SouthPeak based the magic system on virtual game cards. Main cards exist for the actual spells while "booster" cards affect the pack of main cards. The more booster cards possessed the more powerful the effect. Each of the five schools of magic (Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Necromancy) contains a vast array of very different spells.

Fortunately there are no penalties for dying (which happens often, even on the default setting). Additionally, players won't have to run great distances to some out of the way graveyard. Instead, characters automatically re-spawn at the nearest healing shrine. Since Antaloor is a magical world, shrines are plentiful and death rarely slows down the journey.

With a world this vast, traveling on foot can be slow and tedious. Fortunately faster modes of transportation exist. Beasts (horses, lizards, etc.) are available through quest acquisition from vendors, or one can always commit grand theft horsery. Combat can also be done from the saddle, which increases your chance of survival. Sadly, the whole beast riding feature has its quirks. The biggest problem comes with steering properly. Still, it's a feature that adds another fun element to the game. The second form of transportation comes in the form of teleporters scattered across the land.

Multiplayer comes with two modes: RPG and Arena. RPG is best described as semi-MMO in nature because it lets players go online to complete quests with other gamers. Arena mode is strictly player versus player combat. Both modes allow you to create separate characters since both are vastly different animals. Arena mode uses pre-constructed, well balanced, high level characters, so everyone is on even ground. RPG characters start at low levels but can advance, while Arena characters cannot.

Arena mode has three combat variants: Team (each participant has the same number of reanimations, the first team to run out loses), Attacks (defend the base) and Monster Hunt (each team possesses a certain number of monsters players destroy in order to win).

The visual aesthetics and audio are hit and miss. Lighting effects, fog, day/night cycles, and perpetual weather changes look breathtaking, plus the cities and buildings are replete with intricate details. All of this helps create a marvelously fleshed out, living, breathing world. Character animations (humans, orcs, groms and other monsters) are adequate (minus the cinematic cut-scenes, which look terrible). Animals (particularly wolves, bears and boars) are not. Dialog is cheesy, with some poor voice acting, and the background music tends to come and go at odd times.

While the first half-hour of Two Worlds doesn't make a great first impression, the experience gets exponentially better over time. It won't make you forget Oblivion, but that's not its purpose. What this very ambitious and solid RPG does is create an epic adventure that provides hours of entrainment, and any game you can say that about is worth its weight in gold.