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Review Divinity 2: Flames of Vengeance Review

VentilatorOfDoom

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Tags: Divinity 2; Larian Studios

<p>Gameinformer <a href="http://gameinformer.com/games/divinity_ii_flames_of_vengeance/b/pc/archive/2010/11/05/review.aspx" target="_blank">reviewed</a> <strong>Flames of Vengeance</strong> and scored it 7.75/10.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The good:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have nothing but love for the sometimes epic, sometimes tongue-in-cheek stories told through the many quests that permeate this post-apocalyptic setting. The send-up of European good ol' boy gentlemen's clubs you come across early on is a perfect example. The rich playboys in charge of controlling access to dark secrets under the ancient city have been duped by a comely witch, who turned them into talking vegetables and made off with their treasures. Their dialogues evoke the stereotype of a pompous Victorian scion, amusingly more concerned about their social standing than the terrible knowledge they were charged to protect or the fact that they're currently immobile and quite edible. Players can follow their questlines through to discover the mystery behind their now-abandoned club, or taunt them about their current predicament and eat them for permanent stat boosts. These kind of choices are everywhere in this adventure, and exploring the rich tapestry of interwoven storylines is as entertaining here as in the best works in the medium.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The bad:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If only the underlying RPG systems and the combat were of a similar quality. The skill progression suffers from the same problem that plagued Diablo II at release, where doing anything but stacking all of your points in three or four skills gimps your character. There is only a bare selection of skills, many of which are cooldown-limited besides. Consumables are hideously boring, granting such inspired effects as +10 Strength or +18 Ranged Armor. Other than hitting these lame buttons, your options are to attack and dodge, neither of which works well since collision between your weapons, the enemies, and the environment is so unpredictable. The customizable necromantic pet is supposed to add flexibility to the combat, but is nothing better than a distraction at the super-high levels in which the Flames of Vengeance adventure takes place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, the complaints about the character system are true. But that isn't new in FoV, Ego Draconis had that problem too. All in all the character system + the all powerful level-stat are lame in comparison to Divine Divinity, where you could learn spells from books for example and even having a certain spell at level 1 or 2 could be very helpful. On the other hand FoV will literally spam you with skillbooks, so I was able to max out 3 or 4 additional abilities. So, it was still better than ED in that regard.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://gameinformer.com/games/divinity_ii_flames_of_vengeance/b/pc/archive/2010/11/05/review.aspx">GB</a></p>
 

Ruprekt

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Their dialogues evoke the stereotype of a pompous Victorian scion, amusingly more concerned about their social standing than the terrible knowledge they were charged to protect or the fact that they're currently immobile and quite edible.

Is this some kind of sick joke at the expense of the Codex?


:x
 

CraigCWB

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Apr 17, 2010
Messages
193
... where doing anything but stacking all of your points in three or four skills gimps your character.

Eh... used to be that was considered good design. But that was before the powers that be discovered that their target demographic prefers to be all things to all people, and masters of every trade.

There is only a bare selection of skills, many of which are cooldown-limited besides.

The horror!

Consumables are hideously boring, granting such inspired effects as +10 Strength or +18 Ranged Armor.

Yeah, that's SO different from how Bioware did it Baldur's Gate II with all those stone skin potions and magic missile scrolls...

I do agree that they seem pretty unimaginative with their naming and seem to feel that a presentation of the technical details amounts to a description, which makes things SEEM boring even if they are actually pretty cool.

Other than hitting these lame buttons, your options are to attack and dodge, neither of which works well since collision between your weapons, the enemies, and the environment is so unpredictable.

WTF!? Instead of spamming special abilities, you have to do stuff like "attack" and "dodge"? What's that all about? Is that "combat" or something? So boring!

Here's a true story from 1978:

DM: OK, that last arrow killed your cleric. The goblins are advancing on the bridge. Fighter Biff, you're standing on their side of the bridge. What are you going to do?

Fighter Biff: I'm gonna fall back to our side and fend them off while the cleric heals me.

DM: Cleric is dead, genius.

Fighter Biff: OK, I'll fall back to our side of the bridge and fend them off while the wizard nukes their asses off.

Wizard Eugene: I'm out of spells...

DM: You going to use your wand of mass destruction then, Eugene?

Wizard Eugene: Nah, I only have 3 charges left on it and I may need them later. I'll sneak over there and hide behind the rocks.

DM: Turns out there is a Goblin assassin also hiding behind those rocks-

Wizard Eugene: I hide! I hide!

DM: The Goblin Assassin hits you with his poisoned dagger-of-more-damage-than-you-could-possibly-survive for-

Wizard Eugene: I hid!

DM: (you failed)

Wizard Eugene: You didn't even role the dice!

DM: (the fluorescent pink and green robe you are wearing was an automatic fail)

Wizard Eugene: I run! Fighter Biff, get your ass over here!

DM: ... for 1193 damage. Wizard Eugene, you have -1167 hitpoints

And so on.

The customizable necromantic pet is supposed to add flexibility to the combat, but is nothing better than a distraction at the super-high levels in which the Flames of Vengeance adventure takes place.

Wut? A pet that can't do all the work for you!?

Anyway, I'm downloading this from steam now. The original Divinity II was pretty good for the first half and I'm hoping this will fix the problems with the second half. It's no Baldur's Gate II but then neither is Dragon Age so what the hell...
 

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