Game News Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a huge success, has already sold nearly 500,000 copies

[Grumpy Grognard]

South Park

Is a better RPG than PoE.

without dumbing it down and/or compromising it by mixing with other genres.

So far I found ZERO improvements over D:OS and a lot of . The cringe worthy writing is still every bit as cringy, the cancerous MMO-like itemization is still there, the autistic junk collection system is worse than ever and OFC the fucking shields. I don't know who suggested removing the old saving throws and replacing them with the current system, but here is what I suggest should be done with them:

(edit - too much joe pesci)

I've been playing this game in very short bursts simply because of how utterly "meh" it is. "oops, got killed. Time to level scale my items and use the exact same strategy". "Great, shields are down, time to spam the CC" or, better yet "fuck, OUR shields are down. Time to get stunlocked and killed. Might as well reload instead of wasting more time" and the good old "oops, stumbled in a fight with an enemy 2+ levels ahead of me. Can't possibly win because stupid scaling. Such strategy, much wow."

So the recipe for "saving" the cRPG genre is: muh multiplayer + muh cooking simulator + muh junk collection simulator + muh level scaled loot + [insert other decline I forgot about here]. Just let the genre die an honorable death already. This is getting pathetic.

I agree on a few points. Level-scaled anything is a massive decline and should be punishable by death. Mandatory punishment for junk loot should be 5 years of community service sorting through rubbish bins by hand for edible fruit peel and tin scraps. Cooking should be dealt with on a case by case basis - if it's Ultima 7-style, baking bread with interactable rolling pins, dough, water and ovens, matched by a ration/food system, in a simulated world where I can roleplay as a grumpy, murderous baker who robs banks by night - that's OK, but if it's just a fucking cheap-shit potion crafting system with graphics swapped out for chicken dinners, you go straight to jail.

What DOS2 does par excellence is tactical party turn-based combat, with pretty advanced environmental, elemental & 'physics' tactics that vary based on the combat environment * abilities+spells in play. The writing is thematically absurd and 'light' comedy & puns - I don't find it cringeworthy.

 

[Goral]

ArchAngel if you find a CRPG of the last decade with better combat than D:OS or D:OS 2, please tell me, I want to play that shit

Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats. Having said that DOS 2 is great so far (I've just escaped Fort Joy) but it's a shame that the speed is as slow as in DOS 1 (for fights and walking, it looks like slow motion).

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

Good for you Swen, you crazy faggot !

 

[Jimmious]

ArchAngel if you find a CRPG of the last decade with better combat than D:OS or D:OS 2, please tell me, I want to play that shit

Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats. Having said that DOS 2 is great so far (I've just escaped Fort Joy) but it's a shame that the speed is as slow as in DOS 1 (for fights and walking, it looks like slow motion).

AoD is v.cool but nah, the combat is not even close to that level imo. But indeed it's the closest competitor and that speaks volumes since it's still pretty far off.
Underrail is what others will say which is again very good combat wise but still not in such a level

 

[Niklasgunner]

Fuck balance

There is a middle ground between obsidian balance and tactician being easy mode because summoner is so strong that everything else pales in comparison.

Besides that, way to many mechanics are way to exploitable. I can just spam summons from a distance outside combat, walk them into an encounter and kill enemies without them having a chance to touch my character

The game could have used a few more month in development. Once you get of the Fort Joy Island quality all around drops, especially Arx.

Happy that it's selling well regardless.

 

[Jimmious]

There is a middle ground between obsidian balance and tactician being easy mode because summoner is so strong that everything else pales in comparison.

Oh well there's an overpowered class in a single player CRPG... Who cares?
I find it much more preferable to have weaker and stronger choices than to balance everything so that no matter what you pick, the challenge stays the same

 

[ArchAngel]

ArchAngel if you find a CRPG of the last decade with better combat than D:OS or D:OS 2, please tell me, I want to play that shit

D:OS I played so I can comment. While it was fun for a while because it was new and all that, it was not good combat.
Many turn based games beat it, most just because they let you actually target enemies without misclicks all the time.

And as a big fan of IE games, many IE games also beat it due to way D&D works which is much better than this custom system larian had in D:OS.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

if you find a CRPG of the last decade with better combat than D:OS or D:OS 2, please tell me, I want to play that shit

Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats. .

You're cute.

 

[J_C]

ArchAngel if you find a CRPG of the last decade with better combat than D:OS or D:OS 2, please tell me, I want to play that shit

Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats. Having said that DOS 2 is great so far (I've just escaped Fort Joy) but it's a shame that the speed is as slow as in DOS 1 (for fights and walking, it looks like slow motion).

Fixed that for you. AoD falls short right from the getgo as it being a single character turn based game. The combat of those type of games is limited, just like Fallout 1-2. Those games excell at character building, but as the core combat goes, they are weak sauce.

 

[Goral]

AoD is v.cool but nah, the combat is not even close to that level imo.

I disagree. DOS 2 has teleportation and surfaces but in the end it all comes down to depleting the magic/physical armour (preferably the one with lower number) and incapacitating the opponent. The fights are set up in a way that you can't take on opponents that have higher level than you (in general they should have the same level to not have much problems but sometimes 2 levels above is doable), in AoD and DR (in AoD especially) you have more freedom. In DOS 2 I haven't met an opponent yet that made me think out of the box, I can basically use the same strategy over and over and everyone goes down the same. In AoD and DR there are always opponents that force you to change your tactics, e.g. if you fight Mack The Knife it's better to use a lighter weapon because even though your hits won't be as devastating you will make more damage due to higher chance of hitting a dodge master.

What's more in AoD the initiative, your positioning and the sequence of your actions matters more than in DOS. Often moving away is the most optimal move because it's a proper turn-based game and the sequence of your actions do matter. Firstly, it matters who you kill first (more than in DOS anyway). Killing the wrong guy might make it easier for others to flank you (plus you can lose more HP because you left someone with high THC and damage per turn alive). Secondly, it matters what initiative your opponents have and with right moves you can make them hinder each other. Sure, there is a "delay your turn" button in DOS 2 but more often than not it's not the optimal move because almost ever opponent has a way to reach you instantly (so in general it's better to weaken them instead of waiting for them to attack).

Last but not least, AoD and DR aren't as slow as DOS, which is my main gripe with the game. Every encounter is in slow motion, even in RL no one runs that slowly. It makes the game tedious at times, especially when you have to fight many, many opponents and even more so when these opponents use ranged attacks and teleport all over the place which needlessly extends the encounters (at least in my case where only one of my companions uses ranged attacks).

J_C
See above.

 

[ArchAngel]

ArchAngel if you find a CRPG of the last decade with better combat than D:OS or D:OS 2, please tell me, I want to play that shit

Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats. Having said that DOS 2 is great so far (I've just escaped Fort Joy) but it's a shame that the speed is as slow as in DOS 1 (for fights and walking, it looks like slow motion).

Fixed that for you. AoD falls short right from the getgo as it being a single character turn based game. The combat of those type of games is limited, just like Fallout 1-2. Those games excell at character building, but as the core combat goes, they are weak sauce.

And still game like Underrail made DOS combat look like a Joke.

 

[Volrath]

Underrail is banal.shit.boring.

There I said it.

Come at me faggots

 

[Biscotti]

Both of you are wrong and also gay. Real patricians like both.

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

All of you children are as gay as faggy Swen. When will you realize that backing shite products like ((D:OS 1 OR D:OS 2) AND (AoD)) is a losing proposition ?

 

[Black Angel]

AoD is v.cool but nah, the combat is not even close to that level imo. But indeed it's the closest competitor and that speaks volumes since it's still pretty far off.
Underrail is what others will say which is again very good combat wise but still not in such a level

Whoa, wait, what? D:OS1&2 had better combat than both AoD/DR & Underrail combined?

 

[Jimmious]

AoD is v.cool but nah, the combat is not even close to that level imo. But indeed it's the closest competitor and that speaks volumes since it's still pretty far off.
Underrail is what others will say which is again very good combat wise but still not in such a level

Whoa, wait, what? D:OS1&2 had better combat than both AoD/DR & Underrail combined?

I didn't say "combined" but yeah, for me they have by far the best combat as far as CRPGs go (in the last decade at least)

 

[Shadenuat]

In picture: a man who has his soul sucked out, legs amputated and skin nailed to a mechanical chassis.

It's not impossible for macabre things to be bright colorful and adventerous. Like graveyard and house in Act 2 with talking portraits and philoso skeletons, with a ghost playing Kirill Pokrovsky best hits (I shed a manly tear listening to him flying his translucent fingers over piano, every piece there was so much better than game's main OST...) - that's almost Ooga Booga from King's Quest. Infinitron is not entirely in the wrong there, the macabre stuff is not taken very seriously I think, as sad dogs are mixed with adorable skeleton cats protecting their demonic possesed little girls. It's like Ultima 8 maybe. It's more retarded and grotesque than planetescapetournament, and I think Larian writers know what they are doing and just being, well, retarded and think they're funny. If they struck a cord for Crooked Bee players who like that sort of writing is not completely known, but it's just what they do. Their fantasy is stupid but also self aware like that, good or bad. At moment you help save chicken egg from mother hen from starship troopers bugs, and next moment chicken from saved egg turns into chaos spawn who absorbs his fathers soul.

Brother Grimm at their work.

Not surprising in appeals to crowds because the only other studio that does retarded all the time as their main writing power actually takes it seriously and can't make good facial animations in their fourth space opera FPS-RPG.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Are you saying the brothers Grimm were retards?

 

[Black]

Speaking of the awful VA of the narrator, Fane isn't much better. For one of the ANCIENTS he sounds like he just entered the rebelling against his parents phase.

 

[ArchAngel]

AoD is v.cool but nah, the combat is not even close to that level imo. But indeed it's the closest competitor and that speaks volumes since it's still pretty far off.
Underrail is what others will say which is again very good combat wise but still not in such a level

Whoa, wait, what? D:OS1&2 had better combat than both AoD/DR & Underrail combined?

I didn't say "combined" but yeah, for me they have by far the best combat as far as CRPGs go (in the last decade at least)

I guess you enjoy cartoony challenge-less combat.

 

[Bohrain]

Speaking of the awful VA of the narrator, Fane isn't much better. For one of the ANCIENTS he sounds like he just entered the rebelling against his parents phase.

I really can't take an undead seriously if it doesn't have a rough voice.

 

[fantadomat]

AoD is v.cool but nah, the combat is not even close to that level imo. But indeed it's the closest competitor and that speaks volumes since it's still pretty far off.
Underrail is what others will say which is again very good combat wise but still not in such a level

Whoa, wait, what? D:OS1&2 had better combat than both AoD/DR & Underrail combined?

I didn't say "combined" but yeah, for me they have by far the best combat as far as CRPGs go (in the last decade at least)

I guess you enjoy cartoony challenge-less combat.

People are talking as if any of the said games invented turn based combat.You do know that all this game have very similar combat and it is pointless to compare them.

 

[RapineDel]

The voice acting is nothing special but I don't think it's truly awful. I don't think full voice acting was necessary though, they may have been better served spending more money on the companions/main story character's VAs while keeping the side stuff minimal. The full voice acting was probably done to cater to the same people who're only interested in the game because of co op though.

 

[daveyd]

I assume the full voice acting was an investment Larian made primarily with the console ports in mind. You can't release a CRPG with lots of dialogue and no VA on consoles and expect many console kiddies to buy it.

 

[JasonNH]

Speaking of the awful VA of the narrator, Fane isn't much better. For one of the ANCIENTS he sounds like he just entered the rebelling against his parents phase.

I really can't take an undead seriously if it doesn't have a rough voice.

Heresy