‘Two Worlds’ Apart

A few years ago, Reality Pump and Southpeak games released “Two Worlds,” a massive role-playing experience that in spite of some bugs, mainly due to RP’s inexperience developing console games, amassed a somewhat cult-like following that praised the game’s huge scale and amount of customization options. Similar in scope to games such as “Fallout 3” and “Oblivion,” “Two Worlds,” regardless of its problems, was engulfed in promise and provided hours of solid gameplay.

The sequel, “Two Worlds II,” scheduled for release on Oct. 5, feels almost like a different game entirely, with nearly every concept and idea improved upon and polished, resulting in what looks to be a more than acceptable addition to the series and one that will be able to bring more fans to the table than ever.

With so many customization options, as far as weapons and spells go and a bigger map as well, this may become the game that many “Oblivion” fans turn to while they anxiously wait for a new addition to that series. Nevertheless, with so many improvements to the graphical engine and AI, it’s fair to say that TopWare Interactive and Southpeak may have their own words in mind for Bethesda:

Eat your heart out Oblivion.

If you dug the first game, you’ll feel right at home knowing that nearly every element of the game that you loved has been polish or fixed. Learning from the problems that hampered the first game, TopWare Interactive has brought out the big guns and it’s obvious right from the get go. No longer will horses walk away from you and gone forever are the shoddy voice acting scenes that bounced back and forth like a pinball, making it tiresome to watch the story advance. Taking a page out of “Oblivion,” gamers can now watch these conversations and still walk around the screen, making all the dialogue and story much more easy to digest.

This may seem like a small change, but for a game that depends on its story, this small nuance makes this title much easier to play through.

With all the polishing the developers have done on this game, it’s easy to forget about the graphical engine, which has been beefed up as well. With better animations and backgrounds, “Two Worlds II” has more than just a new coat of paint. Walking and running around the towns and environments and watching people look at you and animals interact with you, it’s easy to completely be sucked into this beautiful world. In some of the levels shown, the lighting and water effects were simply astounding and go a long way in showing how much work has gone into this title thus far. Because of this, it’s easy to say that this is one of the better looking games on the Xbox 360.

After so much polish to the graphics and core gameplay alone, the developers could have easily called it a day and got the game ready for distribution, as that would have been more than enough work for a decent sequel. Knowing that, it’s nice to see that the weapon and spell design element of the game has also been rounded out and fleshed out further, giving gamers even more control over the weapons they make and spells they conjure, “Two Worlds II” may end up being the new standard bearer for RPGs on the 360.

No longer does the game have a generic feel to it, making fanboys cry that it’s an Elder Scrolls clone. Make no mistake about it, this game has its own sense of style and even though the look is comparable to “Oblivion,” it plays much differently.

If that wasn’t enough, a hearty, mission-based multi-player campaign is also available, adding even more hours to the gameplay. Using different characters entirely, the multi-player aspects of this game is different from an add-on and serves to bring players together, rather than keep them locked in the single-player campaign all by their lonesome. If that indeed works remains to be seen, but it looks to be a nice touch to the complete package.

Overall, with so many improvements made to a game that many felt was solid before, “Two Worlds II” should be more than a quick distraction before “Fallout New Vegas” comes out later in the month.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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