Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Divinity: Original Sin 2

[HiddenX]

Tigranes - C&C rarely meaningful? - we played a different game then. Often I had to make decisions that changed the story of my party characters.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

This is further proof that many Codexers like to talk about RPGs, but rarely playing new RPGs.
felipepepe please write a Codex-worthy review for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is not without faults, but surely one of the better RPGs of the last decade.

 

[Mortmal]

So despite minor flaws, the armor system and loot randomization mostly , DIVOS 2 is still a considerable improvement and part of the new golden age of RPGS.

Now, who is being paid off here........................

Cant possibly be paid, larian completely ignore this cesspool now. We used to have some dev come here and talk rarely , not anymore.I dont even own any part of that business , although i gladly would.

 

[unfairlight]

Nothing wrong with playing Fallout and Arcanum umpteen times, but your are missing a lot of good newer games.

Nothing wrong with being a faggot or cuck all the time, but your are missing out on a much better life.

 

[HiddenX]

Possibly Retarted (yes, with a t)

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

So despite minor flaws, the armor system and loot randomization mostly , DIVOS 2 is still a considerable improvement and part of the new golden age of RPGS.

Now, who is being paid off here........................

Cant possibly be paid, larian completely ignore this cesspool now. We used to have some dev come here and talk rarely , not anymore.I dont even own any part of that business , although i gladly would.

You realize developers are on this forum all the time, right? Just the other day MCA stopped by to set the record straight on NWN2. Anthony Davis from Obsidian is a regular and somehow he still has his job! Didn’t the Codex even do a huge interview with Swen not that long ago?

Hell, I sent Tim Cain’s little used account a message a few weeks ago and he responded within a day, saying he would not take my bribe money for news about his secret game.

The smaller first-time developers are probably way too active here, but plenty of them are legit. Smejki from Warhorse is always popping in and out of the Kingdom Come thread. And don’t even get me started on the Eastern Europeans.

Edit: the Czech Republic is in Central Europe.

 

[vivec]

Why not write one yourself?

I agree with this one in most points.

For me Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Very Good, because despite some bugs/flaws Larian has created something fresh, new, technically excellent out of my old favorite genre: A story driven RPG, with turn-based combat and lots of choices with consequences and many memorable characters.

I would like to point out that the paragraph you quote is an *opinion* and not a review. It tells you what the author *liked* not *why*.

 

[Eyestabber]

Nothing wrong with playing Fallout and Arcanum umpteen times, but you are missing a lot of good newer games.

Nice strawman, buddy. There are plenty of newer RPGs that are actually good. D:OS2 just isn't one of them. Come back to us once you have an actual argument. If all you got is "lots of people say it's good, therefore..." then stay on the Watch.

 

[Mortmal]

So despite minor flaws, the armor system and loot randomization mostly , DIVOS 2 is still a considerable improvement and part of the new golden age of RPGS.

Now, who is being paid off here........................

Cant possibly be paid, larian completely ignore this cesspool now. We used to have some dev come here and talk rarely , not anymore.I dont even own any part of that business , although i gladly would.

You realize developers are on this forum all the time, right? Just the other day MCA stopped by to set the record straight on NWN2. Anthony Davis from Obsidian is a regular and somehow he still has his job! Didn’t the Codex even do a huge interview with Swen not that long ago?

Hell, I sent Tim Cain’s little used account a message a few weeks ago and he responded within a day, saying he would not take my bribe money for news about his secret game.

The smaller first-time developers are probably way too active here, but plenty of them are legit. Smejki from Warhorse is always popping in and out of the Kingdom Come thread. And don’t even get me started on the Eastern Europeans.

Edit: the Czech Republic is in Central Europe.

They may eventually watch to get some feedback, eventually answer, but not discuss . We get few rare posts and they probably wear an hazmat suit while typing. I bet warhorse wont stay long here either if you publish a review of kingdom come of the same caliber.

 

[HiddenX]

I played Divinity: Original Sin 2 for 195 hours and had a lot of fun with it. Larian implemented a lot of minor and major c&c for the story characters. The party members were memorable and unique. The fighting was tactical and challenging at times. You could create a non-balanced party and win against all odds (I played without any tank). The dialog was sometimes stat-based. The world interactivity was great. Crafting was not bad either. All in all a lot of features to like. My only major critique is, that gear is leveled and becomes useless too fast.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Cant possibly be paid, larian completely ignore this cesspool now. We used to have some dev come here and talk rarely , not anymore.I dont even own any part of that business , although i gladly would. ... They may eventually watch to get some feedback, eventually answer, but not discuss . We get few rare posts and they probably wear an hazmat suit while typing. I bet warhorse wont stay long here either if you publish a review of kingdom come of the same caliber.

If a developer is genuinely interested in our feedback, he will use our posts to extract useful information, whether we are talking trash or not.

If a developer is not genuinely interested in our feedback, he will ignore our posts even if we are over-apologetic, diplomatic and polite.

The most meaningful feedback is always systematic in nature and involves dumping entire combat systems, or rewriting a narrative plot.

Developers don’t know how, or don’t have the time it takes, or don’t want to implement these costly changes. They won’t start from scratch because some dude said something on the internet, no matter how good his arguments are.

That’s why they will always ignore nine-tenths of what players say in the rare opportunities they are willing to read their posts. The fact that some of them can be more accessible than average, including posting nice tweets about your favorite forum, does not break this basic rule.

The purpose of this forum is to have a good time talking and exchanging information about a bunch of stuff, especially cRPGs.

The purpose of this forum is not to bed developers motivated by the misguided notion that you will be more prestigious sucking up to obscure celebrities.

Developers are not your buddies. They sell a product and provide a service. You pay for this product with your money and keep them in business. That is all that needs to be said about this. The rest is conflict of interest and fanboysm.

 

[Mortmal]

Cant possibly be paid, larian completely ignore this cesspool now. We used to have some dev come here and talk rarely , not anymore.I dont even own any part of that business , although i gladly would. ... They may eventually watch to get some feedback, eventually answer, but not discuss . We get few rare posts and they probably wear an hazmat suit while typing. I bet warhorse wont stay long here either if you publish a review of kingdom come of the same caliber.

If a developer is genuinely interested in our feedback, he will use our posts to extract useful information, whether we are talking trash or not.

If a developer is not genuinely interested in our feedback, he will ignore our posts even if we are over-apologetic, diplomatic and polite.

The most meaningful feedback is always systematic in nature and involves dumping entire combat systems, or rewriting a narrative plot.

Developers don’t know how, or don’t have the time it takes, or don’t want to implement these costly changes. They won’t start from scratch because some dude said something on the internet, no matter how good his arguments are.

That’s why they will always ignore nine-tenths of what players say in the rare opportunities they are willing to read their posts. The fact that some of them can be more accessible than average, including posting nice tweets about your favorite forum, does not break this basic rule.

The purpose of this forum is to have a good time talking and exchanging information about a bunch of stuff, especially cRPGs.

The purpose of this forum is not to bed developers motivated by the misguided notion that you will be more prestigious sucking up to obscure celebrities.

Developers are not your buddies. They sell a product and provide a service. You pay for this product with your money and keep them in business. That is all that needs to be said about this. The rest is conflict of interest and fanboysm.

Yes except for obsidian .

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe please write a Codex-worthy review for Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Uh... why me? I haven't even finished D:OS1, and my PC can't run D:OS2.

Tigranes is much more qualified for this, and I agree with him that the Watch review comes out as fanboy-ish and full of empty adjetives. In fact, that's something that always bother me on the Watch reviews & curator: too many games are praised the exact same way.

For example:

• If you're searching for a unique RPG with lots of dialog, non-standard races, memorable NPCs, interesting party interaction and a cool story - here's your game!
• Good short story with many choices & consequences and skill checks, good character progression and spellcrafting.
• A modern CRPG with an interesting storyline and memorable characters!
• Classic isometric RPG with an original story, many dialogs, c&c, great nonlinear exploration & many options to build characters.
• Good Action RPG with RTwP-combat. Nice crafting system, solid character/party management, lots of exploring for loot, rich story and many quests - Fun

Here's five reviews from the Watch's curator page: Ember, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Tides of Numanuma and Tyranny. Which one is which? They all sound the same, you don't get a sense of the MASSIVE gap between the dialog in PST and the dialog in Ember.

 

[Tigranes]

Yes, and it won't be deliberate or disingenious on their part. Many people often don't have a clear idea of what exactly they want, and when they see a system presented to them that seems to work reasonably well, they are willing to judge it favourably.

 

[hilfazer]

For example:

• If you're searching for a unique RPG with lots of dialog, non-standard races, memorable NPCs, interesting party interaction and a cool story - here's your game!
• Good short story with many choices & consequences and skill checks, good character progression and spellcrafting.
• A modern CRPG with an interesting storyline and memorable characters!
• Classic isometric RPG with an original story, many dialogs, c&c, great nonlinear exploration & many options to build characters.
• Good Action RPG with RTwP-combat. Nice crafting system, solid character/party management, lots of exploring for loot, rich story and many quests - Fun

Here's five reviews from the Watch's curator page: Ember, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Tides of Numanuma and Tyranny. Which one is which?

A game? Cool! I'll play.

PST, Tranny, shiTToN, Pillows, Ember?
I don't know what Ember is but other games don't fit "Action RPG" and PoE does not fit "Fun".

 

[HiddenX]

felipepepe fanboyish? Maylander got a lot of flak, because he rated Divinity: Original Sin 2 only Very Good instead of Excellent. We changed the RPGWatch rating system to a 6-point rating system because of this (!)

The RPGWatch Steam Curator's short descriptions are sometimes similar, because I'm always checking for the same features that are important for me - works for some people. You can't characterize games against each other in 144 letters.

For me it is still hard to understand, why the Codex funded a game, rated it GotY 2017 and then publishes a review that pulled it to pieces.

Like you, I'm working hard to make the CRPG genre more popular - reviews like this are counter-productive.

 

[Bohr]

So there's already the Watch review out there which you agree with, but you're upset that someone else has a different opinion?

 

[Black]

, I'm working hard to make the CRPG genre more popular

Thank but bethesda's got that covered. "Boo hoo, your review is bad because it doesn't attract normies".

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

For me it is still hard to understand, why the Codex funded a game, rated it GotY 2017 and then publishes a review that pulled it to pieces.

Like you, I'm working hard to make the CRPG genre more popular - reviews like this are counter-productive.

First of all, the GotY poll was open to the public. Second, lurkers may have very different views than frequent posters. But yes, it's quite ironic that the Codex's game of the year is so widely loathed on the Codex; I'd argue that poll is more out of place than a critical review. I mean, really, it's all about fucking multiplayer--does that sound like it's going to be an RPG Codex darling?

But more importantly: bad reviews are counterproductive for RPG evangelism? What the fuck??? Seriously dude. I really don't think this place has ever existed to make CRPGs more popular. If there's even a purpose beyond pure discussion, I'm guessing it would be to encourage developers to make CRPGs better, which is a very different goal (in fact, one could argue that there's some very strong tension between making a quality game and making a game with mass appeal).

As for not publishing a negative review because it might hurt the genre, that's the kind of loyalty you'd typically give to a free speech hating despot. Comrade Stalin would be most pleased, but I don't think Larian has really earned our slavish devotion. And frankly, they don't need it. I haven't come across a single other negative review of this game. It's already sold more than a million copies.

And, here's the key: many of us don't want more CRPGs like D:OS2! This was a game designed to be played with your friends in bite sized chunks. Forgive us if that's not the direction we want the genre moving in.

 

[HiddenX]

I disagree Divinity: Original Sin 2 is fun to play as a single player game. A step in the right direction and I want many more games like this (without leveled gear).

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is not a mainstream casual game, and even re-introduced some Pen&Paper elements to a CRPG game.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

felipepepe fanboyish? Maylander got a lot of flak, because he rated Divinity: Original Sin 2 only Very Good instead of Excellent.

This just means your regular users are even bigger fanboys than your reviewer.

Like you, I'm working hard to make the CRPG genre more popular

So we get more Todd Howard abominations you dolt?

 

[HiddenX]

No, to get more good CRPGs for more gamers.

Reaching more gamers with good CRPGs is not equivalent to dumb down games and make them more casual.

I think especially Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a good counter-example to Skyrim.

 

[vivec]

I played Divinity: Original Sin 2 for 195 hours and had a lot of fun with it. Larian implemented a lot of minor and major c&c for the story characters. The party members were memorable and unique. The fighting was tactical and challenging at times. You could create a non-balanced party and win against all odds (I played without any tank). The dialog was sometimes stat-based. The world interactivity was great. Crafting was not bad either. All in all a lot of features to like. My only major critique is, that gear is leveled and becomes useless too fast.

Dude, the difference between a review and an opinion is that the former tells you why something is good. A statement of the form "the dialogue is well-crafted" is an opinion, while the explanation "the dialogue is well crafted because it acknowledges the choices the characters made, their origins, their context." that is a review. And even then, you'd have to give specific examples of the case.

 

[Darth Roxor]

felipepepe fanboyish? Maylander got a lot of flak, because he rated Divinity: Original Sin 2 only Very Good instead of Excellent. We changed the RPGWatch rating system to a 6-point rating system because of this (!)

Like you, I'm working hard to make the CRPG genre more popular - reviews like this are counter-productive.

lmao

Reaching more gamers with good CRPGs is not equivalent to dumb down games and make them more casual.

and yet for some inexplicable reason that's how it always ends

 

[Fairfax]

CRPG game.