Is Divinity: Original Sin the best cRPG from the "new wave"?

[Severian Silk]

Underrail is the best recent RPG. AoD is good too.

Dragonfall is the one that does most of the things it does right, but it also inherits some pretty retarded elements from the first game's engine. They tried to fix the engine's faults as best they could and the result is a great game, but it's still an engine made to run on mobiles, and it shows.

Dragonfall was good, but it had a static plasticky artificial feel to it. I think it's due to the engine and not showing enough environmental animations. There should have been trash blowing in the wind, people wandering around, people doing stuff, etc.

 

[gaussgunner]

Dragonfall is the one that does most of the things it does right, but it also inherits some pretty retarded elements from the first game's engine. They tried to fix the engine's faults as best they could and the result is a great game, but it's still an engine made to run on mobiles, and it shows.

It sure does. Half-assed keyboard controls and slightly clunky mobile-friendly icons. It's fucking annoying when you click a medkit then change your mind, select a different PC, and it fucking heals them (medkits and AP's being few and far between in this game). And the politics is a bit much. I'm literally role-playing an Antifa goon. That's all good fun but I hope there are alternate paths. Not a bad game though. PoE-level artwork with combat that's arguable better than D:OS.

 

[Bonerbill]

It's definitely the most popular.

 

[FugueLah]

D:OS 1 has the best opening area, but it really front-loads everything and grows worse the more you play. It's still a good game, but AoD or even PoE 3.0 are better games IMHO.

POE 3.0 is turn based?

 

[Tito Anic]

Underrail,AoD imo. Judging by comments - Shadowrun to majority.

 

[Severian Silk]

DOS had pretty good combat, but everything else about it was mediocre IMO. The home base in the astral plane or whatever was pretty neat I guess.

 

[Iznaliu]

Dragonfall was good, but it had a static plasticky artificial feel to it. I think it's due to the engine and not showing enough environmental animations. There should have been trash blowing in the wind, people wandering around, people doing stuff, etc.

Gimmicks like that aren't necessary.

 

[Monkeysattva]

Divinity's combat feels both bloated and one-dimensional to me. Yes, there is a really solid core to it (which is, actually, quite an achievement) and a couple of neat spells, but then, instead of slowly layering it, and making everything feel different, they just pile onto it all those environmental effects and interactions.

I also hate the goofiness of the enemies.

 

[Iznaliu]

but then, instead of slowly layering it, and making everything feel different

Most RPG combat is repetitive in one way or another; it has a lot of moving parts and designers have also got to focus on other areas.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Well considering all the dumbed down so called rpg recently released i see the series divinity original sin like a bit of fresh air... So i voted yes

 

[Ismaul]

So I know this ^ self-identifying as womyns necro'd, but still

How do we reconcile these poll results with the fact that combat-uber-alles people are a minority on the Codex? The addition of graphics whores and world-sim aficionados perhaps?

Most people here are goodshitfags is the truth of it. Combat, story, setting, rpg system, C&C, I'm going to -fag the game if one of those components is excellent, as long as everything else isn't retarded and doesn't hampers my experiencing it. It's just that stories are often retarded, so it's easy to prioritize it.

 

[undecaf]

I had more fun with the SR games and WL2. Can’t help the setting making me drowsy inspite of everything.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

I absolutely loved wasteland 2 but i felt somewhat was lacking and sometimes seemed to me they put in choices for the sake to have choices and even in forceful manner. I mean to me the game would had be better with more open approach pretty much like the old fallouts introducing contextual choices in smaller things that could affect big things instead the game just at the beginning forced you to pick a choice already explaining the outcomes.

 

[gaussgunner]

I changed my vote to No after playing Shadowrun thanks to this thread. It is almost too railed to even call it an RPG but is D:OS really so different? Are there any choices with radically game-altering consequences other than death? I don't think so. And so much cancer. Larian makes great engines but "meh" games.

 

[Daedalos]

Not even close.

Underrail, AoD, Wasteland 2, even PoE all blow it away. Just to name a few.

 

[Iznaliu]

Are there any choices with radically game-altering consequences other than death? I don't think so

To be fair, many RPGs don't have choices that could fit that sort of description.

 

[Atlet]

No, because the childish themes and overall ambience totally killed the experience to me. However, this game has something we love and are very well executed> strategic batles. The game excels in one point, and crumbles in others. Something, by the way, is the caracteristic of the newer crpgs.

 

[DraQ]

DOS2 is trivially superior to DOS1, retaining or improving most that was good about 1 - even combat system is a net improvement, despite some blatantly stupid design decision like bloat or armour attrition (or main attribute system encouraging minmaxing through lack of depth) and lack of retention of some cool stuff like usable combat sneak or scoundrel's Trip ability - and replacing or improving most that was bad (like overwhelming inanity or unimaginative environs).

If a game is overwhelmingly better pretty much across the board, there is no questioning that it simply is a better game.

 

[Rahdulan]

You could make an argument that's the case because both DOS1 and DOS2 feel like they're some of the few modern releases that actually fit into the whole "new wave" paradigm and aren't just "look, we want to make some IE-style RPGs and you know you want those". As much as I don't really care for it co-op implementation seems to have been quite the addition for many people in this day and age of multiplayer.

 

[Jarmaro]

If it is, we are doomed.

 

[Rasczak-Roughneck]

Am I the only one here that loved Wasteland 2? OT: Truth be told, I just got Divinity: Original Sin on Steam and I'm shipping my computer to my new place so I can play it, but from what I've seen, the art direction looks amazing and the level of interactivity with the world is bar none.

 

[Iznaliu]

Am I the only one here that loved Wasteland 2?

Not quite, but the game is far from popular around here, and for good reasons as well (though that is partly because InXile shunned the Codex rather than any actual gameplay factors).

 

[Lahey]

Rasczak-Roughneck Here are some WL2 threads that predate the aforementioned drama (beta thread, release thread, discussion, discussion, discussion, review, tied for 4th in 2014 goty vote). WL2 also placed 24th in the 5-year retrospective.

 

[Iznaliu]

Rasczak-Roughneck Here are some WL2 threads that predate the aforementioned drama (beta thread, release thread, discussion, discussion, discussion, review, tied for 4th in 2014 goty vote). WL2 also placed 24th in the 5-year retrospective.

It was once more popular, but that isn't really relevant now; opinions of WL2 dropped suddenly following InXile's shitty treatment of the Codex.

 

[Lahey]

Rasczak-Roughneck Here are some WL2 threads that predate the aforementioned drama (beta thread, release thread, discussion, discussion, discussion, review, tied for 4th in 2014 goty vote). WL2 also placed 24th in the 5-year retrospective.

It was once more popular, but that isn't really relevant now; opinions of WL2 dropped suddenly following InXile's shitty treatment of the Codex.

Pre-drama impressions provide a more accurate representation of the game's reception based on its merits or lack thereof. Inxile's treatment of the Codex was inexcusable, but it has no bearing whatsoever on the actual product itself which was released years beforehand. Considering that you'd already mentioned how the drama impacted reception, threads containing discussion divorced from it are even more relevant as a matter of course, providing half the before-and-after required to quantify that very drop you've described.