Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Anyone play Divinty 1?)

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 11:42

Hi All,
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is out of Early Access on September 14th and I was thinking of buying it as I love a good RPG to get stuck into.

Has anyone played the first one?
This one looks very nice, although I'm not a huge magic-spell fan, and this seems very magic oriented rather than "Assassin Dagger +5".

If anyone has played the Early Access, do I need to have played the first game?

Bishop149 · Post by **Bishop149** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 12:24

I played the first one a bit.

Until I got to a fight I just couldn't get past and TBH thought was unfair. I don't think it was a case of "just git good" more a case of "Oh I've made character choices up to this point which means I don't have a hope in hell"
Rather dulled my enthusiasm and I put it down never to go back.

This often happens with me in game, particularly boss fights, if I take like ~10 goes at something and for the last 5 or so don't feel like I'm making any real progress / improvement at all, chances are I'll just give up.
Repeat to infinity mostly relying on luck or dead perfect timing to get past stuff is not gameplay I find enjoyable.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 13:28

That's one of the things that carries over from the old-style games Divinity: Original Sin is calling back to--oftentimes you would have to restart an RPG back then when you got to a point that you realised your stat/skill choices weren't going to cut it. However, it's not really so bad in this game, because you have two characters you create yourself, plus two tag-along NPC characters, and the chances of all of them being too rubbish to progress are pretty low.

@Jericho: Played the first one and finished it. Apart from the final boss fight being a total bag of w*** it was a very enjoyable game, IMHO. The best bit about it was definitely the combat, where you can use the environment in ways I've not seen in an RPG before--for instance, an enemy sets fire to an oil puddle to prevent you getting through, so you summon a rainstorm to put the fire out; however, that still leaves thick smoke behind, which you can't see through, so you're going in blind to attack the enemies. I would recommend getting it and playing it, because by the time you've finished it'll probably be 3 months down the line and the second one will be on sale in the run-up to Christmas!

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 14:04

pjknibbs wrote:The best bit about it was definitely the combat, where you can use the environment in ways I've not seen in an RPG before--for instance, an enemy sets fire to an oil puddle to prevent you getting through, so you summon a rainstorm to put the fire out; however, that still leaves thick smoke behind, which you can't see through, so you're going in blind to attack the enemies. I would recommend getting it and playing it, because by the time you've finished it'll probably be 3 months down the line and the second one will be on sale in the run-up to Christmas!

That sounds awesome, thanks!
Looking forward to the turn-based combat for a change. I recently watched a video for a 1-man army multi-kill in a single go on XCom 2, and I just thought that the combat looked less fun with all the additions than the recent 'first' XCom.

I like the sound of being able to sneak or talk or kill or explode your way out of any situation in the game. While I'd much rather talk my way out of stuff, it's good to know that ANYONE can be killed in the game with zero plot-armor.

Golden_Gonads · Post by **Golden_Gonads** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 14:08

I vaguely recall having played the Director's Cut of D:OS1 then getting side-lined as my skill choices were... Wrong. I probably could have cheesed my way past where I was, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort. Frankly given Larian Studio's past efforts, I'd treat them like Egosoft - Great games, but they need six months of post-release patches to have a fully working product.

Ezarkal · Post by **Ezarkal** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 15:12

I played the remastered edition a bit, but eventually gave up on it.

It's fun to play, and the story seems somewhat decent. As pjknibbs mentionned, the combat gave you a lot of opportunities to be creative, but it was also tough as hell.

Two things put me out, though.
1- The unstable mouse cursor behavior. The general interface is good, but your cursor has a hard time to stay focused on any item or NPC when stuff is stacked together. I lost track of the time where I made a fatal mistake (like attacking an NPC in the middle of a town while trying to pick up an item on the ground)
2- The arbitrary rock-paper-cissor decision making minigame. I just hated that for various reasons. I won't go into details.

Otherwise it is a very decent game. Just remember to save often. No autosave combined to the two problems I just mentioned is a good recipe to get an angry gamer. (That's basically why I dropped the game.)

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 1. Sep 17, 16:57

Ezarkal wrote: 1- The unstable mouse cursor behavior. The general interface is good, but your cursor has a hard time to stay focused on any item or NPC when stuff is stacked together.

That's down to the mouse cursor always clicking on the outline of the enemy, even if said enemy is in the middle of an idle animation--yes, it can be a tad annoying when you're trying to click on something that keeps moving around under the cursor! You get used to its foibles after a while, though.

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Thu, 14. Sep 17, 06:35

I got the original game pretty early when it first came out because it got rave review. But I couldn't get into it.

- I found the inventory and documentation system horrible with no sorting/catalogue whatever. I ended up with a bunch of what I think quest, crafting items in my bag that I have no clue what were they for.

- I play solo, so control how both of the PCs response was kinda weird. The AI response were half nonsensical most of the time.

- I didn't like any of the NPC including companion of the time. Most of them seem to have a "talk smack" personality then join you, the all felt shallow.

I'll wait a bit on this one, it's coming out tomorrow.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Thu, 14. Sep 17, 16:28

Just a sort of random response to the idea of older party-based RPG games:

Anyone remember the old AD&D "Gold Box" games made by SSI? It's been awhile, of course, and one would probably need an emulator, but some of the combat in that game could be brutal. Sure, there weren't any destructible environments and little to no cover other than running behind a wall, but there was a sort of tactical feel to combat that I miss. Later AD&D games are great, too, but those old gold box games had a certain "feel" to them that's difficult to pin down. (LOT'S of save-scumming, back then.)

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Thu, 14. Sep 17, 17:04

A lot of that just comes down to the D&D system itself, though, which was fundamentally derived from a wargaming system where you'd expect to have dozens of troops...so when it got pared down to a party with a few members, they tended to die. A lot. I mean, a level 1 mage has 1d4 hit points, no armour, and likely low CON, so they can be killed in one hit by practically any weapon in the game!

This, of course, is why they added the "unconscious at 0, dead at -10" rule in later editions, because it at least gave your party cleric a chance to save your sorry butt when something bigger than you hit you with a pointy stick.

Mightysword · Post by **Mightysword** » Sat, 16. Sep 17, 15:47

Give the games a 2 hour trial runs on Steam, then refunded it for pretty much the same problem I had with the first game. I want to like the game, I really do but ...

Those who really liked the first game though, you probably will love it.

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Sat, 16. Sep 17, 17:55

I'm playing co-op with some friends and so far (still in Fort Joy) we're enjoying it. Particularly when our mage wipes our party with some inappropriate aoe.....

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sun, 17. Sep 17, 06:19

pjknibbs wrote:... a level 1 mage has 1d4 hit points, no armour, and likely low CON, so they can be killed in one hit by practically any weapon in the game!

But, I have my staff! (1d6, wasn't it? or 1d4+1? Anyway, wasn't terribad.) And, the obligatory pouch-full of "darts." Why? Because -> Level 1 mage.

This, of course, is why they added the "unconscious at 0, dead at -10" rule in later editions, because it at least gave your party cleric a chance to save your sorry butt when something bigger than you hit you with a pointy stick.

I liked playing a mage, from time to time - Lot's of chances to spice things up with roleplaying. Every mage I played was full of quirks and idiosycracies. More funnerer that way, otherwise I got to roll one single dice, per day, in order to effect the outcome of the universe... and then spend the rest of time hiding.

I think "Nikodemus" was 6 or 7 before I stopped playing him or he died. Necromancer, kept a "Little Black Book" full of the names of people that irritated him, so he could remember to murder them, later, and raise their corpses to do disgusting things to... Great guy! Lots of fun at parties.

I always wanted to run an "intellectually challenged" mage. Fizban without the "oomph." Only just enough Int to be able to roll it as a mage, then I'd go off and get brainfried by something so I could dump it down to "reasonably able to carry on a conversation, but seriously challenged if anyone else witnesses or participates." He couldn't cast spells, but he probably still thinks he could.

"Hahaha! I cast Finger of Death!"

"I've told you five times, your character is too stupid to be able to cast any spells," said the DM.

"I do it anyway! I'm a powerful mage!", I proclaimed.

"Fine, you cast it and nothing happens."

"HAHA! Perfect!"

"What do you mean "perfect?" Nothing happened! The orc is still there and it's not dead." said the DM. "It's not dead!"

"Oh, but it will be."

"... OK, sure, yes, it will die, eventually, but that's not right now."

"Well, there is no need to be so hasty about such things. "Life and Death" are not things to be taken so lightly. One shouldn't waste such a moment all in one go when one can savor a victory for many years to come."

"Look, will you just play the rogue I rolled up for you, instead? You're not doing the party any good like this."

"I AM A POWERFUL MAGE!"

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Sun, 17. Sep 17, 09:26

I'm just replaying Neverwinter Nights right now, and I think that game really suffers from being a too accurate transfer of the D&D rules to a video game. For a start, rounds of combat are six seconds long, and when you're low level and only get one attack per round it feels like an eternity in between you swinging your sword or whatever. Then, of course, you don't have direct control over any NPCs that might happen to be in your party, so if your character gets Feared or Stunned or whatever then you just sit there twiddling your thumbs for several combat rounds while whatever it is wears off--or your character gets beaten into a bloody pulp, whichever comes first.

Finally, if you get hit by a save-or-die and fail the save, you obviously die and have to reload an earlier save, because your companions aren't smart enough to finish the battle themselves and then resurrect you, even if they would theoretically have the ability to do that.

All of that's fine in a tabletop game when you can chat to the others present in between taking actions and usually have some means of coming back from death or getting fear/stun etc dispelled by another party member, but in a video game they're just astonishingly frustrating.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sun, 17. Sep 17, 15:08

pjknibbs wrote:..All of that's fine in a tabletop game when you can chat to the others present in between taking actions and usually have some means of coming back from death or getting fear/stun etc dispelled by another party member, but in a video game they're just astonishingly frustrating.

Very true. It wasn't the rules that made AD&D fun, it was the camaraderie, the roleplaying, the "figuring things out at 4a fueled by stale pizza" atmosphere. So, direct translations attempting to give the "feel" of a ruleset don't make for great gameplay, themselves.

NWN is a great game, though. The toolset, hosted servers, third-party dungeon modules, etc... There was a huge amount of stuff shoved into that really raised the bar for those games. Would any developer in their right mind do that today?

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 10:03

The more I play this the better it gets.

Jericho · Post by **Jericho** » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 11:25

LOVING Original Sin 2 right now.

I spent 15 hours on that tiny starter fort (BEFORE I got out to the swamp). I read lots of negative reviews saying it was "Like Pillars of Eternity, but even more so". I just don't get that at all. I really disliked Pillars, but I love this.

About to start purging some Shriekers... After I've raided this tomb for Rex's armor of course.

(I don't care for the Source point system for magic use... Seems a bit limiting that I need to find a convenient puddle of Source just to refresh).

Also, I'm playing on Explorer difficulty, as the "Classic" was very difficult I had read. That was the biggest negative point in the reviews. I play to have fun, not reload for eternity.

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 12:23

Jericho wrote:I read lots of negative reviews saying it was "Like Pillars of Eternity, but even more so". I just don't get that at all. I really disliked Pillars, but I love this.

I completely agree. At the risk of being heretical this feels like a worthy successor to Baldur's Gate and Torment in a way that PoE and whatever the name of Torment 2 was (I bounced off that hard) simply weren't. I am loving the writing, loving the characters, finding the combat challenging and all round enjoying it enough to be playing it twice simultaneously (once solo with pre-made characters, and once co-op with some friends with custom characters).

I might even finish it. That's something I haven't actually done with an RPG since the original Torment.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 13:22

I just started it up yesterday and am having fun so far. Taking out the level 4 Gheist inside the fort with a party consisting entirely of level 2s was a struggle (playing on Classic). Haven't tried the Arena yet, and as yet have no idea how to get out of the fort to meet my contact (playing as the assassin dude). Got the Red Prince, Sebille and Fane as my companions, not sure yet whether I'll stick with that or if I should switch in Lohse or the dwarf...

RegisterMe · Post by **RegisterMe** » Mon, 18. Sep 17, 13:56

One undead is.... sub-optimal. But I'm thinking of a third play through with a full party of undead

.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Anyone play Divinty 1?)

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Anyone play Divinty 1?)