Dynafire has 132 chronicles

1. Engine.GrassQ 0: a Two Worlds review
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jul 02 2010

   I have recently decided to take a swim in a game generally regarded as being a terrible Oblivion clone, and to an extent, that's exactly what it is. Imagine the lush scenery of Oblivion but in 1st generation-looking Xbox graphics. Then throw frame rate issues, a lack of music, control issues, and a cross-eyed main character into the mix, and you've got GOTY written all over it. /sarcasm.
   
   Two Worlds is a game I played because I wanted to see how truly bad it was. What ended up happening is a strange and mysterious force came over me, and I found myself actually enjoying the game. Is it worth your time to beat this game? Yes. Over the course of about 17 hours, I explored a fair portion of the world, beat the main quest, and got all but the "find x locations" achievements. That's not a huge time commitment, unlike Oblivion with its seemingly infinite fetch quests. Here's where the title of the review comes in. See, there's a command console in the PC version that lets you fiddle with various game parameters. This feature also made it to the Xbox 360, and is something that more games should take advantage of. The Engine.GrassQ 0 command turns off grass. In doing so, it reduces a lot of what needs to be processed, and makes the game run fairly smooth. The terrain looks kind of weird without grass in it, but it's something I became accustomed to over time.
   
   Anyway, here's what I liked and disliked about Two Worlds:
   
   Likes:
   
   A "big but not too big" world
   
   Two worlds is an open world game. I probably should have come straight out and said this at the start, but I thought the Oblivion comparison might already have given that impression. While not nearly as large as Tamriel, Two World's world is big, but not so big as to make exploring anywhere in the wild a chore. There are teleport locations scattered throughout the map, making travel quick and easy as well. In those 17 to 18 hours I played the game, it's worth noting that I spent the entirety of the game on foot. There are horses as well, but they move so horribly, I didn't bother (more on that later). There are also quite a few distinct regions, from the generic medievil setting, to a Mt. Doom-esque area, an eerie dead forest, and a desert.
   
   Weapon/equipment combination
   
   Remember finding two dozen of the same sword in any other game involving a fair about of loot, then lamenting the fact that you have found a worthless item? True, you can sell those extras for gold, but here, you can combine two like weapons to form a stronger version of it. The same applies to armor. The only catch is that if you get items with added effects, like skill or stat boosts, you can only have five different effects on that item. There are quite a few towns that have dozens of merchants in them too, so finding like weapons and armor to buy and combine is usually not difficult.
   
   Lots of loot, albeit random
   
   One of the things that irked me the most about Oblivion was random loot. You're never really guaranteed to come out of an hour-long dungeon with anything better than what you went in with. Two worlds is exactly the opposite. The dungeons I've encountered are generally small, and you get to the loot quickly. In nearly every chest I opened, I found something useful, whether it was something that could be combined with an item I already had, or whether it was something simply better than my current equipment. Shops carry random items as well, but there are so many of them, you will likely find what you need at one of them. There's lots of camps scattered throughout the world, containing bandits, grom (goblins), orcs, etc. Each one of them has one or two chests to plunder too, so it's like getting rewarded for exploration.
   
   No scaling enemies
   
   I have never been a fan of scaling enemies in games. It is a stupid concept that needs to go away and never show its stupid, fat face around these parts again. Why, you ask? Because (I know you're not supposed to start a sentence with "because", but it's not like I'm a professional, so nyah) it makes you feel like your character is not getting stronger, because they aren't. Why does it take three strikes to kill a wolf at level 20 when it took four to kill it at level 1? Shouldn't I be a walking death machine capable of one hit kills on basic enemies? I mean really. Not to mention that Oblivion was impossible to beat at a high level. I tried multiple times at level 38 to finish the game, but absolutely could not beat the final quest. The enemies were just too freaking strong, and no matter what I did, the person I had to escort got killed every single time. The only way I could beat it was turn the game's difficulty to "very easy". That's excellent game design. Enough ranting about Oblivion though. Enemies do not scale to your level in this game, and that is how it ought to be, is my point. Eventually, you will become strong enough to get one hit kills on less powerful enemies. The entire species doesn't magically gain 3 times the HP it had before you leveled, so stronger weapons and armor are not just there to compensate for that change, they actually make your character stronger.
   
   Dislikes:
   
   Bugs, bugs, bugs
   
   It's no secret that this game is plagued by technical issues. Removing the grass does wonders for the frame rate, but it doesn't alleviate a lot of other problems. Manually aiming your magic or bow is nigh impossible because the aiming is so fidgety. The draw distance isn't that far, so you'll have characters and objects popping into existence two feet in front of you sometimes, and lots of other graphical hiccups exist as well. Still, it's playable, and when the game runs well, it's very enjoyable.
   
   Horses
   
   Like trying to drive a train that has ingested a large amount of crack cocaine. If that makes sense.
   
   Camera controls
   
   The camera bothered me a lot, I'm not gonna lie. It's too sensitive, so when you want to look up or down, you almost always end up looking to the left or right as well. You sort of learn to compensate for it, but it would be nice if you didn't have to. It's especially wonky when riding a horse.
   
   Lack of music/wind chimes/animal noises
   
   Not much to say about this other than there are only a handful of different tracks in the game, and they seem to only play in towns. There are also wind chime noises present in nearly every village that are somewhat irritating. Same with the wildlife when you're out adventuring. I don't know what some of those animals were supposed to be, but they surely don't sound like they belong in this game.
   
   The graphics, I guess
   Truthfully, I don't care about how good a game looks, as long as the gameplay is decent. A lot of you people do care about visuals though, so I'll just say the game is pretty "blah" in the graphics department. It's not exactly ugly, but if you're wanting to play something pretty, look elsewhere.
   
   Conclusion:
   
   In conclusion, Two Worlds is not the greatest game out there, but if you're looking for a time killer, this should fill that spot nicely. Then again, I bet a lot of you are not as tolerable of flaws as I, and will hate this game immensely. Still, try it before you judge it. I hated the first couple of hours until I discovered the Engine.GrassQ 0 command, but got semi-addicted to the game once I did. Plus, it is easy achievement points, and the game runs about $7 used at Gamestop.

   
   

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Dynafire has 2 comment s on this chronicle.

1. Seripha
   Posted On Jul 06 2010

   Mmmm, Dynafire classic. Just what my day needed. I definitely understand and appreciate Dynafire's unique take and taste on games, especially the non-mainstream ones. If there is anything Dynafire and I meet on squarely, it's not following the masses.
   
   Sounds to me like this game is one that would be enjoyed by those with a particular taste for its poison. However, It does sound like a great time killer. Fortunately, I am nowhere near being in the "I'm out of games to play" boat. The list of games I am backed up on and waiting to play is rather immense at this juncture.
   
   A good review, nonetheless, and if all else fails, I'll have something mediocre to fall back on.

2. BEN
   Posted On Jul 03 2010

   You have a unique way of making a bad game sound like a good time, haha. Nice detail throughout this video game review and thanks for sharing your thoughts on this title.
   
   I had never heard of this game, but that's not uncommon with you. I admire your desire to find games that are truly what YOU enjoy...and not just the mainstream/modern games that the media tells you to enjoy
   
   Nice to see you writing Chronicles again, so keep it up sir...