E3 2010: Two Worlds II Preview
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Originally planned as an expansion pack called The Temptation, the folks at SouthPeak Games, TopWare Interactive, Zuxxez, and Reality Pump collectively decided to take a more ambitious route and turn the addon into a full sequel. To deal with the "technical shortcomings" in the original Two Worlds, the team went to work on a new engine called GRACE. Because the engine needed separate platform optimizations, though, it's technically divided into three separate iterations - GRACE 1 powers the PC version of Two Worlds II, GRACE 2 powers the Xbox 360 version, and GRACE 3 powers the PlayStation 3 version. Each iteration of the GRACE engine has its own team working on it, though the primary architecture (with all of the physics, lighting, and graphical finesse expected from a modern-day engine) is the same across all three.
In case you didn't already know, Two Worlds II employs a classless character progression system. As your character gains experience and levels up, they'll receive skill points that can be assigned to various skill trees (warrior, assassin, ranger, mage, crushing, etc.) comprised of as many as 12 skills each. For example, proceeding down the warrior skill tree will unlock skills such as "Block", "Power Swing", "Counter Strike", and "Mental Blast". Advancing in the assassin skill tree, on the other hand, will grant you the "Sneak", "Stealing", "Set Trap", and "Death Strike" skills. You're free to spend your skill points however you wish, so creating a hybrid character that dabbles in multiple skill professions is easy enough. On top of that, you can respec your character at any time without penalty. Whether this leads to brilliant convenience or sheer silliness ("I think I'll be a warrior for this battle, and a mage for the next.") has yet to be seen.
The item upgrade system has also been expanded from the first game, as it now allows you to break down excess items into specific components. For example, a sword might be broken down into a small amount of steel and wood, which can then be used to upgrade the damage of your preferred weapon (if you have the appropriate crafting skill). These mechanics are especially useful if you're happy with the way your equipment looks, as you'll still be able to upgrade the statistics and effects of your equipped items by implementing other items' components.
After I had 15 minutes worth of hands-on time under my belt, TopWare Interactive managing director James Seaman stopped by my station to address any questions I had. Considering that his history includes working as a marketing manager at SSI in the late 90's, we had quite a bit to discuss. On the topic of Two Worlds II, though, James started off by telling me just how much work has gone into making sure the sequel surpasses the original title in every way. Gone is the Old English narrative and dialogue that permeated the first game - this time, the storyline is being scribed by a handful of talented writers that include Devon Smith of Dead Space fame. There's also a major emphasis being put on character animations and diversity - the team even brought in professional fencers to choreograph the game's fighting moves and recorded the facial expressions and movements of 1000 people in a theater to ensure that the game's NPCs had a sufficient amount of variety.
The original Two Worlds didn't have many loading screens, but James promises that there won't be any in the sequel. Thanks to the technology embedded within the GRACE engine, Antaloor will be presented as a continuous, open world. Well, not entirely open. When I quizzed him about whether we could accidentally stumble into an area way above our character's capabilities, he did confide that some of the game's areas would be locked until we reached a particular level or a certain point in the storyline. My impression was that these areas were few and far between, though, so hopefully this won't be an issue for us exploratory types.
James also talked a bit about the "DEMONS" magic system and the ridiculous number of combinations we'll be able to employ by interchanging our spell cards. The current count is 13.4 million spell combinations - a number that has raised some eyebrows over at the Guinness Book of World Records, and just might wind up being penciled in as an official video game record. Dabbling in these card-swapping mechanics will allow you to add additional variables, effects, and parameters to your spells, with as many as four different cards being combined at once. For example, a standard firebolt card can be boosted with other cards so that it unleashes multiple projectiles that bounce off any inanimate object they meet. It's an intriguing system, and just might be enough to get me to play a mage on my first play-through.
Two Worlds II will once again employ a few multiplayer modes (all supporting up to eight players), including a separate set of co-op quests, a PvP mode (with free-for-all and team support), some kind of survival/last stand mode, and a unique "village mode". This last mode will actually be something of a city-building metagame, as it will have you setting up trade routes with other players to transport goods between your villages (one player might specialize in armor and another in weapons, for example). James tells me that we'll be tasked with as many as forty different quests in this mode, with one example being the defense of the village against an orc attack. Unfortunately, we cannot use our single player character in any of these modes - the game's multiplayer component will require us to create a separate character.
On the topic of DLC, the managing director was surprisingly forthright. According to James, the village mode mentioned previously will be updated with DLC "every few weeks" - and it will all be free. As for paid DLC, we'll be seeing an initial entry (currently codenamed "Flying Fortress") not long after the game's release. A second set of paid DLC will follow later, which Seaman described as "very dark" with "shocking" twists. It's this second addon that will set the stage for a potential third entry in the RPG series, though James wouldn't commit to it being titled "Two Worlds III" (he originally had reservations about "Two Worlds II", in fact). There will also be at least one item-specific DLC (James stated that it will probably introduce new weapons) and another that features some cosmetic items for our Xbox 360 avatar.
When my brief stop at the SouthPeak booth was over, I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised by Two Worlds II. There were a couple of rough spots in the E3 build (some statistics were missing from the menus and the melee combat didn't seem very compelling from the little time I spent with it), but these issues could easily be addressed before the game ships in early October. And with a campaign that stretches over 25 hours and enough side quests to easily double that timeframe, October could turn out to be a busy month indeed.
