Finally, after what feels like the longest wait in the world; the review for Two Worlds II is now complete, and what an adventure it was too. For those of you who may have skipped past this one at the store, I'm just going to mention that Two Worlds II is full of surprises. It's treacherously beautiful and visually pristine landscapes littering Antaloor are so good, I caught myself stopping to smell the roses quite often.

Set forth across three dangerous regions on the ultimate quest of searching for your kidnapped sister, Kyra, who has been taken captive by the Dark Lord Gandohar. You will honestly spend hours with this title, and I'm not talking about a six hour long campaign either - I'm talking bout a gamer's game. Prepare for battles like you've never experienced; long, tedious and sometimes torturous quests and you'll even have the chance to jump into the arena for a fight to the death against all types of different opponents. So, how about we talk about this a little more in-depth, shall we? Yes.

Before we begin our journey, let's talk about character customization. Since this is the first thing that you'll come across during the game, I thought that it would be the first thing that I would discuss during this review. The customizing ability that you have with your hero isn't that complex. But, just because it's not complex doesn't mean that it's not a decent feature. You can customize everything from hair to build and face, but the options that you have aren't as complete as what multiplayer has to offer (in my humblest opinion); you'll notice that you'll have more control here than in single player.

As you venture through Antaloor, you will be need to complete a multitude of different tasks and objectives. Just like any RPG, prepare yourself long treks and hordes of enemies who will stop at nothing to see you lying there on the ground helpless and defenseless. Regardless of what class you chose to play with, it's always wise to keep your strength up. You'll also have the opportunity to create health potions throughout the game - actually, let me stand corrected: pick plants in the fields and collect the vital organs of the enemies that you have slain, throwing them into a cauldren and then concocting a delicious beverage in which you drink to survive.

On a side note, I mentioned "long treks" a few sentences back, it's no joke. It took me several hours (give or take a few days) to officially move past Chapter One and on to Chapter Two. I was blown away at how difficult the boss in the Tower of Fangs was. I was so tired of running by the time I defeated that guy. I had to boost up my character's stats so high in order to take him down; just wanted to toss that out there and give you the heads up that he means business and to be prepared for a battle in which you may fail unless you are leveled high enough. Another tip for success; he's not the only enemy that you'll come across that wants your head on a silver plater.

Let's move on to weapons. They are a vital role in your gameplay - like you didn't already know that. You will have a variety of different weapons to chose from; swords, bows, two-handed weapons, axes, staffs, daggers and magic are just a few to mention. Don't get me started on how many various different types of each weapon there are too. After you learn the weapon crafting ability, you'll be able to break weapons down to their bare components and construct more powerful weapons. This is kind of time consuming though. Especially when you run across a whole group of enemies, you'll be sweeping up the mess and breaking components down for at least a few minutes. But, you shouldn't complain, you'll find that it improves your weapon strength. You can hit up the market in the towns too for some duckets (sorry had to use the term for some reason) for the weapons that you don't want to break down to the bare minimum.

Archery is perfect for those who want to hunt at long distances. You'll learn the abilty to shoot multiple arrows at once at multiple different enemies. Something I'm sure Robin Hood would be extremely jealous over. Your bow and arrows will be your secondary weapon when attacking.

Among another trait is being a theif. Yes, a bandit who dips his hands in the cookie jar without asking first. I want to state that being a theif is harder than you think. When you sneak up to your subject, you'll want to make sure that no one is looking. Once the on-screen display pops up, it's time to begin sneaky sneaky. The mini game when acting as a theif is quite unique. You'll need to move your hand past three snakes that are moving in a circular direction, once the opening has lined up; claim that gold as if it was yours.

Now, it's time for magic. Tada. Honestly, I have never really been good in this department. I'll speak truthfully. I could never really quite cast out spells like Gandalf the Grey but I at least try. I've always played the warrior type when playing an RPG. There is a brief training at the beginning of the game that will show you how to use magic and your staff. Magic is used by adding spell cards to your magic abilties. You'll find that you can rain down fire, throw ice blasts at enemies, summon demons; the whole works. As you progress through Two Worlds II and begin using your powers, you'll find that you will have the opportunity to create your own spells using spell cards. There is an infinite number of different spells which can be created, so get creative.

The warrior. A man of many tastes in fine weaponry. Lay down the law with your broad sword, axe or two-handed weapon and make sure that whatever moves past you doesn't get back up. The warrior is generally know to have massive strength and is able to destroy practically anything within a matter of a few swings of the weapon. This is generally the route that I take when playing through an RPG - I can't help it, I just like to whack stuff to a pulp in games.

Skills are used to give your character that extra oomph that he deserves. Upgrading your abilities is something that you will want to do every chance that you can get. It may take a while to bring your character to the level that he needs to be in in order to move on. Without the proper strength and skills, I will tell you this now, but you may not survive. Build up your endurance, your willpower, strength and accuracy to make your hero become the one who no one wants to mess with. Just a little tip for the wise, but please don't let me tell you how to play, experiment and see what works for you. You find that you prefer one skill over another, by all means boost that skill up more than the others. I always go for maxing out my strength so I can blow on the enemy and they shiver in their skivies.

Travelling is one thing that you will do constantly during your endeavors. There are a few different ways to travel across Antaloor. Horse riding, by feet, sailing and teleporting. The fastest out of the three is obviously teleportation. You'll find teleportation portals all over the map that will take you anywhere you want to go, as long as you've already found that portal. Horse riding is useful, but can be avoided if you so choose. You may want to participate in some horse races though before you throw out your saddle and reigns. Just a heads-up, horses are actually pretty rare to find. You can mostly find them on farms or in stables, but never running wild across the open plain. Sailing is the slowest mode of transportation. I personally was having trouble setting sail and catching the wind. Hopefully others were successful in sailing the open seas, but I unfortunately couldn't get the hang of it. I'm definitely not giving up, because honestly - it's sailing.

Earlier, I talked a little bit about weapon crafting. But, it was more or less just a mention. Let's actually talk a bit more about it in detail. In order to craft your own weapons, you will need to find the book of Weapon Crafting and learn that skill. I can't remember where exactly I found it, but check the markets and see if you can purchase it from one of the locals. This is really where you can find many of the skill books in order to turn your hero into an all-around jack of all trades when it comes to slaying the wicked - and the wicked will be punished. Crafting weapons is simple once you learn the skill. All that you need to do is go into your inventory and press the correct button to begin breaking down weapon components. Aside from weapon crafting, there is also the ability to craft your own sheild using old shield components such as woods, metals and all other parts that you would normally find on a shield.

Alchemy; the art of potion making. Health potions, endurance potions, accuracy potions, strength potions; it's all there. Collect plants, minerals and animal ingrediants to boost your skills and make concoctions of various different types of potions that will help you along the way.

There are so many dungeons in Two Worlds II, I could hardly contain myself. Experience points galore everytime you enter the dark corners of the dungeons in search for weapons, XP, skill books, Rune Stones and enemies that pack a punch. When searching the catacombs, it can be very easy to get lost and it's very dark in there too, so be sure to grab torch before heading in there. In some catacombs, previous people who have been there in the past have laid out barrels to help guide you through I noticed that many of the barrels are placed at certain points in the hallway that indicate which hallway to take. Just something to think about. But, for those caacombs areas that don't have these awesome hints, well - just keep searching, you'll eventually get out of there. It's not like you'll die of starving or anything.

There are several types of guilds in Two Worlds II that offer a variety of different side quests for additional experience points. Each guild provides their own set of quests and storylines to keep you earning that precious XP and turning you into a killing machine, they also allow you to become familiar with each class within the game.

Now, I'm sure that you are wondering about multiplayer. I'm going to briefly tackle this one because in all honesty, I'm sure that you will find that multiplayer is quite entertaining and adds extra adventures that you can join your friends on. Multiplayer is great, purely great. You can play how you want to play; whether you want to lash out on some enemies as a warrior or cast spells upon the ones who stand in your way. Grab a friend and fight together to bring peace to Antaloor once and for all. While playing through multiplayer, you'll have full control over where you want to travel as you can access portals and participate in mini-games just like in single player. You can also start your own village and make some money while your at it.

Overall, I couldn't have been more happy with Two Worlds II. The GRACE engine makes the game look so phenomenal that I couldn't help but stop throughout the game and look around at my environment. Watching the trees sway as the wind picks up, seeing candles within the caves flicker. The graphics were so well done, if you bypassed Two Worlds II solely on that fact that you disliked the first one; I'd rethink your purchasing decisions and pick up this title. You will not be let down. I was surprisingly shocked at how well Two Worlds II played. It may have had a few hiccups along the way with the speech, but overall was incredible. Seriously people, if there is advice that you should take, it is to not overlook this one. Rent it, buy it, beg for it, borrow it - whatever you have to do. Play it!

Title: Two Worlds II

Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 3

Developer: Reality Pump

Publisher: TopWare Interactive

Release Date: Janurary 25, 2011

MSRP: $59.99

Review Copy Info: A copy of this title was provided to DualShockers Inc. by the publisher for the purpose of this review.