As the seemingly endless summer of “wtf do I play now” continues, I fired up Two Worlds 2 to give that a shot. Things aren’t going well on that front.
The single biggest annoyance is the voice acting, especially for the main character (you); it’s beyond terrible. It’s so jarringly bad it pulls you completely out of the game, and has me dreading talking to someone in the game, which is not exactly a good thing for an RPG.
In addition to the voice acting, the animations during conversations and cut scenes are atrocious as well. Random, misplaced gestures, uncanny-valley filled movements, and really no rhyme or reason to any of it that would help build characters.
The crap trifecta is completed with poor writing and more nonsensical dialog. The character you are playing is trying to be a badass in every dialog, whether he is actually doing something heroic like saving someone, or something simple like learning how to craft. Within the first hour I’d had enough.
The shame in all of the above is the rest of the game seems pretty decent. The graphics overall are really good, the music fits, and while the controls aren’t perfect they get the job done. For me however that’s not enough; if I’m playing an RPG, the core RPG aspects can’t be a mess.
(Divinity: Original Sin is a title I have my eye on, but Steam conditioning is in effect and I’m waiting for a sale that includes the DLC. Plus for a ‘one and done’ title, I’d rather play a fully patched-up version as well. All of that said titles like Two Worlds make waiting a hell of a lot harder.)
Hardcore Casual 
Give it more time, though, the voice acting doesn’t get better, I assure you. The world is really cool and the magic system is fucking incredible. The way you slot cards for different effects in a single spell gave me an exhaustive amount of magic building. I really liked the coop too, it is basically a mini mmo, I wish it was expanded on a lot more.
I’m going to keep at it for a bit more. There isn’t a way to mute dialog and just have text, is there?
Divinity: Original Sin is thoroughly enjoyable. I am only a few hours and levels in, but there are some well scripted quests. The fights are challenging on normal, the majority need more than a single attempt, which makes eventual victory all the more satisfying.
The importance of environment to the fights provides an extra layer of strategy and once you see how to exploit it turns a repeated wipe into a decisive victory.
The turn-based combat makes it a good change from playing Skyrim.
I’m in a tiny minority but I really enjoyed Two Worlds, and didn’t care for the sequel at all.
That said, don’t play it for the voice acting LOL. You’ll never hear the words forsooth or mayhap so often. It’s so bad it’s good.
The Divinity DLC doesn’t really add that much at all. It’s a really fun experience even without it, though I do have a few quibbles with some of the boss fight balancing.
I quit Two Worlds 2 due to the voice acting, just couldn’t get past it, truly horrible stuff.