Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

I've finished the game once (classic mode) and I have no desire whatsoever for a replay, even though I did not experience some NPCs subplots. While this is still a ~100 hours game, and I did feel the need to finish it, I consider this a failure for a computer RPG; it should have high replay value. A pity, since the RPG system is really impressive; It's just the game they wrote for the system that really sucks. What I'd remember the most from the game is not the plot (mediocre, unoriginal and forgettable at best) and not the NPCs (decent characters overall, a pity they don't interact with each other). What I'd remember the most is the frustrating experience of reloading every second battle and googling for puzzle solutions and battle tactics in order to advance. The problem is not the game system; the balance is just badly screwed up. In order to compensate for your unlimited access to high quality equipment (the stores level up with you. That's a design mistake), the enemies have inflated armor scores (not explained by their actual armor) and inflated initiative scores. The computer almost always have the first move in a battle - sometimes it would initiate dialogue mid-battle to skip over your turn and act again. Enemies get the drop on you all the time while it's practically impossible for you to do the same; you are discovered each time you enter their line of sight. In short, there's one rule system for you and another, much more lenient, for the computer in order to compensate for poor balance. If the computer would play by your rules (have the armor rate, ability and initiative scores like your characters) it would be easily beaten. What I learnt from my experience is to go with my gut and ignore hype. Next time, if someone praise the battles as the strongest element of a RPG (rather than plot and characters), I would not buy it. I'm not playing RPGs for the battles, and I'm not playing them for the puzzles either, Egad.

I will honestly say that I do not understand people who like this game. Which is fine, I don't need to understand everyone's likes and dislikes. But I do want to add this in, as a warning to others that might be in my position: I'm not a hardcore gamer by any stretch, but having done Dragon Age Origins at nightmare difficulty on my first playthrough and having cracked Europa Universalis III and IV and Stellaris at fairly high difficulty iron man playthroughs I'd like to think I'm not a gibbering idiot. Divinity Original sin 2 makes me feel like a gibbering idiot. This is a shame, because I did find the story and characters interesting. There's a different vibe than many other stories and I wanted to explore the setting. But the combat, and the way you're led into it. I can honestly say, I don't know how I'd play this efficiently without a spreadsheet. I'd need that to keep track of which quests I'm still one level to low to even contemplate. Even though storywise it'd make perfect sense for me to embark on a particular quest. And this is despite me actually delving into the armour system, crafting, handing out potions and scrolls to all characters, actually planning the spread of buffs and heals and so on. And I actually did enjoy the combat in many places. It was challenging, demanded thinking and synergizing and sometimes I had to run away and take a different approach. I'm fine with that. But I'm not fine with being SLAPPED. I'm not fine with following a questline and then suddenly having an asshole developer point and laugh and SLAP me with something that just oneshots and annihilates and perma-kills everything in two rounds (oh gosh, I only brought five resurrection scrolls, silly me). I'm OK with loosing and having to redo. I'm not fine with this frustrating, insulting and weirdly designed mess. If you enjoy it, I'm happy for you. But I know I'm not alone, and this is for the consideration of others like me.

My wife and I played the first Divinity: Original Sin, and we both loved it. It had some issues, but was ultimately a game that kept us coming back and had her excited to play. The sequel, however, she has to drag me over to even think about, and this is why: Combat is, similar to the first D:OS, a battle against others that have access to the same skills players do, but there are a lot more skills in this game, making the number and variety of ways the enemy can disrupt, knock down, fly, and otherwise ruin your day too great, especially when they frequently outnumber you and have way too much health and armor. The armor system is also a point of contention, as even taunting can be "blocked" by physical armor or "miss". Linearity is a much greater thing in D:OS 2. Since everytime you talk to someone, it resets your conversation tree, you can re-select different paths and see how they all end up at the same end, regardless of the minor choices made. Also, you cannot freely move about the whole world and the transitions can happen through forced event triggers. Bugs are also very much present, with character portraits, status effects, and skills being reset without player input. Add to that the UI that was changed from D:OS and does not highlight as well, and it is just too frustrating for me to play and enjoy. Wait for the revised edition, similar to D:OS!

I'm a 'hardcore-casual' gamer, which means that I'll explore every nook and cranny, every map, every dialogue tree, every pixel of a game as long as the game doesn't punish you for it. This game punishes you for it. I'm only in Act II and the sheer volume of need-to-use-a-gimmick to beat, or just poorly designed encounters is overwhelming. Click the wrong door (hatch) and get into an unwinnable fight for the level you are most likely to be. Get over one pixel too close and get into a fight with a boss that autokills someone every turn. When I'm not reloading from saves to recover from unwillable situations that I couldn't possibly have known about beforehand, I'm spending my time on inventory management. Right click, identify, right click, send to wares, drag to character who has skill in selling...

Okay, so I loved D:OS. Multiple play-throughs. Lots of fun. This... not so much. People apparently love this game. You do you. There's a lot of content, it's pretty detailed, and if you just want "REALLY BIG GRIMDARK" written by an angsty teenager, hey, go nuts. But me? I'm pretty disappointed. 1: Combat routinely begins with enemies on high ground and in prepared positions. This doesn't feel like difficulty. This feels like an AI cheating to make combat feel "harder." Even when I can sneak up on enemies and pre-position, my characters DON'T EVEN JOIN THE FIGHT. I have to toggle each character individually into combat by jumping around in my controls. Otherwise, they stand around scratching themselves while the leader gets slaughtered. 2: The companions are impossibly arrogant. All of them. The whole world seems populated with jerks. In the first town, everyone I meet is evil, or just fantastically selfish. All guards are torturers and gleefully commit unspeakable acts of violence. Their main opposition seems to be a bunch of criminal thugs. And even my allies belittle and insult me at pretty much every opportunity. I quickly find myself asking... can I just light everyone on fire or what? I can? WOW. Okay, you win points there, Larian. But since I like playing honorable heroes... Do I save all the evil jerks who spit in my face as thanks? Or do I give in and burn the world down? 3: Pathing for companions is terrible. If there's any kind of ladder along the route, at least one member of my troop is suddenly overcome with crippling anxiety. "OH NO! RUNGS!" Then they run screaming into the wilderness before I can stop them. They turn up in an unexplored part of the map, ambushed by enemies inexplicably hanging out in series of elaborate fortified positions. Why are they there? WHO KNOWS! 4: The quest journal is pointless and arcane. What am I doing? I have no idea. Even worse, I don't know why I should care. And that's really my biggest complaint.