Incline Divine Divinity - forgotten gem, or rightfully forgotten?

[cretin]

Larian's DD does feature in the top 101 rpgs on the codex, however it also seems to me that the list includes virtually every rpg that is just merely not terrible.

I went into playing this completely blind, having never heard of it, seen it, or read about it aside a blurb review from the aforementioned list.

So far I'm pleasantly surprised. Shocked even. After I finally found a fix for the game that didn't involve giving up half the graphical effects, I've been playing an RPG that looks good, is fun and interesting. The skill system seems to allow for many different types of builds, the writing is funny, there's a lot of world interaction, reactivity and exploration. The combat isnt especially good, but its definitely not terrible either and for me is more fun than say, diablo.

In short, it appears to one of the rare good rpgs, but it has next to no presence on here even back in it's era. What gives?

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Coincidentally enough, I started playing this game just yesterday. I haven't gotten out of the first town yet since I've only played it for like 15 minutes, but what I saw reminded me of Ultima 7, which is a good thing. Not a fan of the humor, though.

 

[Feargus Jewhart]

Larian's DD does feature in the top 101 rpgs on the codex, however it also seems to me that the list includes virtually every rpg that is just merely not terrible.

I went into playing this completely blind, having never heard of it, seen it, or read about it aside a blurb review from the aforementioned list.

So far I'm pleasantly surprised. Shocked even. After I finally found a fix for the game that didn't involve giving up half the graphical effects, I've been playing an RPG that looks good, is fun and interesting. The skill system seems to allow for many different types of builds, the writing is funny, there's a lot of world interaction, reactivity and exploration. The combat isnt especially good, but its definitely not terrible either and for me is more fun than say, diablo.

In short, it appears to one of the rare good rpgs, but it has next to no presence on here even back in it's era. What gives?

It's great for the first 80%, then it tanks into almost unplayable grind. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favourite games of all time. It does so many things right, but the quality drops for the last 20% from 9/10 to 4/10 mindless drivel.

 

[cretin]

Coincidentally enough, I started playing this game just yesterday. I haven't gotten out of the first town yet since I've only played it for like 15 minutes, but what I saw reminded me of Ultima 7, which is a good thing. Not a fan of the humor, though.

Indeed, the game is often described as a diablo-like, but what struck me was that it appears to be aping ultima 7, not diablo.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Coincidentally enough, I started playing this game just yesterday. I haven't gotten out of the first town yet since I've only played it for like 15 minutes, but what I saw reminded me of Ultima 7, which is a good thing. Not a fan of the humor, though.

Indeed, the game is often described as a diablo-like, but what struck me was that it appears to be aping ultima 7, not diablo.

Swen's design philosophies come from his love of Ultima 7, and not Diablo or Baldur's Gate, which works more as vehicles to attract people to his projects. Deep inside, he wanted to make an Ultima 7 III, but a Diablo like or a BG like were safer bets. There's this bit in a conference he gave during the DOS days where he felt visibly disappointed that people don't remember Ultima anymore.

I just wish they hadn't abandoned their older games. They are still riddled with bugs and glitches.

 

[Surf Solar]

Nice graphics, "quirky" humour, forgettable gameplay.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Divine Divinity was great, by far the best game Larian ever made. Humor was kept in check (unlike in D:OS games), the world was serious and interesting (unlike D:OS games), and while the combat wasn't particularly great (Diablo-like clickfest), after 100+ hours of mixing elemental effects and watching enemy animations over and over, it's not that bad by comparison.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I completed it last year. A very fine game, had around 40 hours fun with it. When I reached the 'endgame grind' I was so overpowered I just blitzed through it, killing enemies left and right.

Couldn't force myself to play through Beyond Divinity though. And from what I've heard it gets terribly tedious later on, with boring random dungeons and lots of grinding.

 

[Nikanuur]

The first thing that comes to mind when reading Divine Divinity: "Don't press reveal items EVER and play hardcore. Those keys under the mat, behind the counter, behind the barrel, on top of a wooden support beam—aaaah, those were the times!"

 

[hello friend]

Divine Divinity is fun but even all patched up there's a decent chance one of your quests break, hopefully it's not critical to completing the game.

 

[Old Hans]

I alwyas thought this game was a real gem. loved the art style and the ultima infuence. Although from what I remember, some of the dungeons get very hack n slash

 

[Zlaja]

If you haven't already, you should give Divinity 2 (Dragon Knight Saga) a try, once you finish DD. Not exactly a great game, but still a bit underrated and an enjoyable time sink, if you enjoyed the questing and humor of DD.

 

[Sarkile]

Larian began their tradition of shitting up their end game all the way back with Divine Divinity. The first 3/4 of the game was excellent though.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

If you haven't already, you should give Divinity 2 (Dragon Knight Saga) a try, once you finish DD. Not exactly a great game, but still a bit underrated and an enjoyable time sink, if you enjoyed the questing and humor of DD.

Both the GOG and Steam versions have serious framerate issues that I haven't been able to solve with any of the solutions found online. I'm beginning to think I'll have to play it with the choppiness included.

 

[Old Hans]

Larian began their tradition of shitting up their end game all the way back with Divine Divinity. The first 3/4 of the game was excellent though.

its not just them. ive played plenty of games where its like "wow this amazing" and then you get near the end and its all "oh no another 8 level sewer dungeon full of skeletons...I think they ran outta money"

 

[Multidirectional]

I liked the little of what I saw of this game, except when I played I kept running into some bug where I would suddenly be unable to use my abilities. Don't remember exact details of how it happened now, but it was enough for me to get annoyed and drop the game. I should really try it again one of these days.
Divinity 2 is a game I played through 3 times and would say is definitely a flawed gem. I still get an itch to replay it sometimes.

 

[Aemar]

When I reached the 'endgame grind' I was so overpowered I just blitzed through it, killing enemies left and right.

I remember struggling up until the mid game, while breezing through during late and end game. Larian's best game so far.

 

[Alphons]

Music is something else, RIP Kirill. Had a lot of fun with DD, even if the end was a bit rough.

Shame about Beyond Divinity, whole game felt like that final part of DD.

Spoiler

 

[bloodlover]

DD is a great game imo. It has a good story, great exploration and decent combat.

I'd say that the endless comparison with Diablo 2 hurt it a lot since people that go into it expecting more of D2 don't see the same gameplay and instantly drop it.

 

[JarlFrank]

Coincidentally enough, I started playing this game just yesterday. I haven't gotten out of the first town yet since I've only played it for like 15 minutes, but what I saw reminded me of Ultima 7, which is a good thing. Not a fan of the humor, though.

Indeed, the game is often described as a diablo-like, but what struck me was that it appears to be aping ultima 7, not diablo.

It turns into a low quality Diablo clone towards the very end, and it's not fun.

I never finished it.

In that regard it's kind of the opposite of Lionheart: the entire game is good, up until the last area, while in Lionheart the entire game is shit except for the first area.

 

[Higher Animal]

Didn’t play it much when it came out, played much more Diablo 2 and Nox. Seems pretty interesting though and it was a weird pc budget esque production which you don’t see a lot of these days.

 

[Eisen]

Forgotten gem

 

[Adeptus]

Played it recently. Not great, but I had some fun. Freeze spell and scorpion traps are totally OP, and ending is quite boring (few dungeons with basically two types of enemies).

 

[Spike]

Played it years ago, maybe 2014/5 or so? Loved it. The end game grind is true but it isn't so much a grind (if you're warrior) but a total curb stomp. I was not bothered for this reason, however there is a noticeable drop in quality.

Larian began their tradition of shitting up their end game all the way back with Divine Divinity. The first 3/4 of the game was excellent though.

its not just them. ive played plenty of games where its like "wow this amazing" and then you get near the end and its all "oh no another 8 level sewer dungeon full of skeletons...I think they ran outta money"

Basically what Old Hans said hits it on the head.
Still fun/cool to finish the thing and see the ending, though. Also there's one of my favorite Easter eggs in any game in it.

 

[Dadd]

the writing is funny

It's not.