coldshadow said:
saw two worlds on the shelf for 15 bucks, so I thought I would give it a try.
a part of my died when I played that game.
I...
I did the exact same thing.
That game is an absolute pile of crap, it has infantile writing, awful graphics (And I mean awful as in 'they were lazy and didn't do their jobs right', NOT 'last generation graphics'), some of the ugliest character models I've ever been forced to look at, etc, etc...
For some reason though, I felt compelled to keep playing it, something clicked with me on a level that I couldn't quite put into words at the time.
...
So, as a bit of a gaming related science experiment I played the living shit out of the thing just to see if it had any good bits, and I came to a surprising conclusion:
I liked some of the actual mechanics of the game.
Let me explain, so the actual leveling system was for the most part pretty much RPG ISO standard, kill shit, do shit quest, get shit XP, and level shit up every so often. What was a little different is that while major attributes like strength, wisdom, dexterity, etc, could only be increased at a level up, your skills could be increased by gaining skill points and you can earn those by exploring the world.
That really appeals to me, in most RPG type games it seems like the world at large outside of the major quest lines is just kind of 'there', maybe some side quests might take you off the beaten path or perhaps your someone who just likes exploring, but usually it feels like it's all just there for you to go look at if you feel like it.
The game mechanic above takes the rest of the world from just being 'there' to something you get actual tangible benefits from exploring, and I mean an immediate and relatively powerful benefit, not just a parcel of XP. I really applaud the idea.
Also, for those of you have played Oblivion or Fallout 3 I'm sure you are familiar with the ole' 'quick-travel' mechanic. It's something I like overall because it makes it so you're not trudging all over Middle-Earth and fucking back just to do the 'bring me five kitten spleens? side quest, but if implemented poorly it has ... problems. The biggest offender is Oblivion, where you start the game with THE MAJOR CITIES ALREADY ON YOUR MAP AND AVALIBLE FOR QUICK TRAVEL, thus destroying any compelling reason to manually travel anywhere and see what?s on the way. Fallout 3 was an improvement on the situation, being that you had to actually FIND the place first, but I still could never shake the feeling that I was just being beamed around by the fucking starship Enterprise.
So, something that Two Worlds did that I heartily approve of is they still had something that approximated quick-travel, but that had an actual LOGICAL in game reason for being. What it was is that scattered around the game world there are 'ancient Elven teleports' that can transport you from one to another. But, they start the game all turned off, so you actually have to FIND the bastards first before you can use them and for me at least knowing how and why you're able to instantly travel around the world like that instantly dispelled the whole 'beamed down by Scotty' feeling.
...
Ok, that was quite a tangent I just went off on. Point is: Two Worlds, shit game, awful impulse buy. I guess the reason I care as much about the above points as I do it that while playing I can't shake the feeling that someone at South Peak Interactive actually, well, knows what the hell they're doing and actually gives a shit about doing a good job.
I wonder what it would be like if they were to get hired on at an actual GOOD company and get to apply their ideas.
Back on topic now, I also bought Mirrors Edge as an impulse buy the day it came out.
Yeah, I regret that one also. It's not a /BAD/ game per-se, but it sure as hell wasn't worth what I paid for it.
