“Laughable.” “Frustrating.” “Hokey.” The creators of action-RPG Two Worlds have heard it all, and then some.

“We realize we made mistakes with the first game,” admits Bert Jennings, producer at TopWare Interactive. And we’d agree: While it earned a cult following, Two Worlds had plenty of issues, ranging from an unbearable framerate to dreadful dialogue, from maddeningly difficult gameplay to an overall density that turned away casual gamers.

After viewing an early version of Two Worlds II, however, we suspect this sequel should wash away much of the bad taste its 2007 predecessor may have left in your golden goblet. Hey, everyone deserves a second chance, right?

For starters, Two Worlds II was built from the ground up to run on Xbox 360, unlike the first game, which TopWave admits was both a PC port and their first foray into Xbox development. And you can tell — character movements are much smoother and the environments richly detailed.

In a setting resembling something between the Middle Ages and Mordor, the role-playing plot centers on your customizable hero-character (who returns from the original some months later) trying to save his sister from the grasp of the Dark Lord Gandohar — who has only grown in power since the first installment.

As the sequel opens, our as-yet-unnamed hero races through a castle and dungeon, following a scantily clad female Orc ninja (or some approximation thereof) who urges you: “Keep your eyes off my ass.” While we can’t comment on said Orc ass, Two Worlds II has a ton of sharp details, from three-dimensional stonewalls to a polished dynamic-lighting system that responds realistically when lightning flashes from the castle’s dark windows.

Later in the opening sequence, the Orc ninja gets trapped and you have to pick a lock to get her out. The lockpicking can be as simple as hitting an auto-attempt button or as complex as a timed mini-challenge in which you have to line up pieces just right to open the door, à la Splinter Cell’s classic tumbler-turning feature.

In this way, developers say, Two Worlds II allows players to decide how much of a commitment they want to make to the game. For instance, myriad books placed on shelves may reveal themselves to be as long as 40 pages, contain different handwriting depending on the authors, and give you backstory clues or even open up a whole new quest.

While the role-playing is clearly being addressed, the guys at Topware also went out of their way to show us improvements to another problem in the first game — combat. This time around, you can actively block enemy attacks in between slicing foes in two. Other highlights touted were sharper maps, easier horse-backriding capabilities, and a bountiful collection of islands to explore.

In all, Two Worlds II could take up to 110 hours to complete, its creators tell us; its geographical space is as vast as the original’s far-reaching ecosystem, and its quests are more numerous, varied, and engaging. RPG fans willing to give Two Worlds a second look — and the developers believe there are many — have reason to be stoked. We’re assured there won’t be a single “verily” or “forsooth” in earshot!