The sheer array of possibilities ensures that it’s a tactically rich system, but it bogs everything down a bit too much at times - I often found myself watching my characters skip turns while sliding round on their asses, and wound up wishing there was an optional mode that cut out all the elemental interactions during battle. It’s an impressive system, though I found it gets abused – very few fights happen without the enemy taking every available opportunity to freeze, stun, cripple, immobilize, ignite, bowl over, drain, mind control or teleport the player’s party in some negative way. Enemies are standing in a puddle? Blast them with lightning. Someone’s on fire? Douse them with water. Each character can have armor that resists a certain amount of physical or magical damage before their health starts depleting, but what truly sets Divinity: Original Sin 2 apart is the emphasis on how the elements available in each battlefield interact with one another. When talking can’t get the job done and it’s time to slice some flesh, characters can spend those aforementioned action points to move around the battlefield, chant spells or shatter some dude’s kneecaps with a staff before the next character in queue gets their chance to do the same. It’s not easy to make a kid being chomped by a shark laugh-out-loud funny or stone-cold serious depending on dialogue choices, but Larian has walked that tightrope with ease. Dialogue frequently balances absurdist humor alongside just the right amount of gravitas for any given situation, making potentially ugly scenarios engaging or even hilarious at times, whilst also affording more serious moments the respect they deserve. It should be noted that the writing and quest design are excellent, as expected. ![]() I’m not sure playing with randoms would be a great experience as there’s plenty of room for griefing, and complicated encounters would be tough to coordinate when everyone’s off doing their own thing, but the option is a welcome one regardless. Split screen works flawlessly, with players able to break off and meet up as they wish, and the online seems rock-solid as well. One particularly neat thing about Divinity: Original Sin 2 is that there’s comprehensive multiplayer which can be done with friends either via couch co-op or online. Once battles are triggered, time grinds to a halt and players and enemies duke it out for supremacy using action points until one side’s a pile of mushy giblets. The adventure takes place via a semi-isometric view, with complete camera control afforded to players for zooming in and out or adjusting the viewing angle as they traverse the overworld or any dungeons they encounter along the way. Needless to say, in my game plenty of people on both sides wound up getting a warhammer through the face. That said, the sourcerers aren’t exactly a bunch of tree-hugging pacifists either. It’s a claim that would be easier to accept if the magisters involved in rounding up the sourcerers didn’t seem to be a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs. ![]() Sourcerers, so it is claimed, are tearing open the veil between this world and a far uglier one just by existing, more or less, and this causes monstrosities known as Voidwoken to spill through and start munching on the local populace. Now, with the release of the Definitive Edition of Divinity: Original Sin 2, they may have produced their finest work yet.Īfter creating a new character (or choosing a premade one with their own unique backstory) players are thrust into the world of Divinity as a captive sourcerer en route to the prison island of Fort Joy. Beginning with the release of Divine Divinity back in 2002 through various spinoffs and sequels like Divinity 2: Ego Draconis and Divinity: Dragon Commander, Larian Studios have been able to consistently deliver great stories filled with even better characters and quirky humor, often paired alongside deep and absorbing quests full of exploration, secrets and and hidden treasures. As a relatively casual fan who’s been with it since the early days, I’m pleased to see that their slightly off-kilter approach to role-playing, worldbuilding and absurdist humor is finally being appreciated by a wider audience. It’s fantastic that the Divinity series has finally achieved the recognition it’s always deserved. WTF Accidentally eating someone’s leg that was in my backpack for… perfectly legitimate reasons.
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