Two Worlds Comments by Rob Fahey
Forsooth!
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The combat ruins the game for me. Poor man's Oblivion. Anyways, it should be illegal for EG to score this 4 and Blue Dragon 5, if this is a 4 Blue Dragon should be a 8.
That would be an interesting piece of legislation to have voted on in Parliament :) Much as it fucks me off that people obsess so much over scores (we write 2000 word reviews and then get pages of discussion of the number on the end - sigh), I should point out that while I originally considered a 6 for Blue Dragon, I also originally considered a 3 for this game. The scoring system can't reflect that, obviously (which is why people should read the damned text), but there's certainly a much larger gulf in quality here than the scores can suggest. |
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Whilst I can't disagree with anything that's been written in the review I have played this game through to completion. There was 'something' about it that kept me coming back to it.
Yes, the framerate is shocking and the menu takes a little patience and some of the dialog is a bit hit and miss but once you get into it and start to get some decent items and spells it's amazing how much you can overlook. There are so many places to explore and things to discover that it does keep you coming back. |
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On an utterly unrelated note, I sure do wish the system of combining multiple, rubbish items into one good one worked in real life. I could combine old clothes into trendy ones, the four ancient PCs laying around my house (one's steam-powered, I swear) into something capable of running Supreme Commander, all those Tesco Value toilet rolls into that fancy quilted kind...
...hmm, a Legendary +3 Roll of Wiping... |
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Gutted at this.
I think the ambitious design was A+ but the execution appears to be D- :( Wish someone else would pick up the gauntlet of a free-roaming RPG with co-op play (NOT MMO, just me and my mates, thanks!) on the 360, I'm absolutely gagging for that and it doesn't even have to be brilliant in its own right as the co-op ability is a +3 alone ... |
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miiiguel - "And why don't you just ditch the scores (seriously), that would be a bold move."
I'd agree with that. I think EG should just put a word and brief summary of the games good and bads points at the bottom of the review. How about simply rating games as Poor, Below Average, Average, Good and Excellent for example? That's usually how we all think of games in real world terms, we don't think "Oh that was an 8/10 game, man!", just that it was good. There is a world of difference between in quality between games like Blue Dragon and Two Worlds yet their scores just don't reflect that at all. |
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I made the unfortunate mistake of buying this for the 360 without reading any reviews, and having played it for a few hours I'm beginning to wish I had.
Aside from all the other things mentioned in the review, I think the camera has managed to make it onto my list of irritations too. The damn thing is nigh on impossible to control on a joypad, made especially worse during awfully clunky fights. A game to aviod like the monkey from Outbreak I'd say. |
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Agent_Llama
13/09/07 @ 12:23
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So the resurrection feature that was, and I quote, 'a masterstroke' in Bioshock, is hailed as a negative in Two Worlds. Hmmm.
Anyways, I like this game a lot. It's very rough around the edges, and it's clearly not been ported well, but it's got a decent story, absolutely tons to do and explore, and the character models and graphics are good - it's the dodgy frame rate that ruins these. The game can be very easy in parts, yes, but come up against some big skeletons with the wrong equipment, and you're f*cked. All in all, it's a lot of fun, and I suspect will last me a lot longer than other games have done. |
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So the resurrection feature that was, and I quote, 'a masterstroke' in Bioshock, is hailed as a negative in Two Worlds. Hmmm.
Different reviewers. Personally I thought it took all of the tension out of encounters in Bioshock, since you knew you could just die and come back to take on a significantly weakened enemy. Why they ditched the cost for using resurrection chambers (as in System Shock 2) is something I really don't understand, to be honest. |
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Agent_Llama
13/09/07 @ 14:24
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@Shinji
R.e the skeletons, yes I know that, but there may be times when you face creatures with the wrong equipment. Currently I have to run away from ghosts as my magic is nowhere near strong enough. R.e Bioshock, yes I know it's different reviewers. But it's better to be resurrected when there's no autosave. Plus I believe on 'hard' setting the resurrection portals no longer function. As for Bioshock, on my 'easy' (and only) run-through, I never had to use the chambers as I never died. (But it was bloody easy.) Good review as ever though. :o) |
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I downloaded the PC demo last week to see if it 'felt' like a good game to buy for the 360.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that the demo was utterly, utterly shit - on my powerful rig it ran like crap too. I'm sure that if you really, really like these kind of games then maybe it's worth a 'bargain bucket' buy, but if you compare this to Oblivion, Gothic or even Morrowind it is, in my opinion, total trash. But if people like it, then good for them :) I actually really enjoyed Perfect Dark Zero, even though I could tell it was shitty while I was playing it! /Jonno |
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Very happy to see Gothic 3 getting some respect here. I loved that game and it took a heavy beating in many customer reviews (mainly over technical problems I never experienced.)
Reviewer calls the PC version of Two Worlds "charming" which is a pretty serious upgrade from the 360. But can I assume there will be no PC-specific review? About the co-op - is this just for MMO style wandering and killing, or can you play the full single player quest with another player? That might make it worthwhile for me. |
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PearOfAnguish
13/09/07 @ 16:31
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I have a lot of time for Gothic 3, very underrated game and the patches have fixed many of the problems with the original. In fact I may play through it all again once I'm done with Bioshock.
I think Two Worlds multiplayer lets you dick about in the world and do side quests, but not the main story.
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Thanks PoA - more love for Gothic3, and an answer to the most important Q re: Two Worlds.
Sadly, I never quite finished Gothic3. I guesstimate I got about 80% in, then gave it a rest and had a hard time w/ re-entry, as is sometimes the case. So I guess I'd do better to revisit that, or maybe just play Shivering Isles, which has been collecting dust... And yes it's a given that all of this comes *after* Bioshock. :) Random aside: why do all game journalists insist on PSone vs. PS1? |
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FortysixterUK
13/09/07 @ 17:43
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Each to his or her own.
But for those of you slating this game..... You're WRONG....( sing next bit in time to big bens chimes) wrong wrong wrong wrong ,wrong wrong wrong wrong, It's good fun, easy a 7.5 out of 10. I reviewed the PC version earlier this year on Eurogamer, then revised the review as the patches were released, and the xbox version is almost identical to the PC version. Both versions are good ( not great but good ) But frankly, I read Eurogamer for the amusing writing and oh so often incorrect opinions of this sites writers and forum members. You're all a bunch of "Edge" readers aren't you? ( Space for Flaming here ) |
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"So the resurrection feature that was, and I quote, 'a masterstroke' in Bioshock, is hailed as a negative in Two Worlds. Hmmm. "
Shitty descison of Bioshock devs, me thinks, even the Audio Diary that plays about it makes a joke on it. They could exist, but BD's should slowly get their health back. |
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Agent_Llama
13/09/07 @ 18:16
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R.e performance issues, apparently there's a big patch coming up for Two Worlds shortly (it's just been through Microsoft to be checked or whatever happens) so hopefully that will help to alleviate some of the problems. Not, of course, that I'm advocating an unoptimised game being released in the first place.
Actually TW reminds me a lot of Morrowind, which in my mind is a very good thing. Like TW, Morrowind was never really 'consoled', just ported. I think Oblivion has spoilt us a bit. (Although Morrowind is still a better game than Oblivion IMHO.)
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Why do all the reviews say it is copying Oblivion? What is it copying? A medieval, westernised european tolkienesq setting? I hardly think Oblivion gets the origianl setting merit there. Bearing in mind I have the PC version of this, I honestly don't know why people are blind to Oblivion's gaming faults. It may be more polished than this, but the boring gate closing, no impact on the game world of the main story, auto-levelling and ridiculous loot made it lose my interest once I had done the assassin quests. At least with Two Worlds I get owned and get loot that rewards the effort.
Plus I like the intelligent hot bar, stacking of redundant items, cheesy dialogue :) |
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indotoonster
14/09/07 @ 04:51
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Great review!
The problem with developers wanting to give us truly open-ended Choice, with a capital C, is that until they start implementing really cutting edge AI methods, we know far too well that the choice is an illusion. It's all a big IF-THEN-ELSIF monolith, and we're all on the rails for the ride. Sandbox games like GTA work because the important narrative choice points are still well-defined and you can formally map the tree out, leaving you the gamer free to play Mr. ParcelFarce for a while. Give me the well-scripted linearity of Half Life 2 over the pretentious pseudo-openness of games like Two Worlds anytime. |
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"I reviewed the PC version earlier this year on Eurogamer"
Reviewed or previewed? If the former, can you post a link? I can't find the article. Thanks. Randell great points re Oblivion. For all the things that were great about that game, it had some very serious flaws. indotoonster, agree 100% that "open-ended gameplay" is generally overhyped, illusory, and no substitute for intentional composition. |
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It would be nice to see a PC only review of the game, because it was obviously developed for the PC, and the 360 port is just a bad port to rake in an extra bit of cash on the back of the Oblivion comparisons.
Most PC review sites give the game a healthy 7/10-ish. It is a shame the PC Version will get a lot of bad press, because of the poor port to 360. |
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FortysixterUK
14/09/07 @ 23:39
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In response to DARC:-
... here's a copy of my review that started life as a review for the PC version 1.0 then the review was revisited after some patching. This review started life on the official TWO WORLDS website. ( this is a PC version review) Needless to say the game has changed MASSIVELY for the better since this review and its now worthy of a 75% score in my book as far as I'm concerned. Please read the comments at the end of the review from other forum users, then my review retraction notes right at the end ! This is a blooming long review and post, soz about that ! ------------------------------------------------------------ --- ZuxxeZ Forum > Two Worlds > Two Worlds: Common FortysixterUK. You last visited: 22.06.2007 at 22:05 Old 24.05.2007, 15:38 FortysixterUK Join Date: 24.05.2007 Version 1.1 review I wrote a review based on VERSION 1.1 of Two Worlds only this morning. ( and posted it to Eurogamer and Amazon) Then I found and registered on this forum and read to comments that the " anonymous" admin person has been making. It would appear some of the major gripes I wrote in my review are resolved. For your reference I have pasted the ( incredibly long and yet still not detailed enough ) review of VERSION 1.1 below. I will now go back and start the game again with 1.3 installed and on hard and see what happens. I hope I can write a retraction next. but the damned video clips STILL don't work ! Bear in mind this was written after I'd completed the game in just over 21 hours and I was sorely dissapointed with the game as of version 1.1, also its posted in 2 parts as its so long ! ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- Two Worlds- A review of the completed Game By Fortysixter_UK This review is based upon the European import version of the game, which will be the same as the UK release when it comes out on June 20th 2007. Only the single player game is reviewed. The multiplayer aspect has not been reviewed or even tested out by this reviewer. Two Worlds is big. Physically big. The world map is easily larger than that of Oblivion and quite possibly larger than that of Gothic 3 , which is this games nearest counterpart. Simply put, this review will be quite large , as the game is quite large. Also to be noted before you read this is that fact that RPG games are my life, and have been the mainstay of my gaming life since the days of the classic SNES RPGs. I know of what I speak. I am Otaku ! Story is pretty much good RPG fare. A criminal organisation has kidnapped your sister to get you to do their bidding, and the reason you were both victimised by said organisation is that you both have links to a powerful magical device, which is a family heirloom, that may be able to make a chaos god be re-born. And the criminal organisation wants said artifact. Game on. Cut Scenes Ok with the story out the way lets concentrate on a few issues that appear in the game. Two Worlds begins very abruptly by dropping you into a very small dungeon where there are two Orc Like creatures called “ Groms” that you need to kill, then simply exit said dungeon. I say the game starts abruptly at this point as upon a perusal of the install folder I found several video clips, and when I played them, they were the cut scenes that were supposed to play at key points during the game. Like the INTRO that shows how close you and your sister are and explains how you end up in this starter dungeon. Suffice to say this is the first of some small but niggling issues with an otherwise fun game. On two different PCs the video clips failed to play, and that also included the absolutely vital end game movies. I did what had to be done at the end of the game, the picture cuts out and next thing you know you are back on the main menu without so much as a “Thanks for playing” screen. No cut scenes being played led to an unexplained start to the game and a frustratingly un-explained ending, especially as you had two endings to choose from. The Game Engine Anyway, the cut scenes do not make up the meat of the game, but rather top and tail it. The engine for this game is very well made, with detailed landscapes being drawn in extreme detail close up, with a nice little trick for the clip plane issue. The middle distance clip plane has not been written just to “pop” into sight. Instead a very subtle blur / fade effect is used and proves to be a lot less intrusive that the clipping plane on Gothic 3 for example, which just stops at around a 50 foot diameter around your player, and items are either rendered or not, and therefore “ pop” into existence. It’s a far from perfect solution, but shows the programmers have given this issue some thought. The Game Levelling in this game is standard for RPG’s , kill a mob , get some XP, and sometime soon you get a level. That level raise gives you points to distribute around your initially very limited, skill set. New skills are purchased from various trainers in the game for 10k each and are immediately available to you after purchase. If you make a mistake in points distribution, there are other fellows in the game that act as DE-trainers, who will set all your added skills to zero and let you re-distribute your skill points again. A simple and effective system Combat , Weapons and Armour I completed this Two Worlds well before I had time to investigate the magic system in the game, but from what little I did find it seemed comprehensive, everything from self healing spells to calling forth monsters to fight on your behalf were the order of the day, and I never got to join the illegal ( in the game world ) Necromancers guild, whose spells seemed most promising, Instead I concentrated on my armour and weapons. This is where one HIGHLY unique aspect of the game both shone brightly in the field of originality, and also bought the game low for someone with no self- control like myself. Imagine this. In the distance are two orcs , both equipped with Bows. You manage to close on them and kill them both. You search the bodies. On body “one” you find a bow and equip it. On body “two” you find another bow of a similar calibre, and the game lets you overlay bow two on top of bow one, thus combining two bows into one and also combining some of their stats. This works for any weapon, and any piece of armour, so long as you can find the correct match. Now imagine that bow is almost twice as powerful now. Then imagine I found thirty eight ( 38 ) other versions of that initial bow, all of which could be merged with the first one. What kind of statistical boost do you think that would yield you? Suffice to say after four merges the bows are starting to display magical properties, and are starting to gain elemental resistances that are passed onto you. Imagine that bow at LEVEL 40, along with the games ability to allow you to also put gems into your weapons, essentially socketing them, and giving them even more powers. Imagine then, that this bow , albeit when socketed once, can only now receive the same type of gem ( so if you socket a fire gem, the bow can then only take fire gems), allows for an infinite number of gems of the same type to be added to the bow and NOW you are looking at a further massive statistic increase. Finally, imagine your delight AND horror, when combined with the bow skill of Multiple arrows ( essentially a skill that lets you fire six arrows at the same time ), that ANY monster in the game, including the end game bosses, can now be shot just once and they are TOTALLY defeated, destroyed, killed, wasted etc etc. I wound up doing this weapon merge with a Katana two handed blade and a bow. I was unstoppable. There is a small caveat to this, if some of the larger more powerful monsters did manage to get a strike in on you, as I had neglected my dodging, shield and other defensive skills, it was often a one hit kill for them too. However, that rarely happened, not only was my bow a multi- shot, one hit killing weapon, it had a range of 120 metres. I reigned death from afar on large groups of baddies with just one hit. A serious game balancing issue there that needs to be addressed in a patch. At time of writing there are three patches available. I played the game at version 1.1, having patched it from the install discs version 1.0. Patch 1.3 does mention in the readme something about weapons stacking, but does not go into great detail, so I would need to replay Two Worlds to see what that change is, but for now , for me , it’s too late, I’ve finished the game as version 1.1. (continued on next forum entry) Default Re: Version 1.1 review...oops PART 1 of 2 ( part 2 ) (continued from part 1 of this post) The Quests Which brings me neatly over to the side quests. Had I not been so impulsive I could have spent many an hour playing the side quests and yielding respect from the various in game factions and probably eventually have had to choose a faction to join. I did not have the will power to do this. The main quest line sounded simple, so I assumed it would be hard. ( I realise there’s no logic in that, but I was hoping this would be the case, OK ? ) Find the family relic that was distributed in five parts across the landmass. This, I thought, is going to take weeks. There’s going to be tricks and forced side quests, and the game is going to make me jump through hoops to get said items. Oh dear, at level 38 with my all powerful bow, I breezed through every dungeon that contained a necessary relic piece, I would say no longer than three hours to get all five pieces, and that included a game exploit where you could jump over a fenced off area, that was supposedly in-accessible to get the first part ( the handle ). No, what had taken me 21 hours ( yes just 21 hours ) was the exploration and inadvertent grinding I found myself doing to get me to level 38 coupled with the main quest line and game completion. Upon finding myself in possession of all five parts I went to the NPC who had started the quest, the game stuttered and I was suddenly in a town down the road from Said quest starter, here, it turns out, was where a lengthy video clip should have played giving story exposition and further depth to the storyline. The clip did not play. I had a new quest now, go to a massive castle and take on the end boss. Of course, the baddies here were numerous and strong. It did not matter. All powerful bow in hand I laid waste to the path leading to the end boss in a matter of minutes. A brief discussion with said boss, one arrow shot at his head from the self made bow of all conquering slappage, and it was game over, and once again, a judder and the game drops me out to the main menu, and once again a video clip had failed to play. This time the end game clip. Note to self:- Learn to have more self control in games. If a game gives you such an easy way out to complete it, do not weaken, instead walk off in the other direction and do lots of side quests. That’s the reprimand I gave myself, fully knowing that if a programmer is going to put massive world exploits into a game, I just know I am going use them. This would appear to be a a serious issue with the non-linear game. As the game is non-linear, you can use it’s very nature to speed things along artificially. Note to the games producers and programmers:- A little more play testing would have made it apparent that the weapon stacking was a bad move, so limit the weapon stacking to maybe four weapons ( who knows, maybe that’s been done in patch 1.3 ?). Make the main quest something that can only be progressed after certain other game targets are met, like perhaps completing 20 side quests, then you earn the right to go to ONE of main quest dungeons. Of course I realise those comments fly in the face on “ non-linear” gaming, but as far as I am concerned, non-linear gaming IS NOT THE WAY TO GO. At least not for RPGs. Old school type RPGs ( and I include games as recent as the excellent Final Fantasy 12 here, as an "old school type" ) made you pay your dues before you could progress, and made you take your time and earn the right to complete the game. Reel off any number of RPGs that make you work for the end game…...Might and Magic series, Chronotrigger, Secret Of Mana, Baldurs Gate, Fallout, ...…all of these games were a serious slog, and were all the more fun and rewarding for it. Bring back linear RPGs and forget the non linear concept for RPGs, it just doesn't work very well ! Final Words:- Note should be made of the voice acting, that was so bad it was almost comical, but worked well for the game regardless, ( you will have to hear it to know what I mean )but really, some of it was painful. The game music, especially the opening theme was great fun. The opening theme was a gothic rock metal operatic tune that scored highly on the cheesy factor and worked really well. Most of the game music was suitably atmospheric and I often heard pieces late into my game I did not think I had heard before. Although one painful piece of music was seriously out of place with an 80’s semi techno theme to it.Very odd. I can recommend this game with a smile on my face as a very long diversion if you can resist bulking up your weapons and armour the way I did and go for the side quests. Do that and I reckon you are looking at 200 hours of gameplay. If you do what I did, explored like crazy, set the difficulty to easy ( I thought this was going to be another Gothic 3 and that’s amazingly tough ) , attacked everything, levelled like mad and stacked weapons and armour to ridiculously high levels and YOU WILL RUIN THIS GAME for yourself. Oh and it will only last 21 hours, which is a real pain as I imported the expensive limited edition from Germany ! Play it on hard, and limit weapon stacking to 3-4 weapons each, OK ? There’s a great game here trying to get out, but with twats like me finding massive game exploits, what chance does it really stand ? Old 24.05.2007, 17:19 #3 darecki Member Join Date: 19.05.2007 Posts: 90 Default Re: Version 1.1 review...oops PART 1 of 2 great review! really, I have nothing to add. I set difficulty to hard and I stack items only to 3 weapons and distribute only half skill points when leveling and game is really challenging. darecki is offline Report Bad Post Reply With Quote Multi-Quote This Message 4 Futurep New User Join Date: 22.05.2007 Posts: 8 Default Re: Version 1.1 review...oops PART 1 of 2 To fix the video clips I located one of the movies in the game folder, and loaded it up with Windows Media Player. It then asked me to install and add-on/codec/or something to that effect. Once I did that I was able to see the movies. Something to try if you havent already. Futurep is offline Report Bad Post Reply With Quote Multi-Quote This Message Quick reply to this message Futurep View Public Profile Send a private message to Futurep Find More Posts by Futurep Add Futurep to Your Buddy List Old 25.05.2007, 07:22 #5 Condor360 Junior Member Join Date: 22.05.2007 Posts: 44 Default Re: Version 1.1 review when stacking items, we might break those items, the higher the stacking the higher the percentage of item breaking. This drive the players to choose: "should I risk it?" Roelmaestro's Avatar Join Date: 05.05.2007 Posts: 532 Default Re: Version 1.1 review not much of a risk if you can save the game before you stack ^^ __________________ THEN I ADDED THIS BIT TO THE FORUM THREAD :- FortysixterUK New User Join Date: 24.05.2007 Posts: 19 Default Re: Version 1.1 review UPDATE 13 June 2007 update This is an update to the reasonably damning review at the start of this thread Put simply the guys who made this game have released a series of patches and now the game, to put it bluntly, is fixed. The weapon and armour stacking issues have been fixed. The overall game balance has been fixed. The travelling with mounts issue has been fixed. Essentially, with the advent of patch 1.4 ( released first week of June 2007) I would say 99% of the issues I mentioned in the review have been resolved. Bear in mind, the review below was written based on version 1.0 of the game, having now spent some considerable time with version 1.4, available from the companies website, I can safely say this game is now, in my opinion, an OBLIVION beater, and quite possibly, superior to Gothic 3 as well ( although that game had its faults, it still rox ). When this game is released in the UK and US, it will be already patched up to version 1.4 so you will have a well balanced and highly enjoyable gameplay experience waiting for you. By all means read the review at the start of the thread to find out what WAS wrong, then take note of this addition to the review, as I said 99% of the issues have now been fixed, and this game is now most excellent The review is of version 1.0....remember version 1.4 ( will be the official UK version) does not have this issues of V1.0, so this review is now more for entertainment than information ! The fact that the company fixed the issues so fast and so effectively just goes to show how much they care about getting it right. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ---- A final note , the UK version was actually released as Version 1.5 on both PC and Xbox 360 on Sept 7th 2007, and still yet another patch is on the way, but mostly for MP issues this time.
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FortysixterUK
15/09/07 @ 00:25
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Just checked in with my submitted reviews and saw my original Two Worlds review sitting there un-submitted...DOH, anyway, a slightly modded version of the review sits just before this post if you have the desire to read such a lengthy tome !
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scaramanga10
15/09/07 @ 04:03
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21 Hours, beat this game in Normal difficulty. Most quests. Game is beyond off balance.
Honestly, the Lv.10 Berserk Skill is ridiculous. If you combine, Berserk + the Necro skill the holds enemies you can kill pretty much anything. Basically, hit and run, cast hold spell, attack with your Berserk (500% damage, no cost). Using alchemy to combine stats weapons makes it even easier. Plus you can make those insane potions that increase your stats 16+ (using Ghoul brains etc.) There is absolutely no balance to this game. Sorry, its not without its charm, but flawed to the core. |
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FortysixterUK, thanks so much for the review, etc. Really great info, and hopefully I'll have forgotten any spoilers by the time I get around to picking this up. I'll wait for it to get cheap, and then enjoy it for what it is.
As for self-control, not likely. Finding the path of least resistance is part of playing well, and it's up to the developers to make sure the game doesn't just dissolve when the player makes the best decisions. As for it's ending quickly, well I've never played a game that I considered too short. No matter how much I love a game, I always get to the point of "alright alright just end already!" So perhaps this will be a perfect match! :) |
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TW is not bad is just got some bugs like a bad mini map and the mount is not so easy to use but els is all ok and a lot bether then --Oblivion -Gothic 3- i ben play RPG and moorps for 18years and i love - TW - as long xbox360 cant play WoW TW is the best rpg on the damm xbox so - let wait on the next Rpg or mmorpg for it and see
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