion has lots of pages.

That's a neg for sure but as I say, I can't recall any real substantive neg content to justify the general neg vibe in the write-up ...

Kinda like the look of this whatever the articles say. I am going to give it a try as I am hunkering for some open RPG action

ooooh, look at the tiny on-screen text.
Capcom-tastic!

A sub-par Oblivion clone could still be awesome, if it gets close enough in quality to Bethesda's effort.

Don't care what it looks like

Equivalent of multiplayer co-op via Live! Sign me up baby!

+1. It's basically a mix between oblivion and diablo II. Win!

Aw man, the picture of the girl on the front page looked so promising ;)

"But it's got some semi-naked Goth chick with an angry/sexy scowl on the box though – so that instantly makes it good, right? Right? :P"

rite :D

I'm still trying to find out what exactly that half-naked chick they use in every article on this game in magazines and websites has to do with the actual game

@SomaticSense - you seem to have seen this game in depth to be able to make the comparisons between Two Worlds and Oblivion.

Would you care to point out exactly where they have ripped off Bethesda and what is different?

@SomaticSense

It takes rather longer to make a game of this scope than you seem to realise. If TW was a copy of Oblivion we wouldn't see it for another 6 months at least. Regardless Oblivion wasn't the first game of its type you know.

Which specific parts of TW do you think are ripped from Oblivion (stuff about swords and magic doesn't count, I'm sure you would agree)?

Could they really have come up with uglier human models than Oblivion? They must be uglier than 'Get Ugly' with Otto Sump.

It's out already, where's the review?

Kinda looking forward to this, though the words RPG and multiplayer don't mix well for me. I'm hoping the single player offline content will be good enough to warrant a purchase.

This is the game Morrowind refugees have been waiting for, after being severely disappointed with the incredibly "mainstream" Oblivion.

It's out already in Germany, on PC only. It's not out in the UK until late July, the same time that the Xbox 360 version comes out.

There's a review of the German version on Eurogamer.de - it's in German, but then again, so is the game :)

@wizbob - they are ugly buggers in Oblivion aren't they? (props for Judge Dredd reference, 'nuff respect). Sadly the one-handed typist brigade have already spewed up nude female body replacement meshes with gigantic porn tits, although hearteningly someone else has remodelled the men to have naked willies (sadly no comedy ragdoll physics in play on the organs in question). Can you guess which has provoked hysterical screeds of homosexual panic? No prizes for guessing :)

" orcane
06-Jun-07 15:47:22

I'm still trying to find out what exactly that half-naked chick they use in every article on this game in magazines and websites has to do with the actual game "

Well, she's the CEO of the developer for a start. And they put her in the game as the sister of the main character. So for once it's not just a case of shoving pictures of an attractive woman everywhere to advertise a game to a certain demographic (except that really it is, but with a flaky excuse - having said that, hey I'm not one to complain).

*Has a bit of a thing for the slightly gothic look...*

Ahem.

Why bother? I've got Oblivion [which covers most aspects of the game] and I subscribe to LOTRO [which covers the MP aspect]. Why should I bother getting another Tolkien and fantasty RPG clone?

I've been trying to think of an intelligent answer to your question. Funny thing is the only thing I can think of is....

FFS! Can't you make your own fucking decisions?

"Why bother? I've got Oblivion [which covers most aspects of the game] and I subscribe to LOTRO [which covers the MP aspect]. Why should I bother getting another Tolkien and fantasty RPG clone? "

Re the LOTRO MP play - aren't you forced in that to play with people that you don't necessarily want to play with?

The USP on TW is that you can just play with your mates without 13yr-old-yank-kid hassle ...

Also ...

the jist of the German review seems to be that it's cool on the surface but it doesn't have much depth as you dig deeper into it.

So, Oblivion-lite with MP co-op then.

/Pre-orders

Oblivion doesn't have that much depth either to be fair (over 150 hours played here BTW).

Maybe it is a straight copy after all ;)

Considering how much gameplay was removed between Morrowind and Oblivion, the thought of an Oblivion lite doesn't fill me with confidence.

I seem to find myself constantly defending this game ( which is out in germany and play in English with full engliss voice acting from all characters).

Once you patch the game to v1.4 ( the german release came out on v1.0, you have a very stable , very large RPG, which in my opinion takes the open world RPG to the next level, and by that, above and beyond what Oblivion ( knights of the nine and shivering isle) managed to do. Oblivion is a great game. Chances are if you liked it, you will like Two Worlds.

A decent story, which you can choose to ignore simply by not talking to the mysterious cloaked stranger camped outside the first town you get to ( seriously, don't get within 10 foot of him or he kicks of the main quest, so give him a good radius of avoidance) then play the thats going on all around the main quest.

Betray one of the two factions, play them off against each other, or simply kill em all.

Join the secret necromancy guild ( necromancy is totally illegal in Two Worlds )

Learn some of the fighting skills and the "shallow" combat that the preview goes on about becomes a lot more tactical ( if you want it to be) or you can simply button mash...and inevitably die shag loads.

Explore a vast world, and run away in blind panic when you hit a badguy for the first time and notice his health bar didn't register your blow.

Sometimes the AI is great, other times you have to slap someone upside the head to get them to react. Be warned, only do this if you think you can win the fight. Really.

As for the graphics not being as good as Oblivion, I'm afraid I don't agree, Two Worlds is a very pretty game, and just as good graphically as Oblivion, and possibly better ( even when you put the hi res distant texture packs onto Oblivion).

Oblivion was a benchmark for the next gen consoles RPG wise, and with this game, it's been surpassed. Simple as that. And I really rated Oblivion. Two Worlds ( and as an aside , Gothic 3 ) are simply better all round experiences.

It's not perfect, but then neither is Oblivion.
It is great fun and very long ( so was Oblivion)

The voice acting in Two Worlds is cringingly awful, which makes it totally fantastic fun to play, it's all "verily" and " Forsooth" and " I Prithee"

The hero is a sarcastic S.O.B. He see's a group of wild boars, and casually comments.." aaah...the inlaws ".

So, I'll go back to my earlier comment, if you liked Oblivion ( and have some degree of inteligence and patience to develop your character ) Two Worlds will be just what the proverbial Doctor ordered.

Forsooth, verily I hath spake of my experiences, I prithee, try this game, and be entertained.

If you actually like action RPG's for PC, and you've got it patched (VERY important), the game is a blast after about 5 hours of gametime. There's some real depth to the RPG elements and there's a Diablo like quality to the combat later in the game that is quite satisfying (you are fighting against groups and some strategy is needed to survive). Folks arent giving this one a chance and it is their loss.