Reviews Divinity: Original Sin II Review

I have a feeling that this might distract me from my ongoing quest to play through The Witcher series from start to finish...
Could this be the new Neverwinter Nights? I certainly hope so!

 

Haven't played through that much of the first game but I've really enjoyed it so far with my brother, and this is just meant to be better in every way so almost certainly will be picked up at some point!

 

Nice review. I liked Divinity: Original Sin a lot. Part 2 is attracting so many favorable reviews; I've also watched some streams on TwitchTV of part 2, and it looks good fun. On my to-buy list!

 

I'd say my only negative view would be that the combat difficulty in the early parts of the game is hugely misleading, I found that your party can breeze through almost everything up until a certain fight... I guess it's a boss fight so it's meant to be difficult, but it's a total shock to the system.

That said, I'm really enjoying the game so far.
I've not completely finished the Act 1 area yet as I'm one of those people who has to tie up all loose ends before moving forward, that and I've restarted a couple of times to try different party builds.

Unless something absolutely mind-blowing is released in the next couple of months, I have a strong feeling that this is going to be GOTY.

 

Around 6-7 hours in I really enjoy the game so far. The story is much more mature and interesting than the first game. I'd actually like the evolution of the game compared to the predecessor to the Witcher series. So far this is as much GOTY contender for me as Hellblade is.

Multiplayer sounds like fun. Can Steam and GOG users play together?

My only complaint is the new armour system, it's tedious and un-fun. One of the most fun parts of the first game was to disable enemies through clever use of elements. Now most of these status effects only work if the armour has been grinded down first. On higher difficulties enemies have way way too much armour. Combined with the little experience the game rewards you for completing quests and the severe difficulty spikes I found myself looking for exploits like killing off everyone in Fort Joy for the extra exp. From a role-playing perspective that's just not fun.

As a result I am playing on easy now, but don't need to min-max.

What do you guys think about the source point system so far? For me it means I'll probably almost never use them unfortunately.

 

I don't mind the new armour system, some enemies do have an insane amount of one type of armour so fights can be a real slogging match.
With the armour system, I found I had to re-build my party so that it mostly focuses on one type... it makes the game a lot of challenging to try and balance to attack both physical and magic armour, so putting the focus on just one of those really helped.

My current party:

• Me - Two-handed weapon, Warfare and Hydrosophist
• Beast (Inquisitor) - Two-handed weapon, Warfare, Necromancer
• Irfan (Wayfarer) - Ranged, Huntsman, Geomancer
• Lohse (Cleric) - One-handed weapon, Hydrosophist, Necromancer

I'm fairly certain that I haven't used a source power once yet... I'm sure it'll be needed in one of the later stages of the game but at the moment it doesn't seem worth using.

 

Total War Warhammer II tomorrow, Elex in Oct, Wolfenstein II in Nov and Horizon Zero Dawn is getting an expansion in Nov as well so competition will be very stiff.

 

New Shadow of Mordor out in a couple of weeks, too...

 

Yeah, but Shadow of Mordor has lootboxes, so it sure won't be GOTY, at least for me.

 

Indeed, those two smug dudes who got on a stage and announced microtransaction practices so disgusting that they make Candy Crush look like the Patron Saint of Consumer Advocacy by comparison made me give up all hope for Shadow of War.

Pay to participate in completely unregulated lootbox gambling for items that affect gameplay (which obviously also renders all multiplayer DOA as it can never be fair) is about 17 steps too far down the slippery slope.

 

This might have been sarcasm, but I actually really feel disgusted by the publishers targeting people having a gambling personality. And what I find most disgusting is that they actively prey on minors. I for one will not be getting the game, not even on sale.

Now compare that to a game like Divinity: Original Sin II, that isn't designed to actively try to exploit you for your last penny, just pay the entry fee and have a good time. The best part: It doesn't even cost 60 bucks.