Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

This game is fun moment to moment and has a lot of character...but it is brutally, cruelly difficult, and the openness of the narrative has mostly translated into opacity in direction for me and wasted hours running around, getting slaughtered by megagod shambling normies in the tutorial area. The solid reviews for this imply that there is an audience for this type of game--but if you're not sure you're it, be warned.

...but not half as good as the prequel. The crafting system was mostly thrown out, the story is less interesting, the map design is way sloppier (you can find yourself in encounters impossible for your level even if you pay attention to the dialogues), the puzzles are less intuitive. The pacing is way worse, its not combat-dialogue-questing-crafting, but combat-combat-combat-questing-dialogue-dialogue-dialogue-...-dialogue-combat. The gameplay changed a lot: the skills have been restructured completely and new schools were added (along with mixed skills), but a lot of mechanics were thrown out, your leveling is way less generic, and overally its much easier to make a good for nothing hero if you don't read external sources. The shield mechanics (physical vs magic) completely messed up party compositions, if you have a single mage in your party its practically useless as a damage dealer, or it is a glass cannon. The terrain manipulation/usage was extended with extra elements but still less important, but in exchange we've got terrain level differences with bonuses as such, which opens really good tactical possibilities. I mean they would if the map design and the movement changes wouldn't make them almost obsolete. They've thrown out the importance of movement by adding at least two dozen abilities which enables you to teleport or move a lot. Another new element is the source points... I hate it. Basically the best skills requires a resource you get almost randomly, or by backtracking to certain places. The changes in the leveling system gave more freedom in specialization: for example now the number of skills you can learn is not restricted by your ability in your school, but a separate attribute... which would be nice, but you'l basically get lost in your first play-through, specialized classes in RPGs are not a common trope without good reason. Note: I've started this game coop with a friend, then played the prequel, then returned. First one is much better.

I should! And I want to. Everything I learned in 30 years of gaming tells me: This is the good stuff! The game has everything: Interesting characters, a vibrant world full of secrets and endearing side quests, mystery, great voice acting, a solid battle mechanic, meaningful skills, legendary items, choices with consequences, multiple approaches for almost every problem... Every nook and cranny of this thing tells of the love and experience the developers put into it. But I just can't seem to enjoy it. It is just too much of everything. Too many encounters, too many stories, too many items and mechanics and areas. Every barrel contains random loot, every NPC has a backstory and a quest, every level-up needs time spent on the wiki. I start the game, play for 5 hours and still am more or less where I was before. I really loved the more focussed predecessor. But part 2 isn't for me, and I have a bad feeling about Baldur's Gate 3, too.

It's clutching at straws, two straws in fact you could say, but it's a good sign, there's little if anything outstanding to complain about regarding the game's design and user experience. I enjoy and like playing the game, immersing myself in the world and story of Divinity Original Sin II all the same, it's an RPG done right, but not quite a masterpiece, close, but not quite. My "issues" with the game, two major and most relevant ones at least are; - There are no clear or seamless, certainly not intuitive way of handling the player's progression level-wise, e.g. one area brings a new challenge, and challenging in the right way, a step-up bringing new rewards and experience, but then the next group you come across, venturing deeper, suddenly you're faced with an enemy that wipes the soil with you and your companions or outright "one-shots" you the instant you enter combat. - Questlines sometimes far too vague and too troublesome for most to bother undertaking or even feel compelled to pursue, sometimes failing to offer enough a reward, lore-wise or loot-wise. Stories and progression, quest progression, that is can be most immersive, but personally I don't feel compelled to pursue a vast majority of those Quests, and they feel like an anime "filler" episode, which isn't in of itself "bad", but when you're spending that much time just running around back and forth, time you could've enjoyed with a dialgue, combat or story development . . . suffice to say, time you spend pursuing a Quest and unveiling a mystery, there's too much running involving for my liking, but again, it's subjective.

This game is the epitome of old-fashioned fun. Introduce a friend and play a co-op campaign, make the story your with choises and decisions. Murder entire villages or sneak past them, convince the guards you're one of them or cast "fireball" and end them! Invite even more friends, hold a old fashioned table-top game. You can make your own maps, scenario's, characters and dialogue. Host the game and have your friends run trough your hard work with stupid strategies which really shouldn't work! When time's get rough, play it solo. Spend all the time you want to, play at your own pace and enjoy the decent graphics and shimmering story design. Skeletons, dwarfs, elves, humans and lizardmen working together or against eachother in amazing adventures.