Yes, the first Two Worlds was a terrible terrible game. Now that this is out of the way, let's have a look at Two Worlds II.
Two Worlds II has released this 9th of November in most of Europe, but has yet to release here in North America, so if you guys want to play it, you'll have to wait, or well...you know. It's currently scheduled for a January 2011 release in NA.
Alright, this is not a review, this is just my first impressions on the game, I have roughly 4hrs of gameplay so far, so this is purely based on that.
First of, the graphics. They are good. Not bad, not amazing, just plain good. I really liked the lighting, especially in the dungeons when you run around with a torch. There is however only 1xAA in the game ATM; They are supposed to implement more AA options in an upcoming patch.
The game also runs really smooth. No sudden frame drop or anything as such. I run it maxed out @ 1920x1080, and average around 50FPS.
System specs: E8400 @ 3.6, GTX 275, 4GB DDR2.
When you start the game, you go through a fairly in depth character customization screen, however you are forced to play a male character. That's all there is to it; you do not pick a class, you just level the skill you want according to your needs.
[img]http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/677/twoworlds22010111312304.jpg[/img]
You get around the world using either your legs, a horse, or teleporters scattered around the world...and there are many of them.
[img]http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7984/twoworlds22010111314291.jpg[/img]
Melee combat is pretty much straight forward hit and slash, with a couple active skills thrown in there. Something I found kind of retarded: You do not block with your shield. You always block with your main weapon...I mean I have this huge tower shield, yet I use my sword to block incoming blows? common.
[img]http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/3025/twoworlds22010111314325.jpg[/img]
I really dig the magic system in Two Worlds II, it has huge customization capabilities, yet remains very easy to use and understand. Basically, you pick up various type of magic cards and you use them to create spells. Let's say you combine a missile card with a fire card, you have a fire bolt spell. Let's say you want that bolt to ricochet off of objects/walls/etc? Add a ricochet type of card to your spell and you have it. It's a pretty fun mechanic.
[img]http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6118/twoworlds22010111312405.jpg[/img]
You can upgrade your items using using the metallurgy skill. Upgrading items requires various materials acquired from dismantling items. For example, to upgrade your leather helmet, you'll need 2xleather, 1xIron. Each time you upgrade an item, the material cost for the next upgrade increases. The number of times you can upgrade an item depends on your metallurgy skill.
One of the most annoying thing about Two Worlds II IMO is the UI, and especially the inventory UI. It's WAY too big, it seems like it's designed for a console, not for a PC...and this game isn't a port. What's up with that? I could really use a simple UI scaling option.
[img]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/4678/twoworlds22010111312393.jpg[/img]
The voice acting is also better than in Two Worlds, and the dialogues aren't half as retarded. Still, it's very average compared to other RPGs out there. You also do not seem to have many choices on what to reply in a dialogue, most of it is just automated, and when you have a choice, it's basically just answering "Yes, I'll do the quest", or "Maybe later". Not very fond of that; Hopefully it gets better later on. There seems to be a very nice variety of voices though. You do not always hear the same 5 voices (Yes, I'm looking at you Oblivion).
[img]http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/696/twoworlds22010111312512.jpg[/img]
As for the story itself, it seems fairly linear so far. I haven't really encountered a part where I have to make a decision that would affect the game or the story so far. You just follow the story from one point to the other.
So far, Two Worlds II seems like a much, MUCH better game than it's predecessor and I'm enjoying my time playing through it.