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In Two Worlds, you play the part of a mercenary who is searching the land for his lost sister. There are many paths to follow, and not all of them lead to answers. The region is a large open wilderness, there are many predators roaming about and not all of them prowl on four legs. You will meet many interesting people; some of them will have tasks for you to perform, some of them will have information for you and some of them will just be wandering about doing their day-to-day jobs.

The world is extensive, and you can roam wherever you wish. If you choose to seek out your sister, you can do so; if you choose to help those in need, you can; if you just want to wander about laying waste to the neighborhood, you can do that, too.

Throughout the adventure, you will encounter numerous residents of the land. Some of them will have jobs for you. Some of those jobs may be, shall we say, morally reprehensible. Varying people will have associations with different factions, like those that are associated with Necromancers — not the most pleasant people to hang with during even the best of times. As you complete tasks, you will increase your reputation with the various factions. This is important, because some members of these factions have information that will help you in your quest to find your sister. If you have a good relationship with the faction that the person belongs to, you are more likely to get useful information out of them.

There are many challenges that you will face as you progress. Some of them are four-legged, and some of them like to romp around on two legs and wield weapons. The four-legged type can at times, be avoided. Or if you are seeking a little excitement in your adventure, you can seek out a pack of wolves for that new sports coat you've been wanting. The two-legged type also comes in many shapes and sizes. Some of them are brigands that you may come across while traveling down the road. Others will be non-humans that are encroaching on human lands. None of them are really interested in having you sit with them to have a nice chat and a drink.

One of the interesting things about killing off the wildlife is, sometimes, if you return to an area where you were doing a little bit of hack and slash at night, you may encounter the spirits of those recently departed critters. And these spiritualized critters have something of a bad attitude and take their deaths a bit personally. A minor inconvenience in dealing with spirit critters is that physical weapons are a bit, useless against them.

All this talk about everyone else in the world, and we seem to be forgetting the most important person in the world — you. When playing the single-player mode, you are who you are, a mercenary in search of your lost sister. You have stats and skills that you can develop through the play of the game. As you increase in levels, you will gain stat points and skill points. As you develop your character, there are numerous paths that you can follow: whether you wish to focus on physical combat skills or magical skills or become a jack of all trades - you can become whoever you want.

One of the nice things about the game is that if you find, after some time playing, that you have been advancing a skill that you either have no use for or is no longer useful to you, or perhaps simply following a path that you no longer wish to continue, you can seek out a Skill Changer. Skill Changers are mages who specialize in helping people find their true potential and for a fee will "undo" a skill and return the skill points to you to be spent on other skills. Though it could be considered a bit scary to have someone mess with your mind and can make you forget skills and abilities, it's kinda nice to be able to fix mistakes and recreate yourself in your own image.

Now that I've mentioned skills, you're probably wondering what sorts of skills there are out there for you to learn ... well, there are skills for picking locks, for sneaking, for enhancing combat skills and, yes, you guessed it, MAGIK!

Of course, since there are not an infinite number of skill points for you to use, you kinda havta sorta choose a path for yourself. Do ya wanna be really good wit da big scary axe? Or do you want to be that intellectual who can fling flaming death at your opponents from across the county?

Magic is separated into five distinct schools: Elemental magic covering Earth, Air, Fire and Water — and the fifth school of Necromancy, or Black Magic. Each school has its own complement of spells for your use and entertainment. And each school has a skill associated with it that you will have to develop.

Another skill that you will have an opportunity to develop deals with combat from horseback; yes that's right, you get to ride horses in this game. Horses can be a salvation at times, especially when your surrounded by loads of bad scary creatures and need to make a quick escape.

The world itself is a really big place with loads of interesting things in it. There is no specific path that you need follow, so you are on your own to choose that path. Of course, if you want to solve the riddle of your missing sister, then you may want to follow the clues that are laid out in front of you, but that's really all up to you. One thing that I have discovered, which most of you may say is incredibly obvious, is that the farther you range from your starting point, the more scary your opponents become, and the quicker you find yourself showing up at the local "Rebirth" Shrine. A really nice aspect of Two Worlds is that you are not penalized for being dumb enough to get yourself killed in combat; didn't you know that Cyclops could kill you in one swing? DUH!

As mentioned before, there are numerous people populating the land, and you will encounter quite a few of them during your travels. You also will find that they are not just simple stationary automatons; the residents of the land that you will come across have jobs and actively interact with their world. Whether they be a farmer, a woodsman or a city guard, they will all be doing what they need to do to survive in their everyday lives. They even have houses they live in and beds to sleep in at night. Some of them even get annoyed if you bug them while they are taking a nap.

The land is populated by much more than people; there are wolves, bears and even wild boars prowling about. But more than that, there are also such critters as chickens that you can trip over from time to time.

Oh, yes, one other thing. Two Worlds is not just about romping around the wilderness seeking new and interesting critters to slay. You also have an opportunity to do some spelunking and blindly roam around the caves of the underworld. Though I don't want to spoil the surprise for you, so you'll just have to dig your own hole and see what's down there.

Two Worlds is not difficult to play, though it does take some time to learn the ins and outs of the rules system. With the numerous variations and possibilities for your character and its advancement, the options are nearly unlimited. And with the exceptional diversity, you will find that the game has a high replay value to it, especially if you are one who likes to experiment with different options.

You also quickly will find yourself completely immersed in the game and the world itself. The storyline and side quests will keep you busy for hours on end. At least, it has for me so far.

The game takes full advantage of the Xbox 360's graphics; the environment is done in exceptional detail and quality. The reflections on the water also are quite impressive. Though swimming through that water may be a bit difficult unless you work on your swimming skill.

The user interface takes a little getting used to. The manual discusses how to manipulate the UI, though at times it doesn't seem to work the way it should or the way you might expect it to. I I keep finding new aspects that I was not aware of. The inventory section is a bit frustrating in the way you manipulate items, and I have accidentally sold off items I had wanted to keep in my inventory on more than one occasion.

The controls are not as extensive as one might expect for a game with so many options, so you may find it a bit frustrating when you expect one thing to happen and something completely different occurs because of the mode you're in. For instance, when riding a horse, you may hit the A button to collect an herb you're riding by and find yourself dismounting instead.

Overall, the game is GREAT! I'm having an absolute blast playing Two Worlds and am looking forward to many more hours of gameplay. I can go on and on about all the great aspects of Two Worlds, but at this point, I think I'll just shut up and give you the chance to go out and buy the game and learn all about it personally.