I would love to be able to give a review of this RPG that I just received as a "pre-Christmas" gift. Unfortunately, after installing the game and the 1.6 patch, it has crashed to desktop on start EVERY time.

Here endeth the review.

OK, so I discovered how to fix the crashes, thus allowing a better "first look."

Two Worlds

The crash problem is well-known enough that South Peak includes an alternate Radeon startup .exe in the files. Would have been nice if that information was included in a Readme file. Actually, any Readme file at all would have been nice.

Character generation is barely worthy of the name. You will be a male bounty hunter with set attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Willpower). As you level (by completing quests and killing monsters), you receive points to apply to attributes and skills. There are plenty of skills to choose from, so you can go Warrior, Mage, or Thief (or some combination).

Gameplay basically throws you into the midst of a story that started before you got here. Some clues are provided in the (LONG) cut-scene that begins the game. You are going somewhere with a woman (who turns out to be your sister). She has been wounded and you seek a place to shelter. While you are checking out the ruin/temple/whatever (alone), someone kidnaps her. Flash forward to Thalmont, the starter village. You are there because the kidnappers(?) have told you to meet them at the village. Meanwhile, it seems that something is killing people in the area. Since you have nothing better to do, you take on the job of solving the killings. It isn’t the worst way to learn the movement and combat system- it just isn’t very original, either.

Major peeve- combat is ALWAYS 3rd person perspective. In fact, even with camera zoom, it is difficult to get a 1st person POV at any time. Combat is fairly simple- face enemy, click left-mouse button until they’re dead.

The graphics are nice- not quite up to Oblivion standards. Movement (PC and NPC) is a bit jerky- somewhat “puppet-on-a-string.” Quests come to you fairly rapidly, although you are not obligated to take them. You can just wander around looking at stuff, if that’s your preference.

Dialogue is limited- you can choose a few topics, depending on the NPC. The conversations that follow are completely scripted- including your responses.

Overall, I would give it a provisional 2 out of 5. May change with further play.

Good review, Treydog. I think it captures the essence of this game very well.

Hmm... That doesn't sound encouraging.

Thanks for letting us know, in any case. I've seen this game in stores lately and to me it sounded quite good. Now, it sounds rather boring. You've prevented me from wasting money on this one.

The main problem I see with this game is that it rips off of decent rpg made within the last few years...and it does so poorly I might add. It just didn't seem original. Kiln's Verdict: Waste of money.

Yeah, that game sucked.

Quoting the fat comic book guy from the Simpsons

Worst RPG ever! (Maybe besides Oblivion)

I think it's a quite good RPG(apart from that there really ain't a good character creation), but of course that's personal. It's big world, realistic for being fantasy, and has quite good graphics, even though there are quite a bit of bugs in it. Which does lessen the game experience a bit. The alchemy system is quite good, and there are loads of factions which you must interrogate with to get anywhere.
Personally I'd give it 7 out of 10, but thats just me.