I thought I would put down some of my thoughts on the game after over 150 hours of playtime.
Divinity Original Sin 2 is a single-player and cooperative multiplayer fantasy role-playing video game by
Larian Studios.
DOS 2 is a single-player and cooperative multiplayer fantasy role-playing video game by Larian Studios.
Starting off, you immediately realize that it's taking a lot of cues from very old-school RPGs. You pick one of several classes for your character (Battlemage, Cleric, Enchanter, Fighter, Knight, Ranger, Rogue, Shadowblade, Wayfarer, Witch and Wizard), pick a few skills to go with it, and customize the look of them. You're then thrown into the world, trodding along a beach where you find many interesting things about the game.
This game require a lot of patience in
Tactician mode or
Honor mode.
I've restarted the game over 5 times to adjust and try out classes/stats/skills. Burnt over 20 hours there, until I made my mind and went for my final settings.
Playing the game initially feels similar to a bit of a slower-paced Diablo. You're running around and have to select items on the floor to pick them up. And there's lots of them. I started thinking to myself early on, "Why am I picking up these shells?" and couldn't really explain why, aside from that's just what I do in games with loot. Soon after, you come across your first fight, and this is where it differs greatly from most other RPGs out there.
The combat system is turn based, with each member of the fight, on both sides, having their turns in a set order (the order can be affected by turn-skipping status effects, such as being frozen or stunned). Each character, whether yours or AI-controlled, has a set number of action points they can use for their turn. You can move to a better position, whack a nearby enemy, cast a spell, etc. These all take up your action points, but you are able to end your turn early and save those action points for the character's next turn.
Positioning and strategy are vital for winning any fight in the game, and it's a tough one. It feels incredibly old-school in it's level of difficulty and really rewards players who go around gaining XP through exploration and side-quests, as well as those who are extremely skilled in thinking out how exactly to approach a fight.
There are many factors that can alter what happens when fighting does begin. Rain makes your characters wet, so you conduct electricity a bit better. There could be poison on the ground that could effect where you need to run. All of these can be affect by the player as well. Wanting the enemy to stay at a range? Throw down an ice spell so they have a chance to slip and fall on their backs if they try to move closer to you. Enemies are coming into melee range? Perhaps throw a firebomb in their path to start them burning and cause damage to them before they even get close. It's a fascinating system that I've never seen before in the game, and it makes every encounter so deep that you find yourself scanning the environment, your inventory, your spells and your party set up just to see what is possible for that fight.
In terms of quests in the game, there's little to no hand-holding or help. Your quest log is literally a journal, describing your heroes' journey so far in their own minds, essentially. It makes you explore and think, rather than blindly follow a marker to find your next objective. This resulted in me getting lost repeatedly, for a great deal of time, in the very first city of the game. The number of side quests I picked up was staggering, and the lack of direction just made me try to think outside of the box to try and find any way to progress with my murder investigation. There are even some incredibly fun encounters you can run across in your time with the game, which has a wonderful sense of humour about it.
Personally, i have found Tactician mode fun and challenging.
This game remains one of the most interesting RPGs I've played in a long time. It's well crafted, has a ton of content, and is a blast on your own or with a friend. I highly recommend this game!
#cioflix | iPLAY4FUN | myArtwork 4.5