Topware Interactive and Reality Pump continue the Two Worlds series with the recent release of Two Worlds II for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
Even Heroes need to be vain sometimes.
Two Worlds II continues the story of the Hero from the first game, who is now a prisoner of an evil overlord who has also put a magic spell on the hero’s twin sister Kyra. To save both his home and his sister the Hero must team up with the race of Orcs, who have been hated enemies of the humans in the past. The game plays much like other action-RPGs, using a combination of weapons and magic spells to defeat enemies. Defeated enemies gain the player experience points, which upgrade the Hero to make him stronger. Weapon and magic systems got an impressive upgrade from the previous title in the series, however this is where the improvements stop and the various problems with the game begin.
Graphically, the game is very hit or miss. The facial features and small details of the Hero look amazing, but the features of minor characters are very sub par. Even secondary major characters, such as the Orcs who fight alongside the Hero, look dull and unpolished. Even certain textures, like floor patterns or the stones of a castle wall, look unfinished by the developers. This is not helped by the fact that many character’s animations look clunky and unrealistic, even those as simple as pointing at an object.
While the weapon and magic systems got an upgrade, the controls of the Hero have not. Many of the Hero’s actions, especially jumping, have a slight delay to them between when the player hits the button to when the character actually performs the move. While this is a small issue for the most part, it just seems a bit lazy of the developers, especially when much of the rest of the game is fairly well polished.
Nice dress, YOU LADY!!!
Overall, Two Worlds II is a very mediocre game. While the weapons and magic systems and most of the graphics have been improved greatly since the last game in the series, many of the other aspects of the game have not. While many of the bad elements of the game are minor, it just feels strange that other parts of the game have been polished so well. The game does feature a long quest-based storyline, so for anyone looking for something to tide themselves over until the next Elder Scrolls game, this is a good choice.
