I was reluctant to play this game because of the reviews, but I'm glad I decided to give it a try. No longer will I pay attention to the reviews from the peanut gallery! It's a great bridge between BG and BG2. I loved the story and how it unfolded. The combat was traditional BG fun, but often with way higher numbers, which made spells like Fireball extra destructive. I think the side quests should be called out. There were a couple of larger ones that were very good! If you like old skool D&D adventures, for sure you'll enjoy this game. I understand some of the criticism. Yes, this game is more linear than others, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. The various reviews for this game are unfair and don't follow the proper guidelines. If you liked Baldur's Gate, you'll like this!
Though it still has lots of annoying problems, this game is clearly suffused with love from the development team and thus results in one of the best RPGs of all time. The scope is giant, the branching storylines must be tremendous. The story telling is second-to-none. The pacing of the game and the critical reveals of new information is masterful. Combat is a lot of fun, but sadly is missing the "ready weapon" mechanic (Solasta does this brilliantly). Encounters are varied and always interesting. The long endgame sequence is probably the best I've ever played. Music is good, but there are better soundtracks in my opinion. The soundtrack's success probably just rode the game's coattails. The game was buggier than expected. I played 100% multiplayer and it seems like every time a patch came out, something significant with multiplayer broke. I had to jump on Discord multiple times to solve problems. But, at least there was always someone from Larian there to help.
The saga ends in spectacular fashion with "Palace of Ice". This was the best of the three modules, in my opinion. Though, it was a good bit shorter than I was expecting. The story was solid, I enjoyed the characters (some funny and a bit clunky voicings, but it made it fun), the music is fantastic, and the endgame was very well done. Way more challenging than Lost Valley, but not annoyingly hard. We waltzed through most of the fights (multiplayer) until the endgame where we really had to become seriously tactical. The only bug we encountered (playing multi-player) was that the player not hosting the game would frequently lose connectivity at the beginning of a fight. Annoying, but not a big deal since you could simply reload and let them re-join. Overall, I loved it and wish there were more on the way.
If you loved the first PoE, you'll certainly appreciate this game. It improves on every aspect of the game that I can think of. The amount of dedication and effort that went into the lore is staggering. This is a game to be played slowly, to become immersed in, and enjoy. I was skeptical about the pirate theme early on, but the backgrounds and cultures are set up so well that it's seamless. The only main complaint from big site reviews is that the main quest is fairly short and secondary to the whole experience. I think this is true too, but the world is so well realized that it didn't matter at all to me. It was just a pleasure to explore and enjoy various subquests, while occasionally bouncing back to the main quest. My biggest disappointment is that there will likely be no PoE 3 that picks up at the end of this game.
I enjoyed the original "Crown of the Magister" campaign quite a bit. "Lost Valley" was a step up in many ways: Important multiplayer bugs were fixed, outdoor maps and dungeons were much bigger, the factions were a fun addition. The finale was indeed underwhelming. The fight was a piece of cake - we romped through everyone with very little effort. The game just kinda stops not long after that. And, we were waiting for a big reveal, like something that the cover art hints at. Never happened. Regardless, I'd gladly play another one. The game is fun and combat is always entertaining. My suggestions: * Expand out the PC voice acting - enough to have unique voices for each party member, both sexes * Continue to create these kinds of campaigns! * Bugs are getting fixed - keep it up!
When I saw that the Tactical Adventures team was adding multi-player support, this immediately went on my wish list. It did not disappoint! Although, I have to admit that I was skeptical and very worried at the opening of the game when I heard the word "piss" in three places in less than two minutes. Thankfully, the dialog got waaay better! The good: 1) Everybody knows the combat is great. The vertical dimension adds a lot to the game. 2) The voiceovers are good and frequently funny. There are lots of comments that appear during combat. For me, these are the highlights of the voice acting because there are frequently new ones that pop up, keeping a sense of freshness to the characters. 3) Good stories and engaging (though straightforward) quests. 4) Great music. Improvements to make: 1) Because the game is fully voiced, dialog options are pretty limited. There's nowhere near the amount available compared to a Baldur's Gate 2 or, more appropriate, Divinity Original Sin 2. Part of me would be happy to have more depth there at the expense of the voices. 2) There are only three male voices. So, if you have an all-male party, two guys will have an identical voice. It would be nice to have a free DLC that adds 2-3 new sets. 3) There are only three female voices and one of those is the high-pitched male voice! 4) There are some bugs here and there, but nothing that completely breaks the game. The "Crown of the Magister" campaign got itself out of sync a few times during combat and the game was unable to proceed because one player saw the turn for one character, and another saw the turn for a different character. I haven't seen this in "The Lost Valley". I'm looking forward to more modules a la "The Lost Valley", which is an improvement over the original campaign.
The Icewind Dale games are not nearly as sophisticated in the story scope as the Baldur's Gate line, but they are equally entertaining. It's a relief sometimes to dial the epic nature of a story back a bit. I thought I'd get tired of snow and ice, but I never did. The game is well-paced and always enjoyable. As much as I enjoyed meeting and building a party in both BG 1 & 2, it was fun to create the full party at the beginning of the game. My friend and I completed this one using the multiplayer feature, which worked very well (much better than Baldur's Gate II - no idea why but that one took a lot of troubleshooting to get it working). Though it's hard to say what the highlight of the game was, both my friend and I loved the "Trials of the Luremaster" add-on, which we didn't even know existed until we were about to start the "Heart of Winter" expansion. "Trials of the Luremaster" is much harder than the main game, so hard that we dialed back the difficulty a notch. But, the unfolding of the simple story and the great design of the dungeons, especially the maze, kept us enthralled and entertained.
I just finished this game and am very impressed! And, I'm looking forward to the sequel with all the awards and hype! Divinity Original Sin is a beautifully rendered game. The visuals and details are fantastic, the options in the games are numerous. My friend and I finished in about 100 hours and it feels like we still didn't delve deeply into parts of the game. The rock, paper, scissors conflict resolution and enhancements based on that is a clever addition to the CRPG genre. The voicing for all dialog is great; the acting is top-notch. The music is funny and dramatic. And, the humor is well-placed - I laughed out loud many times and never found it to be overbearing. While it's still packed with adventure, it's a more uplifting game than dark games like Pillars of Eternity (which was very good too!). This story is clearly inspired by, and pays homage to, one of the all time classic CRPGs, Ultima VII. If you are familiar with that game, you will notice the parallels and similarities. But, it is still plenty original, creative, and engaging. If this game was this good, I can't wait to see what Divinity Original Sin II is like!
