Score
Gameplay:	6
Graphics:	9
Sound:	6
FunFactor:	3
PlasmaFactor:	1
Overall:	5

Two Worlds Review
September 11, 2007 by Kenneth Seward, Jr.

Do you remember when you were little and you were forced to go to family functions every summer? There was always a distant cousin of yours that you couldn’t stand to be around. All the grown-ups seemed to think that you two were like brothers (or sisters). They were right…if they meant that he/she was your younger, annoying brother/sister. You know what I am talking about. The ones that, in front of everyone, seemed to be an angel but, when the two of you were alone, they showed their true colors. That’s sort of the way I feel when I play Two Worlds for the Xbox 360.

War of the Gods

 

I had high hopes for Two Worlds. There were claims over the internet that it was going to be similar Elder Scrolls with multiplayer questing. That isn’t exactly the case. Before I get into the pros and cons of SouthPeak Interactive’s second game on the 360, I shall give you a brief background of the story.

The world of Antaloor was turned upside down when the god of destruction, Aziraal, united the Orc hordes and raged war against the other gods (and the civilized folk). The Orc’s say that Aziraal was angry because he was the only god who couldn’t give his creations (mainly the Orcs) souls. Others believed that he was power hungry. Either way, Aziraal was banished for his crimes. 300 years later, with war between the Orcs and civilized world still ranging on, the younger sister of a mercenary is kidnapped. While searching for his sister he stumbles across the town of Thalmont, which is where the game begins.

Now lets move on to Two Worlds pros and cons. When comparing Two Worlds to Oblivion, you may find some similarities. Antaloor is a pretty big place, full of towns, graveyards full of zombies, and caves to explore. Being that this is a role-playing game (RPG), you are able to level up the main character. To help with you avatar’s stats, you can equip a wide range of armor and weapon types. You can even learn skills and use magic. At first glance Two Worlds seems like another blockbuster of an RPG. After you begin playing, Two Worlds real identity shows up to ruin the fun…sound familiar? Two World’s world seems to be plagued with lag and/or latency. I am not talking about the multiplayer modes (I will get to them later). This "lag" starts to affect the game almost immediately because, when you first start playing, your character is at a very low level. This means that enemies early on will be a lot stronger than you. It’s frustrating when you see your opponent winding up for a big hit and you try to dodge it, only to be killed because the game didn’t respond to you pressing the button. Another problem area would have to be the mini map that you use to navigate in Two Worlds. I had a very hard time finding my way during the first half of the game. The large world map that you can bring up isn’t that much better. A lot of the icons on the map look similar to one another and, to make matters worse, they seem to crowd the screen to the point that it’s hard to tell what’s what.

Two Worlds control scheme is pretty good, seeing as how there are a lot of functions mapped to the buttons. The left trigger is used as the hotkey activator. Basically you would choose a weapon, skill, or magic ability that is on your hotkey list and press the left trigger to activate it. The right trigger is used to attack. The left and right bumpers are used to replenish your mana (used for spells) and healing yourself respectively. The d-pad is used to choose between your hotkeys once they are assigned to a direction. The Y button jumps, X draws your weapon, B is to jump back (dodge), and A is used for context sensitive actions. The left analog is used to move and call your steed (if you have one) while the right analog controls the camera. Some of the button’s functions change when in certain menus. Like for instance, using items you found on your journeys, you can use the A button to use alchemy and make new items.

Hairy Little Critters…

 

The Graphic quality in Two Worlds is very good. Antaloor would be a nice vacation spot, if it weren’t over run with monster and five different kinds of wolves (why are there so many?). The human characters are pretty generic, but their monster counterparts are amazing. If you are lucky enough to get up close to a monster without having your entrails ripped from your body, you will notice all the texture mapping that went into it’s design. Hairy creature’s hair actually moves when they are chasing down their victims. A rouge knight’s armor really shines when the sun’s rays are hitting it in the right spots. I can’t really complain about Two World’s graphics.

Say What?

 

Two World’s sound quality is hit or miss for me. On one hand, all of the usual sounds feel right. A sword sounds like metal when it clashes with an Orc’s shield. On the other hand, the voice acting ranges for ok to mediocre. The NPC’s (non-playable characters) sound as if they don’t want to read their lines and are bored with the script. There is almost no emotion in their delivery. The song that plays when going through the start menus journeys from bearable into the land of WTF! One saving grace is the main characters comments after he downs an opponent. They are hilarious.

Fun World!

 

Most of Two Worlds "fun" comes from the online multiplayer RPG mode (the single player mode is addicting but that’s not always a good thing). It’s fun when it’s not lagging, as having more than three people on one server causes the game to "hick-up" if you will. There were even times were the lag was so bad that Anatoor reverted back to the Atari pixilated days. Everything on screen turned into unrecognizable shapes that floated from one place to another.

Another blow to the fun would come from the ability to summon giant creatures to do the fighting for you. When you summon that level 50 demon from hades, you’d expect him to put a hurting on your foes. The problem is that your foes are never really concerned with your summons and choose to focus all of their attention on you. You in turn run away from then, in hopes that your demon will get them from behind. Because your demon has to go through an "attack" animation, by the time it swings it’s weapon your foes are out of its range. Being that your summoned allies don’t stay around that long, when they disappear before ever landing a hit, you feel as if summoning them was a waste of time.

The last blow to the fun has to be the fact that every time you leave a multiplayer RPG server, the world is reverted back to it’s regular self. I don’t feel bad destroying an entire village if when I join another server the village is fully restored. I feel disconnected from the game when this happens, as my actions really have no effect on its world.

Plasma World!

 

The plasma factor is the section of the review where the reviewer picks either the best or the worse aspect of the game they are reviewing to talk about. For Two Worlds, I have to talk about the PVP (player vs. player) online mode. In all honestly, it’s a joke. Your character is thrown into areas, and depending on game type, compete with other players online. All you have to do is pick a fire mage and continue to cast a "certain" fire spell and you will never lose. I don’t have to tell you what it is. By the time curse words start flying out of your mouth at hyper speeds because you can’t seem to walk more than two steps with out a mage killing you, you will have found the spell. Throw in the fact that there is a crazy amount of lag and those negative thoughts that come to mind seem more warranted.

 

Bottom Line!

 

Two Worlds has a lot of potential. The problem is that the developers tried to do a lot of different things and didn’t polish them before releasing the final build. The single player mode is cool, but doesn’t hold up to the standards set by Elder Scrolls. The PVP mode should be avoided at all cost and the online RPG mode is ok at best. What makes matters worse is a "stacking" glitch that makes leveling up your characters online completely useless. Two Worlds is in need of major updates before I can recommend it to anyone.