Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Off to a Promising Start - The RPG Files at MMORPG.com

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Off to a Promising Start - The RPG Files at MMORPG.com

The highly anticipated sequel to 2014’s Divinity: Original Sin has recently released to Steam Early Access. Original Sin 2 has been high on our watch list since it hit Kickstarter last year. Now that the first act is live for player’s worldwide, we sent Chris in for a hands-on. Does it live up to the original so far?

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H0urg1ass

My list of things that DOS1 did wrong that I hope this one fixes:

• Loot itemization that makes sense.  For some very weird reason I kept my characters almost completely outfitted in greens and blues because they routinely had better stats than the purples and oranges I was finding.  It was like the loot tables were pure item roulette that just spit out a weapon with random stats on it.
• Character progression needs to make a lot more sense.  I spent about half my time on wiki's, character guides and ability guides just trying to figure out what the fuck I was putting points into and how it would benefit my character.  If I have to read shit outside of game to help me advance my character, then you as the game developer have mega-failed on a critical aspect of game design.
• Companions need to be interesting and much more varied than the last game.  My companions were booooring, so much so that I can't name a single one of them now.  Yet I can still name half the cast of Baldur's Gate without cheating.

Tiller

AaliyahButcher said:

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Anyways at the moment I'm playing DOS 1 since it was on sale recently and I figured I would pick it up. I agree with some of what @H0urg1ass says, except I actually do find the characters interesting.

Rukushin

I bought DOS1 for my girlfriend and I to play together and have loved playing it. Literally the only thing I was yearning for was 4 player coop and then I find out DOS2 has it. Definitely a game I will support. As soon as we finish the DOS1 campaign we will be jumping into DOS2 and possibly bringing a friendly couple we know with us as well.

azarhal

H0urg1ass said:

My list of things that DOS1 did wrong that I hope this one fixes:

• Loot itemization that makes sense.  For some very weird reason I kept my characters almost completely outfitted in greens and blues because they routinely had better stats than the purples and oranges I was finding.  It was like the loot tables were pure item roulette that just spit out a weapon with random stats on it.
• Character progression needs to make a lot more sense.  I spent about half my time on wiki's, character guides and ability guides just trying to figure out what the fuck I was putting points into and how it would benefit my character.  If I have to read shit outside of game to help me advance my character, then you as the game developer have mega-failed on a critical aspect of game design.
• Companions need to be interesting and much more varied than the last game.  My companions were booooring, so much so that I can't name a single one of them now.  Yet I can still name half the cast of Baldur's Gate without cheating.

For 1, looks like you never bothered checking the items level.
For 2, reading the tooltip while mousing over the attribute in the UI give you all the information that you need to know.
For 3, The first two companions were kinda boring, but the two they added in the EE version are quite interesting to me personally. Divinty has never been about companions though (D:OS was the first with them actually), Larian is not BioWare and they aren't trying to be.

Wizardry

Also missing from this article is WHY the stats?Why the article?

IMO having watched a lot of streamers and getting a feel for gamer's in general,i find that MANY are just game hoppers.Something is new,they all jump on it,then get bored very quickly,even though they often claim they are having fun.
Then for some,it is simply a matter of some OTHER game comes out and catches their eye,but for some they are hopping from game to game like a revolving door.

maskedweasel

Between D:OS and D:OSEE I have just over 200 hours played,  and I've already put in about 30 hours for D:OS2.  Thats a lot more than I thought I put in for D:OS2.

Anyways, I think they've done quite a bit right with the game.. weaving the paths isn't too bad,  but what I enjoyed the most was D:OS's character creation,  and once I learned how to create my full squad of characters from scratch, the game was so much more enjoyable even though I missed out on several side quests and conversations.

Thus far, D:OS Classic still seems fairly easy to go through, and I've tried several different builds for viability.  The game obviously still needs work, it's an alpha,  but I don't find much wrong with the itemization as it stood before and as it stands now.

It's very much so similar to D:OSEE,  and I look forward to seeing more content.  I'll probably stop playing for a while... there's only so much you can do.. and as it's really only the first act that you play, I think I've gotten a lot of wear out of it.  I'll wait for the finished product from here on out.

maskedweasel

Torval said:

How do you build an entire custom party in DoS:EE?

It's a little convoluted, but essentially here is a guide that can get you started

http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=508931

It's pretty cool, if you spend a little time working on it, you can create their photos for their characters, what they look like, what skills they start with.  You can completely overpower them, or you can start them at the same level as your chars when you recruit them.  

I think at one point it would detect a modified lsx file,  and let you know about it every time you started the game, but the way around that is, once you recruit your henchmen,  save the game, remove the LSX file, and it won't prompt you and the henchmen will act just like any other henchmen.   

Gdemami

The "environmental combat" is imo killing otherwise nice game.

The effects are so strong it is merely impossible/crippling not to exploit it, which at the end pigeonhole you into very stereotype and narrow combat.

Seeing they even want to reinforce this mechanics is saddening me.

Avarix

Gdemami said:

The "environmental combat" is imo killing otherwise nice game.

The effects are so strong it is merely impossible/crippling not to exploit it, which at the end pigeonhole you into very stereotype and narrow combat.

Seeing they even want to reinforce this mechanics is saddening me.

This was my major gripe with the first one. Once you learn the mechanics of it, it's extremely easy to abuse it. I read all over how complicated combat was with the first and ended up really disappointed in that aspect. It's cool until you learn the interactions. Then it's far too easy.

cheyane

Yes I do agree that the really tough fights if you stand far away and send one character to pull the monsters you can basically trivialize a hard fight. Most games even MMORPGs if you play slowly and use these types of methods it always makes the fight easier than rushing in.

Avarix

cheyane said:

Yes I do agree that the really tough fights if you stand far away and send one character to pull the monsters you can basically trivialize a hard fight. Most games even MMORPGs if you play slowly and use these types of methods it always makes the fight easier than rushing in.

Was referring to the actual combat mechanics. Like using Rain and then comboing with an Air attack to make a blanket Paralyze field. Or throwing Oil all over the place and then setting it on fire and just watching everything melt. I didn't abuse the mechanics in the game, I used them properly and found it too easy. If you make a Fire/Earth or Air/Water character, or even have 2 seperate characters to combo on each other in the same turn, it's really easy.

That's not to even mention the actual environment items that are given to you on just about every fight like barrels of oil or poison clouds that you can explode. It's a great mechanic but they just made it too powerful.

maskedweasel

Torval said:

Avarix said:

cheyane said:

Yes I do agree that the really tough fights if you stand far away and send one character to pull the monsters you can basically trivialize a hard fight. Most games even MMORPGs if you play slowly and use these types of methods it always makes the fight easier than rushing in.

Was referring to the actual combat mechanics. Like using Rain and then comboing with an Air attack to make a blanket Paralyze field. Or throwing Oil all over the place and then setting it on fire and just watching everything melt. I didn't abuse the mechanics in the game, I used them properly and found it too easy. If you make a Fire/Earth or Air/Water character, or even have 2 seperate characters to combo on each other in the same turn, it's really easy.

That's not to even mention the actual environment items that are given to you on just about every fight like barrels of oil or poison clouds that you can explode. It's a great mechanic but they just made it too powerful.

I can take it for what it is and have fun with it, but I pretty much agree with everything you said. I tried to play as liked as much as possible, but a character needs to be able to exploit the environment to be generally useful.

It is a fault I have with Pillars as well. The mechanics play out in such a way that valid party construction is pretty narrow in build variety. At least in D:OS the game teaches you how it wants you to play. In Pillars it's mostly all trial and error or reading others build strategies.

The environment definitely helps in D:OS but it by far isn't the end all of creating a valid character build.  In fact, it's quite simple to create melee character builds that make use of statuses quite easily -- but that is where D:OS2 changes substantially.

They tone it down based on armor types.  Magic/Physical armor can mitigate a lot of certain types of damage that D:OS didn't really deal with - and it mitigates statuses too.   So with that being said, using some abilities that used to knock down opponents or apply statuses that made battles a lot easier, really doesn't factor in until you wear down their defenses, which can make it difficult when you rely on environmental variables and some enemies can just bypass them.

I've also noticed that a lot of enemies use teleport abilities more often, so prioritizing targets and really paying attention to where you are is a bigger deal.

Take note that if you're playing D:OS2 on exploration mode, you are missing a lot of the difficulty in battles,  and eventually I don't doubt they'll add harder modes than the classic difficulty.

jimbobfurley

I simply refuse to pay the money they are charging for what is an alpha. No way.