Two Worlds II is a real-time role-playing game that takes place in an open fantasy world where players take the role of a single character with whom they can explore and undertake quests. From the beginning players can customize the appearance of the protagonist such as shape of face and body, and skin colour. As is common in role-playing games, the player’s character will level up by gaining experience points through completion of quests and defeating enemies. Much of the in-game world can be fully explored from the beginning, regardless of how much the player has progressed through the main story arc. Despite being non-linear, many areas of the land are populated by strong foes with higher levels than that of the player initially and as a result, players may want to explore them once their character has improved. While players will travel across much of the landscape on foot, they are soon given the option to ride on horseback and even later, a chance to man the helm of a boat to sail across the seas between islands. In addition players can also fast travel using magical teleportation fixtures found across the map.
From the beginning of the single-player game, all players' characters begin at the base level. Rather than having players choose a character’s class and style of play, as they level up points are given to be spent on improving their four main stats; endurance (health and damage), strength (combat), accuracy (ranged), and willpower (magic) while also unlocking and improving various other skills and abilities such as forging items, special combat moves, sneaking, spells and others. Players can also mix skills instead of focusing on one type of character build.
Materials can be gathered throughout the game world, either found in the wild, purchased from vendors, looted from fallen enemies or recovered from unneeded equipment. Whilst some materials can be used in the forging/upgrading of weaponry and armor, others can be used in the creation of lethal devices such as traps or bombs. Many others however are ingredients for potions that can be brewed by the player themself. These mixtures can either be used to recover a player's health or magical reserve, to temporarily buff their skills or attributes, or to use against foes as poisons. Due to the large amount of outcomes, players can name and document their new creations.