Tag: Two Worlds
Two Worlds Review
by admin on Feb.03, 2010, under Review
September 7, 2007 –
You have to wonder why a developer would deliberately position their game in the long shadow cast by a hugely successful title like Oblivion. Sure, the market is obviously there, but it seems like such a cruel fate to thrust upon your brainchild, knowing it will be condemned to labels like “clone” or “rip-off.” Nevertheless, Polish developer Reality Pump has stepped up with a confident swagger, proud to steal from the best, and confident it can stand on its own.
It’s a tall order. Oblivion wrapped a massive amount of content and overwhelming level of freedom in a package that oozed high-class production value, with an accessibility that helped lure in the console audience that had long eluded computer role-playing games. Two Worlds seems to have all the basics down, with miles of terrain and bustling cities full of more to do than you’ll care to explore. For those that like to roam rather than barrel through the adventure, there’s a near endless flow of side-quests to take on, and some of these have interesting consequences.
But it only takes a few minutes to spot chinks in the armor. The visuals are rife with awkward, sometimes glitchy animations and objects that just pop in, seemingly from nowhere. There doesn’t seem to be any physics simulation, and there are plenty of bugs in the collision detection, so expect to occasionally see people walk through each other or pop through walls. Even worse, movement will chug when the action gets too hot and heavy, with far too many pauses that are independent of those necessary to load chunks of the world, the latter of which are understandable.
Players assume the role of a bounty hunter tasked with collecting magic doo-dads integral to stopping the resurrection of an evil god. Tired fantasy clich