So I bought the game on a sale. Then I noticed the sequel's doing fairly well for itself, what with having a mini-expansion involving pirates and generally having better critical success than before. What I'm wondering is, at this very moment, how do the two games compare?

I haven't played the second one yet, but what I've been hearing is that it's definitely a stronger game. The first one isn't bad though... after extensive patching it runs without too many hassles, and I enjoyed it. I would guess that, at this very moment, one could label the first game as "good" and the second game as "better".

The first game was a buggy mess on release, though, which is why it got such low review scores.

Hello Nettacki01!

I happen to just have bought Two Worlds 2 a few days ago - then I saw that great discount on Two Worlds 1 on Gog.com. I had played TW1 a few years ago through some special (legal) streaming website which charges a monthly fee for access to a variety of games. I forgot if I ever played it through back then and no idea if I had access to any of the addons there. I remembered that I liked the game immensely so I just bought it when it was discounted a few days ago. I even bought two copies.

Well, now, that I had already played a few hours of TW 2 I find it extremely hard to play TW 1 again. I guess I am spoiled... my sincere suggestion is to play TW 1 as much and as long as you can and enjoy it while you can. And only afterwards move on to TW 2. Graphics in TW 2 made TW 1 look like a game from 1995. TW 2 was probably the most expensive game I have ever bought in my life, I usually only buy older games with heavy discounts. I don't regret it so far, graphics are beautiful and I love the fact I can play TW 2 with my newly bought Xbox 360 controller. I keep missing that in TW 1. The interface in TW 2 seems a lot clearer, too. So, if you can, don't spoil yourself by playing them at the same time or by playing TW 2 before you have a chance to play TW 1.

I asked myself the same and found a pretty thorough comparison of graphics and gameplay, with screenshots and comments, that I found surprisingly useful so thought I'd share it:
http://twoworldsvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Editorials.Detail&id=71
http://twoworldsvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Editorials.Detail&id=72

(Edit: Oops, noticed I forgot an obvious +1 for starting a relevant topic many might find useful! Thank you, and fixed..)

TW2 is actually a very good sequel.

The devs expanded on the gameplay, both melee and magic get improved as well as the story mechanics.

Although the original had a really free-roam, explore huge dangerous world thing going (TW2 is free-roam as well but a bit more guiding) so it is still worth playing.

Overall both excellent and underrated games, much more fun than Oblivion\Skyrim for me so definitely check them out, TW1 for just $10 is a good deal.

I heard something about having to click left-right when riding? That true? Actually TW1 is the first game where I take my horse everywhere and wouldn't like TW2 to change anything with that - espercially having to constantly click around to move forward sounds weird. But it's just something I've read on ones "I'm pissed" TW2-bashing post somewhere..

So, any intel regarding horsies in comparison?

Good feedback, I haven't played TW2 so.. :-) I wouldn't agree on the graphics thing though. :-D When TW1 came, I'd never seen anything like it, and even today I'm impressed, especially if you tweak all internals.

Of course, I did notice that you're meaning in comparison, and I agree. ;-) TW2 feature one even more nasty engine! Btw, for programmers or the curious, here's an in-depth pdf about the SSAO techniques in TW2:

[url=http://twoworldsvault.ign.com/fms/Download.php?id=1190 ]SSAO - the challenges[/url]

Hehehe.. does anyone ever check the links I posted?! ;-) Comparison of horse mechanics are included there too. I'm gonna refer to another thread with the same questions, in which I refer to this one.. ;-D (Ok, I've written a few lines about it too)

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/two_worlds/two_worlds_2_question

By digging through the html source... An super-convenient link that takes you right to the horse comparison on the page:

http://twoworldsvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Editorials.Detail&id=72#horses

:-)

Yeah, I've read that comparison you linked, but only after posting :D

And since I figured that the exact mechanics aren't described there (just something about forward, kicking and 3/4th stamina) I thought I'd leave the question open.

But I somewhat lost my interest in TW2 when reading that horse locations get reset - all but for one horse. That's neither logical to have two behaviors, nor it's a nice thought to see a much more beautiful horse than the one I'm stuck with because it's the only "functional" one.

This no bashing - just one big issue for me, considering the world probably won't be smaller than the first one and I very much enjoyed TW1s horses to really stay where I left them. Even creating my own stable at Ho's Hut and knowing where which horse is all the time :D

Btw: What happens to the items that the horse carries when it's location gets reset?

+1 for reading it... ;) nah, for your post of course hehe...

Yeah, I agree about that. Doesn't matter how cool they've made horse mechanism with that bummer. My decision on TW2 is pending, for that and a lot of other things. There are quite a few differences, some I like, some I don't.. hmm...

I think one (potential) issue for me is the world itself. The updated engine and graphics must be awesome, considering the feeling of vastness in TW1. However, seems like the map is more flat and so on, and I believe that one thing that makes TW1 really special is the worlds geography when combined with the amazing view distance. In TW1 there are favorite places I visit just for the scenery, it's almost like the feeling of sitting on a mountain top IRL and just enjoying the view! :)

Hmm, I have no idea about the items. My guess is that all your grom shields gets teleported to you, and all your uber-gemmed weapons gets teleported to your enemies... ;-D

PS. Almost forgot.. LOL the good old Ho's Hut! It has served us all for ages! I've recently acquired a hording issue though, so I had to retire the old faithful Ho's and move to a sleeping hall in Quidinar.. :-D

I already know that GOG games are far better than Steam ones, but I really thank you for telling it. ;)

And speaking of it, what's keeping Two World II from coming to GoG?

I Never understood all the hate for Two Worlds. I played this game from scratch 4 times since it originally released and still love it. Sure the bad old english voice overs are campy, but it gave the game a unique feel to the world.

I found TW II to be extremely disappointing compared to the 1st. It's not open world like the 1st, story is very chapter driven and linear, and most of the single player content was sacrificed in favor of the multiplayer maps. Also the English voiceover really got on my nerves. You have this hero that is outspoken by everyone you talk too, lol. TW II probably has the only video game hero in history that whispers everything. Had to turn my volume up just to try to hear what the hell my char. was trying to say, heh.

I'm starting the second and i am impressed by the quality so far. Native x360 gamepad support though it is quite messy sometimes, terribad voice acting but this is fun factor nonetheless and a cinematic feel from the engine and visual effects.

The first game was quite bad actually, HUGE map but nothing to find during the exploration really, felt very amateurish.. The only quest i liked was about the mage having a clone of himself, rest was fetching and boring! Impossible horse controls, shallow world.. Yes, Two Worlds was a bad game, but had some great ideas like items stacking and magic making.. Good thing the main plot was about 12 hours long only, best was the opening song and those item and magic system now that i think of it!

I'm currently playing Two Worlds (the first one-Epic Edition) and am using a gamepad and it is AWESOME. I simply can not play these kinds of games with a keyboard and everytime I've ever tried I end up quitting the game after no more than 10 minutes.

Because of that, I had purchased Gothic 2 in a discount bin one day at the mall, and everytime I read the manual and/or the box it sounded good but everytime I tried to play I would quit. And because it sounded so good I must've started to play it at least a dozen times over several years.

Then I read somewhere that a change in the config file gave it gamepad support so that you could just go into the game options and assign gamepad buttons to keystrokes, and then I fired up Gothic 2, and was in heaven for the next several weeks and considered it my favorite all time game at the time. And I almost never played it because of the keyboard controls.

This is why I think ALL WSAD movement PC games should have built in gamepad support. Not EXCLUSIVELY gamepad support, but they should support a gamepad AND the keyboard and mouse for those that are used to that.

Anyway, sorry for the length but my point here is that you CAN play these games with a gamepad even if they don't have built in gamepad support. I have gotten pretty good at using the Logitech Profiler software that came with my Logitech gamepad to map it's buttons to keyboard keys and then boom, I'm good. I mean this Two Worlds is AMAZING to me. I sit back with my controller in my hand and play for hours and just LOVE it.

In fact that's why I checked this thread. I'm loving it so much I'm thinking of Two Worlds 2 so I wanted to find out folks opinions on whether it was a good game or whether it was one of those deals where the sequel pales badly compared to the original. Reading this thread gives me hope, so I ordered Two Worlds 2.

If you have a logitech gamepad and the profiler software, I would be happy to email you my already set up profile along with a description of what each key does so you can play Two Worlds one with a gamepad. But I don't think a Logitech profile file would be compatible with the Microsoft X-Box program that maps keys.