Sometimes a game comes out of early access and just faceplants into the ground. Larian Studios has managed TWICE now to avoid that problem. The Original Sin entries into the Divinity franchise have both been excellent isometric CRPGs, both Kickstarted in excess of their original goals, and both times meeting and exceeding expectations for a rather small studio based out of Germany. The characters, while not as personable to my tastes this go-around, are still well-written and casted to type, combat has been improved in small ways (the first DOS already had speedy, tactics-centric fights), and overall the game looks slick as hell for a KS game. Haven't tried out the new four-player co-op, but given how stable and fun the original's was, I'm sure it's no slouch in that department either. My only complaints are that the game doesn't seem to give you much of a direction in the beginning, and early on its easy to get party wiped by even a single enemy that's one level above yours. This game does NOT fool around with requiring tactical thinking and using the environment against you, although some enemies seem to be absolutely psychic about your party's weaknesses, which is annoying when you might or might not know theirs. Overall, I bought this for the original asking price of 45$, and aside from a few hiccups I've not been disappointed yet. Its a great addition to any western RPG fan's collection.
While I love this game as much as the next person, there are some glaring issues that crop up. Chiefly, the biggest problem is that you'll be going at this alone the whole way; there is no party system in the game, making some sections INSANELY difficult when they really shouldn't be (seriously, I'm being killed by STRAY DOGS over here?!), and restricting how much you can carry (which is half the fun in games like this -- unloading a ton of shit onto a hapless shopkeeper after a good long dungeon run). As well, it feels like there are way too many skills used exclusively (or mostly) for crafting things; this could have been circumvented with party members that had crafting skills of their own, but again, no party system was implemented AFAIK. I'm not asking for the world here, just a buddy or two. Even the Fallout games had that much. On the technical side, you cannot move the camera around, meaning that if something is around a corner you'll never see it until you step over it or it comes after you. Also, the mines in this game are SO overpowered; most games are forgiving in at least giving you a few chances for stepping onto explosive traps, but in this game they pretty much obliterate your poor soul if you aren't a walking tank (maybe even then as well). And spotting them apparently takes an eagle eye (which I guess is realistic, outside at least), because you have to be practically on top of them or invest everything into your perception to see them from more than a few feet away. Speaking of traps, the bear trap and net are completely useless. Have the devs ever SEEN a real bear trap?! Those things can snap leg bones and cripple people when they go off, but in here they just take a few health off and hold you in place. And the net misses so often it might as well just be a bed sheet. Overall I do like this game for what it is -- someone's first commercial game -- but there are a lot of glaring issues that really show the amateur hour production.
I want to love this game. I really, REALLY do. But good gravy. Okay, first off, I'm no stranger to difficulty. But there's several different kinds of difficult, and unfortunately Demon Stone strives for the "throw enemies with way too much health in large waves at the player with little to no strategy to fighting them" kind of difficulty in quite a few areas. This is unacceptable for a game made after the early-to-mid 90's. Other than that, the characters are fun, the writing is alright, the combat is servicable (when it's not having the God of War Syndrome of getting hit off-camera from a fixed camera angle), although the upgrades really don't seem to do much of anything beyond mediocre to middling changes. The graphics weren't stellar even for their time, but that's okay. At least it's not hard to tell where enemies are. Unfortuantely, the camera is fixed, so you could be running around looking for an enemy that you can't find because the camera won't move. Gets 2* because of the writing.
