Divine Divinity

This would be a good game if only it was shorter. I know that many gamer consider the length of a game a virtue, bit I found this game a perfect example that more is not always better. Games should not be so long that initially good gameplay mechanics become tedious and repetitive. Unfortunately, this is the case with this game. It's too big and monotonous and padded out.

Like others, I had frustratingly bad performance in Divine Divinity. Framerates would dip down to 21-22 FPS and the game would stutter. I was changing the options in the Settings app (separate executable, not in-game menus) and was having no luck. I tried forcing DD to use the discreet GPU in my laptop (AMD 6800M), no improvement. Save/load times started around 10 seconds with the game installed on a PCIe Gen 3 NVMe drive, and the more I tried to improve performance, the worse it got. At one point saves/loads were taking around 30 seconds. As a last resort I tried "Software" instead of "Direct3D" rendering. BEAUTIFUL! It's counterintuitive, as most games from the era ran much faster with 3D acceleration, but software rendering keeps the framerate above 70 FPS and loses no graphical quality. Save/load time dropped to 2-3 seconds! On a laptop with a 15", 1080P screen, I initially had trouble finding things like keys and snakes onscreen. Dropping the resolution to 720P helped, and once I got used to the game I was able to go back to 1080P. Using a bow and sight buffs lets your character get the jump on enemies, and the higher resolution lets the player see further out. Not a cheat, since it uses only options and gear provided by the game, but a definite advantage over the old 640x480 or 800x600 view. The basic mechanics are obviously lifted from Diablo, which is not a bad start. As another reviewer noted, Divine Divinity really is an open-world RPG. Once you leave Aleroth you can go anywhere, provided you can survive the trip. Added character progression options also help lift DD above "Diablo clone" status. Teleportation keeps the game from becoming a repetitive slog through the same areas. The art style and isometric view make Divine Divinity easier to get into in the 2020s than the relatively primitive 3D games from the same time. Combat may be "ARPG" hack'n'slash, but this is a full-on RPG that's still worth the time.

The game itself is decent, although a bit quirky and buggy. But the real highlight of the game is the music, especially the main theme. It really sets you in the right mood for immersion.

It's difficult to define “Divine Divinity”; it's just a really good game. The appearance show us a classical action Rpg. We have a bidimensional world in which our hero, alone, with no party, has to reach the final goal defined by the plot. Combat system is similar a “Diablo”, so we could think to a “Diablo style” action rpg. On the contrary we have here a real solid Rpg. There are very much quests and an intriguing plot to follow. Yes there many enemies to challenge, but not all quests require a violent solution. Another very interesting feature is the chance to manipulate very much objects in the world. In this way we have many alternative solutions to follow, and the sensation to be in a real tangible world. The graphic is pleasant with his colors, the 2D design is at his best. Player will be involved in a very interesting story until the end. The control system is user friendly. This game is a gem, don't miss it.

This is a real pain to get running, and GOG makes it harder to fix or play in a window by setting registry values you have to delete to actually run it on dgvoodoo. It's not in software rendering mode by default, which means the graphics are broken and the transparency doesn't work. If you put it in software mode it looks right, but either way it screws with your windows if you don't set it to the native res (which makes text/interface too small to play with reasonably), resizing all your other windows because it went into a non-native res. But that still happens anyway if you try to actually watch the, I'm guessing, 320p intro video. And if you try to exit that it just makes it impossible to get back into the game while playing havok with Windows' window manager and requires you to force close it despite the fact you can hear the main menu music. There's no way with GOG's settings or the game's settings (without Hex editing) to get it into windowed mode. I'm going to fix this, but GOG really didn't do anything to help, but what they *did* do makes it harder to actually play the game properly if you aren't using 30-yo hardware.