What are the big differences between these games? The answer, as you might expect if you've played any of them, is a lot. In terms of core game play, they actually paint an interesting spectrum of differences. Personally, I love options when it comes to how to build and play a character. Dragon Age comes in last in this area having only three classes to choose from. EQII has 16. DDO only has 11, but you can greatly customize your ability choices within those classes and maintain up to three different classes on one character. Then there's Two Worlds, which has no classes, only skills you put points into at level up. Since you can put your points in any distribution you want, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination and the total number of skills available. With about 40 skills, that's not a small number.
I think that's the reason I keep coming back to Two Worlds, despite my issues with it. All of my friends, who convinced me to buy it on release day with them, wrote it off as a bad game and only a few of them finished it, which is not hard to do. I too was disappointed. I don't call it a bad game, rather I call it: A game with great potential that wallows in mediocrity. What causes the mediocrity? For the most part, the core gameplay is solid, with the foremost issue most run into being repetition. The only real gameplay problems are: 1. Don't make an archer, they are HACKED and can destroy most foes in a single shot. 2. Don't make a sneak attacker, because it's nearly impossible to sneak up on something and then it's very hard to actually hit with the attack. Your character lunges forward often stabbing the air in front of the target, and even if you do kill it the thing screams as it dies drawing all his friends onto you. So much for a silent kill.
But besides those issues, what prevents me from having as much fun as I should with Two Worlds? Why do I play it intensely for two days before I go back to Dragon Age for two months before I touch Two Worlds again? Well, it can't be because you slow down to 5% movement speed if you enter swim mode which you do if your toe so much as touches the water. It shouldn't be the way that 99% of the NPCs in the game serve absolutely no purpose. It's not the way the entire town comes after you after you accidentally pick a lock because you didn't realize the door was locked. It's not that most of the wilderness is boring and pointless to explore. Not that you never make any friends or have companions to help you. Can't be that using illegal magic in street causes no one to bat an eyelash. Nor is it... wait... or is it all of these together? There's so little real interaction with the world around you. You don't feel like you're a part of this world. In short, the atmosphere is lacking.
And this is where we come to the heart of the issue. Any developer will tell you (should tell you) that gameplay is the most important thing in a game. What is the player doing? How is he fighting monsters? How is she solving puzzles? Whatever it is, what drives this game? But there's more to it than that, certainly in an RPG but not necessarily in a typing tutor, how is the player part of the world? Lack of atmosphere prevents a game from drawing the player in. When a player's not drawn in, they tend to lose interest. It's why I keep leaving Two Worlds.
The other side of the atmosphere coin is the world itself. Of course, every world should be different. This also varies by game and genre. A horror game will have a creepy and dark world, while the Care Bears Adventures will have a bright and rainbow filled world. This all should be obvious, but the world should be interesting to help the player feel like they're really there. This should go beyond just having every different area look drastically different, there should be some mystery, make the player want to explore. Why do I still prefer Everquest I to Everquest II? Because, unlike EQII, I saw things every day in EQ that I could not explain how someone had done that. How did she get herself to look like an orc? How did I turn myself into a skeleton? Why is that wheelbarrow looking at me?
In short, the problem that holds back some (too many) games is lack of atmosphere. I can appreciate that the core of the game is great fun, but I want to have fun in the down time too. There's more to gameplay than just the combat, puzzles, or being scared by zombies. There's also interaction, playing a role (particularly in RPGS, they're called Role Playing Games for a reason), and just plain having fun.
Two Worlds 2, set to release in September, battles with Atmosphere issues!
Will they be fixed in the sequel?
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