Modding on the Spectrum

After I watched some episodes of the anime series The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, I got the urge to play a fantasy role playing game again (that is not Skyrim or Oblivion which I played very extensively in the past and I wanted a different setting). Then Two Worlds came to my mind. I played it about 17 years ago and don't remember much so it's like a fresh start. I remember getting through the main quest pretty quickly and I liked the huge selection of equipment. Memories of magical towers and an Asian-style city (which was deserted after a certain event) surfaced. I still know how the main story ended. This time I want to delve deeper into the game world by doing more side quests and more exploring. I will ignore the main quest for the time being just like I did with Starfield. I play Two Worlds to balance out my work on my mod projects (for Oblivion at the moment) as a (modding) burnout prevention so to speak.

Long story short, here are a couple of impressions - more will follow:

Nameless hero who wants to rescue his sister from an evil dude

I call him Leon this time (I called him Fernando when I played the sequel last year)

Forest landscape


Flower Meadow


Same scene as before but without the character and the HUD turned off (cheat: showinterface 0)


This could be one of the teleports

I haven't activated the teleports yet. According to my research, the corresponding quest begins in Komorin Village and that's where the evil dude is waiting for Leon. Let's see if I can avoid him.

Some other equipment


The city of Tharbakin


I hope I can get this armor sometime in the game

Evil dude: "Hey Leon! Talk with me!"
Leon just looks at him and continues walking as if nothing had happened.
Evil dude: "Why are you ignoring me??!!!"


Luckily, I was able to walk past him. I just had to keep enough distance.

Yup, that's a teleport


The sun looks gorgeous


Fashion parade


On the hunt


Fighting the Reapers


Mysterious tower in the distance


Attack of the Zombies


Cementery



As a side note, I had to cap the FPS of the game because I experienced coil whine (from the graphics card?) in caves. Then I used the Game Bar to display the FPS and it was over 200 in the overworld alone - it must be much higher in the caves. After I limited the FPS via the Nvidia Control Panel to 60 the coil whine was gone (the game hasn't this option).

I have now played the game for over 8 hours and I have the underlying feeling that I have achieved more in this time than in 80 hours of Starfield. Of course I was exaggerating. I think this feeling is due to the vastness of Starfield where the distances between the locations are way much larger plus the time I spent in the clunky menus. In Two worlds you don't have to walk far to find interesting things. You can also ride a horse in the game. I rode the horse at the beginning. Then I parked it near the teleport in Komorin Village and use its inventory to store my stuff (when you see the horseshoe symbol, press the I key to open the horse's inventory - you don't need to sit on the horse to open it). There is also a merchant nearby, which is very practical.


Enjoying the evening light


Mysterious structures

The city on the right side of the second image is Cathalon, the royal capital of the land of Antaloor. I will go there later.

Ruins in the mist


Ancient painting


The dark tower


Well, I need to do the main quest if I want to enter the tower via the portal. I'm not in a hurry...


Greeted by the stag


At the sea


Interesting pattern on the armor


There are some kind of dinosaurs in the game


Finally a dark armor


Picturesque coastal village


Pirate ship


And the pirate that goes with it


The spirits of killed opponents appear in the night

You should have a magical weapon and/or an attack spell with you, as normal weapons do not damage them.

Here you feel right at home

The necromancer

Leon met a necromancer named Basil Tylar in front of a cottage near Komorin Village.


He asked Leon if he could get him Hangman's Rope from Gallows Hill, as he needed it for one of his experiments. Leon agreed.


He found one and Basil completed the Black Magic Doll with it.


The next step was for Leon to take the doll to a bandit camp where it caused a great deal of mischief. Leon really didn't think that something like this could happen. He confronted Basil, but he didn't listen to him and babbled something about a murder contract instead.


He didn't want to have anything to do with this madman anymore, turned round and walked towards the rising moon.




Dark armor No. 2


Camps of House of Skelden (one of the competing factions)


Encounter with the dwarves


Leon has finally defeated the cyclops that one-hit him back then


Tower near the defeated cyclops


The undead give no peace


Maliel Shrine (restores your health)


Ominous atmosphere


Nice sword


Yes, you can fight with two swords at the same time


Aren't you cold?


Ok, here's Leon without his beloved helmets

An Ogre


"One day I will go there..."


Merchant's guild building (each of the cities has one)


Eerie sky


Black Wyverns


Morning gymnastics


Deserted boats


A somewhat different mount


Why is the fire still burning?


Qudinar

I have played the game about 22 hours, my character has reached level 45 and the poor evil dude is still standing in Komorin Village and Leon continues to ignore him - will his sister ever be saved? The exploring and grinding part of the game is addictive. The quests are a mixed bag of beans. A big part of the quests are simple fetch and kill things quests. But a few quests left me wondering. I wondered if it would have been better if I hadn't interfered (for example, a woman sacrificed her life for the good of all and a village was wiped out because I was too nosy). The dungeons need some variety - the ones in Skyrim are a way better. I can't pick up objects like plates or mugs and I can't use furniture like chairs or beds. The game has a great selection of armors and weapons. The only thing I don't like about them are the equipment restrictions that a lof of armor pieces have, e.g. you can't swim or fight with two weapons when you wear certain pieces of equipment. However, the equipment parts that have these restrictions have mostly better protection values than the ones without these restrictions. I play with two-handed weapons most of the time so this is not a big deal. If I want to go swimming I take the armor parts in question off. Sometimes I want to fight with two weapons but I don't want to take different armor sets with me all the time as the inventory space is scarce. A magical chest that I can access remotely would be ideal. I have no idea how I can mod the game to implement this.

Those were my current thoughts on the game. Now I'll continue with the impressions aka screenshots.

Windbreak Village


An Orc named White Head


Leveled up


"Oh, a shiny new thing. It's mine!"


Bad-ass helmet


Bad-ass sword - The Orc Killer

The screenshot was also taken in Windbreak Village.

Dragon


"I can feel the power"

I added fire magic to the sword via the magical gems.

Finally a complete black armor set (except the helmet)


Sunshine and rain


Snake


Broken bridge


Remnants of a war


Rocky towers


Bones of dragon


This could be my new home

I may settle there later when my character is stronger because the creatures is this region are bit too strong.

The dragons are the victims of a magical experiment gone wrong


Cloudy sky


Necro mount

The horse can be found at the foot of Storm Claw Tower.

I managed to get on top of one of the towers (the teleport worked this time)


A duel without a victor

(the left one is White Head from the previous post)

Bamboo forest


Ashos



If you take this artifact...

Spoiler

... then Ashos will be overrun by Orcs. The artifact protects the city from their attacks. I really regretted taking the artifact in my previous playthrough, but it was necessary to progress in the main quest.

I have explored most of the area north of the river Gon. South of the river live the Orcs and this area is a wasteland with the exception of Ashos and the bamboo forests in the western part of this area. I only made a short detour into the wasteland and quickly returned to Ashos to do a few side quests. Since I don't particularly like the wasteland, I'm done exploring the game. Exploring and the associated grinding were my main activities in the game. Now that these are gone, I don't see much point in continuing to play the game, as the side quests alone don't cut it plus I killed the majority of the opponents and these don't respawn.

As I mentioned in a previous post, most side quests were simple fetch/kill things quests. For some of the quests, the solution was illogical. Example:

In Ashos, two siblings are fighting over the inheritance, a forge. The quest could only be solved by killing one of them.

Yes, Skyrim has fetch/kill things side quests, too, however I somehow feel more connected to their story and the fates of the quest givers. Maybe it's due to fact that I see a lot of cloned NPCs in Two Worlds.

Long story short, Two World's side quests lack a lot of immersion. Does that make it a bad game? It depends on what you focus on. If you're after a good story and interesting side quests, then I wouldn't recommend the game. If you like exploration with a diverse selection of weapons, armor, enemies and locations, you might have fun with the game - I did until there was nothing left worth exploring.