SouthPeak are one of the relatively younger publishers in the industry, moving from the GBA in 2006 to publish games across all platforms. 2007 was a busy year indeed for the company as it saw one of their premier properties hit 360’s worldwide; Two Worlds. The game was met with some serious criticism, mostly because there were so many design and gameplay faults, but the RPG title did show tremendous potential. So the question remains whether the follow up, Two Worlds: The Temptation can live up to this potential ... just even a bit would be nice.

 

The build we got to see at the Games Convention was pre-alpha which pretty much means that the visuals and playability were a long way off but it was interesting to see what the developers had in mind for a franchise that needs to live up to its potential. The great thing to see was TopWare’s Bert Jennings first recognise that the original title did have its problems and they are addressing these by creating a whole new game. The Temptation is set to be bigger than its prequel, weighing in at a massive 60 square kilometres and boasting improved visuals and gameplay engines.

 

 

One of the focuses of Reality Pump this time around is to create a living breathing world with plenty of diverse locations, ranging from towns to jungles to rocky mountain settings. They will try and give the towns a sense of character as well with locals representing some sort of individuality whether it be the guitarists strumming or the beggars begging.

 

One of the main problems of the original was the mount system with the horses and thankfully, Reality Pumps have heard your concerns and fixed that, offering the player more control over it. How much control remains to be seen at the moment, only time will tell there.

 

Many things will return from the original and tweaked to improve your overall experience this time around. Things like item stacking and the alchemy system returns with way more ingredients and combinations. The reputation system also makes a welcome return with it being slightly refined. The inventory is also said to receive some improvements with the menu being upgraded for ease and accessibility.

 

 

The combat system is also one of many gameplay elements that has received the overhaul treatment. Your character will be faced with a choice of using 3 different types of attack; fast, heavy and jump attacks. Don’t think that you’ll be able to get through the game with button mashing though, as the AI will pick up on that and counter and block accordingly. You know what they say, variety is the spice of life and that certainly rings true with the combat in this title. The game also features a targeting system for the combat so swinging randomly in the air is a problem of the past.

 

The Temptation also features a forge system allowing you to forge weapons together and upgrade them to suit your fighting style but the customisation doesn’t stop there. You can also customise armour sets and even better, you can tie them to hot keys meaning you can go from Mage to Warrior with a matter of clicks.

 

Two Worlds: The Temptation is still a long way from any sort of release but the fact that the development team have recognised where the first one went wrong and have vowed to correct it, means that The Temptation could be the game the original should have been.

 

Two Worlds: The Temptation will be available sometime next year on both the Xbox 360 and PC.