Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition Review!

A more in depth review was needed to for this amazing game. Check out the experience I had playing Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition and read what my thoughts of the game.

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What is Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition

Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition Is an isometric, action, rpg, with turn based combat overlayed on top of a very in depth detective like game. It is also the expanded version of the 2014 game of the same namesake, developed by Larian Studios, that is the prequel to the 2002 game Divine Divinity. The Development as a whole was funded primarily by a Kickstarter Campaign That was started in 2013.

Plot:

The plot of the game starts us off with 2 characters, Source Hunters as they are called, that are partners.For me, I fashioned my characters off of me and my fiancee and made all my decisions based off of how I believe we would have reacted to each situation in real life. The Source Hunters are hired by the town sorcerer/cat enthusiast Ahru to investigate a murder that he believes has more too it than what the rest of the town citizens of Cyseal believed, which was that the culprit was the wife. As we continued our investigation, revealing more and more of the underlying mystery, we soon find out that we, or the Source Hunters rather, are more than just mere mortals, but, were once part of something much greater. Of course, I did not make it far enough to really learn what all this means, so don't worry, I won't be able to spoil too much of the story for you.

What's good?

So now that we are done with the introductions of the game, lets talk about the strengths of Divinity:Original Sin. Visually, the game looks amazing for an isometric game.To put it into perspective, another beloved game of a same style,Diablo 2. As we all know, graphically, games have came a long way,however, Divinity does not seem to place a serious strain on the computer. This makes the game more accessible for a much larger audience.

Does no justice

Secondly, to go along with this, the ambience and music are amazing and really add to the overall atmosphere created with the visuals. For example there is a section of the map that has howling winds which every time I walked through I Would say something about the sound of spooky ghost.

Mechanically the game feels much like an old school rpg that would be most easily compared to games such as Baldur's gate, Neverwinter Nights, or as previously mentioned,Diablo 2. This lends to the nostalgia from this era of gaming,especially when combined from the irreversible, (and therefore making it easy to completely ruin your character/s) depth of character development that allows you to play however you wish.

The Turned based combat allows you to manipulate the board with status effects while maximizing your damage with positionings. In tough fights against foes that either seriously outnumber you, or, that is extremely powerful, or even both, makes you feel like a master tactician when you come out alive at the end.For those of us who are not chess masters, this is a game that will make you feel like you could be as you sust out the best way to tackle a fight. In fact, some fights have specific mechanics that you must learn what to do, small puzzles during the combat that allows you to, well quite simply, defeat the enemy, and otherwise barring you from victory unless you do.

And finally, and quite possibly my favorite thing about Divinity: Original Sin, are the various quests are actually presented. Unlike more current RPG games, you don't really have much by the way of direction. I spend a large amount of time exploring, eventually realizing that the main questline is actually interwoven into the side missions in a way that the plot is extremely deep and you can't just simply do the “story missions”like you would do in a more modern rpg such as Skyrim (no offense to Skyrim, you still my boo) which rewards the players as you explore everything, unlocking secrets, even moving objects around to uncover things such as a rug that covers the entrance to a basement or a picture covering up a switch. Now the game does help with this as you can develop your characters in a way to discover these secrets for you, but of course, where's the fun in that.

Honestly, I could probably go on and on, and on, and…..you get the idea I think, about the things that I Believe makes this, not just a good game, but a great game, so let's move on.

What's not?

While I don't have many complaints about this game, I do have some very distinct ones that I, in my opinion will effect everyone to some degree.

To start off, even though I just praised the game about its combat, the game can be extremely difficult. 1 to 2 level difference plus being out numbered can make a battle extremely difficult to win, causing you to die and reload a fight 3, 4, and even more times before you are able to defeat the enemies. This combined with the limited number of enemies to combat really puts you in difficult situations often which can be frustrating as a player looking to progress but a little scared to explore the map more because you feel as if you are not sufficiently prepared for the fight. Keep in mind, I was playing this on a difficulty level that was described as normal. Now, some people actual revel in such difficulty, so not all is lost here, as long as you go into the game knowing its quite difficult……this one needs a synonym for difficult.


My second complaint, again, is about something that I just praised. The character development, while deep,is drop based. Now, what do I mean but that? Once you are in the game, you can develop any character in any way you wish, the starting classes literally don't matter much once you get started because you learn all abilities in the game via tombs, or skill books. This was a mechanic you could find in older games such as Diablo (yup, just Diablo) but was otherwise dropped in later editions of the game. Not Only does this sort of development make the starting classes pointless other than making it somewhat faster to start the game, but it can also make it impossible to progress your character/s the way you want because you simply cant find what you need. I played Divinity for 11 to 12 hours before sitting down to write up this review, and spent a large amount of time just walking around talking to NPCs looking for Scoundrel skills, never finding one other thanthe the invisibility ability I started the game with. I still have no clue where to find Scoundrel abilities which greatly hampers the development of my main character.

Another complaint I can foresee others having, but not something I have issue with is the pace of the game is slow. With turned base combat, the amount of time you have to spend exploring, finding secrets and talking to NPCs to progress the story some of the player base may lose patients.

And finally the last con of the game,the last downside, is seemingly minor but caused quite a bit of frustration and that was the roshambo style mini-game that was used to determine the outcome of arguments in a conversation. With several arguments in the game that I partook, I only won one conversational battle. I attempted to think about the roshambo, rationalize it if you will, in a way that I believe any rational human that understands the deeper mechanics of classic decision making hand game. Then I Decided that the game wasn't going so deep into the rational and counter rational thought process and started skipping the final part of this rationalization but still continued to lose each match up. In the end, it just simply felt like the game was cheating and no matter what I chose the game was just simply going to chose the counter every time. Extremely frustrating.

My final thoughts!

In the end, the issues that I have with the game feel minor. Roshambo can be skipped The difficulty can be adjusted, and as previously stated, some people enjoy a good challenging game. And eventually, given enough time, you will be able to find all the abilities that you could ever want, progressing your characters as you wish. Compare that to the greatness that is Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, I can the number of hours you will spend seeking out every hidden objective, developing your characters in a way to optimize your favorite way to play, digging up graves….wait….

In the end, I would give Divinity:Original Sin Enhanced Edition 

Below you will find part 1 of the game play footage this review is based off of. Don't forget to Like and Subscribe To the channel!



And as always, Llamas and Llametts.Stay calm and Llama on!

– Searc

9.5
Amazing

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