I can’t help but still think back about how blown away I was by how astoundingly good everything in the game’s world looked. The detailed sculptures and buildings in the oriental inspired village are just as astounding as the medieval themed city’s gruff landscape. The locales in the cityscapes each have their own personality and intricacies too. Between the individual blades of grass, a rocky mountain path, or a dark dank cave, the environments are nothing short of breathtaking. I’ll say it again about the details you will be hard pressed to find a more visually appealing game in terms of the world you will be exploring. The fact that the torches also gave off heat distortion much like that of a hot summer day was also a very nice and appreciated detail. Each and every little ember even casts its own light source and shadowing before extinguishing on the way to the ground. Multiple - sometimes overlapping - shadows were shown while the main character was holding a torch that had little embers falling off said torch. This was plainly evident thanks to the lamps in a tunnel the game’s main character was traveling through. Each and every single light source actually casts its own light and shadows. The detail going into the lighting and shadow effects are something a lot of people may overlook, but for me it was one of the features I appreciated the most. The level of detail and care taken when designing the environments and enemy characters is very evident and there are a lot of little things that gamers will really appreciate.
Even in the early stage build I was shown, I can tell you that the game looks gorgeous. A lot of people claimed that the first was visually unimpressive and that for a current generation title, the graphics were not up to snuff. TopWare Interactive was kind enough to show me a build of the new game rapidly approaching beta certification, and what I was shown should not be compared to the original. Reality Pump, the developers of Two Worlds, had no prior experience developing for the console and the rushed nature of the port was the cause of pretty much all of the glitches, bugs, and general complaints to be had.
The first game was actually originally going to be a PC exclusive and was rushed to the Xbox 360 at essentially the eleventh hour. Many gamers - myself included - avoided the game thanks to word of mouth and those who actually did play it found it to be plagued with glitches, bugs, and poor gameplay. When the original Two Worlds came out, it was met with poor reviews and was quoted as a bad Oblivion clone. I believe a little history lesson is in order first. Two Worlds II (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) Take it from a gamer and a fellow member of the community: I think you may be a lot more surprised than you might expect. The people I met with were more than happy to discuss it and I highly suggest you read this preview. I don’t want to read this preview since I really didn’t like the first game and my expectations aren’t that high for this one!” Before you all start jumping to conclusions I think some back story about the first game is in order. I know a lot of you must be thinking “But Funk! Why would you want to do such a thing when the first was so terrible? I pity you.
It was a very enjoyable weekend and besides the tons of fun I had with my fellow Dtoiders checking out upcoming releases, getting a bunch of swag, and just having a blast causing mayhem, I had an obligation to preview Two Worlds II for Destructoid. As some of you may know, I won a little contest that sent me to PAX East.