I wasn't expecting much to begin with. After all, Two Worlds II is the sequel to Reality Pump's lacklustre 2008 RPG, a lineage that doesn't do much to engender any confidence in the new game- the first Two Worlds was a technical and conceptual mess, stringing together strange mechanics and ideas, burdening them with a dodgy graphics engine, and riddling them all with bugs. That didn't bode well for the sequel, which I approached with (I feel) not unwarranted trepidation.
And what a difference two years makes. Two Worlds II is not merely a sequel to Two Worlds. To call it such would be to undermine the complete overhaul, from top to bottom, inside and out, that developer Reality Pump has actioned. From the dramatic, beautifully animated intro through to the closing moments, Two Worlds II is a game that impresses, fusing cinematic visuals and direction with open world adventure. The result is a game that not only trounces its predecessor in every conceivable way, but could well be one of the best examples of its genre to date. In short, Two Worlds II is a triumph.
We pick up seven years after the first game, though familiarity with the story of the original is thankfully not required. The hero and his twin sister, Kyra, are held captive by the evil new Emperor of Antaloor, Gandohar, who is using the twins to funnel magical energy. But the protagonist is sprung from captivity by a ragtag band of Orcs, acting under the guidance of the mysterious Dragon Queen, given freedom in order to rescue his sister and put an end to Gandohar's reign.
The prologue - which lasts a good couple of hours - does a good job of introducing you to the mechanics of Two Worlds II. You'll slay a few enemies with a variety of melee weapons, try a spot of archery, create and cast a couple of spells, improve your skills, talk to people, upgrade your equipment, pick locks, and generally have a bit of a wander about. Naturally, you'll spend a good deal of time fighting and talking, so its good that Reality Pump has fleshed these parts out the most.
In effect, you have three different combat systems, with further sub-systems for different weapons and spells. Melee, my preferred choice, gives you an intuitive three-button combat mechanic, with left trigger acting as block, right trigger attacking, and A used for a kind of backstep. More skills, when unlocked, are mapped to the other face buttons, and vary depending on the weapon/s used; swords can perform quick stabbing Thrust attacks, double-handed weapons can perform a sweeping Radial Barrage, whilst shields and maces can bash away a foe's defences. Two Worlds II offers a range of weapons including swords, axes, polearms and clubs, which can be wielded in pretty much any combination you like (sword and shield, sword and axe, double-handed sword, etc). All have their own quirks, and its advisable to setup different equipment sets (up to three can be stored) to deal with different situations - skeletons, for example, aren't too bothered about sword scratches, but blunt weapons will crush them easily.
Archery follows a standard model where holding down the attack button automatically locks on to an opponent and charges up a more powerful shot, though you can chose to aim manually and use various extra skills, which include the ubiquitous poison and fire arrows as well as the ridiculous-but-brilliant multi-arrow.
Magic is more complicated, requiring you to configure spell charms with different cards to create your own spells. Mix a fire element card with a homing projectile card to create a heat-seeking fireball, for example, or a frost card with a radial effect to make an ice storm surrounding you. Other modifiers can be added to create more exotic combinations, though you have to balance the power of the spell with the amount of mana it will take to cast. Its a robust system that rewards experimentation and can be customised to suit your play style.
Outside of combat, there's a fairly standard options-based dialogue system, though you're mostly limited to just one or two options. Fortunately, the dialogue is mostly well-written- none of the 'Knave!' 'Verily!' or 'Cur!' 's that were so prominent in the original - and acted surprisingly well, especially the major characters. Quests can be picked up any and everywhere, and whilst many are of the familiar 'go to x, kill y' variety others are more interesting, and there are some interesting storylines running through them. The most enjoyable are the quests that have multiple outcomes, which often then go on to affect further questlines and story arcs. Its not quite as open as, say, Risen or Gothic 3, but its far more approachable and less prone to completely breaking down. In fact, apart from a few minor irritations (enemy skeletons have a strange habit of lapsing into perennial backstepping for no apparent reason) and the odd crash to desktop (a frustration alleviated by regular autosaves and an early hotfix which minimizes the problem), Two Worlds II is a surprisingly bug-free experience; I never found my progress halted by unintentional design flaws or stupid bugs.
You can indulge in a bit of skullduggery if you like - the need for lockpicking is predictably part of the game design, and predictably comes with its own minigame- in this case, a fairly simple case of lining up a revolving pick with notches in the lock mechanism. You can also attempt to steal from people, though I never got this to work particularly well. If you like, you can sneak around an assassinate enemies (by creeping up to them with a dagger equipped and tapping A before they notice you), or you can try to earn some cash by playing tunes with a frustratingly difficult Guitar Hero-esque musical minigame. And if all that isn't enough, there's always a spot of alchemy - done in Oblivion style by combining a medley of ingredients to produce varied effects - and crafting to indulge in. Crafting is much improved from the first game - you no longer magically merge weapons of the same kind to form more powerful ones - but rather you can dismantle items to component parts which can then be used to upgrade other items. Upgrade them enough and you can slot runestones in to add extra effects.
In terms of complexity, Two Worlds II sits somewhere between the behemoth free-roaming of Piranha Bytes' Gothic games and the more structured approach of an action RPG like Sacred 2. The main storyline is linear, and takes you across a series of large regions as you progress, but side-quests can be undertaken anywhere at any time - though new continents remain locked out until you advance the storyline. The rest of the world does level up alongside you, but only to a limited degree - none of the ridiculous Oblivion-style creature levelling here - though previously unlocked storage containers will contain loot roughly appropriate to your level. That might sound off-putting, but it actually works quite well; the system ensures that you feel a sense of progression as enemies become easier to kill, but there are still clear no-go areas where the opponents are much too strong, and also ensures that rewards from quests are always of some use. Given the open-ended levelling up system, which rewards you with stat advancements when you earn enough experience and skill points for various deeds associated with using particular skills, you have plenty of room to develop your hero as you see fit. And with the main campaign alone likely to take well over 30 hours, plus countless hours of sidequests and adventure, there's plenty to see and do in Antaloor.
And just in case that wasn't enough, there's a robust multiplayer mode on offer as well. You can form parties and adventure with up to eight other players, handled through a slightly odd, but workable system of hub cities in which you can recruit players, then jump into personalised instances. There's a co-op questline to enjoy, where the differences between character builds really comes into play (I rather enjoy playing as my polearm-wielding warrior, doling out damage over a wide area, whilst archers and mages back me up), and there are various deathmatches and duel modes on offer. The most interesting is the 'village' mode; in which you can construct your own village from scratch, taking on quests to improve its available options - you might chose to specialise in weapon crafting, for example, and any weapons you make there can be given to your multiplayer character (who is a separate character from the single player game, but there are more customisation options and races available) and used in the other multiplayer mode.
Reality Pump has completely ditched the graphics engine from the first game - a wise decision - and developed the new Grace engine for the game. The first bit of good news is that this ensures the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions don't have the terrible performance problems of the console port of the original game, but the second is much more important: the Grace engine is beautiful. Not only can it handle vast environments brimming with detail and intricately rendered characters, it produces some astounding lighting, weather, and environmental effects to boot. This would count for little if Reality Pump had forgotten to put any artistic design into things, but the developer hasn't - the Antaloor of Two Worlds 2 comprises of several islands, each with its own very distinctive flavour - and none of it feeling like Lord of The Rings-lite. The opening parts of the story play out on a tropical island and a sun-bleached savannah, and as the game progresses you'll visit Middle Eastern-themed walled cities, the ruins of an asian-style city consumed by magic, murky swamps, and plenty more. Each feels highly distinctive and original, bringing the thrill of exploration to the fore, and with plenty to see and do in the world your explorative efforts are often rewarded. Characters and creatures also show a distinctly imaginative spark; the likes of Orcs, skeletons and beastmen (here a breed of hyena-people called Varn) might be standard fare, but the gangly three-legged stingers, hulking colossi, and all manner of hostile wildlife - including baboons and rhino - help mix things up a little. Look out for the Geiger-eqsue critter, too. Even more impressive is that the engine scales extremely well; the PC version commands a clear advantage over the console versions and runs beautifully, with astonishingly quick loading times - our test rig could go from launching the game to having loaded a saved game in the space of a minute.
Equally impressive is the sound direction. There are hundreds of varied audio cues, and everything from the clash of blades to the twitter of birds sounds authentic, and amazingly the voice acting's pretty good too. There's one or two minor characters that don't quite sound as good, but the main cast - including, mercifully, the hero - are voiced by compentent actors with well-suited voices. The dialogue can still be a little hammy, but its a vast improvement. Oh, and then there's the excellent soundtrack - a stirring orchestral score with strong, well-suited themes for each of the environments and drum-driven combat music.
