Estimated Story Playtime: 10 to 15 hours.
Two Worlds is a third person world oriented action oriented Fantasy RPG. Please note that this review is strictly of the Xbox 360 version, not any other platform. I want to make that clear as there are always differences in the various platforms.
THE GOOD
1) Equipment....This game uses an inventory system that the higher your Strength [STR] the more you can carry. The game implements a system to where if you have two identically named items, for example Short Short, you can combine them to make a more powerful version. Doing so only requires you have the same item, no special components or money required. Weapons aren't the only thing you can combine. Armor, magic rings, magic staffs can be done as well....Note though, that you can't give weapons multiple damage types, ie Fire and Cold. Only one bonus type is permited.
2) Alchemey...Through your journey in the game you'll find many flowers, toadstools, metals, and other things that can be combined together to make potions with fantastic powers as well. The effects differ widely dependant upon what you put into the mix. Don't worry about trying to remember what you used to make certain potions, as you can save the mixture's formula if you want (you just have to name it otherwise it's just called New Potion).
3) Equipment & Alchemy...With two ways to combine, this may seem like stating the obvious but you can use both together to give your weapons and equipment fantastic powers and abilities.
4) Death....There is no real death in this game. Not even a penalty XP wise or loss of items. If you die you are resurrected at the nearest shrine. The only penalty is that the nearest shrine might be far away from where you were.
5) Health & Mana....Should you run out of potions (Healing items is unlikely as your character does start with a healing spell), you just have to find a safe spot and wait. Mana recharaces fairly quickly on it's own. Health is at a much slower rate. In addition you'll pass various shrines that will either heal all your health instantly, or all your mana instantly.
THE BAD
1) Graphics....The game was released in 2007, but the graphics look like something from much earlier. The opening cinimatic, usually one of the best graphically done parts in the game, has the main character riding something that looks closer to an anorexic giraffe rather than a horse.
The character models are crude for the most part. You'll see a lot of small heads on big bodies.
Graphic break ups in terrain happen quite often.
2) The Controls....They are counter intuitive and there is a steep learning curve on them. This is a game where you can "hotkey" items or skills, but this is an akward process. Much like many aspects of this game, the response time of the hotkey menu is variable. Sometimes it responds fast, which is good in combat, sometimes it's slow which can be dangerous.
Control of the character in general, especially when riding is less than stellar.
3) Loot & Merchants.....The goods merchants will carry, as well as the loot found in chests is completely random. Meaning you can find great stuff well beyond your level, or stuff well below your level. Goods like lockpicks, enhancment gems, and the like can pop up often or are few and far between leaving you always wondering what's in that next chest.
4) Lockpicking....You will in your travels come across many locked things from doors to chests. It says "you need a key or to pick the lock". For a majority of chests you won't have the key for them. Which makes lockpicking a required skill. Even at master level, you can break picks on "primative" locks (the weakest kind) fairly often.
5) Skills......At first glance the skill system seems varied, but it has it's own problems. At first it looks versitile but as you play the problem becomes more apparent that you need trainers to advance and gain many skills. It's possible to go a good portion of the game without finding certain trainers.
6) Manual.....Weighing in at a hefty 41 pages, it is full of half measure. It will barely touch upon things, leaving you quite often with "how do i do that". A good example is Character creation saying you can zoom in, but it doesn't say how. It also doesn't give any basic recipes for Alchemy.
7) Questlog & Quests....The questlog is located on the right side of the screen, rather than the center or traditional left hand side. This has some of the text nearly, or completely, cut off in some cases. As for following quests themselves, you are given a little tiny dot, constantly having to refer to your main map to make sure you're going the right way. No helpful indicators or arrows.
8) Traveling....The world is expansive and it takes forever to walk anywhere; your travel slightly faster if you have your weapons sheathed, but not enough difference to even be called jogging. There is no way to truely"run".
The character is able to swim, but it is at the tiniest fraction of what your walking speed is (I believe 15% of your walking speed). This can be increased with the spending of skill points though.
Mounts were included, but they have a number of problems. The camera tends to jerk while riding them. The mounts have an odd habbit of not wanting to go up, or down gentle slopes, that your character could easily climb on his own, making you often having to travel the long way around.
MY THOUGHTS
This game should have been delayed before release, to hammer out the many obvious gameplay issues. The graphics alone make this seem like a game from 1997 not 2007. The controls needed more work than the graphics themselves. The story is dull and predictable, and impossible to advance without doing numerous boring sidequests to gain the favor of a certain group or another. You will spend more time traveling beating up on wolves, bears, and skeletons than anything else.
All in all a very poor game. The only redeeming features of this game are the combining of weapons and alchemy. Sadly those are not enough to save this game.....This isn't a game to buy, or rent, and barely even good enough of one to borrow from a friend. That is unless you're just interested in boosting your gamer score by a few very easy to get achievements that you can get within the first 15 minutes of play.