Two Worlds II

Two Worlds II, released in 2010 (with the Xbox 360 version arriving in early 2011), is an open-world action RPG from Polish studio Reality Pump, aiming to redeem the reputation of the not-so-well-received first installment. The game begins in a prison camp, from which the nameless hero, after being freed, sets out to travel across a sprawling fantasy world full of islands, fortresses, and vast underground complexes, with the main storyline revolving around finding his lost sister and stopping the dark god Aziraal, whom the sister is being forced against her will to bring back into the world.

Among its most interesting features is a spell-crafting system that combines cards with various effects into custom combinations, allowing the player to assemble offensive, defensive, and support spells exactly to their preferred playstyle, whether leaning toward fiery explosions, healing, or summoning creatures. The game further offers extensive sea travel between islands by ship, crafting of equipment, alchemy and cooking, as well as a broad system of riding horses and other creatures across the open world, and cooperative multiplayer in which players can jointly play through their own story campaign separate from the single-player mode — a fairly unusual addition for its year of release. Compared to the first game, which earned a reputation as a technically unfinished and untrustworthy title, the sequel was received much more positively; reviewers especially praised the variety of its game systems and the generous scope of its open world, though the graphical rendering of characters and animations remained behind the genre's leading edge of the time. Two Worlds II later received several expansions, including Pirates of the Flying Fortress and Call of the Tenebrae, and is today regarded as an underrated but honestly crafted open world that offered an alternative to dominant series such as The Elder Scrolls, without matching their fame.

Why play it: For fans of varied game systems and a generous open world, it's an underrated, honestly crafted title that offered an alternative to series like The Elder Scrolls.