Two Worlds - The Official Strategy Guide (2007) [PC, MAC, X360]

Thanks for continuing to get these up man.

Always a pleasure!  Slowly, but surely!

Thanks a lot for this release! I remember playing this game when it came out.

Two Worlds got a lot of publicity and hype leading up to its release in 2007. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion just release the year before, and its gameplay was immediately compared to it -- both games offered open-worlds where you were free to explore. It's hard remembering if we really thought it was the "Oblivion Killer" some claimed it was, or if we were just excited for another good adventure RPGs. The developer made so many claims about their world, the size, and its features. I remember reading that they actually motion-captured a rabbit and put that data in the game! We thought it was going to be so cool, despite only having one trailer to look at before launch. IGN covered it with Two Worlds Tuesdays, going over new info for the game on a weekly basis. Once it released, reception was very mixed but with a lot of negative reviews. The Metacritic on PC was a 65/100 but on console it was 50/100. It got a few 7s (out of 10) from IGN and GameSpot, but it also got 4s from Game Informer, Eurogamer, and Edge. The game was criticized for its mundane graphics, horrible framerate, and a huge number of bugs and glitches. I got the Collector's Edition for $70, and I was very disappointed. The framerate was normally 20 fps but when combat started, it would drop to single digits and have horrible stuttering -- every time.

So, what happened? Two Worlds was not only the first role-playing game Reality Pump created as a company, but also it was their first console game. They even admitted they were very over-ambitions and should've been more realistic with their goals, taking on way too much themselves. There was an alchemy system, there was 7 different factions to join and do quests for, AND they even included multiplayer -- with the Xbox 360 version supporting up to eight players, with the PC version allowing significantly more! The game still featured professional voice actors, but the dialog was scripted and recorded by developer Reality Pump themselves rather than using a professional recording studio to hire the actors and lay the tracks. There was a lot to laugh at, but in the end the developers have had a good sense of humor about it, poking fun of themselves leading up to the release of Two Worlds II. It wasn't a great game, but it was much improved and had an interesting magic system.

This guide is a monstrous 368-pages, in full color with maps and locations to many important items. This is a very high-quality scan from @Roark406 with editing from @dablais. Some of these maps are very small, but this scan lets you zoom in so you can see all the buildings and locations at a more comfortable distance.  I always wanted to give this game another chance and play it through again, but legit. I got all the achievements on Xbox 360 but I believe I used console commands to up my strength at some point. This guide is still a great way to play the game since it will be easier to stomach. A number of patches have fixed many bugs, so the game is more playable now.

You might find some entertainment with the game itself. The name of people and locations is humorously devoid of thought. Go to Windbreak (a fart joke?) and challenge the deadly orc called Whitehead. Be sure to talk to Ran Hograd (because he can run, likes hogs, and he is rad?). Head to the hidden orc capital city, called Gor Gammar (are they trying to make it rhyme with Thor's Hammer?). The overall collective name of the enemy is so bad I don't think I can even mention it here. The dialog is atrocious, sprinkled with old-English phrases but they often aren't used in the right context (lots of thou, verily, and henceforth). The developers and publisher are German but there grasp of English is very shallow. The game is coded so bad you can actually glitch through the exit doors to at least a few locations to receive the enchanted stone you need to win the game, without going through the actual dungeons. There are a lot of side-quest, but you usually just get money. You can even beat the game in under 3 minutes because the final boss shows up early in the game, and if you can get him to use a fireball that will cause splash damage to a villager, then the whole town will attack him and kill him -- winning you the game! [given you have the right version]

[updated with a few more details]

This game was pure early 2000s Eurojank.

It was a glorious time to be a gamer.