Two Worlds VS. Elder Scrolls: IV Oblivion: Video Game Comparison

I am an RPG fanatic. I just love those games. Several months ago I had heard about a new RPG game that was coming out that was supposed to be " Like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on Steroids." This was according to several ads anyways. What game were these ads talking about? Two Worlds. I thought that since I absolutely loved playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, then I had to get Two Worlds, especially if it was supposed to be better than Oblivion. So, I went and reserved Two Worlds at my local game store and I got it the day it came out.

Now, I will review Two Worlds for what it is, along with my personal opinion. Some of you may not agree with me, but I feel that someone had to say something about this game regardless. I had high hopes for this game. I had heard great things about it. But after playing it through and even getting both endings to the game, I came away sadly disappointed and wondering how anyone could compare it to Oblivion.

The story of Two Worlds starts with a story about how the God of War, Aziraal was slain in battle thousands of years ago. Aziraal was the beloved God of the Orcs, who after the death of their God had to flee to the wastelands of the world. Years pass until one day a tomb is discovered and an evil plot of sorts comes about. I don't want to give too much away, but you end up playing as a male mercenary who is looking for his kidnapped sister... which in turn has something to do with the fallen Aziraal.

In Two Worlds you only get the choice of playing as a male. You can customize the look of your character in only a few minor details. This is not at all like the character customization in Oblivion where you can pick the race, sex, and all facial features of your character.

As with character development, in Two Worlds you have the option of different skills and spells to learn. Some of theses skills and spells are not available until you move you way up in several different guilds, but I'll get into that later. As you complete quests and kill off the bad guys, you gain experience points. Once you gain enough experience points, you go up to the next level. When this happens you get a few skill points to allocate into which skill you want to get better at.

This type of skill development is annoying on occasion. In fact some skills in Two Worlds are useless. An example: The Unhorse skill is useless because no one in the game is on a horse except for you. You have to play online against some of your buddies to be able to unhorse anyone.

In Oblivion, your character develops based on what skills you actually use. If you use the blade a lot, your skills with the blade increase. If you don't use Mysticism, your character won't be very good at casting spells related to mysticism. This is a much easier concept than that of Two Worlds. You get better at what you work at! More like real life. Practice makes perfect.

Now for the guilds. In Two Worlds you can join various guilds including: The Brotherhood, the Giriza, the Merchants Guild, the Mages Guild, and the Necromancers. Each guild will give you different quests that award you with money, skill points, and access to new skills or spells. But honestly not much is going for these guilds. The rewards are not all that advantageous.

Oblivion has several guilds as well. These include: the Fighters Guilds, The Dark Brotherhood, the Mages Guild, the Thieves Guild, and several others. Each of these guilds provides quests with much better rewards. In the end, if you complete all of the particular guild's quests... you end up being the leader of the guild. Which in turn has huge rewards. Some include having an extra mage or assassin available to you at all times to aid you in other quests.

Two Worlds has a wide array of weapons. Many you can add gems to so you can add an elemental effect to them in addition to the standard attack. Oblivion has elemental weapons as well. However, you don't add gems to them. But you can enchant the weapons with various elemental effects, along with status effects, armor and weapon damaging effects, and many more things. The short of it, the weapons system in Oblivion is much more in depth than that of Two Worlds.

As for sound, your character in Two Worlds likes to make snappy remarks every now and again. This is kind of funny, yet repetitive. In Oblivion, your character only makes sound when injured or swinging a weapon. As for the musical score, Two Worlds is okay, but its nothing awe inspiring. I enjoyed Oblivion's sound track much better.

In both games, the weather changes from sunny to rainy and the day changes into night. But the way that this is done in Two Worlds is quite sloppy, where as the world of Oblivion is just gorgeous to look at, despite the weather or what time of day it is. You can look up at the sky in Oblivion and just adore how nice the moon looks against the clouds. Where as in Two Worlds, the world looks a bit choppy and not as nice as it should look since it happens to be a game made for a next generation gaming console.

Two Worlds did have one rather amusing thing that Oblivion did not have. Two Worlds has traps and explosions. There is nothing funnier than watching a horde of skeletons blow to bits because they passed over an explosion trap. Or getting an Orc caught in a holding trap and watch him squirm and try to flee. But alas! He is stuck! You can hack and slash at him until he is down.

I can go on forever about how Two Worlds compares to Oblivion. But what is the point? You can clearly see the difference. I'm sure there are a few people out there that won't agree with my opinion, but then again maybe they didn't play Oblivion.

Did I enjoy Two Worlds? Not Really. Perhaps it was because I expected more out of it. Oblivion had so much more going for it. These two games don't even compare to each other. They aren't even on the same level.

Was Two worlds a bad game not worth playing? I wouldn't say that. I played it to give it a chance and it kept me entertained until a better game was released, but I felt it was given too much credit and a lot of people would be let down. It is not a game with high replay value. In fact you can beat the game and complete all of the Guild quests in under 30 hours, that is with both endings. In Oblivion, it took me about 70 to accomplish all of that.

Is it worth the $60 I paid for it? No way. But I would tell any one who is a die hard RPG fan to go ahead and play it. Just don't pay $60 for it. Rent it, borrow it, or buy it used. I was not impressed with this game, but believe me... there are much worse games out there.

Two Worlds is rated M for mature. This is because the game features violence, blood, and gore. It is available for the XBOX 360 and your PC. A strategy guide is available for anyone who can't figure out what to do next in the game.