I have just started this game and I mostly like what I see - in most areas (barring music, obviously
- it isn't
bad, but it isn't Kiril's either) it looks like a straight, massive upgrade over the prequel.
You get more skills, more elaborate elemental mechanics (which was already THE selling point of the prequel), races, origins, skill synergies (although there could have been more), tags, some reactivity, better writing, really good art design, etc. etc.
The story probably won't be something to write home about (with intro and prologue featuring straight-up Scotia grade asshole witch as a villain) but it doesn't insta-disengage you before the intro even finishes like its prequel did by casting you in the role of some inquisitors (and thus either presumed assholes or protagonists of a boring good-vs-evil story that is so clear cut that it's automatically devoid of all complexity) and then forcing you to take part in (admittedly decently constructed) investigation we have just established you don't care about. Instead you are put onto the opposite end of a pike this time and have the inquisition be assholes towards you personally, which is a good decision, because people tend to like underdogs and kicking the only character player can be made to care about right off the boat - that is themselves or their PCs - is one of the few ways to get players invested (the other way is to pique their curiosity).
You also aren't bogged down by an uncharacteristically (because Larian's humour have historically been quite sharp) inane attempts at comedy - while I would definitely welcome more humour in the vein of Divinity 2 or Dragon Commander and while not ALL attempts at humour in DoS were rotten, I will happily settle for a darker, less humorous storytelling.
Lastly, the writing that's meant to be serious doesn't seem nearly as infantile which was offputting in DoS.
However there seems to be some problems with game mechanics that are frankly baffling. First, the moment you see some characters higher than level 2 it becomes obvious that stat bloat per level is something otherwordly in this game. I can fathom how someone could possibly think that it is a good idea, but given evidence to the contrary I feel compelled to put it as plainly and bluntly as possible - it is NOT.
It NEVER is, even accounting for how rarely you could put something in absolute terms like 'always' and 'never' - any time someone comes up with something that can be described using "exponential" and "level" in the same sentence you just repeatedly hit them with something sufficiently heavy until they come to their senses.
Another area that seems like it will be problematic is armour system.
I therefore have a question:
Do following mods fix it and are they worth using on the first playthrough?
https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/58/?
https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/168/?
If so, which variant of the first mod would be recommended?
