Two Worlds thoughts?

[mrstickball]

I bought it today.

I'll try to be as concise, and critical (good and bad) as possible. I'll have an official TW review sometime soon once I get more time in the game.

A rundown of my scoring (thus far) for Two Worlds:

Graphics - 6.75
Two Worlds graphics well....Suck. From the opening cutscene, you think your playing a high-budget Xbox 1 game. The terrain quality is rather bad (in comparison to Oblivion), while the character models are high texture, they are very low in poly count. No fantastic edges, or ripples to clothing. Framerate issues are also prevalent in some areas when your combating alot of enemies.

Also, PC/NPC animations are pretty bad. Think Oblivion on 3rd person mode - they're slightly worse than that. Not very smooth, and very little difference in attack combo animations.

However, despite the abysmal (for an X360 game) graphics, the load times are FANTASTIC. There are almost NO load times anywhere. If you teleport from one town to another, load times are 1-2 seconds at maximum. Man, this is refreshing. Also no lag when your inside a cave or building. Draw distances are pretty bad though - slightly worse than Oblivion's.

Story - 7.0
Meh. Typical "save the world" WRPG story. Nothing great thus far, but that could change. Quests are pretty standard with no frills (kill the bandits or monsters, fetch an item, find the whereabouts of someone).

Sound/Music - 7.25
The best way to put it is the VA/SFX gets a 5.0. The VA is crappy, as the characters are speaking very lame King James English (with almost no real enthusiasm). Likewise, the SFX are garbage. Heck, when you attack a wild boar, you get the same SFX from Warcraft 2 (yes, I can remember them from WC2, and they're the same ones!).

However, the OST is very good from what I've heard ingame. This redeems an otherwise bad sound & music catagory.

Gameplay - 9.0
Okay. Everything gets an average score but gameplay. Although the game is lacking in so many areas, the general gameplay is fantastic. It's not an Oblivion-killer. If anything, it's more of a Fable killer. The 3rd person camera is pretty solid, and enjoyable (despite the animations being horrid). The experience/leveling system is far more enjoyable than Oblivions. I just love seeing "exp" beside my character. Most EXP is gained from quests vs. enemies. Also, in some areas, the amount of enemies you fight is insane. Typical battles involve you & 3 enemies, but I've fought upto 8 at a time (zombies in a graveyard). The Alchemy system is BETTER than Oblivions. The game is quasi-open ended. The enemies are insanely overpowered in the beginning in 90% of all areas. You start with a sword that does 6-12dmg. Within 30 minutes, you'll have a 22-102dmg spear.

There's tons to go over on the gameplay side. The gameplay will be either a "love it" or "hate it" sort of thing. But I really, really, really like the gameplay.


Overall:
Had Southpeak/Topware spent more time on this game, it'd be beyond a gem. It'd be a contender with Mass Effect for RPG GOTY. However, the game is insanely underpolished and under-deved. I would hope to think that Topware/Southpeak will try to patch some of the issues (as 60% of the issues I'd have with the game could be patched).

My reccomendation:
Definate rental for any WRPG fan. Strong buy if you can get past the poor graphics, and enjoy a strong W/A RPG. Very fun for me thus far. Definate buy for any general WRPG fan once it hits $30. And believe me, I have a feeling this one will hit $30-$40 levels REAL quick (ie, holidays).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Again, TW will either be a love it or hate it game.