Discovering Two Worlds

First of all I have to thank my good friend TON for telling me about the game. I saw it on the Xbox when it was first released and I wasn't thrilled back then but thanks to TON I've revised my judgement.

I bought the Goty edition which is supposed to include all the stuff. It's nice to have a printed manual like in the old days instead of a PDF file. There is also a map which I haven't used so far.

I've played a few hours but so far the gameplay has been particularly smooth. No bugs, no crash, no hassle. It's very intuitive.

The looting part made me think of Diablo, I love the fact that you can enhance the effect of similar items. It's a lot like Oblivion but so far I like it more, I find the combat really fun.

I haven't invested too much into the Magic line but the card system looks very interesting.

I also like having to find trainers to learn new skills it is another incentive to go out there and talk to people. The way dialogue is handled is much more satisfying than in Oblivion but the only problem is the weird lip sync but that doesn't really matter. Sound effects are nice and so is the music. The writing is ok, it makes me think about people playing in a Renaissance fair but that is cool.

I must have played six hours and I've completed a few quests and managed to get my butt kicked a few times (those wolves are nasty and -fair advice- don't poke the bear).

It's fun. By the way I LOVE the fact that creatures can fight each other so when in a tight spot you can retreat and get your enemies to run into a pack of wolves or some bandits... and then finish the survivors (I love doing this in the old Fallouts and in my experience only few games allow you to indulge in that sort of fun).

Looting is fun, you keep finding new (better) stuff to replace the weapons and armours you are using and the vendors carry enough gear to make you want to spend your gold. I got myself a nice Barbarian Machete and a nice flaming club for undead (haven't seen any yet but they're immune to swords).

Any fan of hack and slash CRPGs will have a jolly good time playing this game. I can definitely see myself spending many many hours exploring and questing.

Horse riding is a possibility and it's something that I like in a game (it doesn't make sense not to have horses in such a setting). The only drawback is that the horses are as unwieldy as real life horses... and fighting on horseback is rather frustrating. I'll have to get myself a new horse since I've managed to lose my poney while teleporting to some shrine (blame those nasty wolves).

I'm playing with my controller thanks to Xpadder and that makes the game even more enjoyable but keyboard and mouse is ok. I haven't been using archery much but I can definitely see how handy it can be (especially to take out enemy archers who are clever enough to avoid getting in close range with my guy).

The story seems rather fair as far as main quests go. I must say that I'm in no hurry to get through the main quest given the amount of side quests that seem to be available. My bounty hunter doesn't seem to be out of work any time soon.

My guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer judging by what he says: does that sound like a line from a tutorial or what?

I've found a cute little swordbreaker with a fancy name but I can't use it yet (there is probably a special skill that is required). One good thing is that the inventory is easy to use and since looting is a big part of the game that is a very good point in favour of this game.

The only thing that I find to be really mediocre are the cutscenes/dialogue animations... The opening movie for instance is nothing to wrote home about. It would have looked good in the late 90s it doesn't look good nowadays. That is no big deal as the rest of the game is rather pleasant. The armour design and the weapons are rather nice too. TON had included some screenshots in his presentation and I must say that even low level armours are nice.

All in all it is a very satifying gaming experience so far. I'm already thinking about going crazy on another run with a would be Conan character since you can change your character's morphology. For my first run I've decided to play a more slender guy who isn't too tall either. I would love it if some NPC would tell my character that he expected him to be taller...

Hey, I'm glad that you like TW, Cara. I feel this game to be severely underrated, and I do my part to give it some more exposure.

Patched at v1.7, the game is silky-smooth. The game never crashed on me. I've seen it freeze during loadings, but that has been two or three times in more than a year playing the game.

Also, did you pick up the 4 Centaurium plants near the Dwarven temple at the beginning of the game? You can mix a potion of Dexterity to have a permanant small boost to your DEX.

The main quest sucks. My most advanced game is 25 hours into the game, and I still have a LOT of the map to explore, and there's a crapload of stuff I haven't discovered yet. TW is a game that is never truly finished, there's always the odd quest every now and then. The guild quests should keep you pretty busy and with a pocket full of cash.

Also, if you want a laugh and want to see the empty unfinished Dwarven town, just let me know. I have found this empty town to be an excellent place to store loot. Just spawn chests, drop your loot, place a Teleport Stone, and boom, you've got a super-secure place to store your loot. Okay, it's not really necessary, but that's the paranoiac in me.

You'll be able to use the Swordbreakers once you have the proper skill. Also, you'll find daggers as well. I agree about lower-level armor looking nice, I really like the look of the Ranger armor or the WarMaster armor. Yatholen's Armor remains my favorite... it looks good, and it's piss easy to upgrade to Class 50, it's just time consuming.

I will keep posting TW content, and if you have any content of your own, all the better. I personally got this game for $7, which would be roughly 5 euros. Even at twice or three times it would have still been worth it.

I got it for 20 euros but games are pricey over here and it's the goty edition with a printed game manual and a map. I don't mind, the game seems to be worth it and I woud only have saved 5 euros by getting it online.

I think I've sold the Centaurium plants. Not a real problem. I'm not going to metagame or look for loopholes to get a boost. It's better to keep some challenge in the game.

By the way, is there a level cap? I'm asking because it seems that getting XP and levels is really easy, when I played yesterday I reached level 8 and I wasn't looking for a level up nor grinding xp.

Cara, the Centaurium plants are NOT a loophole, they are Alchemical regents used in combination with the Alchemy skill. Eventually you will find Saffon which gives a permanent boost to your stats, or Ghoul Brains that boost your willpower. You'll find a plethora of alchemical regents that can be brewed for various bonuses. Headless Hearts, for example, boost your Vitality. The more regents you use for a potion, the better quality it will be, and the better the bonuses will be. You'll later find regents that will boost your magical resistances. Alchemy is a crucial skill, learn it as soon as you can. Alchemy also allows you to create Elemental Stones. I think the game is capped at level 99, BUT my highest level NPC is level 60-ish. Level-ups are fairly easy to get, but they gradually get longer and longer. It took me forever to reach level 60. I had to assault the final dungeon to get me some hefty slices of XP from all those powerful Undead. When you get high-level, it's worthless to travel in the part of the map North of the Gon unless you're looking for secrets or something.

I didn't mean that using the plants is exploiting a loophole in the game (like an infinite XP or gold thing or a trick to duplicate existing objects), but since I'm new to the game I see it as some form of foreknowledge/metagaming as my guy doesn't have any experience in alchemy (I'm not saying alchemy is not a big part of the game). It's cool to try different things with different characters.

By the way, on this topic do you find that you can end up with a character who is good at everything (like in Oblivion) or does the way you build your character matter? I prefer games that make you think and plan about your choices rather than allowing your character to master every skills and max out every stats.

I know there are NPCs to rebuild your character if you went for really bad choices so I surmise that the character build matters but I'd like to know what you make of this.

Like I said alchemy is a VERY useful skill, definitively take advantage of this one, my friend, it's absolutely worth it.It is possible to have a PC that is good at fighting, archery, sneak and mage, but splitting your skill points between all of the four above types will make for a versatile PC, but not exactly a good one, especially as a Mage, because there are five schools of magic. Definitively think and plan ahead for what you want your PC to be best at. If you are not satisfied with your build, and don't want to restart anew, you can find "Spirit-patchers" that can reset your skill points (for a price) so you can basically rebuild your PC from scratch.

By the way, is the loot random? Or do monsters always give you the same stuff?

Regarding magic, is it necessary to invest in several lines to the max or can you get away with a mage who specializes in one line? -and thus is free to get some more mundane skills on the side.

I certainly don't mind playing a "specialist" because that alone increases replay value and at the end of the day is more fun (IMO).

Yes, the loot is totally random. The only monsters that give the same stuff are those who give alchemical regents like wolves, boars, bears, dodo birds, chicken, goose, horses, Wyvern and many others. Bandits, caves, Skeletons etc always have randomly generated equipment.

About magic, I personally only specialize in Necromancy. The reasons being "Dead Hands" and "Poison Cloud", two SWEEET necromancy spells. It is best to specialize in one single school, IMO, as you will have access to Fourth and Fifth circle spells in this school faster, which are some of THE very best spells you can get and you definitively want these as soon as possible, they're a real damn good equalizer in combat. I do not bother with magic altogether until learning Necromancy. It is my favorite magic school, and oh yeah, I almost forgot the summons, it's always fun summoning undead.

You're totally right about playing a specialized PC, each run will be totally different. I am thinking about starting a Mage PC, specializing in Necromancy.

My current problem is that I don't know in which branch to specialize. I've picked some archery skills from a trainer but haven't located the other trainers (I don't need tips, looking for them is part of the fun). I like using bows, it's cool hitting enemies without leaving them any opportunity to retaliate.

The snow orcs are wiping the floor with my guy though... I'll have to get some more XP before going after them.

In many ways this game reminds me of Might and Magic VI with all the monsters (that can be deadly), the loot, quests and trainers.

Two Worlds is a bit old school and that is really good.

Keep an eye out for advanced archery trainers, they teach potent skills like Overdraw and Multi-Arrow, which are GREAT skills to have.

If you want to do a Tank type, I'd recomment Balance, Strong Hand, Critical Hit and Knockdown. Balance to get knocked down exponentially less especially when surrounded, strong hand to hit harder, critical hit to be even deadlier and Knockdown against stronger foes. Knock them down on their ass and tear them down. Two Weapons is good as well unless like me you prefer two-handed weapons.

For an Archer: Fast Drawing, Starting Draw, Overdraw, Precise Shooting, Multi-Arrow, Pierce. Fast drawing to fire at rapid pace, Starting Draw to take less time to power up a shot at full strength, overdraw to squeeze out more damage out of your bow, Precise Shooting for critical shots, multi-arrow for combat at point blank range, and Pierce to kill more than one enemy. A well-built archer is LETHAL.

Have you been to Tharbarkin yet? There are a couple of quests to be obtained in town and around town.

Not yet, I've been busy in the country, I've got myself a few totems and an archmage's staff plus my bounty hunter is getting some good rep from the brotherhood, the mages and the necromancers.

It's funny that violence is not always the key.

The main quest seems pretty awful so far but that was expected.

Thanks for the tips regarding archery, for now I've only put a few points in there as I wanted some better melee damage and some lockpicking as well. It's funny because my little guy does much more damage with his composite bow. Archery is fun.

Damn right archery is fun. It's actually developed with interesting and useful skills, Ob had no such thing. Oh yeah, have you picked up the Brotherhood quest about the Corral? Do it and you'll find an archery trainer. Also, hang on to the totems, they are quest items.

That's the only trainer I've met so far. I'm not in a rush to find the others, like I said the reward is in finding them on your own.

As for the totems I understand that any item that has no weight and no price is a quest item.

They're related to a guild quest, keep an eye out for grom camps, you need more than one totem for the quest.

I know about the totem quest.

I've also found some new trainers (thievery and most magic schools). My new guy is going to be an archer/thief mostly but I like trying things out.

By the way, what about extra spell cards? I've got quite a few and they stack in my magic screen. Is there any advantage to be gained from having several cards for the same spell?

Yes. The more spell cards stacked in one of your three magic quickslots boost it's potency.

Good to know. I've been through the manual (having a paper manual for a change helps) but I didn't get that. Is there a limit to the number of cards you can stack?

None that I know of. In my most advanced game I have I think 23 cards of Poison Cloud stacked, and the spell dished out a ridiculous amount of damage. I am not aware of a limit for booster cards, but those are MUCH harder to come by.

That's cool. I've looked at my cards in game and that is just like you said. Pretty nice since looting is so much fun.

I'm also enjoying playing a thief. Pickpocket is not that easy and it will get you into trouble but since I don't use it that much and I've made sure I didn't speak to Candohar so I wouldn't start the main quest I should be fine.

I always steer as far as I can from the Main quest. I want nothing to do with this generic snoozefest.

Ok so I got rid of pickpocket (I got the extra skillpoint for picking 30 pockets so I'm good). I've maxed out alchemy to brew some potions to get some extra points in my stats and now I'm retraining my guy.

I think I'm going to drop two weapons as a two hander is more efficient in my experience (although dual wielding looks cool, a two hander is great for keeping the bad guys at bay while striking from a distance) since I want to specialize I'm going to invest in archery (it's a pity I haven't unlocked the special archery attacks -but that's some stuff for later as I haven't even been south of Tharbarkin yet).

I'm contemplating investing in sneak for the death strike (assassins are cool) and possibly a magic line. It's trial and error but I guess I can't go wrong with Necromancy (it's either that or fire magic since these are the lines I have the most cards for). What you said about Necromancy is interesting so I think I'll go for that magic line. I may just keep sneak for later as it will seriously cost me a large amount of skill points when I could max out Necromancy for the same cost (and I'm not sure sneaking meshes that well with archery).

I have to consider taking some defensive stuff to avoid getting knocked down as well. Decisions, more decisions... It's fun!

EDIT: Necromancy is now at skill level 14 (out of 15) which means I'll get maxed out pretty soon. I'll have to find more cards to boost my deck. My character is using a Whistling Death bow with a range of 70 and is listed as dishing out more than 6K of bludgeoning damage (more like 7K with the fire damage included). It means that I don't have to worry about low level monsters like Groms and wolves anymore (one hit is enough for those creeps). I may never use a melee weapon again.

DEFINITIVELY invest points in Balance even if you're not a Melee fighter! Two-handed weapons are super useful with Deadly Pirouette. Surrounded? Swing that bigass weapon, smash and crush, slice and dice, or whatever your weapon of choice is. Good choice picking up Necromancy, I have found Fire Magic to be weaker in offensive spells. Poison Cloud is absolutely lethal, it has good range and it's super quick to cast. Dead Hands is also a must -- if one tough enemy annoys you, cast Dead Hands. You can do all sorts of nice stuff as the target is held and defenseless..... Oh one more thing, no, Sneaking and Archery do not mix. You can, however, sneak, then pull out the bow and shoot. If you're well-hidden enough, you'll be fine. Higher-level Archery makes this even better, once you kill one enemy, let the others run towards you and take them down with Multi-Arrow. Swift and effective.

I mostly use magic to buff. Necromancy is a very useful magic for protection. I haven't tried other lines that much but I find the antipoison, defense boosting spell is useful.

To be frank the game is getting much easier (but I have been cleaning up some areas above Tharbakin so I shall see what there is in store for my character down south).

The damage output with the bow is simply insane and it keeps getting better with more damage and even more fire bonus (it's closer to 10K now). The funny thing is that I haven't have the special archery skills yet (no multi arrow so far) so it can only get better.

I got a little crazy and sold all my melee weapons to purchase a ring that added 13 points to dexterity (I had to get it!) so now when it comes to melee I simply pick whatever weapon I can find but to be frank, ever since I specialized my character in archery I haven't been using any melee weapon.

Good call on the sneak thing. Archery and sneaking don't blend that well. Besides as cool as backstabs are they require a major investment and I'd rather spend 15 points on a magic line instead.

Be sure not to miss out on offensive and summons Necromancy spells, Cara. You can summon meat shields to busy the enemy with while you snipe them down with an arrow or slice their throats with a Death Attack,

No worries, I'm keeping the cards but I've never liked summons (in any game), they tend to cramp my style. My guy is a one man army and proud of it.

Seriously, this game is way better than I thought. I enjoy it more than Obivion and almost as much as the Witcher! It gets even better and I haven't reached Calathon yet!

Level 36, 11 skill points to spend and almost 100K in gold: that's the way I like it.