Destructoid hands on with TW2

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Our initial preview of Two Worlds IIsaw TopWare and Reality Pump show off a game that looked nothing like its predecessor. The team learned from their mistakes and have created everything from the ground up for the sequel to make what's looking like a really solid game. The sequel is so vastly different that Jim wouldn't have thought this was a Two Worlds game had he not been told the name of the game he was playing.
Since we've covered the various mechanics of the game already, I'll be taking a look at what the choice system does for the game's story, explaining the magic system and briefly touching on the multiplayer features. Check out my thoughts on Two Worlds II after the break.

Two Worlds II (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC [Previewed])
Developer: Reality Pump
Publisher: TopWare Interactive
To be released: September 14, 2010
In the section I checked out, the hero entered a swamp -- which you quickly find out is kind of a big deal. It's been 15 years since anyone has been able to come into the area you're exploring due to a magical barrier that prevents people from entering or leaving. So yeah, big deal.
You soon find out from the village priest that the barrier was put up by a witch, and you're asked to kill her in order to save the village. Just before you come across the witch, a cutscene takes place with an army of zombies surrounding the player. Things look pretty bad, but the witch suddenly appears and kills off all the zombies, thus saving your life.

Turns out that the witch might not be evil after all. Approaching the witch gives you two options: kill her or let her plead her case. If you give the witch the chance to speak, she'll send you on a new quest that will uncover what actually took place 15 years ago.
After this quest is completed, you'll then be given the chance to kill the witch again or work with her to end the real threat: the priest. The reason the barrier is up in the first place is because the witch is trying to protect everyone from the priest -- he's really a demon. Had you killed the witch, the barrier would have been destroyed and the demon would have killed everyone in the village.
Whatever path you go with won't affect the ending, since there is only one. Rather, the choice system is about giving you different perspectives to the overall story. Siding with the priest will paint a pretty bad picture about the big-bad of the game. Side with the witch, and you'll see that the main villain of the game wasn't always a total dick. This also shows how the choices you'll be presented with won't be as simple as a dark path and a light path. It's more about your gut feeling and doing what you think is right in the moment.

A really awesome thing in Two Worlds II is how you don't have to deal with various character classes. Instead, you can swap on the fly from being a knight, mage, archer or another class with the press of a button. You'll be able to allocate different skill points to the different job types available and build characters as you see fit.
I'm probably going to focus a lot of my skill points on my magic abilities, as the magic system is going to be very deep and fun. You'll be able to build magic spells with cards to create a seemingly endless amount of spells. One simple example is shooting a fireball. By adding a modifer to the card, you can shoot out three fireballs at once. Add more modifers, and you'll then be able to summon five fireballs that can track targets. Add yet another modifer, and you can have bees appear after the fireballs hit the target.
An extreme example of the magic spells detailed to me involved a TopWare employee summoning a tornado. The person then applied a card to the spell so the tornado would move around wherever the character would walk. Applying another card then summoned random junk like crates to rain from the sky; the stuff would get sucked up into the tornado. As the player moved about, enemies would get sucked into the tornado, too, and get pummeled to death by all the junk.

This is just a simple look at a very, very deep game. There's more to be revealed, such as the multiplayer mode which features PvP battles and an eight-player co-op campaign that's separate from the main game. We're going to be seeing more of Two Worlds II in the coming weeks, so expect to see more on this RPG soon.