Flipping role playing games. Up until now, we hadn't realised they were like buses. For the past few years, if you've wanted a fantasy role playing game, there's been little to choose from - and now three come along at once. With The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim looking set to eat up our lives later in the year, Two Worlds 2 has basically thrown itself into the hornet's nest by launching almost head to head with BioWare's epic Dragon Age 2.
Not that it was always planned to be this way, of course. Two Worlds 2 has had a difficult time reaching our shelves in the UK, suffering delay after delay, a change of publisher, and a destroyed shipment of games, and now yet another delay, meaning currently, the only place you can buy it in the UK is from Amazon. The only question that remains is, has the delay been worth the wait?
Set in the land of Antaloor, Two Worlds 2 follows on from the ending of the first game - which, in itself, is something of a problem if you're new to the series. With no "Previously on..." video to bring you up to speed, it's rather tricky to follow exactly what the storyline behind Two Worlds 2 is - especially as there are so many characters, with fantastical names. It's like trying to read Lord of the Rings all over again...
The game begins with you creating your own hero, who'll be the lead character for the rest of the game. There's an impressive suite of options with which you can change your hero's looks, but, sadly, no option to play as a female. While it can be argued that a lot of the story (and dialogue) would have to be changed if you could play as a female, it's something BioWare have always managed with Dragon Age, and Mass Effect, so it's disappointing that females have been effectively shunned here.
Even the Mages can't change your sex.
Once you've put the finishing touches to your looks, you'll find yourself waking up, strapped to a chair, inside the evil Gandohar's castle. Strapped to a chair next to you is someone who turns out to be your sister, and... that's about all we could work out. Some magic gets cast, and suddenly your sister's mouthing off at someone we can only presume is Gandohar in an incredibly deep voice. Following this bizarre sequence of events, you're taken down to the castle's dungeon, where, to everyone's surprise, you get broken out by a group of Orks (Orks being every fantasy game's version of a chav - generally being more interested in fighting than doing the right thing). Now, with your new friends in tow, it's up to you to escape from the castle, and begin an adventure with more twists and turns than a giant Curly Wurly.
One of the biggest problems Two Worlds 2 has it that it's so hard to follow. The storyline often either isn't explained all that well, or gets quickly skimmed over - which isn't all that helpful in a game as huge and sprawling as Two Worlds 2. Usually, when you get lost on a role playing game, you can check in your quest log to try and jog your memory of what's happened in the quest so far, but in Two Worlds 2, that's of little use, as the entries only ever seem to refer to what you need to do now, not what you've done so far, making understand the story quite a challenge. It's not helped any further by the re-using of character models (or at the very least, characters that look very, very, very similar to each other), meaning you can't even put a name to the face.
But this being said, it's not impossible to follow the story in Two Worlds 2 - it's just a lot harder than it really should be. One of the reasons has to be because of just how big a game this role playing monster is. One of the first thing that hits you when you finally manage to escape from the castle is just how big this world is. The landscapes sprawl for miles onto the horizon, and for miles after that, meaning simply getting from A to B can often be a challenge in itself.
Two Worlds 2 has a huge, living world to explore - with a great soundtrack, to boot.
Of course, it'd be pointless having a huge expanse of land if you only had around three people in it, and Two Worlds 2 doesn't disappoint here. No matter where you are on the map, you're rarely that far away from civilisation, be it in the shape of a city, a camp, or simply some random travellers in the middle of the desert with you. Throughout the duration of the game, you'll constantly find yourself being given new quests, and finding new people, which in turn ask you to go to new, further afield places, at a rate that genuinely begins to make you wonder how you're ever going to get time to finish them all - there's so much to do, it'd take you an age to get through it, almost literally.
Like most role playing games, Two Worlds 2 revolves around your relationships with the characters you meet, as what you say to them will influence how they view you, which could have an impact on the rest of your game. It is a bit disappointing that the important decisions seem to be made for you - often, you're simply not given a choice in a matter - but that's not to say there's not still plenty of flexibility in the game. In one quest fairly early on, you're asked to go and kill a person you've formerly helped out, as a way of proving your allegiance to this guy (we're being purposefully vague here to not give too much away). This puts you in an awkward predicament - the person you've been asked to kill is a genuinely nice guy, and is in a bit of a dilly of a pickle himself, so killing him would undoubtedly make you feel absolutely awful. On the other hand, you can't simply tell your boss that you've killed the guy without actually getting rid of him, as he'd probably think it's a bit strange when he sees the apparently-dead victim wandering around the town the next day - and he'll probably end up gunning for your head instead.
Luckily, you're given a choice. On going to the poor victim's house, you'll have a decision to make, which the game makes very clear to you. You can either choose to kill him (by pressing the one button), or tell him to flee the town, taking his belongings and loved ones with him, to start a new life under a new name somewhere else (by pressing another). Being the good guys we are, we chose the latter, but both ways produce similar results - either way, the man vanishes, and your boss gets satisfied - the only thing that'll change is how the villagers view you.
Skeletons are fair game to be slayed. Innocent villagers, not so much.
In much the same way, the "quests" you get given vary hugely, too. Whether they're part of the main story, or side quests that are optional, you're often presented with a great deal of freedom with how you complete them. Pretty much the first quest you'll be given is to gain access to the city of Hatmandor, which you can only access by going through a gate in the small village of Bayan. Sadly, that gate's recently been shut by the Imperial Guard, whose foul mouthed captain does little but swear at you and send you on your way. You need to get through that gate - and so, you have a choice.
As with most things in the game, knowledge is essential, and talking to the villagers is the best way to gain it. Chatting to the people, you'll come across a fair few people who'll offer to get you a pass to get through the gate - although they'll want to charge you a small fortune for the privilege, with no guarantee it'll work. Wander outside the village a bit, and head a little bit out into the sprawling map, and you'll find a man called Lewsam, a gravedigger. He'll give you a phrase that you need to say to man called Thome the Scribe, who lives in Bayan, and has a past as a document forger with a reputation to boot. Talk to Thome, and he'll tell you he needs his inkwell, which you'll have to go and retrieve from the burnt wreckage of his house. There are a few further twists to this story, but eventually, you'll get the pass you need.
OR, if you were the generous type, you'll have been approached by a poor beggar woman when you entered the town, asking for some food for her and her two children. If you're kindly, you'll have given her some - and your investment will pay off. If you head to said graveyard, you'll find the poor beggar woman there mourning her husband - who also just happened to be a smuggler who knew of a secret passage that bypasses the gate to Hatmandor. If you scratched her back, she'll be more than happy to scratch yours, in the form of marking the road on your map. Now you've got two ways to get there, and there's a third one as well for those who want to seek it out...
Exploring the towns and cities is more important than the combat.
That said, the amount of freedom you get with the quests could have been handled a little bit better. If you didn't head out to that graveyard by chance, you wouldn't have come across any of the people you need to speak to to bypass the gate - and as it's out of the way, it's not all that obvious that it's where you're meant to be going. It's a game that the adventurous are rewarded in, as exploring, and talking to people are how you get things done.
Of course, there are times when your wit and tongue simply won't be enough to handle a situation, and things will spill out of control. Also, you seem to have insulted the mother of every single animal roaming the planes of Antaloor, as they're all, literally, out to get you. From Ostriches, to hyenas and leopards, these animals have it in for you, and they won't rest until they've given you a good duffing. Of course, the animals aren't the only things that'll attack you, but for the first part of the game (for ten hours plus), these are practically the only enemies you'll find, and as such, fighting the poor things is practically the only way to level your character up, and stand a chance at the rest of the game. The RSPCA wouldn't be happy, and to be honest, neither are we - we're fine slaying bad guys, evil mutated wolf-man things, and practically anything else, but killing the wildlife feels a bit wrong.
Combat in itself is an interesting thing in Two Worlds 2, as it's not as limited as you may imagine. In other games, you'll be prompted to become a fighter, a mage, or an archer, but in Two Worlds 2, there's no such specialisation - and in fact, you can switch between all three on the fly. On up, left and right on the D-Pad, you can have an individual weapon set equipped, and pushing it, even in the middle of combat, will change your equipment easily. As different armour boosts magic, or helps with your aim for archery, it's a much appreciated tool, and one that makes combat simpler, when you start using it.
The problem is, combat is incredibly tricky in Two Worlds 2 - at least when you start off. It's got so much depth to it, and there are so many little tips and tricks to learn, that for people simply wanting to play without going into detail, it's going to be tricky to get anywhere. If you want to survive, you need to customise your weapons. By crafting your weapons and armour through a fairly simple menu, you'll not only increase their efficacy, but you'll also add the ability to add gems to them, which can further boost their effectiveness, or the damage they deal. Your raw materials can be gained by breaking down weapons you pick up that are a bit crappy into their elemental parts, and then, effectively, you use them to level your other weapons.
Switch to your sword to get up close and personal with the archers. Not the radio show, of course. That would be silly.
Magic, too, is handled in a similarly complex way. Rather than simply learning spells as you level up, you'll have to put spells together yourself. As you progress through the game, you'll collect cards, that can be used to add different effects to your spells. Whether it's simply changing the element (Fire, Water, Ice, etc), or deciding what it does (fire a ball of said element, summon a monster, etc), there's a lot of customisation on offer here - but making a spell that actually does a decent amount of damage is a lot harder than we'd hoped. In fact, we're pretty far into the game now, and we still haven't managed to put together a spell that's as effective and as easy to use as the sword, which is more than a tad disappointing.
The problem is, when you come across an enemy, you're pretty much reduced to legging it as quickly as possible, as the enemies are all the toughest fighters you've ever seen. Even the animals must have been pumping iron at the gym, as they can slay you without even working up a sweat. Unless you've got some pretty tough armour, the best bet is to switch to a bow and arrow, and simply keep legging it away from your enemy, taking a few potshots, and then legging it again. It's a bit frustrating when you can't even take on a giant ant and win, and when you're repeatedly dying after being set about by a bunch of Baboons, you'll have to fight the urge to pack it all in.
As we're sure you can tell, Two Worlds 2 certainly has a substantial base upon which to build - the only problem is, a lot of it's been badly done. The game's riddled with glitches, and, whereas often glitches are simply a case for laughter and nothing else, in Two Worlds 2, they actually negatively affect the game. If you fall off your horse, you'll be quick enough to turn around and go to get back on, but almost always, as soon as you press A, the little horse mounting icon will disappear, and you'll simply leap into the air next to your horse. Equally strange is how we fell off our horse while it was running. Usually, we simply get back up, unscathed - but on this particular day, we simply fell down dead. Maybe we hit our head funny, or something, but it was certainly strange. Similarly frustrating was when we walked past a door guarded by some soldiers, who decided to set upon us for absolutely no reason whatsoever. We didn't have a sword drawn, and were simply walking around the building - but apparently, that was a crime punishable by death.
With a game that has so many facets, and lets you do so many things, it's important to have a streamlined interface, and plenty of help, tying it all together. Sadly, Two Worlds 2 has neither of these, making it very, very hard to get into. The first few hours you spend playing the game, you'll die, a lot, because you're simply not as strong as the enemies (or even animals) that come up against you. Until you start to craft your weapons and armour to suit, you'll be facing a quick death. Similarly awkward is the interface, which is borderline non-functional. It's just simply not practical, with text on the opposite side of the screen to the item you're highlighting, icons representing different attributes that have no explanation in the game, and an interface that fails to give you any warning you're about to die if you didn't notice your pot of health is getting low. Even the save system's awkward.
As the name suggests, then, Two Worlds 2 really is a game of two halves - half enthralling, involving, open role playing game, and half glitchy, complex, and awkward mess. Thankfully, the split between the two isn't exactly 50:50, as more often than not, the game errs towards the former category, but with the amount of glitches it has, and how awkward it can be to get into, it often drags you straight back down to Earth. A bit of polish, and a lot of user interface improvements would have gone a long way here, but what remains is impressive, nonetheless.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
