Divinity Original Sin 2 Review
Posted: 14 Aug 2020, 04:00
Bought this game on a discount. Logged 221 hours on this game, experienced all the content. Finished this a couple of weeks ago on Tactician difficulty (hardest).
The good
- The humor was wonderful. This game gets some flak for that but I really enjoyed it. Best moments were the interactions with animals with the Pet Pal talent, I actually laughed out loud on some of those. Too many games out there take themselves and their shitty plots too seriously, this game takes it easy, and I can appreciate that.
- Voice acting was actually good.
- The turn-based combat was well executed. The game gets criticism for the physical and magical armor system, but that's really a matter of opinion rather than objectivity.
- The companions were well designed and interesting.
- Lots of ways you can develop your character abilities, builds and skillsets, lots of options.
The bad
- I didn't like that some abilities were not useful. Particular mention goes to the Persuasion ability which nine times out of ten, will result in an outcome that is least rewarding.
- This game tilts heavily away from role-playing by rewarding the path of violence the most. You might want to resolve an encounter peacefully, but almost all the time, the best choice is to just resort to violence for maximum xp.
- You can depopulate - commit genocide on the entire landscape in every Act, killing every NPC (peaceful character) without it having any consequence. And infact this is recommended because each individual killed nets experience.
- I didn't like the navigation system in the game where you can't select all your player characters, you have to select one and then others follow it, you can't select them all at the same time. It's just clunky.
- The npc banter is a little too repetitive.
- The quests themselves are nothing special. As I've mentioned on another review, I really get a kick out of big side-quests-side storylines, that each have intricate plots and / or involve large dungeons or areas to get through by the end of which you feel you've accomplished a key milestone. There was none of that here, the quests were mostly small, simple and straightforward.
- There are many dump stats depending on the build of your characters. Dump stats are attributes that can be minimized because they are not important at all. I don't like character development systems where you have to box yourself into a corner on the attribute system in order to achieve an effective build.
Overall
Yes get this game on a discount, you will enjoy it. I had more fun playing this than Pillars of Eternity 2.
The good
- The humor was wonderful. This game gets some flak for that but I really enjoyed it. Best moments were the interactions with animals with the Pet Pal talent, I actually laughed out loud on some of those. Too many games out there take themselves and their shitty plots too seriously, this game takes it easy, and I can appreciate that.
- Voice acting was actually good.
- The turn-based combat was well executed. The game gets criticism for the physical and magical armor system, but that's really a matter of opinion rather than objectivity.
- The companions were well designed and interesting.
- Lots of ways you can develop your character abilities, builds and skillsets, lots of options.
The bad
- I didn't like that some abilities were not useful. Particular mention goes to the Persuasion ability which nine times out of ten, will result in an outcome that is least rewarding.
- This game tilts heavily away from role-playing by rewarding the path of violence the most. You might want to resolve an encounter peacefully, but almost all the time, the best choice is to just resort to violence for maximum xp.
- You can depopulate - commit genocide on the entire landscape in every Act, killing every NPC (peaceful character) without it having any consequence. And infact this is recommended because each individual killed nets experience.
- I didn't like the navigation system in the game where you can't select all your player characters, you have to select one and then others follow it, you can't select them all at the same time. It's just clunky.
- The npc banter is a little too repetitive.
- The quests themselves are nothing special. As I've mentioned on another review, I really get a kick out of big side-quests-side storylines, that each have intricate plots and / or involve large dungeons or areas to get through by the end of which you feel you've accomplished a key milestone. There was none of that here, the quests were mostly small, simple and straightforward.
- There are many dump stats depending on the build of your characters. Dump stats are attributes that can be minimized because they are not important at all. I don't like character development systems where you have to box yourself into a corner on the attribute system in order to achieve an effective build.
Overall
Yes get this game on a discount, you will enjoy it. I had more fun playing this than Pillars of Eternity 2.
