Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Divinity: Original Sin 2

[Cross]

I keep saying this, but they really should just license a better setting, make a game with established lore, characters, world.

A lot of their shit writing seems tied to the retarded world they cobbled together and the fucking horrible humor and cleverness that they think they are good at.

It's also bad business sense. The Rivellon setting is such a shallow backdrop that Larian has completely squandered the opportunity to establish a distinct setting with continuity they can use as a selling point for all their games in the way that other RPG series do.

 

[Eyestabber]

I wonder if our resident cucks are engaging larian ppl and trying to "apologize" for the review.

Btw, I'm disappointed by the lack of drama ITT. PoE got a mediocre score on our goty poll but its fans put out hundreds of posts trying to defend the game. You would think that the codex goty would have more defenders, but apparently dos2 fans are like "yeah, game is shit but i like shit".

 

[AwesomeButton]

How can there be drama? The writing is on the wall. The game is mediocre when at its best. Good for the first act - couldn't outperform D:OS1 in that aspect.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'd probably like the game but my graphics card is from 2008 and can't run DX11 so I can't play it.

Larian's fault for making games that don't run on 10 year old hardware anymore, like wtf Larian get your shit together.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The bad writing and broken game mechanics stand out less when you have prettier graphics. This way casuals can pretend they like RPGs.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I keep saying this, but they really should just license a better setting, make a game with established lore, characters, world.

A lot of their shit writing seems tied to the retarded world they cobbled together and the fucking horrible humor and cleverness that they think they are good at.

It's also bad business sense. The Rivellon setting is such a shallow backdrop that Larian has completely squandered the opportunity to establish a distinct setting with continuity they can use as a selling point for all their games in the way that other RPG series do.

I, for one, don't mind this at all. Rivellon is just a name meant to clamp the games from the Divinity series together, and nothing else, letting the games all be completely separate but under a common umbrella.

In fact, the funny thing is that DOS2 is mayhap the first game that actually tries to go for "deeper lore" and tie two Divinity games in more ways than just namedropping The Divine (actually - isn't this also the first game where the divine is actually named? "Lucian") or Aleroth, and is only worse for it.

 

[Tigranes]

I'd love for them to drop Rivellon (and all of their writers, old and new), but I'm not sure that's the best strategy for them. Even on this very forum, you find plenty of people who thought Dragon Commander was "funny" and that the traditional Larian whimsy is a draw.

The only game the Codex has ruined for me is DOS1. It was SO HYPED!!!! that my expectations were sky-high. The subsequent disappointment was nasty.

(Maybe I should thoroughly roll in this review and then give DOS2 another whirl. It's at least conceivable I'll find it marginally less meh.)

DOS1 Original is a superior game to DOS2. You might find the latter more tolerable, as it is a more polished product, but...

 

[Sacred82]

I wonder if our resident cucks are engaging larian ppl and trying to "apologize" for the review.

paranoid much?

You don't apologize for a handicapped kid barfing all over someone else's carpet. You make some attempt at damage control to distinguish yourself from the deviant while keeping up the appearance of family harmony.

 

[cvv]

DOS1 Original is a superior game to DOS2. You might find the latter more tolerable, as it is a more polished product, but...

Both look identical to me tbh. Everything about both is pretty much terrible, except the graphics and combat. I like the combat in DOS1 a lot, actually. If it was RTwP I'd have uninstalled it with an uproarious laughter within the first hour.

Larian is basically a beggarly B-grade studio (bordering on C-grade) that somehow hit an oil well while digging juicy beetles from the ground for some meagre sustenance.

 

[Trashos]

It's not butthurt, it's the realization that Codex ruins games for its members. I've lost the will to play a couple just because people in here focus on every possible negative aspect

Good luck with that attitude here, it really sounds like the Codex is ruining decent games for you. MY attitude is to try to read between the lines- I have discovered many of my favorite games or bands via reviews (or posts) that were shitting on them.

Roxor's infamous review of PoE didn't stop me from trying and relatively enjoying PoE (for what it was). Also, it seems that nobody liked PoE's crafting, but I did. In the specific case of DOS2 (which I am still considering approaching), my problem is not that Roxor is beating the crap out of it, but the actual description of how itemization works. I can see DOS2's itemization driving me nuts and making me question my will to live.

 

[Eyestabber]

I can see DOS2's itemization driving me nuts and making me question my will to live.

You're welcome.

 

[Perkel]

Even on this very forum, you find plenty of people who thought Dragon Commander was "funny" and that the traditional Larian whimsy is a draw.

I am one of those people. Rivellon is fun in funny type of "fun".
Problem comes where you want to make serious game in world were clowns are behind every corner. Which is why DOS2 story doesn't work.

 

[Jimmious]

Good luck with that attitude here, it really sounds like the Codex is ruining decent games for you. MY attitude is to try to read between the lines- I have discovered many of my favorite games or bands via reviews (or posts) that were shitting on them.

Now ok don't get me wrong, Codex is not such a big influence for me..
But for a couple of games it happened as I describe.
SR:HK and Tyranny come to mind now.

ERYFKRAD I got a heavy football (the European one) on the nose when I was young....and I kept playing even though it apparently broke and eventually healed in the wrong "position", thus fucking up my nostril.

 

[Sacred82]

Roxor's infamous review of PoE didn't stop me from trying and relatively enjoying PoE (for what it was). Also, it seems that nobody liked PoE's crafting, but I did. In the specific case of DOS2 (which I am still considering approaching), my problem is not that Roxor is beating the crap out of it, but the actual description of how itemization works. I can see DOS2's itemization driving me nuts and making me question my will to live.

don't forget that people subjectively hating a game (for which they have relatively objective rationalizations) can easily fall to hyperbole when they're describing the game's flaws.

"bros I was changing all of my gear literally every 30 seconds, leaving me another 30 second window per minute to actually play the game."

It always pays to actually check out a game you're interested in for yourself. I'd never let reviews dissuade me from buying a game I was interested in from the start, at least at a discount. Even if it turns out shit, at least you get some more impressions of how your preferences and perceptions match up with those of other players and reviewers.

 

[Darth Roxor]

i remember spoiling aod for Jimmious with my revio

 

[Jimmious]

i remember spoiling aod for Jimmious with my revio

Haha that was the one you wrote specific skill checks right? The review was in retrospective correct tho

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

I wonder if our resident cucks are engaging larian ppl and trying to "apologize" for the review.

Btw, I'm disappointed by the lack of drama ITT. PoE got a mediocre score on our goty poll but its fans put out hundreds of posts trying to defend the game. You would think that the codex goty would have more defenders, but apparently dos2 fans are like "yeah, game is shit but i like shit".

It makes sense if you want mindless entertainment that comes easy, instead of refined entertainment that requires attention to details and planning. DOS2 was never intended to be objectively good, well thought, well written or any of that. That’s why one can accept all the criticisms and still say with a straight face he enjoyed the game. You know the drill. It’s the same thing with Skyrim, TW3 and FO4--PoE was different because there was the pedigree of Obsidian and a spiritual sucessor of BG2 at stake. Rather, the purpose was to make players to plunder a deranged gameworld that looks like the product of imagination of an anti-intellectual closet drag-queen on coke. The more cheesy, non-sensical and noncommittal the content the merrier. It is not supposed to make a person think, it is supposed to provide relief for depressed and burnout players. It’s a sort of 200 hour therapy.

The first game was poorly designed, released with empty areas, broken, bugs galore, etc., and it was a major success. The developer then has an incentive to indulge in his preferences despite their lack of intrinsic merits. Now, the only thing that I find it curious is why Swen Vincke can behave in such a sellout mainstream fashion and “get a pass”. If any other developer dreamed of dumbing down a sequel he would be burned on a stake, but since is Swen these decisions are treated with curious indifference, almost as if they were intellectual curiosities.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

I keep saying this, but they really should just license a better setting, make a game with established lore, characters, world.

A lot of their shit writing seems tied to the retarded world they cobbled together and the fucking horrible humor and cleverness that they think they are good at.

So they are in their second hit and somehow they should drop their narrative premise because you said so. Nobody in their studio cares about you. To use their words, you are just "a vocal minority". The only thing that matters for them is the numbers of units sold. Grow up. Besides, it is not as if they were not proud of their setting and shit writing. It is an expression of their preferences and personalities, not something that they will casually fix and make it fit in your tastes.

 

[Ninjerk]

I keep saying this, but they really should just license a better setting, make a game with established lore, characters, world.

A lot of their shit writing seems tied to the retarded world they cobbled together and the fucking horrible humor and cleverness that they think they are good at.

So they are in their second hit and somehow they should drop their narrative premise because you said so. Nobody in their studio cares about you. To use their words, you are just "a vocal minority". The only thing that matters for them is the numbers of units sold. Grow up. Besides, it is not as if they were not proud of their setting and shit writing. It is an expression of their preferences and personalities, not something that they will casually fix and make it fit in your tastes.

You may be right, but that won't save you from the volcano.

 

[Sacred82]

Now that people hate Larian, can we finally admit that Shadowrun: Dragonfall was RPGOTY 2014?

we already agree that everything is shit

GOTY awards are only for the lulz in this regard anyway

 

[Jimmious]

I see them more as an internal codex struggle

 

[commie]

Codex votes (said) title GAEM OF THE YEAR 2017!

Fast forward a few months, and da Codex publishes a review of that very same game...saying it sucks donkey balls:D

It's this kind of irony that keeps me coming back to this distinguished site
#OnlyOnTheCodex

You only just now noticed??? I wrote that this would happen in that Sven cock suck thread here 6 months before the game released, though I had naively expected that the game would be still be good, just that it wouldn't please a vocal minority for 'reasons'(you know whining about SJW shit, or bad jokes, or palette that is too colorful etc. ninpicky shit that suddenly turns the game into worst shit evah!) and that would be the 'ironic' cage rattling. I didn't expect the actual combat and RPG to be so fundamentally fucked up as this, and this is something that virtually no other review touched on. It's not 'irony' to hate on this when this is almost criminal to fuck a slam dunk so badly!

Those fucking mooks that made it a success don't notice this, but they didn't buy the game for the mechanics in the first place, so it's not like Larian is catering to them by doing this. They could have at the very least, made the mechanics IDENTICAL to the first game and the success would have been the same because people got on board here based on the positive reception of the first and the promise that the second would be bigger and better, not that it had some other kind of TB mechanic which would never be a selling point for a TB virgin in the first place.

 

[flyingjohn]

There is one difference most developers learn the hard way.
Vocal minorities buy your games continuously if the mechanics are solid,casuals abandon games if something more shiny comes up.
I don't think they can keep making original sin like games for long,the budgets will increase with each game and the sales just aren't there.
Give it 1-2 more games and i have a felling Larian will come begging the "vocal minority" for attention.

 

[Grauken]

Eh, EA will buy them soon, they are the next Bioware

 

[lightbane]

Wow, hardcore review! Many points are probably exaggeration, but even the worst criticism has a bit of truth within. The provided pics help, and so do the responses ranging from blatant apologists to downright psychopathic signs. At least that's what I got from skimming the thread.

EVERY TIME YOU LEVEL UP YOU HAVE TO GO ON A PILGRIMAGE TO CHECK VENDORS FOR 36 ITEMS TO REPLACE YOUR PREVIOUS SET. EVERY SINGLE TIME. THIS IS THE FIRST RPG THAT ACTUALLY MANAGED TO MAKE ME GO "OH SHIT, I LEVELED UP AGAIN. FUN IS OVER"

That's enough reason to put down the game forever. I already had enough rummaging through junk in Neverwinter N. 2 and this sounds even worse.

Perhaps the incoming "Extended, Expanded and Extra-Shiny" DLC/expansion will produce another review?

What's he going to say, "yeah, I thought our game was pretty good, but now I realise it is total shitballs"?

That's what journolists will say for Larian's newest title. They do it all the time with Bethesda.