There was a slightly weird moment when we found out that in Two Worlds the smolderingly nubile young lady featured in the game is your sister.

We asked Dirk Hassinger, chairman of the game’s publisher, if he didn’t think it was a bit... strange to make the sibling of your in-game character so sexually charged. “It is important she looks like that,” he said in his thick German accent. We were about to respond when he leaned in a little closer than we were comfortable with and spoke again. “It is important she looks like that.”

Whether he meant it was vital to the plot or just useful as a selling point we’ve got no idea, but the exchange was oddly appropriate given the gritty, arcane setting of Two Worlds. Following in the footsteps of the Gothic series, this is a freeform third-person RPG breathing life into a more central European interpretation of fantasy, an interpretation that tends to favor blood, war, demons and other awesome things from ’80s metal album covers. Two Worlds has in fact only the one world, but it’s a world that’s brutal in a way that should please anyone who thought Oblivion’s simulation of Tamriel was disappointingly sugar-coated.

Monster ferocity isn’t artificially scaled in Two Worlds; there are just indigenous creatures and local toughs. This means that while you have complete freedom, you’ll want to steer well clear of areas you’ve heard bad things about. If you do find yourself on the wrong side of the mithril tracks, your best chance for survival is probably fighting dirty.