We live in a gaming world today when a game like Borderlands or Jade Empire can be called RPG's, despite having little in the way of character stats and attributes. On top of this you have the Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol type games that have stats and attributes, but only in the weapons and armour, not in the avatar. North American RPG's are going more action and less stat based, with RPG's going the Bioshock route. This leaves us with European publishers and that leads us onto Two Worlds. It was never the case that Two Worlds was 'worse', but rather that it was 'different'. Did it have bugs on release? Yes. But name an open world non-linear RPG that didn't get released with bugs? Oblivion is known as being pretty bug-free, and yet an unofficial patch fixes over 5,000 bugs! Two Worlds was lambasted for not having the multi-million dollar budget of the larger publishers, and of course it had to deal with a biased media. For example, while Bioshock's 'life chambers' were seen as helping 'move the story forward', the very same life chambers in TW were seen as story breaking! This bias always works against smaller, non-American developers. Two Worlds actually straddles two worlds, it has the great gameplay of a 90's RPG, but had graphics and animations that were a couple years older than when the game was released. For those of us that don't care about graphics as long as the gameplay is there, Two Worlds is exactly the RPG we want. It has a huge open and non-linear world. It doesn't hold your hand and forces you to respect the other NPC's and creatures, who can hand your butt to you very easily, especially early on. The horse riding is actually very realistic, with horse AI that means you cannot ride him off the edge of a cliff (like you can the Oblivion horse!) and thereby makes it 'separate' from you, as it should be, rather than 'part of you', like in Oblivion. While the graphics are not up to a Crysis or Oblivion level technically, they are more realistic in many ways. The depth of field is probably the best in any game I have played, and while the NPC animation and voice work is only of a medium standard, I would rather have multiple average voice artists used than just the half dozen or so voices used over and over in Oblivion (and used again in Fallout 3!). There is a charm to the characters and voices that makes the world seem much more 'middle ages' than a pure fantasy world! With a fantastic draw distance and an interesting group of creatures to battle, I think the graphics are certainly good enough. They are up to the level of Gothic 3/Risen, two of my favourite RPG's! While the sound effects are pretty generic, they do the job adequately. the music on the other hand is a tour-de-force, with an excellent main theme that is up there with the best. Most of what TW does with regard UI and inventory is quite excellent, with the combining of weapons and alchemy/spells done very well indeed, certainly up there with The Witcher, for example. Overall then, this is the equivalent of an independent foreign film rather than a Hollywood blockbuster. It doesn't have huge stars in it, it doesn't have multi-million dollar special effects and it never had a huge advertising budget, but it is a great little game that you will love, that will draw you in, occasionally hand your butt to you and generally make you feel it's 'your game' rather than 'a game' that you play. If you love true 'real' RPG's, like Fallout 1 and 2; if you preferred Morrowind to Oblivion and if you find retro gaming almost more interesting than modern gaming, then this game is for you. It has everything you want in a good 90's RPG - great gameplay, a large world to travel across, and enemies that are challenging! Take a chance with this old fashioned RPG that is a follow on from the Wizardry and Gold Box RPGs rather than the Oblivion/Mass Effect style or RPG - surely a good thing!
Not patched to the 'official' 1.19 patch. Patched to the 'special' G.O.G. 1.19 patch, as this latest patch has not been made available to original owners of this game and therefore cannot be an 'official 1.19 patch' in any way. So if you don't own this game, buy it here for a working copy. If you already own it, then you will hav to play the buggy version until Arkane and/or G.O.G. release this 1.19 patch to the public and make if truly an 'official 1.19 patch'!
Fantastic HARD FPS/Strategy game, with tons of mods available - but remember folks, this is the GOTY edition, so you get Red Hammer and Resistance too! Surely a bargain! To review this game is to give an experience. Here's mine: In one early mission you are in a 5 man squad, You are told of an attack and get ordered into a truck. You take a long (2-3minute) drive to the front, the men chatter, some nervous some excited, the realistic faces somewhat eerie. You all get out of the truck, have a little tactical/mission chat from the Sergent and then follow him through the tree line and up a hill.. As you pass the trees you see other units off to your right, maybe 5 or 6 squads. Walking up the hill, you have a small expectation, then you crest the hill and start running for the village, along with what seems like 100's of other soldiers zig-zagging and falling to the ground occasionally. Off to your right by 200metres and just in front of you by 50 metres tanks are moving, belching smoke from their exhausts and firing at unseen targets, gun recoiling. Explosions occasionally explode nearby and bullets and shells fly overhead.Soldiers fall, puffs of blood leaving their dying bodies. Below you see a quaint village of white walled small houses and buildings, a small square with fountain can be seen, with tiny enemy soldiers running around in it. All the while the sound of gunfire, tanks moving and firing and your commander giving directions. Occasionally you'll hear 'target 90 degrees, 100 metres', so you quickly lay prone and look for the enemy. Sometimes he'll find you first and you hear the 'thud' of a bullet hitting you and a puff of blood flying in front of your face. You need a medic and can call for one, but no one comes- their busy. You are now crawling slower and maybe not even being able to stand up! As you crawl another bullet whistles past your ear - he can still see you! Do you crawl to deeper cover and wait for a medic, or do you line up your rife sights and try and take out your adversary? Meanwhile, tanks fire and soldiers shoot and die around you. You are just one soldier in a battle of many. The battlefield does NOT revolve around you in this game! You decide to try and take the enemy out, and look down your gunsight. You spot him but he is lining up a shot as you see him - and fires. Another puff of blood rises in front of you and you die. Just another casualty of war. The camera rises up to show the landscape around you. You see the enemy soldier who killed you retreating back to the village, zig-zagging as he goes. The camera revolves higher showing more of the continuing battle (you didn't think it would stop because you died, did you?!). Morbidly you follow the soldier who killed you - and explosion and he's down! You sit at your PC and smile..... You guys advance into the city away to the left and you are left looking down on a battlefield of dead soldiers and destroyed tanks. 'Next time i'll follow the tree-line' you say to yourself! I haven't even mentioned how later on you'll b driving tanks and flying helicopters and be in charge of your own squad - and being involved in much bigger battles(!) There is nothing quite like Operation Flashpoint GOTY. It's war; but not as you know it!
What a great game this is! The intro is one of the most movie likes in many a year! Have to say shame (maybe just at the moment!) that you cannot get the 120 odd page novella that came with the game.Maybe someone who has it can pdf it up and send it to G.O.G for them to make available, if G.O.G. cannot do it themselves in conjunction with Interplay! Anyway, back to the game: This is a great immersive dungeon crawl - some great digitized graphics, voicework, special effects and sound effects! The game is first person move one square./turn at time type game, but the graphics and sound are so immersive you soon feel you are playing the game 'normally'!You can use the cursor keys or the WASD keys, so everyone is catered for! The game does have a quite hard start, but once you get a weapon,some armour and your journal things get a little less challenging - for a while! The first time the goblins throw rocks at you (and maybe kill you!), you will know you have an interesting time ahead! HINT: Put the rocks in the rock back, put the bag in your hand, and then throw the stones at will! The enemy AI is pretty decent - although in a dungeon they - and you -can only move around so much! Watch out for secret levers and cubbyholes, as they abound and carry important items on occasion! So far I am only on level 2, but I am already totally hooked! This,surely, is up there with Utima Underground and even more modern games like Arx Fatalis! Do yourself a favour - if you like in anyway 3D RPG's, you need to check out this game!
If you like RTS's that require some thinking, rather than rushing in with you hugely built army, if you like roleplaying games like Baldur's Gate or Divine Divinity, and if you like stories that are not run-of-the-mill, then you need to check out Original War! let's get the basics over and done with: Graphics; Excellent graphics with a wonderful line of sight system. clear concise graphics and a very friendly user interface that will take very little time getting used to. Sound: Very good sound effects, although not too many given you are back in prehistoric times! The voice work is excellent with voices that match the characters and good emotional involvement. Story/Gameplay: The story as described above shows how 'Original' Original War is! Because nothing comes close to the story, making it totally original (there's that word again!) I couldn't really give any other game that has a story like this. To that degree I compare it with Planescape Torment! Gameplay is as much RPG as it is RTS, with control of individuals and small groups not huge armies. You get soldiers and scientists and engineers, but you can retrain them. This is the tactical part of the game, making sure you have the right skills at the right times. you also get the use of vehicles, but they need repairing, meaning engineers, but then you need to defend your base, so soldiers are needed, but then you nd research, so scientists are needed/ To this degree, it's like X-Com. After all the C&C clones and the general rubbish that came out at the time, this game was a breath of fresh air for me. This is barely known title that is head and shoulders above most RTS's of it's time. It's not easy 9a good thing), does not allow army rushes (a very good thing), has an interesting story and excellent graphics and AI. it is more like X-Com and Jagged Alliance than it is C&C and TA (anothr good thing!) For the price this is going at, you cannot go wrong if you like any of the comparison games mentioned above! If you disagree, I will see you in the forums! :)
