Accidental Innuendo: The evil force is called The Taint. It is no doubt in reference to something becoming tainted, in other words corrupted, but when it is just "taint" most people are going to be thinking something quite different.
The first game has its detractors, but the entire soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer (of Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun fame) is unbelievably epic. The title theme alone is worth a few listens.
Continuity Lockout: There is little to no in-game information about who's who and who stands for what in the second game. Even the manual provides only a very brief and vague synopsis. On the other hand, the vast overwhelming conflict of Orcs versus Humans is pretty much shoved to the background as the story explains it.
Cult Classic: Despite the problems, the large open world was still appealing enough for the first game to gain it some fans, particularly fans of other open world RPGs. Patches for the PC version have improved its status over time.
Demonic Spiders: Werebeasts in the second game if you're not a melee character. Enjoy being charged at by a Cheetah that inflicts massive damage and is immune to blindness effects.
Remember how badly alchemy broke Oblivion? Now imagine if those stat boosts were permanent. It's possible to kill Gandohar in two hits with a properly powered-up character in the first game.
Permanent stat bonuses are removed in the second game, but some of the most inventive aspects of the alchemy/spell system result in overpowered mechanics. For example, a character will usually accumulate enough materials to concoct 10 potions to resurrect them upon death by the end of the game, and if that's not enough, resurrection exists in spell form.
One of the weaknesses of the "mage" archetypal character is that missile spells don't stunlock enemies like melee weapons (and, to a lesser extent, ranged weapons) do. While melee characters usually have an easy time one-on-one, mages must resort to kiting... until they figure out that they can combine a missile with an area-effect that blinds opponents, resulting in an even longer stun than expected for most enemies. Those who are immune suddenly become Demonic Spiders in comparison.
Missile spells are affected by the spray modifier, turning one projectile into many. Not only does this resulting in a shotgun effect where adventurous mages will aim to inflict triple or more damage by attacking up close, but the fact that missiles can be combined with another carrier card can resulting in a mage instantly summon numerous minions as an aftereffect of the missile that will surround enemies and stop them from being a threat.
Part of the danger of the Swamps in the third chapter is because of how little walking room there is, resulting in characters being surrounded by the flying Vespines or the undead who are able to wade through the deep water. Introducing the water-walking ability, in both spell and alchemy form, to turn the swamps into a flat plane.
Invisibility. It exists in alchemy form at the very end (in severely limited form) for a reason: access to it in spell form, which is fairly simple (Air + Enchant + Time) results in all forms of characters benefiting from the ability to lockpick from virtually any area if they cast this spell (even in homes, resulting in an excess of loot), avoiding "ambush" encounters with triggered spawns, and retreating from combat or sneaking without having to worry about its complications.
Summoning in the second game thanks to the magic card system. In the first game it was overpriced and weak, but in the second, you can easily swamp the enemy with hordes of instantly-summoned, incredibly-tough giant scorpions or viciously fast stunlocking skeletons, and can rapidly resummon any that get killed thanks to summoning multiple at a time.
Goddamned Bats: Cheetahs and hyenas in the second game. They're not terribly strong, but they have an annoying habit of running away from you until they're out of range of your auto-targeting crosshair, then lying down in the tall grass so you can't see them. When you come near, they run up to you you, take a swipe at you, and repeat the whole process. They'll remain annoying even after you're powerful enough to instakill them by slapping them with the back of your hand.
Ignoring the obvious ones from the first, the second game allows you to attack certain bosses from a distance with a bow... before you activate the trigger that makes them able to do anything but stand there. While killing them breaks the quest, it's possible to sit just out of range and chip them to near death, only triggering their AI (and thus make the game register you fought the boss) when they're one hit away from death.
Speedrunning the game depends on the fact that the game's Final Boss appears in the very first village. You're not supposed to kill him there, but you can provoke him, and then get him to accidentally shoot an NPC, which will cause all the other NPCs to gang up on him and the ending cutscene to play. With this method, it's possible to beat the game in a little over two minutes.
The French dub of the second game is very hard to take seriously due to its sub-par voice acting, sentences frequently getting cut abruptly and some rather... poor choices of vocabulary. How poor? Some undead enemies are named "nècres". It sounds almost exactly like "nègres", which is French for the N-word.
It's very hard to take the game seriously when the main evil force is called The Taint.
Just the dialogue and character models in the second. For example, the Ghostbusters reference (...Are you a god?) on the main page's Shout-Out section takes place in the middle of a semi-serious guild plotline. In general, the protagonist's snark defuses a lot of the more cliche quests.
Porting Disaster: Two Worlds was obviously meant to be a PC game. The Xbox 360 version has inferior graphics, an almost-unusable user interface, and more bugs than you can shake a can of Raid at. The second game has some bizarre mix of console and PC disadvantages in the user interface, such as being unable to select some (minor but very noticeable) things with the mouse but otherwise retaining an obvious leaning towards PC functionality.
Sequel Displacement: The second game sold more than two million units, despite the reputation of the first game.
So Bad, It's Good: The first game. Imagine if you will a third-person Oblivion clone filled to the brim with game-breaking bugs (which aren't as much of an issue in the original PC version, especially with later bug fixes), with a hero who runs around like he's got a load in his pants all the while spouting the worst one-liners ever and talking to peasants who mispronounce every other word, along with some goofy looking animations. A lot of this has to do with the massive amounts of Narm Charm present in the game.
So Okay, It's Average: The second game. It is a big improvement over the first, but still gets held back by a lackluster story with flat characters, drab graphics, and uninspired game mechanics.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While it has its flaws (most infamously its rushed ending), Two Worlds II is a big improvement over the first one. One review tellingly doubles its score, as a huge expansion of content adds to its RPG appeal.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The first part takes place in Northern Antaloor, which was just recently shaken by a bunch of sleazy jerkasses who took control of the region via political intrigue and imposed a bunch of laws the populace hates. The main quest of that area involves a lot of political intrigue and the like that could have been fleshed out and given more overall depth. In the South, there's a lot of tension and concern over the invading Orc armies, and in fact when you get to the capital city of Cathalon, you can see siege machines being set up across the river by Orcs. Once again, the epic potential of this stock fantasy trope is epically wasted because, all in all, you don't really even do too much to help end the war.
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