Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

Divinity Original Sin II is the kind of game that people will gush endlessly about, until the flaws begin to be pointed out. One by one, they'll receed on each of these points, until they finally admit, "Okay, it's just a 'fairly good' game"; and nevertheless continue to support their 5-star rating. In short, this game is genre accessibility in its most sugared form. It's a fun game for multiplayer; but is otherwise a childish, white-bread RPG with spotty voice acting, and not an ounce of true grit to be found (Although, it has fake grit in surplus - it's cheesy and goofy, and about as dark as a halogen lamp). DOSII not particularly deep, sophisticated, or even adult, in either the gameplay or the world. It's fairly engaging, especially with the chaos that extra friends can cause, but it is nowhere near as brilliant it is said to be, and a lack of said friends quickly reveals that the 'complex, multi-faceted mechanics' mostly amount to blowing up different kinds of barrels for AoE damage. Lauding DOS2 as spectacular is the equivalent to calling Forest Gump the greatest movie ever made; it's a claim made by people who only dare to scratch the surface, and exist in a world without threat or challenge. I hate to give 2 stars, but I really ought to even out the obsessive, overly generous scores this game recieved in its hype days and beyond. Although, after how strongly I was put up to this game, two-stars is quite accurately how it made me feel. It's not a bad game, but it's not great. It's conventional and easy to consume; so if that's what you're after, go ahead.

Title says it all. I knew after DOS that I better keep an eye on this studio. I think that RPG fans are picky and we expect alot. When games like this come out it all it makes all rpgs better because it introduces a new standard. EVEN CDPR needs to look at rpgs like this as they are crafting Cyberpunk. My only problems are that they seem to have removed the ability to make notes, which I used alot to keep track of the crazy quests in DOS. Also I wish I could right click the portrait to get the character sheet like in DOS. Minor things in a great game. Bravo Larian you have done it again. RPG of the year for sure and a big contender for GOTY. Obsidian, Your up next. Good luck topping this masterpiece. ----------------------5 Stars------------------------

All in all, it's a medicore sequel to a great game. There's plenty of plus-points, and if you're a good and honest hero type character, your playthrough will most likely be more or less enjoyable. However, at release, there are still a few very glaring bugs and some poor decisions that notably detract from the experience and in some cases seriously ruin immersion. The pro's: -The story itself is solid. -Combat has notably improved upon the predecessor. -Some of the puzzles are logical and well-done. The con's: -Quests remain open even after completion. Wether this effects the ending or not is as of yet unknown... -If you steal something with no witnesses, behind closed doors and while in stealth, NPCs will still notice, immediatley accuse you of the crime and go hostile literally right after it happened. While it is possible to work around this, one should not have to. It is a poor mechanic. -Some of the puzzles are literally trial and error, with no inherent logic behind them. Also,bypassing these via IG mechanics may break quests as well. -Killing NPCs often gets you more XP than actually bothering to do their quest. In light of the broken quest system, this may actually be a good thing, but in terms of design, it shouldn't be. As of release, I could, at best, consider the game in beta status.

I stopped playing this after release because of the bugs and 'lag', giving up after 2 hours in one fight where enemy turns were taking 5-10 minutes. I've tried again, expecting the product to finally be fit- for-purpose, but there are even more bugs, too many to list here but including locked inventories and long game lock-ups. Are games not professionally tested any more? Are developers relying on early access to do the testing for them? In lieu of AI the game just has enemies with far more action points than the player can ever get, lower cooldown times and insanely high initiative. I've just given up after a fight where enemies got 2-3 rounds per one of my party and 1 party member didn't get to fight at all, just standing there in combat getting pummeled. Also, because every enemy is a spellcaster (almost always with a form of teleport), every fight is essentially the same. In addition to bugs and ridiculous game mechanics there is the painfully laborious dialogue and endless background dialogue loops. Lists and "..." are grossly over-used. Some of the text has so many dots and dashes it looks like there's a morse code message hidden in it. Every character also has the same pretentious mode of speech, from the humblest peasant to the highest lord or scholar. I won't be making a 3rd attempt to play this over-hyped, poorly-written bugfest. Nor will I be buying any more games at release.

I really love first Divinity: Original Sin game, but I really regret buying this one. The overall plot of first one was pretty silly and not greatly written but it had its own charm. In DOS2 everything is more serious but writing doesn't do justice to it's mood and is still medicore at best. Combat system in the first game was awesome- it was fun and rewarded player for creativity. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out that sequel lost both because of bad mechanics changes. Another thing that is worse than in first game is itemization. Imagine that you find some legendary uber sword. Sweet, right? Nope, because loot in this game is randomly generated AND LEVEL SCALED to your characters, and because of that, this legendary sword will be useless once you gain one level, as ordinary weapons you will find would be better! Oh, and the stats are dumbed down too. And music- it's nowhere good as in the first game (well, that was expected. Rest in peace Kirill Pokrovsky). Only companions are more interesting and has better interactions than in DOS1. This and only this. I expected sequel to be better than the first game but it turned out to be worst in almost all aspects. I really can't understand those great scores in media (unless they were playing at Story mode difficulty, so they didn't mind how combat or game mechanics are broken).