If you would have asked me if I thought that Two Worlds was going to get a sequel, I wouldn’t have laughed, I would have slapped you in the face. Unless someone announces a sequel to Ninjabread Man this is the most surprising and unlikely sequel ever.

So you can understand that it was with great fear and trepidation that I put the Two Worlds II disc in my PS3. I groaned as the first enemy I faced became stuck in a wall as he half heartedly swung his weapon at me. I made it through the first dungeon and then finally to my first town. I fumbled my way through the initial quests, fighting things like ostriches and poo flinging baboons.

Every time I found a new place to explore, I was murdered instantly. It is not a good sign when an open world game punishes you for exploring. Needless to say I was not happy with the first couple hours of the game.

The controls stumble right out of the gate. Everything feels loose and slightly off. For example, the button that you use to run is the same button you use to sneak, which is also the same button you use to block. This lead to several unfortunate situations where I was running into an enemies back rather than creeping up for some stabbing action. This control scheme makes about as much sense as putting gas and brake on the same pedal in your car.

The story seems like it was ripped out of “Generic Fantasy Novel IV: The Saga of Mediocrity”. The characters are not fleshed out (except for the random female characters that are literally fleshed out). At no point did I ever think to myself, “I hope these people don’t end up in a wood-chipper.” For all you writers out there, I hope that the bare minimum that you should shoot for is that I don’t want your characters to get thrown into a wood-chipper.

As for the combat, you have your basic attack and block, as well as special combat actions that are tied into the weapon type you are holding. These can be leveled up to devastating effect, but the hit detection is off just enough to not work when you really need it to. Most encounters involved whacking an enemy then running away so your health can recharge. I was beating monsters with a much higher level using this simple and completely not fun tactic.

So here we have all the makings of a bad game. Terrible combat, a mediocre story, and an open world that punishes you for exploring. However, there are some amazing things the game does have going for it. To start, the soundtrack is really well done. I also appreciate the high level of customization. You can upgrade your armor and weapons if your crafting skills are high enough. Upgrading weapons opens up slots where you can place powerful gems that enhance your equipment with magical properties. You can even make use of various dyes to change the color of items. The alchemy system allows you to mix and match various components to come up with your own unique potions that grant all sorts of different bonuses. I wound up with one that increased my jumping by 400%, making me look like a crazy person as I leaped over the heads of zombies.

Two Worlds II also features an interesting spell system, where you are able to mix and match cards to create new spells. So a wind card and a missile card will do something totally different than a wind card and a protection card. Though this section never really grabbed me like I was hoping, I can picture someone out there enjoying it. It just wasn’t for me. I found a couple of spells that worked and stuck with them.

My problem is that what does work is buried in a pile of mediocrity. If you were to ask me if I prefer a good combat system or potion mixing action, I’m going to pick combat every single time. With so many main gameplay elements that are pretty much broken, I would have preferred that they spent the time working on the combat.

I imagine that there is someone out there that will look past Two World II’s numerous failings and fall in love with the customization options. Two Worlds II is like the brand new puppy you get that immediately poops in your shoe and chews up the side of your couch. You might look past all that to love it, but there will be times where you have to put up with some crap. I am left feeling like the developers were too ambitious in their design. I prefer a respectable house with four walls, a roof, and working plumbing to a grand cathedral with missing doors, no roof, and overflowing toilets. At the most fundamental level a game needs to work for it to be fun.

In the end, I will say that if the jump from Two Worlds II to Two Worlds III is as big as the leap from the first game to the sequel, we might be looking at an all time classic.

Tags: Ninjabread Man, PC, ps3, Reality Pump, SouthPeak Games, Topware Interactive, Two Worlds II, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.