Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[J_C]

Another huge issue is that loot in chests is randomized. I hate this so much, because it tempts me to save scum before opening any chest to min/max loot.

If you have this savescumming, min/maxing disease, you deserve your fate.

 

[J_C]

An honest review from a non fanboy
My favorite game, or RPG, of all time is Baldur's Gate 2. Nothing has ever come close to surpassing its excellence in storytelling, immersion, sound and overall design. I've played every CRPG that came out since, and although many people might disagree with this, the only games that ever came close for me were The Witcher 2 and (yes) Skyrim. I kind of liked Dragon Age: Origins, but it just didn't grip me. I even liked Dragon Age 2, but again, it didn't grip me enough. I liked Fallout 3, and Fallout: New Vegas, but after playing Oblivion, they just felt like more of the same. Mass Effect 1,2 and even 3 were great, but they were not RPG's in the same way The Walking Dead is not an RPG. I've played Diablo 2 & 3, and they were fun hack&slash games, but nothing more. I've played Avernum and Abadon, but even though they came out a decade later, they felt older than the Baldur's Gate series and so I couldn't enjoy them as much. I've played many more game, but nothing ever came close.

Now as a Belgian myself (sorry about last night US people), I remember being all hyped up when Larian released Divine Divinty more than a decade ago. I bought it, played it, and... I didn't like it. It lacked all the good qualities the Baldur's Gate series had. An epic story with personal stakes, excellent companions with their own personal stories, and quests which would take you all over the world and would take weeks to complete. Divine Divinty was "meh". It tried, it did it's best, but it never came close to the brilliance that Baldur's Gate (or even Fallout) was. I remember Larian promoting it as if they combined Diablo 2 with Infinity Engine games. This was simply not true. It wasn't a bad game, not at all, it just wasn't great. The misplaced "humor" and unepicness caused me to not finish the game and simply to forget about it after 20 hours or so.

Almost a decade later, Larian released Divinity 2. It had exactly the same problems as Divine Divinity, and this time I didn't like it at all. The story made no sense, there were literally no interesting characters and moving from a topdown RPG to a 3rd person action adventure was completely the wrong way to go. Next came Dragon Commander, not an RPG, but again, they promoted it as a hybrid between an RPG and an RTS. I didn't like it at all, it had the exact same problems.

I have no clue as to why, but when Larian announced Divinity: Original Sin, I got real excited. A promise to go back to the days of the old infinity games. An epic story! Memorable companions! Top down perspective! Turn based combat! New graphics! This was almost to good to be true. I'm not for the whole Kickstarter, Steam Early Access, idea. In my opinion it doesn't work and I still have to see the first game that gets released through these mediums which is actually good. Against my better knowledge I decided to buy it anyway. This couldn't go wrong right? They promised all the right things...

And here we are, and after 15 hours in, I can safely say that Larian did it again. Once again they made a mediocre RPG which promises to capture the same feeling the old infinity games did, but fails in the execution. It's quite easy to pinpoint where this went wrong: the writing. Again; a dull story which nobody will remember in a few weeks. Bland characters you don't really care about. And a journey that will take you through 4 kind of the same maps with not that much to do. Where is our epic villain? Who doesn't remember Jon Irenicus? What about Minsc and Boo? Did Cyseal have a serial killer who escapes you but turns up 30 hours later in a different city? Divinity Original Sin doesn't have any of that. It's a pretty nice dungeon crawler with a sort of decent combat system and filled with forgettable characters and quests. I'm 100% positive that if they hired the right writers, this could have been a game of epic proportions. But once again they failed to attract the right talent and what we are left with is a game filled with "funny" dialogue where your actions have no consequences and your companions are the stereotypical "imma gud fiter" or "Im a very intelligent wizard". After all this negativity it might sound like I hate Original Sin, I don't. It's a good RPG, and I will finish it in the following weeks, but it is by no means the revelation it was supposed, or could, have been.

If you want a true successor to the old CRPGS, I suggest you watch Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, that looks like the game (I for one) have been waiting for all these years. But still, congrats on a nice game Larian, I hope it sells well and that it brings enough money to the table for you to hire a decent writing team for your next game.

7/10

bgfags never fail to amaze.

He is right about the writing tho, Larian just opened the cliche book of fantasy and started picking random fantasy character types for their game. Game is great and i love it, but after more than 10 hours playing i dont remember any characters names besides some cat named unsinkable blablabla.

What a shitty review.
1. He starts with saying BG2 is his favourite RPG. If any review starts with "my favourite game is an oldschool game/i'm a hardcore gamer/i've played on commodore 64 bitch etc" that means that the writer has to validate his opinion right from the beginning, because he knows that otherwise his opinion doesn't worth a damn.
2. Skyrim, great storytelling. Yeah, because the TES games are famous for that
3. Mass Effect 3 great? Dafakk
4. Dragon commander had no interesting character? LOL, the whole crew was interesting, interacting with them was the best part of the game.
5. "Once again they made a mediocre RPG which promises to capture the same feeling the old infinity games did," - son, you mixed this up with Obsidian's game, Larian never promised an infinity engine successor AFAIK

Fucking retard! A mediocre story doesn't make the game mediocre, because as I see it, the gameplay is pretty good.

 

[Arkeus]

Fucking retard! A mediocre story doesn't make the game mediocre, because as I see it, the gameplay is pretty good.

The story isn't even mediocre at all- it's a mystery/detective story where you slowly gather clues as to what's happening. It's not a Grand Epic where your are force-fed the answers.

The part that made me laugh the most is how he talks about the Tanner in BG2.... when in the starting map of D:OS there is at least 5 different quests that do the same thing, but /better/.

 

[LizardKing]

10 hours in and I fucking adore the game.
I will definitely buy the Collector's Edition.

Great job Larian!

 

[Zed]

Zed What kind of party build did you have? I'm just curious how one gimps oneself in this game, because it seems to have so many options in combat for pretty much all skill schools.

My first duo was a knight/wayfarer (with a few tweaks), and another was rogue/ranger with a dash of spellcasting.

I never gimped either party to the point of "fuck this". Reasons for re-starting were due to locked choices like the conversation AI, and unpredictable henchmen specs.

I built my knight around two-handed weapons, men-at-arms and witchcraft, and my wayfarer around bows and aero/geo.
Here, one way I have gimped myself is investing skills too broadly.

For the rogue/ranger, I invested too much into social/unnecessary thieving skills.

I chose to continue with the knight and wayfarer, because they were a lot more fun and I didn't spend unnecessary points into social and thieving skills.
I'm playing on normal for the moment, but I expect to increase to hard later on as I start focusing the skills a bit more.
I haven't played much though, and soon I won't be playing at all for a few days.

The part that made me laugh the most is how he talks about the Tanner in BG2.... when in the starting map of D:OS there is at least 5 different quests that do the same thing, but /better/.

Better how? I'm not saying I support his argument, but BG2 has qualities that I don't think Larian will ever achieve.

D:OS does mechanics-integration much better -- definitely (that's what the game is all about?), but BG2 has a lot better writing, characters and setting. The Tanner quest took place in a creepy-cozy docks district. BG2 conveyed the feeling of being smack in the middle of a dirty and highly populated city. Comparing to the starting whodunnit quests of D:OS, it feels more like running around in a NWN battlements.

 

[Crooked Bee]

So, how do you actually confront the person responsible for the undead plague? Spoiler alert:

Spoiler

I mean Thelyron. I found his diary and other stuffies, and my companion told me we should "confront" him. However, he isn't at his house anymore? Am I missing something, or am I just supposed to run into him elsewhere at a later point?

 

[Kem0sabe]

So, how do you actually confront the person responsible for the undead plague? Spoiler alert:

Spoiler

I mean Thelyron. I found his diary and other stuffies, and my companion told me we should "confront" him. However, he isn't at his house anymore? Am I missing something, or am I just supposed to run into him elsewhere at a later point?

Spoiler

Go to his apprentices house, its locked house near his. There you will find something that will help you find them.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Ah okay. Yeah, I discovered that part long ago already, actually. I just thought I'd need to confront them separately, but apparently one fled after the other.

 

[grotsnik]

Ah okay. Yeah, I discovered that part long ago already, actually. I just thought I'd need to confront them separately, but apparently one fled after the other.

Spoiler

Yeah, if you keep exploring/investigating the undead he'll show up again.

 

[Volrath]

Where are all the reviews? Not that I want to read them, but you'd expect SOME form of publicity now that's it out and actually pretty great no?

Also Larian wants to buy an RPG license... Could it be Arcanum?

 

[krist2]

Where are all the reviews? Not that I want to read them, but you'd expect SOME form of publicity now that's it out and actually pretty great no?

From eurogamer.net interview http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-03-divinity-original-sin-larian-studios-fastest-selling-game-ever

"It's word of mouth that is driving Original Sin right now," Vincke said. "We were late with our game, working on it until the last day, so we don't even have reviews out there. We have exactly two ads we did with the last of our money. It was definitely not marketing doing it."

 

[ZoddGuts]

Yeah, Eurogamer, Gameinformer, Gamespot and Polygon have said there working on the review but I'll take awhile since they got the game review copies on the same day as everyone else on Monday.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Where are all the reviews? Not that I want to read them, but you'd expect SOME form of publicity now that's it out and actually pretty great no?

From eurogamer.net interview http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-03-divinity-original-sin-larian-studios-fastest-selling-game-ever

"It's word of mouth that is driving Original Sin right now," Vincke said. "We were late with our game, working on it until the last day, so we don't even have reviews out there. We have exactly two ads we did with the last of our money. It was definitely not marketing doing it."

From the same interview:

"It's definitely the fastest-selling game we've ever published. The last figures I saw we were at 160,000. For us that's pretty good. We're definitely going to break even and hopefully we'll make sufficient profit for our next game."

Looks like your dream of Larian going out of business is dead, Roguey chan.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

I don't mind the writing. Sure it's generic and derpy at times, but it has that light-hearted parodic style, which I enjoy, and while it's definitely not as good as in the old story-focused RPGs, it's miles ahead of most modern RPGs, in my opinion.

I agree. I think it is because it is consistent. Every thing have the same kind of silly style to it.

 

[Volrath]

Where are all the reviews? Not that I want to read them, but you'd expect SOME form of publicity now that's it out and actually pretty great no?

From eurogamer.net interview http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-03-divinity-original-sin-larian-studios-fastest-selling-game-ever

"It's word of mouth that is driving Original Sin right now," Vincke said. "We were late with our game, working on it until the last day, so we don't even have reviews out there. We have exactly two ads we did with the last of our money. It was definitely not marketing doing it."

From the same interview:

"It's definitely the fastest-selling game we've ever published. The last figures I saw we were at 160,000. For us that's pretty good. We're definitely going to break even and hopefully we'll make sufficient profit for our next game."

Looks like your dream of Larian going out of business is dead, Roguey chan.

 

[himmy]

I don't mind the writing. Sure it's generic and derpy at times, but it has that light-hearted parodic style, which I enjoy, and while it's definitely not as good as in the old story-focused RPGs, it's miles ahead of most modern RPGs, in my opinion.

I agree. I think it is because it is consistent. Every thing have the same kind of silly style to it.

I genuinely enjoy the light-hearted style of writing that European studios seem to have (Larian's quirky details, Gothic's German one-liners, King's Bounty's over-the-top fantasy tropes, Driftmoon's whimsical everything etc) and sometimes prefer it to the grimdark attempts at FANTASY IS SERIOUS BUSINESS that most time just come out as teenage angst than anything else.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I wish there was transparency behind the roleplay choices that give stat bonuses. Just add [bold] etc, in front of the option, same with relationship, oftentimes can't tell what's supposed to give a bonus and what isn't, as well as a lot of the personality quirks I get not really coming through in dialogue. Reloaded a few times because of a lot of them not really being what I thought they would be.

Call it casual streamlining or w/e, but for me it just saves time, who would gimp their build because the buffs are oftentimes behind ambiguous checks?

 

[Suicidal]

Fighting the lighthouse horror ATM, cleared all the undead and summons, all of my party is very low, but so is he. He kills both my characters the next turn and dies from burning and it game overs my ass because apparently companions don't count. :soclose:

 

[Loriac]

I wish there was transparency behind the roleplay choices that give stat bonuses. Just add [bold] etc, in front of the option, same with relationship, oftentimes can't tell what's supposed to give a bonus and what isn't, as well as a lot of the personality quirks I get not really coming through in dialogue. Reloaded a few times because of a lot of them not really being what I thought they would be.

Call it casual streamlining or w/e, but for me it just saves time, who would gimp their build because the buffs are oftentimes behind ambiguous checks?

or you could just, y'know, roleplay what your character would do in that situation without worrying about the behind the scenes bonuses...

 

[pakoito]

It's the GM handing a roleplaying bonus, not minmax material.

 

[DDZ]

Also it's pretty goddamn obvious what the bonus is gonna be anyway.

Maybe it's harder for you autistic nerds thoughh!!1111!1

he he he j/k

 

[Black]

What's the advantage of playing co-op again?

Ridiculously tense mindgames during rock-paper-scissors arguments.

And broken friendships.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I wish there was transparency behind the roleplay choices that give stat bonuses. Just add [bold] etc, in front of the option, same with relationship, oftentimes can't tell what's supposed to give a bonus and what isn't, as well as a lot of the personality quirks I get not really coming through in dialogue. Reloaded a few times because of a lot of them not really being what I thought they would be.

Call it casual streamlining or w/e, but for me it just saves time, who would gimp their build because the buffs are oftentimes behind ambiguous checks?

That sounds suspiciously like DA2

 

[Cyberarmy]

What's the advantage of playing co-op again?

Ridiculously tense mindgames during rock-paper-scissors arguments.

And broken friendships.

"Friendly" fire.

 

[Black]

"There was a certain license we tried to get, but they haven't replied to us," he said. "Maybe now they will reply to us! I'm not going to tell you, because that will ruin the chances of me getting it."

Let the wild guesses commence!

Vampire, duh!