Game News Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios

A bit less than a year after its original launch, Larian Studios have released the Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition. It's a big day for consoles, less so for PC - although for those of you who have made a habit of not playing games until they're fully patched up, now's the time to begin. Well, that's not entirely accurate. According to their release announcement on Steam, there are a few remaining odds and ends that Larian plan to add later. But first the launch trailer:

You have probably noticed a big update that came to Divinity: Original Sin 2. The big update is the Definitive Edition that was added.

People that have bought Original Sin 2 when it came out, get this for free. It is an optimized, revised, rebalanced version of the game, with a couple of new features, overhauled Arena mode, better UI, better journal, rewritten dialogues, and much more.

If you would like to know what exactly "much more" is, we have tried to document it here, in over 50 pages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IcADAJsLeHHXYjCnR5MwCm9GTWRdKzRtIYcCqO_RI6U/edit

If you are now wondering what version to choose, Classic or Definitive, it's easy:

- If you have a game or a GM campaign in progress in Classic mode, start up Classic mode and continue there. Savegames from the Classic game are not compatible with Definitive Edition. If you ever feel like rolling a new character, please come over to the Definitive Side when you're ready.

- If you are new to Original Sin 2, or if you were only a couple of levels in on classic, start up the Definitive Edition.

- If you have already finished the Classic version a dozen times and you're a champion in the classic arena, give the Definitive Edition a go. What harm is there in rolling one. More. Character.

We hope you enjoy this new game version and are excited to read about what you think.

For those of you wondering:

- the editor is coming out in a few days
- mods created for classic are incompatible
- HDR mode will be added later on as well

Don't worry, we're on top of it, and working together with modders to make popular mods available and convert them over to definitive edition. We're also watching the forums to help out where we can, and address some early issues that were identified. So we're not done yet.
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Divinity: Original Sin 2 suffered withering criticisms on our forum, but it was still our GOTY in 2017. A year later though, it doesn't seem like very many people care about it anymore. Actually, the Codex seems to be in a state of apathy in general these days. The era of Divinities and Eternities is over, I think. It's time for something new.

 

[Ocelot570]

The era of Divinities and Eternities is over, I think. It's time for something new.

Now what would the fun in that be?

 

[Valky]

Does the definitive edition make it a good game?

 

[ScrotumBroth]

This video explains technical changes in short.

https://youtu.be/KF5u9TIbFVk

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[CRD]

so its no standalone title like with dos1?

they probably don't want to mess with that sweet 95% positive of 30.000 reviews while confusing people with 2 entries on the steam database.

I mean, it makes sense. a re-release of improved editions is only worthwhile if you want a clean sheet of reviews

 

[Shilandra]

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios

- mods created for classic are incompatible
​

​

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I kickstarted this. I like that it's now ready to play. I just need to sort out where it falls into my backlog hierarchy....tricky. Do I continue to chisel away through less demanding and shorter games, or do I play the worthwhile major productions, like this one? Always the dilemma. A game like this is designed such that you want to stop to smell the roses, but ain't nobody got time fo dat! Is it even fun to play a game like this if you can only get in maybe 30 minutes at a time half the days of the week?

 

[Murk]

I don't think the changes are as drastic as EE was to OS 1 either.

 

[Quantomas]

Is it even fun to play a game like this if you can only get in maybe 30 minutes at a time half the days of the week?

Definitely. I tend to play only a bit at lunch time or in the evening.

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios
- If you have a game or a GM campaign in progress in Classic mode, start up Classic mode and continue there. Savegames from the Classic game are not compatible with Definitive Edition. If you ever feel like rolling a new character, please come over to the Definitive Side when you're ready.

What a bummer. But replaying the initial island and a bit on the next coast is probably a fair price.

 

[MicoSelva]

for those of you who have made a habit of not playing games until they're fully patched up, now's the time to begin.

Yup, that's me!

Well, that's not entirely accurate. According to their release announcement on Steam, there are a few remaining odds and ends that Larian plan to add later.

Oh, FFS.

 

[Projas]

Did they make it not suck by any chance? As in did they do something about the armour system, itemization and initiative?

 

[TemplarGR]

Mediocre game earns GOTY what else is new? It was 2017 so it is forgiven, nothing of note was released in 2017 anyway. Game is fun i suppose with co op, but as a single player crpg is meh all things considered. Still worth a playthrough considering nothing worthwhile gets released anyway and the classics can only be replayed so many times...

 

[oldmanpaco]

I like that it's now ready to play.

 

[Valky]

Popamolers must be holding Swen's family hostage.

 

[cvv]

The era of Divinities and Eternities is over, I think. It's time for something new.

Yes, time for a new nostalgia fad.

We got our Dungeon Master revival (Grimrock), spamload of Baldur's Gate-likes, we're still getting the proper Wiz 7 revival (should be ready next Thursday I hear). Now someone plz bring back Betrayal at Krondor - a 3D world with isometric battles. I've been waiting for this my whole adult life.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios
The era of Divinities and Eternities is over, I think. It's time for something new.

Time for a new review, perchance?

 

[Murk]

I don't think the changes are as drastic as EE was to OS 1 either.

Infinitron re: citation needed

Boot up the game dude. in OS 1, EE changed the number of skills available by like a factor of 3x. It used to be that you had tiered skills, like instead of just 1 restoration in the water tree you had multiple starting from "lesser" and going up. EE consolidated skill level 1 skill level 2 skill level 3 into a single skill that scales harder (le decline begins). Cool downs were fundamentally changed too, making it so you can't just spam a certain skill every round -- like say, making oil and then shooting it with a fire-elemental staff of magus, but other major stuff was added in -- classic didn't have wands as a weapon, at all, and didn't have grenades or dual wielding. EE added those in. You had a ton more skills, some of which were redundant, that overlapped in classic OS1. There were multiple whirlwind melee attacks, multiple "throw ice shard at enemy" skills, etc. Those all got consolidated.

So far, playing definitive, the only difference (other than interface stuff) that I've noticed is that there's a tutorial area in the beginning -- basically 3-4 rooms to go through before you walk into the room you started OS2 at. I haven't cleared Fort Joy yet, so who knows maybe there's huge changes coming, but I doubt it.

 

[Infinitron]

So far, playing definitive, the only difference (other than interface stuff) that I've noticed is that there's a tutorial area in the beginning -- basically 3-4 rooms to go through before you walk into the room you started OS2 at. I haven't cleared Fort Joy yet, so who knows maybe there's huge changes coming, but I doubt it.

D:OS 2 DE is supposed to feature a completely revamped third act. Don't think content changes in D:OS EE were that large.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

And still it's definitely not worth to play.

 

[Murk]

So far, playing definitive, the only difference (other than interface stuff) that I've noticed is that there's a tutorial area in the beginning -- basically 3-4 rooms to go through before you walk into the room you started OS2 at. I haven't cleared Fort Joy yet, so who knows maybe there's huge changes coming, but I doubt it.

D:OS 2 DE is supposed to feature a completely revamped third act. Don't think content changes in D:OS EE were that large.

Welp, can't comment til I get to that, so maybe it will be.

EE's changes to gameplay were huge, completely overhauling the skill and character system and fundamentally altering how you build and progress your character. I'd argue them fleshing Arx out, which was pretty thin in content, is not so much changing how the game works but making it what it should have been. It (Definitive) doesn't seem to alter how you play the game though, nowhere near as much as EE did. Which was what I said in the beginning.

 

[imweasel]

Popamolers must be holding Swen's family hostage.

Nah, Swen is just a soy boy cuck that has shown us his true colors.

Larian's next game will be dumbed down even more and probably have a bunch of (lizard) trannies in it too.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I suppose it was inevitable. None of the revival era developers had any old school credentials in a first place, so they stopped pretending otherwise pretty quickly and started making cutesy simplified games for the consoles.

I suppose Fargo is the only one who somewhat gave a fuck about at least pretending, but that's probably because he's literally ancient and wouldn't know how to cater to console crowd anyway.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Zeriel]

Game is fun i suppose with co op, but as a single player crpg is meh all things considered.

Yeah, the design trends are why I still haven't bothered picking this up despite putting in a ton of time into DOS 1. Kind of weird to look back on the era of console decline and realize there's more singleplayer-focused RPGs from that era that I enjoyed.