Two Worlds II Preview
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Hooked Gamers:
During my brief time with Two Worlds II, I had the chance to play around with all three classes. The warrior was my least favorite. I futilely chased a lone skeleton around a dungeon for many minutes, unable to land a blow, although that could just be a sad testament on my gaming skills and no fault of Reality Pump or SouthPeak. The ranger was my favorite and felt more powerful than the warrior. I quickly adjusted to the ranger's controls and happily kited enemies through the game's pretty outdoor environs. If you're the type of gamer who hates to kite, however, the ranger might not be for you.
By far, the most interesting character class in Two Worlds II is the mage, thanks to what is being called the DEMONS magic management system. By collecting component cards throughout the game, the player can custom build their own spells. The player can choose what element the spell should be (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), how powerful it is, how long it lasts, whether it's a direct damage spell, an area-of-effect spell, a buff or a summon. The player can choose the have the spell ricochet when it hits objects or seek out enemies like a heat-seeking missile. Spells can even be stacked. For instance, you can shoot a fireball that summons scorpions to assist you in battle whenever it hits something. The more powerful and complicated a spell is the more mana it costs. Still, the amount of combinations available is simply staggering.
Aeropause:
Optimization of the game engine on each platform also lead to new advancements in the loading, which is now seamless and non-existant. No matter where we went in Two Worlds II, the game world was one contiguous environment, constantly loading in the background. It kept the immersion factor in play, and was awesome to exit our dungeon into the world and not have the game slow down or flash to a loading screen for the transition.
Dialog choices play a bigger part in Two Worlds II, with your decisions and choices shaping the path for your character. It seems this has become the rage for games lately, and when it is done right, it can make for a fantastic experience. We stepped through a few dialog trees, and it was nice to see all the different options that we hand, but also how the camera was dynamic during these dialog sequences, and the fact that we could still interact during these sequences. It is such a small touch, but is so much more engaging for the player to feel as if they are in control, and also keeps them feeling immersed in the game.
The Married Gamers:
The combat was a little difficult to get a hang of. It's in a third person format and you basically use your right trigger to swing your weapon. Getting lined up to hit your enemy was probably the most difficult thing to get in a short time to play and the camera feels really too quick to respond causing you to overshoot the angle you're attempting to get to, so I hope they tighten the control on that a little bit.
Another improvement to the game that I should point out is the weapon upgrade system. Instead of taking two like weapons and mashing them together to make a '˜better' weapon, in Two Worlds II you will be able to break objects down into basic components to create or improve existing weapons and armor. It seems that you can actually make weapons that don't natively exist in the game.
And RoboAwesome:
In addition to these upgrade elements, the player can use various paints to change the color of items. What I liked about what I saw was the ability to break down higher level weapons into basic components and use those components to upgrade your current weapon. Why would I want to do that? Because admit it.. sometime you find a weapon that looks friggin cool and you love using it. But what happens shortly after? Damn this weapon has better stats.. Well ding problem solved, break down that ugly better weapon and use it to make your beauty that much more deadly.
But wait there's more! No one can forget mulitplayer right? Well the devs behind TW II are no different. While I wasn't given the full breakdown on the online aspect of the game I wasn't left hanging high and dry either. Online multiplayer will handle up to 8 players and offer a few different modes, there is the basic co-op and pvp but there is also another mode that caught my ear, the Village mode. This mode allows you to basically build an online village for your character, these villages are visitable by other online players and there is '˜living' economy system that is woven into the online world. Each player can have their village specialize in making one item. Be it a type of weapon, armor, potion what have you. This item can be purchased by played from your village. SO if an item comes into demand people might switch their village to make that.. Or hold out and wait for the markets to shift. Its a system that I am anxious for and hope it play out well.
