Re: Games Discussion Thread
So... Two Worlds II. My thoughts on the game:
Now, I was never a fan of the original game. In fact I played it for probably an hour before I decided I hated it and put it down. However, I'm still a sucker for medieval fantasy so when Two Worlds II was coming up and they said they were fixing everything I was intrigued, so I rented it for three days and put about 5-6 hours maybe more into it.
So short form: Yes it's better than the original game, but it's still a mediocre title that overshadowed by Oblivion from now almost 6 years ago.
Good Points:
-Dialogue was followable this time around rather than the quasi ye olde English they had going.
-broad world
-horse riding fairly well done
-crafting, and alchemy rather interesting. I liked breaking down things to get the core components to upgrade my current equipment, and finding all the random things to make my own potions.
-Creating your own spells. Choose carrier (missile, area of effect, etc), element, damage modifiers, protective modifiers, carrier modifiers. Pretty neat even if i don't use magic in game.
-Quick swapping of equipment.
-Fairly nice visuals, and cool looking gear
-Surcoats. I like me capes and such.
-A hilarious little easter egg referencing the original's dialogue
Bad Points:
-Dialogue is fairly monotoned.
-Combat feels lack luster. It doesn't usually feel like anything is really connecting (Metro 2033 syndrome), and often lags or shows your character doing something opposite of what you told him to do despite the game recognizing that you told him to do it (shows block animation or stands stock still while the enemie's hit points drain away as I attack).
-Removal of mounted combat. After the original had it, seems weird to remove it to do a Oblivion esque get off your horse to fight thing. I don't understand why it was removed.
-No obvious choices in the game. For my 5-6 hours of a long RPG (I didn't even finish Chapter 1) I had two choices. Two. dialogue is mostly back and forth until you can ask more information about a quest, and so far everything is so damn linear. Okay, so they want to tell a story I guess, but why talk about consequences of your decisions on the back of the box if everything feels so linear.
-No gender choice in character customization. This bugs me, I like playing as females in my games, and the more games that offer a choice the happier I am. Fuck Halo: Reach offers it. But not Two Worlds II. Why put in character customization if I can't make the character I want. (Reminds of when I heard Brink talking about how they had the most in depth character customization ever, and they don't even offer female characters. Fuck off!). I know this may not bug all of you, but when giving the player to create the character they want to be in this world... why give them only the male option. Hell, the skin tone didn't even get very dark (Fable syndrome). That's not making a character. 5 minutes into the game and I already found another character that looked more bad-ass, had a better voice actor and I just wanted to be. She was fairly sexy too. I wanted to be her, not this cookie cutter guy they almost forced me to play. But alas.
-Clumsy menus. The back button (select on PS3 I suppose) brings up your inventory/character menu/ equipment/alchemy/magic tabs. Yes equipment is separate from inventory. However, the map, journal and reputation log are all items in the item tab, making you go to that tab, find them and open them. Of course they're defaulted to the X and Y buttons when you have your weapon sheathed (the face buttons turn to other options in combat) but why the jumbled mess? It just feels odd and I never really got used to it.
Overall, the game was not horrible, just mediocre and fairly boring. But with Skyrim coming out at the end of the year and Dragon Age 2 around the corner, and Mass Effect 3 announced for this year, I'm not settling for mediocre. Deliver a good solid game if you want to stand against these other titles, and I won't get so bored to want to go play Sacred 2 some more.