While theoretically a sequel to Two Worlds, Two Worlds II is effectively no such thing. Not really. It’s more like a sequel to an alternate universe version of Two Worlds; the geography and character history are completely different.
As far as mechanics go however it is definitely a sequel and the two games feel very similar despite some rather drastic changes (some good, most bad). Let’s get the good out of the way first so that I can dwell on the bad:
Magic damage now scales with Willpower, summons can actually reach a decent power level (level 40 with doubled strength), you can now have more than 3 spells, unique loot has been added (received as quest rewards), melee combat is a bit more dynamic, and… well, that’s about it really. Short list huh?
The list of degradations is a little longer: The GUI is atrocious, Steal is now useless (awful rewards and an awful mini-game), Alchemy is now next-to-useless, killing wildlife no longer grants decent XP past a certain level (making exploration pointless, since that’s all that’s out there), lockpicking quickly becomes an annoying chore (lock difficulty scales with your character level), spellcasting requires an equipped staff, a ton of quest-locked doors, and dungeons are somehow even less rewarding than they were before (30+ generic enemies; ~maybe~ 2 chests with the same leveled loot you can find in people’s houses).
As far as combat goes I like the magic changes and all in all those are a major improvement despite the the new staff requirement and a continued dependence on vendor-farming. The melee changes seem good at first, but it quickly becomes clear that most of the variety is superficial with it now being attack->block instead of combo->dodge. And as for ranged, well I’ve not touched ranged so I can’t comment on that.
Exploration and loot is what makes or breaks a game like this though, and so far (just reached New Ashos) that department is where the game really falls flat. There is literally no point whatsoever in visiting an area that a quest marker isn’t directing you toward (unless you enjoy continuously discovering conspicuously out of place doors you can’t open) and the loot is painfully uninteresting with blatantly obvious tiering.
The second island is only like 10% the size of the first, and despite having just arrived I already know there’s nothing out there besides a bunch of trash-mobs to kill in uninteresting ways. I have zero motivation to keep exploring and honestly now just want to go re-play Neverwinter Nights 2 with a Monk-Sorcerer or mod in some sort of new fighter/mage class in Dragon Age or something.
That said, I think I’ll try to power through the rest of this game first to see if the Tenebrae content is any better. Maybe switching over to a magic-first strategy will help the unrewarding combat since the spell creation system does actually have some variety to it.