Various Thoughts

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.

With my equipment and skills essentially maxed out earlier (and wanting to start playing Two Worlds II), I decided to not bother exploring every nook and cranny and just go to the last few quest locations and finish the game up.

Surprisingly, the lower half of the map has some new enemies to fight. None of them were much of a challenge though except the Lava Dragons and Adamantium Golems, which took forever to kill. Everything else fell to either 1-2 Multi Shot volleys (most stuff) or 1-2 Berserk-enhanced melee combos (Scorpions, Sand Dragons, and Stone Golems).

Both endings are kind of abrupt and disappointing sadly. Which is unfortunate, but I did have quite a bit of fun scouring the countryside for loot earlier and the developers obviously put a lot of effort into the textures; there’s quite a bit of variety in both the environments and the creatures, which helps mask the repetitiveness of the game’s combat system. So all in all I guess it was worth the… whatever it was I payed for it when it was on sale oh so long ago (it’s definitely worth the 99 cents it’s on sale for now).

As with Gothic 3, calling this a midpoint isn’t quite accurate since the game’s only as long/short as you want it to be. Half the map is cleared though so it’s close enough.

At level 66 now and I experimented with both magic and ranged combat to see what ended up being the most powerful. Basically, it comes down to this:

Melee: 20x Exotic Hachet/Armor Opener (no element) at 200 Str = ~5500 Damage
Melee Boost: Strong Hand (Rank 10) + Berserk (Rank 10) = +500% Damage

Ranged: 20x Whistling Death (no element) and 20x Ornamented Quiver at 200 Dex = ~11100 Damage
Ranged Boost: Overdraw (Rank 10) & Multi Arrow (Rank 10) = +100% Damage and +4 attacks

Magic: 20x Eruption (Earth Rank 15) with 5x +Damage/+Level/-Cost = 9390 Damage for 1174 Mana
Magic Boost: 20x Concentration (Air Rank 15) with 5x +Damage/+Level/-Cost = +2370% Damage on 1 attack for 305 Mana

So melee is most efficient at low skill levels (you only ‘need’ Strong Hand and Berserk), ranged at high skill levels (you need all four passives), and magic is best for doing insane amounts of one-time damage (but requires a ton of vendor farming). I have not run across all the spell cards yet but the ones I have point toward magic being best as a support ability; Strength of God, Adamantium Shield/Reflection Shield, and Grapple Ivy/Freezing Wave are great at eliminating melee/ranged weaknesses. Summoning seems to be near-useless since the best summons max out at level 30.

Some other worthwhile things to know, in no particular order:

• Force Triple Buffering and Vsync in your graphic card’s settings to reduce the stuttering.
• Equipment can’t be stacked beyond 50.
• Spell Booster bonuses max out at 5.
• The best equipment starts appearing around level 40.
• One-handed axes stop appearing around level 50.
• Pure-piercing damage spears stop appearing at around level 50.
• Items can have a maximum of 5 enchantments.
• I’ve never seen the magic schools, Sneak, or Steal appear as +Skill equipment enchantments.
• I’ve never seen an enchanted dagger or swordbreaker.
• Only certain herbs are worth collecting.
  • Blue Eye/Screama Badilla/Ostrich Plumes if you want to make +50% magic stones.
  • Dotted Toadstool/Adder Brother to make poison immunity potions.
  • Saffron/Lavender/Centaurium/Nothern Frostroot for the permanent stat boosts.
• When making stat-boosting potions, use either 4 minerals and 6 mana/health potions or 10 herbs.
• When making stat-boosting potions try to make sure all the ingredients boost the same stat.
• Poison prevents mana regeneration.
• Berserk and Critical Hit don’t stack.
• Sneak does not affect Steal success or Lockpick crime reporting.
• Stealing often has to be done from the front/side of a target.
• If NPCs attack after Lockpicking something, running far enough away will usually reset them.
• Strength increases melee damage, Dexterity ranged damage, and raising the magic skills increases magic damage.
• Carry Weight maxes out at 500.
• Different enemies resist different types of damage; make sure to have both a bludgeoning and slashing weapon.
• There’s not much off the beaten path besides more enemies to kill.
• The only use for swimming so far was to reach 4 small islands, each with a stat-boosting potion.

Ever played Gothic? Well this game is just like it:

Clunky melee that lets you dominate with hit and run tactics, a large map to explore with enemies that don’t respawn, a difficult beginning until you pick up a level or two, a forced male MC with slightly jokey voice acting, the ability to attack/kill NPCs, a wide variety of skills to customize your character with, and tons of stat-boosting herbs scattered around the map to collect.

Been playing for a while now, reached level 33 and just got around to entering the first town to max out Alchemy in order to use all the permanent stat boosters I’ve been collecting from the ground and NPCs’ pockets (the Steal skill is actually good since it lets you find stat/damage boosters instead of just gold). Other good all-around early skills would be Lockpick (get it up to level 8 and keep it there) and Set Trap (traps do tons of damage). I haven’t used much magic (mainly just Heal) or any archery yet, but for melee you don’t really need anything more than Strong Hand and Critical Hit; I have Parry up pretty high but it never seems to do anything… and you shouldn’t be getting hit in the first place.

So yeah, if you’ve played Gothic II or III before you should feel right at home. If you haven’t, then it might be better to start with this since it’s more forgiving of character building mistakes (there’s a repeatable respec option available in towns that can reset your stat/skill points).