Divinity Original Sin 2 review thread

Plumpbiscuit said:
It's simply the best CRPG ever made, period. Whilst it doesn't follow the D&D ruleset it does borrow from it and use its own unique and original rules, allowing the game so much freedom and creativity with the story, gameplay, lore and true pen & paper feel.
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This is probably a dumb question, but what’s the purpose of following DD rules? Why would it improve or diminish the value of a game?
 
Downloading the game now.

My biggest mistake was not having my steam client open this morning so I could remotely download from work. :p
 
WonkyPanda said:
This is probably a dumb question, but what’s the purpose of following DD rules? Why would it improve or diminish the value of a game?
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A lot of "good" CRPGs of old times all followed D&D rules to much extent, whereas Divinity breaks off from that and does its own thing without being too alienated.
 
Game's fantastic so far, 100% recommended.

texhnolyze said:
It's not really isometric as you can move the camera freely (zoom and turn).
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I kinda wish there was a completely free camera too, sometimes I want to take screenshots but I can't get the right angle.
 
ItsTheNew said:
Tried to play the first one and gave up during the tutorial because I thought it was fairly boring. Do these games hang their hat on their combat system? Or does the writing / choices get as good as prime bioware / Black Isle?
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The writting is fucking amazing. Also, there's real choice and consequence here. Black Isle tier.
 
AndersK said:
I was lukewarm on the first game (mostly a matter of tone/writing. Wayyyy to silly and not amusing enough to pull it off).

So far this is such a massive improvement. Like, holy shit. And its not even fully priced...45 euros brehs. Gameplay is even better than the first.

You can be a barrelmancer. Pump your strenght, find a massive crate. Fill it with junk. Use your strength to throw it at enemies and crush them mercilessly.

This is viable. What in the world.
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Do you need to then chase down the crate after thrown? Do you need to always pick up new crates and load them with junk like an elaborate reload setup?

Not to sound like a dick because that whole concept is hilarious, but your post legitimately left me with such questions on how the mechanic works.
 
I just started playing the first one with the GF, it's been really amazing so far. There's so much you can do, and I'm only 7 hours into it. Really looking forward to starting the second game once we're finished with the original.
 
z1ggy said:
The writting is fucking amazing. Also, there's real choice and consequence here. Black Isle tier.
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Yup. Putting things into perspective. Having a bad conversion with on your party members can lead you getting into a fight with them. There are very few RPGs that can result in you permanently killing your ex-team members because of dialog choices, or your own party members turning on each other with in-fighting because of moral or ideological differences from some in-game conversation they had with each other.

You are given true choices in how to handle some quests and it's not black or white to the extremes like some superficial recent Bioware or Elderscrolls game choices.

The Pet Pal talent which allows one communicate with animals, that alone allows one to solve some quests by unorthodox methods.
 
I hard quit the first game after several hours cause I kept dying after long-drawn out battles that seemed to shaft me with RNG and I couldn't grind anywhere.
 
Anno said:
Isn't it more of a successor to Ultima? Both OS games are great but that doesn't seem like the best comparison. Unless they just mean traditional cRPGs in general.
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Ultima is a huge influence absolutely. But D:OS 2 does the "I walked 10 feet down this path and tripped on 5 interesting sidequests, 2 optional dungeons with great puzzles, passed a merchant with awesome gear I want now, etc " that no other game (other than perhaps D:OS 1) has done better than BG2. It's just so dense.

rtcn63 said:
I've been keeping up and seeing non-reviewers bring up weird technical issues (memory leaks, etc.) and strange choices like the camera zoom-in resetting after talking to an NPC (controller users zoom-in so they can see things easier). And your character walks super fucking slow.

Unless they patched that stuff out already?
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Memory leak was fixed yesterday. I believe there is already a mod for walk speed but its not something I care about. Haven't had any problems with the camera.
 
Forgot that this game was finally released. I am definitely picking it up now.

Held off an early access to be able to experience this game in the fullest.
 
CrichtonKicks said:
Memory leak was fixed yesterday. I believe there is already a mod for walk speed but its not something I care about. Haven't had any problems with the camera.
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The camera thing being a gamepad user keeps the camera zoomed in a notch from default to make things slightly bigger and easier to see, but every time they talk to an NPC and finish, the camera resets to default zoom. If that makes sense.
 
If I hated the tone of the first game, should I even bother? It and the overuse of environmental damage killed the first game for me.
 
rtcn63 said:
The camera thing being a gamepad user keeps the camera zoomed in a notch from default to make things slightly bigger and easier to see, but every time they talk to an NPC and finish, the camera resets to default zoom. If that makes sense.
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I played a good chunk of the game with the gamepad and didn't notice that.

What *is* annoying about the gamepad controls is that they neglected to put in a sell all junk loot button and a helmet toggle button. The Mouse/Keyboard interface has both.

theDeeDubs said:
If I hated the tone of the first game, should I even bother? It and the overuse of environmental damage killed the first game for me.
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Yes. The tone has changed in the sense that serious moments are played entirely straight. There is still a lot of well-earned whimsy and humor but the game commits to the darker aspects of its story line very well. And there are some major changes to the combat system that have drastically reduced the utility of spamming environmental effects.
 
Dmax3901 said:
I hard quit the first game after several hours cause I kept dying after long-drawn out battles that seemed to shaft me with RNG and I couldn't grind anywhere.
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There is no grinding in these games. There is a finite amount of exp in the world. Enemies do not respawn. Most battles are won entirely with placing your team strategically around the field (never lump them all together to prevent AoE spell targets or being in the middle of battle field effects)

Take full advantage of the environment. If your enemy is wet or standing in a puddle of water or blood, using a lightning spell or using cold and freeze them. Use a poison cloud (highly flammable) or Geomancy spell covering the enemy in Oil and ignite it with a fire spell for explosive damage. You can also use objects on the field fill a barrel with heavy objects use telekinesis and drop the barrel on the enemy. This also applies with high strength characters that can throw the barrel instead. Works on elemental barrels containing water, oil, or poison too (they have the same elemental trigger effects listed above too)

Think outside the box. IF you think you can try something, chances are it probably will work. Slugging back and forth like a mindless traditional RPG leading into drawn out conflicts will not help you in this game.
 
CrichtonKicks said:
Yes. The tone has changed in the sense that serious moments are played entirely straight. There is still a lot of well-earned whimsy and humor but the game commits to the darker aspects of its story line very well. And there are some major changes to the combat system that have drastically reduced the utility of spamming environmental effects.
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I've only watched the first few hours or so, does the writing improve? It's not bad or anything, just a bit... self-aware? I also played much of the first game, so maybe that's coloring things.
 
CrichtonKicks said:
I played a good chunk of the game with the gamepad and didn't notice that.

What *is* annoying about the gamepad controls is that they neglected to put in a sell all junk loot button and a helmet toggle button. The Mouse/Keyboard interface has both.



Yes. The tone has changed in the sense that serious moments are played entirely straight. There is still a lot of well-earned whimsy and humor but the game commits to the darker aspects of its story line very well. And there are some major changes to the combat system that have drastically reduced the utility of spamming environmental effects.
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Will look into it then. Thanks!
 
OmegaDL50 said:
There is no grinding in these games. There is a finite amount of exp in the world. Enemies do not respawn. Most battles are won entirely with placing your team strategically around the field (never lump them all together to prevent AoE spell targets or being in the middle of battle field effects)

Take full advantage of the environment. If your enemy is wet or standing in a puddle of water or blood, using a lightning spell or using cold and freeze them. Use a poison cloud (highly flammable) or Geomancy spell covering the enemy in Oil and ignite it with a fire spell for explosive damage. You can also use objects on the field fill a barrel with heavy objects use telekinesis and drop the barrel on the enemy. This also applies with high strength characters that can throw the barrel instead. Works on elemental barrels containing water, oil, or poison too (they have the same elemental trigger effects listed above too)

Think outside the box. IF you think you can try something, chances are it probably will work. Slugging back and forth like a mindless traditional RPG leading into drawn out conflicts will not help you in this game.
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Thanks, I'm sure I'll give it another shot one day.
 
Turns out I have the original Enhanced Edition on Steam, and I don't remember when I got it . I don't even think I like these kind of games :x
 
Playing this game I am still amazed and just how open it is.

I mean for example, you are tasked with having to find your way out of somewhere early on.
So far since I've gotten that quest I have found about 5 different quest chains that have different ways to do this, of which I can pick any as my choice.

Another quest you are tasked to find someone, you can get to this point in numerous ways, talking to animals, talking to an npc who tips you off, simply stumbling upon the person, etc. Then when you do find them there's like another 3-4 ways which you can unfold that quest and decide how to handle the situation.

It seems like almost any quest you get there's numerous ways to go about figuring them out and how to complete them and it's a nice breath of fresh air where most rpgs these days are like linear quest chains with maybe 1-2 "choices" that usually amount to good/evil style or such.
 
rtcn63 said:
I've only watched the first few hours or so, does the writing improve? It's not bad or anything, just a bit... self-aware? I also played much of the first game, so maybe that's coloring things.
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The story definitely gets more interesting and the stakes go up.

The self-awareness stuff, though, is pretty much Larian's house style so it never goes away.
 
Amagon said:
Is this game akin to Diablo? I might give the first one a shot.
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They look similar because they share a perspective, but that's about all they share. D:OS is turn based, and involves more roleplaying (social interaction) and inventive use of game mechanics, not button mashing and loot farming in random dungeons.
 
Stiler said:
Playing this game I am still amazed and just how open it is.
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Yeah the choices on how to complete most anything is great, found one quest in fort joy that could actually be played 5 different ways (that I had figured out), I'm trying a couple more ideas tonight but I'm pretty sure they will work too.

Absolutely great amount of freedom.
 
If I play this before the original will I have a hard time going back to the original after? Still need to play the first game, but this sounds even better.
 
Larian has been very underrated and underappreciated for years. Glad they are finally getting some time in the light.
 
I just beat an encounter by building a small wall of furniture in a passageway, and hiding an explosive barrel behind it. I then used air magic the swap the positions of my party on one side of the wall with the boss's mooks on the other side, leaving my party alone on one side to focus on the boss.

Midway through the fight the mooks have beaten their way through the furniture, hitting the barrel and setting it off. All the furniture sets alight. All the henchman are standing in an ocean of fire. I laugh.
 
I have the original to play on PS4 and have never gotten around to it. I guess I really should play it and get around to the sequel in the not too distant future.
 
Amazing game. Deserves every bit of praise it's getting.

Really cannot be understated how open ended the design is. Both combat and quest design give you enough options to make your experience exactly as you please.
 
Bebpo said:
If I play this before the original will I have a hard time going back to the original after? Still need to play the first game, but this sounds even better.
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I don't think so, the interface, controls and camera are all pretty much the same between the two games.
 
I wish I could get into these games but turn based combat really kills it for me. I have never enjoyed a game with turn based. I tried the first one and quit after the first 3 battles because I didn't like how it was at all. Hopefully one day I can get over this curse.
 
It's taken us several hours of finagling with controllers and controller settings to try and get it to actually work and not crash to even attempt to do character creation. Which seems to be an unusual situation as far as I can tell since I haven't seen lots of posts about issues with co-op control schemes.

Nevertheless we will try again tonight with actually hopefully playing it!
 
Yeah if you go into a CRPG expecting Diablo you are going to want to kill yourself from the moment to moment pacing alone. Much slower but methodical and with a focus on writing and world-building. And forget the loot grind. (I own Diablo 3 and D:OS)
 
Day 1 for me when this inevitably comes to console. I loved the first so much, was a great surprise, this looks even better!
 
Bebpo said:
If I play this before the original will I have a hard time going back to the original after? Still need to play the first game, but this sounds even better.
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The first game is absolutely worth playing. It doesn't really matter which you play first.
 
God damn it not another completely amazing game this year, I have too much on my plate as is. This is starting to feel like an embarrassment of riches.
 
Absolutely deserved. Anyone who didn't click with the first game -- I felt the same way, but this game is gripping me in a way that few games do. It's easily my goty (tied with Nier), and will be in my top 5 of all time by the end I imagine.

Lanrutcon said:
I just beat an encounter by building a small wall of furniture in a passageway, and hiding an explosive barrel behind it. I then used air magic the swap the positions of my party on one side of the wall with the boss's mooks on the other side, leaving my party alone on one side to focus on the boss.

Midway through the fight the mooks have beaten their way through the furniture, hitting the barrel and setting it off. All the furniture sets alight. All the henchman are standing in an ocean of fire. I laugh.
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That's amazing. Every fight in this game feels like me discovering new things I can do and new ways to play with the mechanics. It's brilliant.
 
I absolutely plan to play the fuck out of this whenever I get off my Battle Royale kick (PUBG and Fortnite are just too addicting right now).
 
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