Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[ERYFKRAD]

And what, on fucking Earth, is a Source Hunter anyway

Copyright specialist

 

[Lacrymas]

Sequel is much more focused on the story. It even reconciled the two games with the plot of Divinity 2.

I was mostly saying this in in the context of the thing you quoted, i.e. the game doesn't take into account out of order things or its own mechanics (100 disposition, yet the NPC treats you like shit).

 

[Cat Dude]

Lets see...halibut....sheeps cheese..tomatoes..

 

[anvi]

I wish there were some more mods for this game that I would want.

 

[Funposter]

You're overthinking it, the game is 99% about combat

For all the simulationist babble this game and the sequel have garnered, this is the truth deep down.

Sequel is much more focused on the story. It even reconciled the two games with the plot of Divinity 2.

The sequel is superior in all aspects except for its combat. Unfortunately, the second game is still 95% about combat, which makes it a lesser experience overall.

 

[catfood]

The Enhanced Edition really is popamolified to the max. I'm playing on tactician and the game is easier than the standard version was on normal difficulty. The only difficult fight was the very first one. Braccus Rex also TPK'd me but that's only because he pulls a free meteor strike out of his ass during the first round which instagibs your dudes. I just sent one of my guys to take the blow and die, resurrected him from beyond range, and then started the fight again with all four characters. I was only one level above him, but come on! I wiped the floor with him and his minions. On the standard edition this was a really, really tough fight. I understand the game better now than when I first played it and can distribute points in a wiser manner, but it was still so underwhelming. I just entered Luculla Forest now and I don't think I'm going to go any further because from this point the game just goes downhill.

 

[Orobis]

Regular D:OS is better than the "Enhanced Edition". There really was no reason for an enhanced version, well...Larian needed the money i guess.

The only thing the "Enhanced Edition" managed to do was exacerbate the main problem of the game with the god awful writing by bringing in terrible Ham-fisted voice acting.

Seriously Larian, i hope you guys have hired some better writers by now cause BG3 will be a fucking disaster joke of a game (writing wise) if it's going to be anything like you've guys done up to this point (again writing wise).

 

[catfood]

The only thing the "Enhanced Edition" managed to do was exacerbate the main problem of the game with the god awful writing by bringing in terrible Ham-fisted voice acting.

The thing about voice acting in these kinds of RPG's is that it's so pointless on a fundamental level. In games such as Bloodlines or Gothic the camera is closer to the characters and offers a more "cinematic" (I hate using this term) feel to the experience. In Bloodlines in particular the facial expressions were well animated and still hold up til today. You didn't feel the need to skip the dialogues even though you could read the lines faster than the actors could speak them because the character was there right in front of your face and dialogue went together perfectly with the movements the model made during conversation. The game had you the player thinking that he was actually there talking to the NPC. I, as a player am being entertained by what is going on on the screen. In Gothic there are less animations but the tone of the writing is different. It's snappy and down to earth and goes straight to the point.

But in this game? The camera is set well above the characters and they barely have any animations. What is the point of me waiting for the voice actor to speak his lines if I don't miss anything by reading ahead and prompting the next dialogue option? The voices themselves are pretty well done, no fault to the actors on that front. But in general the experience is me staring at an almost entirely static screen whose lower half is taken up by the dialogue window, and the upper half by an almost lifeless NPC model 10 meters away from the camera while listening to some of the most asinine lines I've ever had the misfortune of hearing in a video game. What a complete, and utter lack of understanding of game design. Again, the IE games were superior in this regard. Record a few lines for the NPC so that the player can get a better understanding of the tone and personality of said character and then just use text. Stop spending valuable resources if your game doesn't benefit from it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

D:OS would be a far inferior game without cyseal voice acting


voice acting adds a lot to video game ambience through background characters, and it's overlooked by people who shit on it constantly

 

[anvi]

I hate everything about it apart from the fighting. And even that isn't as good as it seems at first.

 

[catfood]

D:OS would be a far inferior game without cyseal voice acting


voice acting adds a lot to video game ambience through background characters, and it's overlooked by people who shit on it constantly

I'm fine with using voice acting here and there to enhance the gameplay experience. I'm fine with it when it is integral to it such as in Bloodline's case. Where I am not fine with it is when it is used like in DOS:EE. I mean, if Larian has money to burn on voice actors, the good for them, but don't be surprised afterwards when players skip it, or even turn it off entirely. The console release had a part in it I'm sure. I don't know much about console gaming since I'm not a console peasant but I've heard that reading on a TV screen is an unpleasant experience, though I find that a bit hard to believe since movie subtitles are a thing.

PS: the cheese maker is a retarded meme. The meme isn't funny nor was the NPC.

 

[Orobis]

The camera is set well above the characters and they barely have any animations.

I haven't played the enhanced edition in a long time but i'm pretty sure there is a setting where it auto-zooms in when you go in to conversation mode but yea, was not the point you were making.

 

[Orobis]

voice acting adds a lot to video game ambience through background characters, and it's overlooked by people who shit on it constantly

Not if it's bad writing.

 

[catfood]

The camera is set well above the characters and they barely have any animations.

I haven't played the enhanced edition in a long time but i'm pretty sure there is a setting where it auto-zooms in when you go in to conversation mode but yea, was not the point you were making.

I don't know what setting you mean, but the camera does zoom in a closer than it normally is. It's still too far away and awkward.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I mean, if Larian has money to burn on voice actors, the good for them

non-SAG voice acting is dirt cheap, I see this argument a lot
probably spent more on coffee

 

[Orobis]

I don't know what setting you mean, but the camera does zoom in a closer than it normally is. It's still too far away and awkward.

Yea idk, like i said it's been a while since i played it, probably confusing with another game.

 

[catfood]

I don't know what setting you mean, but the camera does zoom in a closer than it normally is. It's still too far away and awkward.

Yea idk, like i said it's been a while since i played it, probably confusing with another game.

I checked. Yes, there's an option for this. The game zooms to where the dialogue options box covers the lower body of the NPC. The character does have a short emote at the start of each line. Surprisingly they do fit with what was being said (for example when he's sad he pulls his shoulders down) but then the model reverts to its default state and stays like that for the remainder of the line. It's underwhelming. I didn't even notice it til it was brought up in this thread, lol.

 

[SniperHF]

It's called "close up dialog" in the options. I usually play with it off.

Surprisingly they do fit with what was being said (for example when he's sad he pulls his shoulders down)

The animations are implemented in the dialog editor so whoever wrote the dialog could pick which standard animation to use. Most models had like ~15 or so. PCs and special NPCs had more.

 

[Atchodas]

Not if it's bad writing.

Haha like voice acting in PoE derpfire for example, the writing is so trash and so redundant that no VA will help it , actually reading Pillars walls of text was better in first game because you read faster than VA listening trough pages and pages of some random NPC is just insanely boring

 

[Lacrymas]

Non-background voice acting in co-op games is worse than pointless. Nobody wants to sit and "experience a deep story" while playing a co-op game, so you'll either be skipping that shit or read it aloud to each other with funny voices or overdramatic flourishes. VA doesn't add to any of that.

 

[Valky]

The Enhanced Edition really is popamolified to the max. I'm playing on tactician and the game is easier than the standard version was on normal difficulty. The only difficult fight was the very first one. Braccus Rex also TPK'd me but that's only because he pulls a free meteor strike out of his ass during the first round which instagibs your dudes. I just sent one of my guys to take the blow and die, resurrected him from beyond range, and then started the fight again with all four characters. I was only one level above him, but come on! I wiped the floor with him and his minions. On the standard edition this was a really, really tough fight. I understand the game better now than when I first played it and can distribute points in a wiser manner, but it was still so underwhelming. I just entered Luculla Forest now and I don't think I'm going to go any further because from this point the game just goes downhill.

I was going to ask if there's any sort of mod for classic edition that does something like tactician mode but I never played the game far enough in EE (because it was such fucking decline) to know if it was really better. Is classic really better in difficulty and ai?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The EE doesn't change the difficulty(unless you play Tactician which makes it harder), you guys are imagining things that aren't even changed.

 

[Valky]

I was fucking referring to tactician you illiterate mongoloid.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I was fucking referring to tactician you illiterate mongoloid.

I didn't quote your post therefore don't assume my post is a response to you, retard.

 

[Valky]

I was fucking referring to tactician you illiterate mongoloid.

I didn't quote your post therefore don't assume my post is a response to you, retard.

Two can play at this game, person who I can neither confirm nor deny was the recipient of my previous post.