Preview Divinity 2: Dragon Knight Saga Previews

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Divinity 2; Larian Studios

<p>... en fran&ccedil;ais. <a href="http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0001/00013564-divinity-ii-flames-of-vengeance-preview.htm" target="_blank">Two different</a> <a href="http://www.gameblog.fr/news_18406_divinity-ii-the-dragon-knight-saga-nos-impressions" target="_blank">french sites</a> put up hands-on previews on the <a href="http://www.larian.com/index.php" target="_blank">Dragon Knight Saga</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Whether it is on PC or on Xbox360, the game has taken a giant visual leap. Simply put, everything looks more beautiful, more detailed... really impressive !"<br /><br />"On Xbox360, it's also worth noting that the interface has been improved significantly, more usable and a lot better readable than in Ego Draconis. Another problem they solved is that the camera is now much closer to the avatar, (ed: with different controls) allowing the player to better control his character in combat"<br /><br />"Flames of Vengeance is an expansion of great quality. Very rich in content, better looking than the previous episode, with bugfixes and improvements where possible, it concludes Divinity II in the best possible way."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If anyone can understand this "language" feel free to post whether those previews contain any worthwhile info.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#15932">RPGWatch</a></p>

 

[Sceptic]

Slow morning. I'm on it. Will post again after I've gone through them.

 

[Sceptic]

Starting with the Gameblog one: an unfunny Back To The Future joke. Seems they played ED only on Xbawks, so I don't know how much to trust the rest of the comparisons. They do mention the humor as a high point and blame dragons for being boring and bugs for being numerous. Moving to DKS, graphics are much better, interface on Xbawks is much better (they mention the changes to UI on PC being minor but good), combat is easier because controls are more responsive. Lots of small and not so small changes to the story and quests apparently, and sections of the dragon fights have been replaced entirely. This being a shitty preview they make no mention whatsoever of ANY detail. It's like they're reciting a press release, not previwing the fucking game. Then they talk about FOV part: more humor, it's a direct continuation of ED, and the ending is more uplifting so Larian won't be getting any more death threats (true story). There's some dragon fighting, with 3 new attacks. tl;dr preview sucks and previewer is a faggot.

Jeuxvideo one: they like. They praise the graphics, but pay particular attention to the finer details, better lighting system, and it seems textures are both higher res and just nicer looking, so good all around. Speaking of lighting it seems that exterior lighting can affect interiors, which would be pretty cool. However there's still some clipping, and the framerate is still unstable... on the Xbawks You can import your ED char into FOV, or you can create a level 35 char for FOV and either go for presets or assign everything manually. In any case you start with lots of money and the dragon transformation straight away so you can jump into the good stuff. They recommend importing from ED because of the continuation of the story, but also because a lot of NPC's return with new quests. The game is as nonlinear as ED, dialog is well written, mind-reading is still available. Final score: very good.

2nd preview's overall shorter and more informative.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

thanks Sceptic!

 

[AnalogKid]

Great, they quote Swen saying that they replaced the dragon stuff with something "less shitty", but again they don't give any actual detail. Grrrr. Nice summaries, Sceptic. I second your editorial comments, as well.

Jeuxvideo has some details, but doesn't address the question of DKS or FoV for those that have completed DivII.

VoD, you posted an FoV impressions thread a while ago, was it just FoV, or DKS? Can you elaborate on whatever dragon gameplay was in the expansion? I assume that whatever it's like in FoV, the DiVII "remastered" stuff is probably similar. Of course, it may not be.

P.S. i love how there's about 4 people here that post in any of the DivII threads. I guess it's real popular 'round here!

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

VoD, you posted an FoV impressions thread a while ago, was it just FoV, or DKS? Can you elaborate on whatever dragon gameplay was in the expansion? I assume that whatever it's like in FoV, the DiVII "remastered" stuff is probably similar. Of course, it may not be.

It was just FoV. DKS hasn't been released yet. There is no dragon gameplay in the expansion except right before the endfight, when you have to escort a zeppelin with explosives to damians flying fortress. Nothing is different, except your fireball is at 15 instead of 5 (without ever having read additional dragon skillbooks) plus you have an additional WMD fireball spell (which you get either from the evil mage or from Bellegar depending on your choice) but even so it is a pain in the ass to eradicate everything quickly enough to keep the zeppelin in the air for long enough.

 

[Sceptic]

Jeuxvideo has some details, but doesn't address the question of DKS or FoV for those that have completed DivII.

Yeah that annoyed me a bit. At this stage I'm going to wait for DKS and get that anyway, but it would've been nice to have some details about the difference.

 

[DalekFlay]

If FoV has no boxed version I'll be getting DKS anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter if it's worth it.

 

[DraQ]

So, Sceptic, have you played the base game already?

Also, I'm still waiting for the list of differences between DKS and ED+FoV - has someone played them? Last time I checked we did have some jerries on the 'Dex.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

From what I have gathered, they will provide a patch that brings ED+FoV at the same level (of improvements) as DKS. So if you already own ED you might as well stick with FoV + patch to have DKS. If you don't have ED already you can safely go with DKS. As for the actual changes that DKS does to ED, the info was always very vague, so whether the changes are actual improvements or dumbing down because the game was too hard remains to be seen.

 

[Sceptic]

So, Sceptic, have you played the base game already?

No. When they announced that FOV would improve things on the ED side I decided to hold off buying ED until FOV comes out. Then they announced DKS... so I decided to hold off buying anything until DKS comes out. Though... if there's a demo I should probably try it. Everything I've read about this game tells me I'll like it, but you never know.

From what I have gathered, they will provide a patch that brings ED+FoV at the same level (of improvements) as DKS.

Didn't they at one point say that the ED+FOV patch won't be as comprehensive as DKS because that would corrupt people's saves and workarounds would be too much work?

 

[Mangoose]

Did they improve on the fact that combat has no options besides click-click-click, so that in order to beat anything you have to grind so your level is higher than it?

 

[Ruprekt]

Didn't they at one point say that the ED+FOV patch won't be as comprehensive as DKS because that would corrupt people's saves and workarounds would be too much work?

That is the case. However they may (i.e. they intend to provided resources allow) at a later date release a patch that will equalise the two versions e.g. ED+FOV+BIG PATCH = DKS.

... so I'm leaving off purchasing this 'till I know where things stand.

 

[Gorath]

Didn't they at one point say that the ED+FOV patch won't be as comprehensive as DKS because that would corrupt people's saves and workarounds would be too much work?

That is the case. However they may (i.e. they intend to provided resources allow) at a later date release a patch that will equalise the two versions e.g. ED+FOV+BIG PATCH = DKS.

... so I'm leaving off purchasing this 'till I know where things stand.

Larian will release a technical update to bring ED + FOV to the level of DKS.

A content patch to make ED + FOV = DKS is not confirmed. They want to make it, although it will break the savegames, but they need permission by their publishers. So it's not in Larian's hand.

FOV is a good game. Clearly better than ED, IMHO. Due to major bugs FOV caused only in ED I would only recommend it for those who don't want to replay ED. If you want to play the whole thing, eBay your ED and buy DKS.

 

[AnalogKid]

you have to escort a zeppelin with explosives to damians flying fortress... it is a pain in the ass to eradicate everything quickly enough to keep the zeppelin in the air for long enough.

Fuck. It had to be an escort mission, huh? When will game designers everywhere finally realize that escort missions just aren't fun!

Grrrrr.

 

[MicoSelva]

When they announced that FOV would improve things on the ED side I decided to hold off buying ED until FOV comes out. Then they announced DKS... so I decided to hold off buying anything until DKS comes out.

Yeah, same here. I wonder how many people postponed (and some probably later forgot) buying the game because of this chaos. Larian kind of shot itself in the foot with this one.

 

[Selenti]

Did they improve on the fact that combat has no options besides click-click-click, so that in order to beat anything you have to grind so your level is higher than it?

What game were you playing?

Wasn't that much clicking at all if you invested in a normal spread of combat abilities, one of the things I liked about Divinity 2 was that it sort of mimicked World of Warcraft's combat, plenty of abilities to throw around to keep things interesting if you didn't pile all points in one thing.

 

[Forest Dweller]

If I already had ED but not FOV and they didn't release a patch making them exactly like DKS, I would just purchase the expansion and then torrent DKS, just to say that I paid what should have been paid. So what if it's not savegame compatible? Big fucking deal, that goes without saying on some of these things.

Hell, if when DKS comes out the original + expansion happens to be cheaper, I'll buy those instead and then torrent DKS.

This is assuming DKS is the preferred version, of course.

 

[Sceptic]

So what if it's not savegame compatible? Big fucking deal, that goes without saying on some of these things.

They mentioned they might release that patch if there is demand for it and people don't mind the lack of savegame compatibility. Which to be honest they should've done anyway, with a caveat that "THIS WILL MAKE YOUR SAVES INCOMPATIBLE." That said... you know people, and especially reviewers. They would've downloaded the patch without reading the warning, then given the game a 40% for ruining their previous saves.

 

[Mangoose]

Did they improve on the fact that combat has no options besides click-click-click, so that in order to beat anything you have to grind so your level is higher than it?

What game were you playing?

Wasn't that much clicking at all if you invested in a normal spread of combat abilities, one of the things I liked about Divinity 2 was that it sort of mimicked World of Warcraft's combat, plenty of abilities to throw around to keep things interesting if you didn't pile all points in one thing.

World of Warcraft's combat was interesting? Lol. I played WoW as a warrior. You get plenty of abilities that do various X amounts of damage and that's it, meaning you have no tactical variation in any combat besides spamming your attack rotation. Same as in Divinity 2.

 

[Forest Dweller]

So what if it's not savegame compatible? Big fucking deal, that goes without saying on some of these things.

They mentioned they might release that patch if there is demand for it and people don't mind the lack of savegame compatibility. Which to be honest they should've done anyway, with a caveat that "THIS WILL MAKE YOUR SAVES INCOMPATIBLE." That said... you know people, and especially reviewers. They would've downloaded the patch without reading the warning, then given the game a 40% for ruining their previous saves.

It didn't cause much trouble with The Witcher EE.