Two Worlds review, Oblivion Comparison

Atari5200 · June 30, 2008

I bought this game at the flea market last week for $5. I've read the different threads and some reviews and I can say this is probably the best $5 I've spent on gaming in a very long time. I'm 10 hours in and this is my review thus far.

Story: When you start the game, the main problem is that your sister has been kidnapped. You start out to find her and things start to progress from there. I'm only into the 3rd step of the main quest, so that's about all I can really say. I don't want to spoil anything, but at least what I've seen of the main quest, I think it's got potential to be a good story line. You will run into other people to do side quests that can shed light on the history of the world itself, regarding the Orc wars and the entombed god. It's interesting, but so far, not as deep as Oblivion.

Graphics: They are good, they are not great, no where near Oblivion, but still nice. The environments are probably the best aspect of the graphics, there are some really, really nice environments. There are also some really cool weapons and armor sets. I love how you can have different types of horses and they are cool looking, like the undead horse or the orc "dragon" horse. All in all, good graphics, not great, I'm satisfied.

Sound: Fantastic. I love the audio in this game. The music is great and the sound effects coming through my surround sound have made me think there was real animals outside my window a few times. Awesome. The sound effects are also very good. The only thing I don't really like is the main character voice acting. Seems monotone, he has the same voice for every situation. Also, the voice acting is quite comical, it's really old style speak.

Gameplay: Here is where the game will either make it for you or break it for you. The gameplay can be frustrating at times, but if you stick it out and get used to it, the game is very enjoyable. The game plays in 3rd person, and is much better than Oblivion in 3rd person. Oblivions 3rd person your character just floats around because the game is meant to be played first person. The most frustrating part of Two Worlds is the horses and invisible walls. I think they tried to limit where you could go, like jumping off of cliffs, and there are some hills you cannot go up or down, but you wonder..why? This is very annoying when you are exploring off the road, then when you go back to the road, you can be a few feet above the road and the game won't let you on the road. It's hard to explain, but anybody who has played this game knows what I'm talking about, also the horse itself is harder to control than it should be. Combat is very fun, my character is basically just hand to hand with some magic thrown in, I don't use arrows, and I really enjoy it.

So how does this fare against Oblivion. Oblivion wins in some catagories, loses in others. In overall control, Oblivion is the much smoother game. Two Worlds can be smooth some times in towns and buildings, but most of the time, it's rough, but by no means unplayable. Where Two Worlds shines over Oblivion in my opinion is the "crime committing" aspect. One of my biggest gripes of Oblivion is that you can't do anything without someone knowing what you've done, even if nobody is around. Two Worlds seems to have this right. If you murder someone in their home, nobody saw you, so you're fine, no guards or anything will do anything...great. In Oblivion, the guards have ESP and know what you've done. Stealing is the same way, I've robbed whole villages if you have patience and wait for people to leave the buildings. You can also make a ton of money doing this. Lock picking is tons easier as it's a skill that you can level and it's all based on %'s.

Oblivion has fast travel, which is nice, Two Worlds has teleporters, ok, but not as nice as fast travel. You can't teleport with your horse, bad, and to be honest, unless there's a teleport by some one I need to complete a quest, I'm not using them.

Items/Stats/Character development: Two Worlds is much easier to develop your character than Oblivion. Oblivion is very in depth when it comes to that, with many different skills and catagories to advance before your overall level can be raised. Two Worlds is basically just an experience based leveling system. One nice thing about Two Worlds is alchemy and the ability to make potions that will raise your stats permanently. I'm playing the game on default difficulty and the game is not that easy, I've died plenty of times running into a flock of enemies thinking I had good enough stats and armor only to die.

Overall: I'm totally addicted to this game. I'm doing mainly side quests now and my character is around level 26 and I've barely touched the main quest. I'm pretty sure my character is probably more developed than he should be that far into the main quest. Over looking the bad voice acting, the graphical glitches, the gameplay quirks, I find this game is a very nice distraction from Oblivion and has it's own charm.

I would rate this game a 7 out of 10.