Great middle ground between Baldur's Gate and Diablo
I often find myself stuck between two worlds when it comes to RPGs; I enjoy the character building, deep storylines, and numerous side quests found in games like Baldur's Gate, but I find the combat to be stiff and slow. And, while I enjoy the fast-paced combat of games like Diablo and Sacred, I usually end up getting bored by the otherwise shallow gameplay very quickly. So it was with delight that I dove into Divine Divinity, which cleverly combined the best of both ends of the spectrum.
The game starts with a character selection screen that appears, at first glance, to come straight from the Diablo side of it's family tree, but that proves to be misleading. You choose to play as a male or female warrior, wizard or survivor (rogue) character, so I assumed that I would end up climbing a skill tree appropriate to each character. That isn't the case though; regardless of which character you choose, you will be able to pick skills from any of the other classes as you see fit. The class you choose determines only your starting stats (high health and low intelligence for the warrior, vise versa for the wizard, with the rogue falling in the middle). It makes the Diablo-style character selection a bit strange since it belies the true depth that you can put into any character. I feel it would have been better off with a Fallout style character creation screen, where you take a generic character and and skills to your liking. But, it doesn't really matter since the system in the game works so well once you understand it.
No matter how you build your character though, the game will be difficult, even on the easiest setting. This is mainly because it truly is a game without bumpers; you can totally ignore the main quest if you wish and go adventuring in the woods by yourself. However, you will most likely end up getting yourself in a fix pretty quickly; if you wonder into a forest, the game gives you no indication of it's difficulty. You may find a pile of treasure, or you might run into a platoon of orcs who will tear you apart in seconds. Items are realistically limited also; you will not find a magical two-hand sword of orge mashing just sitting in a crate in some guys barn. In fact, even decent weapons and armor are somewhat difficult to come by until you are well past the first dungeon and town, as most of the better weapons you find there will be beyond your ability to use. I would recommend sticking with the main story for awhile, at least until you get your bearings a bit.
The main story is pretty good, too. It will be very familiar to anyone who has any experience with the fantasy genre at all, with dwarves and elves, magic and orcs and all that type of stuff. There is even a friendly white haired, bearded wizard who looks suspiciously like one seen in a certain fantasy novel and film which you may be familiar with. But, it is interesting enough, and it's well told. The writing is very well done and the voice acting is decent, with very little lost in translation from it's original language. Plus, even just going along with the main story you are bound to run into dozens and dozens of cool, rewarding side quests.
The graphics are not bad for the time. Outdoor settings are detailed and character animations are good, though I felt that the dungeons where a bit generic and had a randomly-generated look to them. Colors are drab and washed out, akin to the color scheme found in Diablo 2. I like it, as it makes the world seem sort of grimy and realistic, but people who are fond of World of Warcraft's bright, cartoony graphics may find the game to look a bit muddy and depressing. The GOG version of the game installed easily on my computer, but it has crashed on me twice. Not often enough to complain about, but i would recommend saving often just to be safe.
All in all, Divine Divinity is a very fun and unique RPG experience, more than worth the price GOG is asking for it. Buy it, so long as you don't mind losing weeks of your life immersed in a brilliant game.
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