Divinity: Dragon Commander

I enjoyed some of the mechanics and playing as a dragon with a boost pack on during battles is actually pretty fun! With that being said there's not a lot of variation in how battles go, the real focus of the game is on interaction and decision making. This might be due to resources getting allocated to DOS during development as a lot of the game feels half baked or rushed in the later stages. Not bad when it's on sale, whether you like it or not entirely depends on your preference. It's not long (Depending on what difficulty you play) clocked about 6 hours or so on it and it has some replay value but not £30 worth of replay value.

I liked the game a lot and I am a big fan of the Divinity series. I was enjoying the game a lot but it keeps crashing during the battles. The solutions given by Larian are not working.

The politics, characters and dialogues are where Dragon Commander truly shines. It's all very engaging, the characters are likeable (or annoying, but in a good "that's the way he's meant to be and ist's done well" way) and while some decisions you make are quite profound, there is also plenty of humour, much in the vein of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. The turned based strategy, somewhat similiar to Total War series, is done well, but is nothing special. Good, easy to learn, but almost too simple. Could use some spark, some innovation. The real time part is, suprisingly, the leas interesting. Despite the fact, that you can lead your armies as a jetpack wearing dragon, the routine quickly sets in. The maps are repetative, and there is little to no strategy required. It's very much a numbers game. Produce more units than your opponent, and then kill him. And again, and again. Thanks to the dragon thing it's fun for while, but eventually you will most likely leave all the battles to the AI, and focus on gaining advantage in the turn based part. Altogether a good game, worth a purchase, but not one destined to become a classic.

Ignore the negative reviews, I had a blast. The blend of RPG, strategic map, tactical combat works really well together, nothing is too deep or too shallow. The dialogues & story are funny, the strategic game armchair emperor feeling, the units interesting. My only gripe is that the real time combat is cluncky. Selecting units is a bit difficult & the camera should point north in the beginning of combat. Also, mechanical troopers are not my thing, I want actual soldiers. So, maybe you could argue Dragon Commander should only get 4 stars. But since I liked the blend very much & feel the 1, 2 or 3 stars are honestly unjustified, I'll give it 5.

For the range of strategy games offered on GOG, I would suggest that the game's most elaborate part be brought to the for. As an action game, and not a strategy game. As a strategy game it is mired by an illogical series of design functions that seek to justify the price tag. These additional features, the politics, and strategy map, only serve to emphasis how far board, and 4X games have come since the 70s. As single player campaigns go, I haven't been this bored in a long time. Even the theoretical role-playing elements can become a tedium of seeking upgrades, without consequence to the people you are ruling. Credit where credit is due. The voice acting is excellent. The character development among your staff is interesting. The premise is very Larian Studios. The real time game play is novel at first. They managed to capture something satisfying in being a Dragon, and turning the odds by skin of your teeth reflexes. Unfortunately this plays into the failures of the diverse gameplay elements incorporated. Well thought out Strategy rarely is as successful as plying your Dragon against impossible odds and winning through am application of skill from action games. Making much of the rest of the strategy map elements, the cards, the auto resolve function, and the Generals you have, superfluous. You play in expectation of the RTS map, and the rest of the game becomes an annoyance. If they had separated the game to it's base RTS elements, and linked the political choices more directly (the indirect reward and use of cards becomes nauseating after a few hours*) to the type of Army you would be fielding in the short run, and building/unit selection to build in the long run, the game's focus would remain on it's strengths. Because it is fairly fun to fight in Dragon form against your friends while trying to mash the recruitment button when ever you have a moment. The low rating comes from using the word strategy too loosely.