Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

PROS: - The writing is superb (characters, quests, dialogs) - Full voice acting for each NPC (wonder how they managed that?) - Combat system is polished - Choices matter CONS: - Though there are several ways to complete a quest, some aren't resolved cleanly - Random crashes when loading the game (usually happens when you switched to a different application) Additional notes: - Difficulty ramps up rather quickly Highly recommended!

Divinity 2 got plenty of things right. Tactical combat is perfect, best I've ever seen (even including X-Com and Gears Tactics systems in this ranking), requiring full awareness, because almost everything can be used to your advantage: barrels, height difference, line of sight, choke points, environment and enviromental effects, mix of skills comboing off of each other etc. Character creation, while overwhelming, allows you to create whomever you want, no classes, subclasses, archetypes, just create whatever you imagine at the moment (plus, you get an infinite number of respecs in- game). Well thought-out physics of the game and combat (flammable surfaces, shocking water, smoke, being warm/wet/chilled etc), great cast of characters, great character progression, variety of different skills you can combo, sense of humor, story (not the greatest I've seen, but still very good), world building, voice acting, graphics and details of the world, even some "mods" already incorporated into the game for someone who wants them. They are all great. However, inventory management in this game is terrible, overwhelming, and takes way too long to comfortably control it, to the point it also pollutes an otherwise pretty straight - forward crafting system, making it harder to use and manage than necessary. The game allows you to steal anything you want, yet it will punish you very quickly for taking this opportunity. Difficulty levels feel weird to me: classical seems too easy for me, while tactician seems uncomfortably hard, and there is nothing in-between them to choose from. And there is an open world feature, which I usually list as a plus, but here, while incredibly open, allows you to break some quests, mess up others and miss opportunities to gain exp just because you took the freedom the game presented to you and played it your own way, which is a nightmare for every completionist out there. Overall, this game is great, well worth both the price and 9/10 it gets from me.

So far I have spent 92 hours in Fort Joy alone. I have replayed the intro at least 5 times and done everything the prison has on offer. I love the game, and I loved the first one. I don't think I will ever be able to truly recapture the experience I have been gifted with in this game. Not even when BG3 eventually finishes. There is just something special here that I love so dearly and have been longing for. And don't get me started on the Origin Characters. I had to get a mod that allowed me to take all of them at once and the game feels so much richer for it. I love large party games, even if the mod was the catalyst for that experience. I may not have left the first island yet, but the personalities of them all are so fun to have around, feels alive. I'll definitely be playing he game through a second time in the future. Would recommend for people who love, story rich, party based, turn based games. No disappointment here.

So I've played the game quite a lot. Bought it on steam closer to release, got the DE here when it was on sale recently. I'm in act 4 now, kinda same place i stopped a few years ago. Play on tactician. About 50% of the combat is manageable. The other 50% is an eye roll inducing exercise in boredom which amount to a flow chart. "Did you exploit the AI?" "Yes/No" "Yes= you win with ease ". "No= you lose." Que the fanboy reeee. So far I only had to reload two fights. Both in act 4. One you get jumped by a pack of over leveled demons who can easily one shot and AOE fear your entire party. So I sighed, reloaded, , exploited the ai, threw the one AOE CC spell that can penetrate their ridiculous lvl 28-30 defenses (your player level right now is 18-19...), and won in 40 seconds. The second fight i lost is even more stupidly gimmicky. And I already know exactly what I am gonna do to win it. So yes. You can either exploit the AI, stealth summon, use barrelmancy (look it up), or find that one spell by accident that renders all of your enemies impotent for that certain fight. (Most of the time that spell is worm tremors)

Now this is how you do an RPG. I absolutely loved how creative I was able to get at times. Fun combat, phenomenal story.