Two Worlds 2 is a great game, but it had the unfortunate luck of being preceded by a terrible one. Reality Pump has come a far way from the clustered, unorganized system that Two Worlds was. The game has been cleaned up in every aspect from alchemy to combat. Everything that Two Worlds was in concept, the sequel has brought into reality.
When you first begin your campaign, you create your Hero, the character you are going to play. The creation system is extremely in-depth and gives you a feeling of attachment to your Hero much stronger than choosing between a few presets with a few editing options. You can change your Hero in every respect from height to tattoos to how big or small his eyebrows are. You can even determine the number of times that your Hero has had his nose broken.
After your Hero is created, a cut scene comes on giving you a rather typical “you are in a dungeon and going to escape with these peoples help” scenario for a tutorial. During the tutorial you are introduced to the four basic class trees, Warrior, Ranger, Wizard, and Assassin. All of these class’s skills are available for you to upgrade throughout the game, rather than locking you into just one. More advanced skills can be unlocked by finding Skill Books. Assassin is the only class that can’t stand on its own, so its a good idea for you to mix it with any of the other classes. If at some point you feel that you no longer like your class, you can pay a small fee to reset your skill points and redistribute them as you feel fit. This service can be used indefinitely, so you can redesign your Hero into any number of specializations.
The crafting system is also very in depth. The metallurgy skill is unlocked during the tutorial, allowing you to upgrade items ten times, and later on can be supplemented later on by unlocking Weapons Forging, Shield Casting, Archery Craftsmanship, and Armor Reinforcement, allowing items to be upgraded up to twenty times. Items can be further improved by using the Fusion skill to infuse them with crystals that have various bonuses. The crafting system also makes every item worth looting, as even the most worthless weapon or piece of armor can be broken down into components to upgrade better equipment. Potion ingredients can also be found on many enemies, as well as plants scattered across the world. Potions you can make range from basic health/mana and resistance potions to more advanced invisibility, resurrection, and even damage-reflection potions.
The combat system feels very fluid and involved. Fast-paced, logical, and deadly balanced. A player is rarely put into a one-sided combat encounter. Each basic class works differently in combat. Warriors tend to be sturdy and capable of going toe-to-toe with a medium size group of enemies (1-4) without having to get too creative, just chopping(or hammering) away with their weapon of choice and using their skills until the last enemy falls, occasionally chugging down a health potion. Rangers, on the other hand, rely on distance between them and their foes, in order to fully draw their bow and fire, using various skills, such as Fire Arrow or Distraction Arrow to keep at arms length. Those who are partial to stealth may use the Death Strike skill to try and make a group of enemies more manageable or back stab lone sentries. Wizards may use their staffs to channel spells that they create to have various effects on the battle, but this requires the Wizard to build these spells before hand.
The magic system in Two Worlds 2 is an amazing show of Reality Pump’s creativity, but can feel a bit overwhelming at first. The player must first acquire special Spell Amulets to assemble their spell inside of, then find or buy Magic Cards which they can combine into a near infinite range of spells, and can even name the spells they create. The spells can be as simple as shooting a bolt of fire at an enemy or as complicated as shooting three heat-seeking firebolts which bounce off their targets, hit another, explode into lightning, and then summon Earth Golems to finish up the job. But not every spell you create need be combat based. You can create an amazing full range of utility spells, such as basic Heal spells or spells allowing you to walk on water, jump several times higher than is proper, levitate nearby objects and bodies, or even cause anvils to fall from the sky surrounding you (I named mine the Acme Shower).
The plot sometimes feels a bit confused, but this is often rectified with an explanation later on in the game, giving the player the feeling of actually discovering the plotline, rather than just watching it. The game takes several turns and twists along the way, and gives more than one way to advance through many of the major plot events instead of just handing you a linear main quest line. The game also gives you a number of Factions that you can do quests for and increase your reputation with (including a pirate faction in the DLC). The quests show a sense of both creativity and humor, with occasional instances of poking fun at the first game’s poor quality, and some over the top quests such as a woman who wants you to pray for her dead husband, but it turns out she really wants to feed you to her undead husband.
Two Worlds 2 also features the multiplayer mode that RPG players have been dreaming of. You create your Hero in a similar fashion to the campaign mode, but this time with the option to change race and gender. The races (Human, Half-Orc, Half-Dwarf, Half-Elf, and Dark Elf) have no effect on your Hero’s statistics or abilities, but does give it a stronger sense of connection between the player and Hero. You also choose a class from a selection of several types of Warriors, a Wizard from each branch of magic, or a Ranger. After creating your character, you can participate in several kinds of gameplay, each giving you experience to level up your character just like singleplayer mode. Duel allows you to compete in one-on-one combat with another player. Deathmatch allows you to compete in team combat with other players. Crystal Capture is similar to capture the flag. But the game mode that most console RPG players will love the most is Adventure. This mode gives you a chance to play a co-op campaign with up to seven other Heroes. You and your party must work together to complete seven different chapters on a quest to find a relic for the Emperor, fighting every type of monster imaginable along the way. After collecting 10,000 auras(in-game currency) players can establish their own village, which they can manage the economy of, protect, and manufacture equipment and goods in. The village is an important asset for armor, weapons, and other equipment in multiplayer mode.
Overall, Two Worlds 2 is a fantastic game, worth buying for either soloists or multiplayer RPG gamers. Reality Pump may have missed the first time around, but they clearly don’t make the same mistakes twice. 9 out of ten.