I will start by saying how I absolutely love/d this game. We bought The Vallhund DLC with the cute doggy addition and looking forward to the new release on 2nd of May. I've finished the story many times on different levels of difficulty. I was hooked within minutes of discovering what DIV is all about. I adored everything about it: the nordic myth behind it, how the characters intertwined, their adventures/encounters and background stories. The tasks around the camp, the combat mechanics, the way I had to plan everything efficiently: all resources and the manpower around my camp. Adored the atmosphere, too. One of my fav. activities would consist of drinking coffee (in real life) while deciding what to do with this `household`. How should they spent their mornings/evenings. And my most precious memories comes from the rainy moments, both in-game and real-life. Cozy, tucked in blanket, taking care of `di people`, while making my own calculations on paper, who fit better where, what to improve next, how to balance everything so that noone dies. Thank you, team for an excellent job.
It's an above average game if you acept it for what it is: a very linear, not overly complex blackguards/banner saga. Story/Presentation - Narrative segments are well done: narrator voice is appropriate and helps with immersion while comic book style "pages" present the story unfolding - Dialogues are not voice acted and sometimes hard to read for non-native speakers (the barbarian and the blacksmith posed problems to me) - run-of-the-mill fantasy story with a faux-historical twist - Extremely linear, 1 choice to be made and i'm not even sure what it does (the ending does little to clarify) Character options - This was pretty average due to the limited synergy between skills - 8 characters each with 7 active and 3 passive skills. Out of these you can only use 4 at any given time. While they may seem a lot they're pretty simplistic in execution once you actually play the game: push/pull, more damage, more aoe, summons and movement, It sounds like a lot however for me combat was the same for the entire game: push people off ledges, then move& 1-2 shot from backstab/flank and finish with willpower recovery - I mentioned willpower before: this is basically a semi-limited resource that makes you better at everything and i assume it was supposed to be used "sparingly". Unfortunately it's easy to regenerate it if you plan a bit, too easy: i spammed it practically every encounter. - Equipment is stat increasing only, with a few procs on damage during the mid-late game. I never felt excited for any upgrade Encounter design - There are some environmental hazards: fires, oil pits, ledges, but i ignored them for a large part of the game due to them not being needed - Terrain coupled with enemy design mede encounters vulnerable to alpha strikes - Enemy variety was mediocre: ranged guy, melee guy, buffing guy, glass cannon guy with obvious weaknesses and strengths It's a competent game, for a niche audience that i'd cautiously recommend if you accept the lack of replayability
