Divinity: Original Sin 2 Development

Game Information: Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Larian's sequel to the original Divinity: Original Sin game (if you didn't make that connection already). Like its predecessor, the game passed several goals on kickstarter and was released September 14, 2017 (PC) and August 31, 2018 (Consoles) when the "Definitive Edition" came out. Sadly, there isn't much difference between the Definitive Edition and the Original Release except for a huge list of tweaks. There are a few changes that were included that people felt should have been in the game all along - a tutorial and better cohesion in the final Act. They also added Sir Lora DLC pack (now free with definitive edition) but barely passes as additional content. You must have the "Pet Pal" talent (which I don't see why you wouldn't), the squirrel follows you around even after death unless you "shoo it away" back home, and it may have less than a dozen conversations with you (one of which simply "informs" you of a recipe of combining two separate skill books into one).

Game Background: Larian Studios has gone through a lot in the past. Because their kickstarter reached 4 times the amount of their $500,000 goal, they had to push the release date back to properly add all the stretch goals. Game Master, Strategist Mode, and Mod Support doesn't really appeal to me. The "Halls of Echoes" base was changed to the Lady of Vengeance boat. The collector's edition had some modifications, removing the game mug and adding an action figure. They actually had a blackout on release day. One really cool thing they did for backers of $500 or more was provide them with a painting in-game of their likeness. In Act 2, I decided to take it upon myself to try and collect all 91 paintings. I think I reached right around 70 since some of the paintings proved more difficult to steal right in front of certain characters (and not all were the same size). I know there are probably a few more details I'm missing like how AI 2.0 proved to be way too difficult to be added to the lower difficulty tiers or that originally they wanted to include what was currently in the game as the "human map" and add an additional map for each faction. I feel like I heard this before about Divinity 2: Dragon Knight Saga.

Game Comparisons: I can't help but find parallels between Divinity: Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity. They are both games that rely on you as being the "the chosen one" to find the truth behind "the gods" and help bring balance to the world. They are both top-down fantasy role-playing games with vibrant worlds and a number of branching interactions with fascinating characters to explore. They both received well-enough support through crowd-funding and collected awesome reviews at almost the exact same time. PCGamer rated Divinity: Original Sin 2 "Game of the Year" 2017 and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire "Best RPG" of 2018. Pillars of Eternity 2 is struggling to release on consoles but has an overwhelming supply of additional content (as I already mentioned in my review) while Divinity: Original Sin 2 is multiplayer and is just now releasing their gift bags. Although they do have the added benefit of fitting in timeline-wise with two of their older games - Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity (which I have decided against playing).

Divinity Changes: One big question I had was whether or not I needed to play the previous games to understand Divine Divinity: Original Sin 2. The answer? More-or-Less. The protagonist the user controls in Divine Divinity is given a name: Lucian. Divinity: Original Sin 2 takes place 24 years later after his actions in that game. Much of the story is self-explanatory without going through the trouble of playing the rest of the series. There are some returning characters from Original Sin (including a spider from the desert) but it is most definitely not required to understand the main storyline of the game. There is no way to import a saved file and it looks like you won't be exporting one to Divinity: Fallen Heroes either.

There were four major changes that were noticeably different: the diversity of character customization, renovations in the crafting system, complex thievery system, and spell mechanics. Character traits provide optional dialogue choices while character races provide extra uses (I highly suggest becoming familiar with them). "Origin" characters have unique events unfurl as well as some nice (voiced) dialogue options. There is no longer a blacksmithing and crafting trait to worry about as nearly all equipment enchants, accessories, and skillbook recipes were stripped from the game. That didn't change the number of recipes available seeing that you can now craft each individual scroll and combine certain types of skillbooks together to form a new non-purchasable skill. Stealing something wasn't as easy as turning invisible and grabbing everything sight. People will now notice something missing and chase you down. Though you still have plenty of options to make sure you don't get caught red-handed - pay, persuade, or instantly send the stolen item to your home base. Each character now has a set amount of physical and magic armor that prevents the majority of spell effects. Not only must you penetrate the enemy's armor to have an effect (unless otherwise specified) but some attacks must be used twice for complete immobilization (chilled before frozen and shocked before stunned).

 

4-20-2019