Divinity: Dragon Commander

Disclaimer: This is my first review ever on GOG, so don't expect anything stellar :D First things first, Dragon Commander is supposed to be a mix of the strategy, RTS and RPG genres. In my opinion, Larian managed to do this quite well. Now, I'm not a very talented strategist (and I have breezed through the game on casual), but the UI was pretty intuitive. Like in every strategy game with different units and different skills, you still need some time to learn all the skills by heart, though. One of the bigger faults would be that there's no auto-function for the skills, meaning you have to manage everything yourself, which can get pretty chaotic, especially on higher difficulties. At least for "newbies" to the genre, I believe the RTS part is entertaining and challenging enough, can't say anything about veterans though. Coming to the RPG part now: since I'm rather an RPG lover, I can say I enjoyed this very much. The Commander's decisions influence your resources and by that the gameplay, so sometimes you should think more tactically than subjectively, otherwise it may have bad consequences on you next battles. Your advisors and generals bring up issues which are still discussed nowadays, so you can have a blast as a commander and shape your Empire how you see fit. For anyone who loves at least one of the genres represented in this game, you should try it out. Even more so if you love games of all genres represented in this game.

Gameplay is a mish mash of Wing Commander bar mechanics where you go to a place, talk to people and then go off on a mission only...you don't really fight with them. Missions are a mix of RTS and sort of a third person shooter with RPG mechanics. It's very much like Sacrifice. I will say that towards the end game I found that auto solving fights to be the best bet as I had a massive advantage but the map I played on caused me to lose (That and I suck at RTS) Storywise it's very simple and I would warn players that you have to understand Larians sense of humor going in as it might put you off the game. If you don't like political/religious comedy where everyone is made fun of, then you might not like this game. It's (at least so far) the only game in the series that has had this tone so I will say if you want to get into the divinity series and you don't like political/religious sides being mocked then you can give this pass and miss out on very little lore other than some very minor world building that plays into Divinity 2 and a little bit of imp lore...maybe undead? Nothing as big as the other games mind you.

I had a really hard time trying to play with my controller during the flight sequences, it kind of ruined the game for me. I pretty much used auto battle to avoid these situations and didn't have much fun. The music and graphics where great though.

This is a political choice game where you decide laws and such while taking your council's ~~compromised~~ differing opinions into account. Tax the churches? Advise your (hot) Lizard/Elf/Dwarven/Undead princess wife to sentence the (racially) accused to death? Support gay marriage? Every choice has tangible consequences in the RTS (Risk & Combat) phases. And you will face them everytime in every battle. Like it or not, an entire faction (race) disagreed with your decision enough to make every battle you have on their territory more difficult. Will you be a pragmatist to ensure the ~~death~~ defeat of your siblings in the war for the throne? Or will you turn the kingdom into socialist haven while risking it all? Goodluck. While I never finished Dragon Commander, I did enjoy the lot of those 23hrs (with a guide >.>). Figuring out effective (and efficient) strategies for those naval maps and flying back-and-forth from one small battle to another on the land maps. Don't like switching up the RTS by being a dragon? Don't use it (until you have to). Rather be a dragon for every battle? Well, there's a limit to how many battles you can use it in, so work that Risk map like nobody's business. 👍🏿 Having last played it in 2018, I can't say much more than I loved the political (Raven) phase, but I don't recall any frustrations or bugs. 🤔 Which makes me wonder why I gave it a 4/5. 🤷🏿‍♂️ All I can really say is that if the description I gave suits you, you'll probably enjoy atleast half of the experience.

This can only be described as "Fun". It is an RTS but after you've finished telling your soldiers to "go that way" then you turn into a dragon and play a flight sim where you set things on fire. I don't know what you're looking for but as long as you aren't taking anything too seriously, or expecting a hardcore RTS, then this will be a blast. Literally depending on how you play the backend RPG.