JasonF

This game completely slipped under my radar. I played the original Divine Divinity years ago and found it to be a fun quasi-RPG: mostly Diablo-like, but with a little bit more RPG elements and an engaging plot. So how is Divinity 2? Anybody play it yet?

JasonF

Since nobody else answered ... I downloaded the demo and played it for an hour or so. It was fun. If the demo is a good indication of what the rest of the game is like, this is a solid RPG. I think this game will suffer incredibly from being released so soon after Dragon Age. Indeed, while I plan to pick this up, since I'm still working my way through Dragon Age, I'm going to hold off to see if it gets a little cheaper down the road.

mhg83

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foxdvd

thanks...looks like we need to skip the 360 version!!!!

JasonF

Hmmmm ... in the 360 demo, I saw the inventory issues he mentioned in his review, but I didn't think the inventory system was particularly bad (certainly better than Mass Effect, that's for sure!). The hot keys complaint is silly (how many hot keys does he think you can fit on a 360 controller?) and you can pause any time to pull a potion/spell/skill/whatever, so hot keys aren't that big a deal. As for combat, I thought combat it was fine, though I didn't wind up fighting too much for as far as I got in the demo. The graphics issues he goes on about sounds like typical "I have a state of the art gaming rig and it's better than the 360" (which is what ... 4 years old at this point?). Since I don't have a state of the art gaming PC, I have a feeling I'd have to put the settings at levels that would mean I wouldn't see a significant graphics difference between the two.

As for the bugs ... that is a serious cause for concern for me. He mentioned he was playing a copy he got a month or so ago, so hopefully it will turn out that his complaints got fixed in the final build. Either that, or there will be a patch. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on reviews, etc. to see if those issues exist in the retail game and, if so, if they get addressed.

foxdvd

picked up a 360 copy of this now that it is cheap...not a bad game so far, but until you get to level 10 or so, it is fucking hard....

foxdvd

finished it...some thoughts

Not a bad game, worth 10 bucks. It looks ok, though being powered by the same engine as Fallout 3 and Oblivion you would expect it to run a little better. The story was ok, with some nice voice work and funny moments. Gameplay was generic rpg stuff. Lots of skill choices, but the problem was half of the choices were useless. Like many RPG games, status spells never work on hard enemies so there is no reason to take them. A great many other choices though.

I found some of the puzzles to be well done, with none of them handed to you. While a game like Oblivion or Two Worlds (two most similar games) really point you to what you need to do, a lot of the puzzles in this game required exploring and figuring them out yourself. The game also had a vertical and horizontal puzzles and combat, a refreshing change.

The Dragon aspect felt tacked on, and some of the moments were ridiculously hard. There was a moment right at the end that almost sent my controller into the tv. This really is the worst part about the game, difficulty spikes. Many moments were just hard for no reason. You would just die in 1 second (not an exaggeration). You almost had to glitch the game to even beat these hard battles, and that is not what I call fun. Fortunately there are maybe 5 moments like this, but they are hard.

I liked this game a lot. It was of course not near as good as Oblivion, and not even as good as the underrated Two Worlds, but as I said at the start, worth 10 bucks for action rpg fans.

mhg83

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foxdvd

running the demo side by side with the original game, I can confirm they improved the performance dramatically. The frame rate seems to be locked in at 30fps with no drops...while the original seemed to be 20-25 with drops to the single digits...

Also, 20-30 more hours of gameplay....the only thing I am not sure of is the difficulty spikes I spoke of in my review above...those may or may not be there still....

I still don't think it is worth 40 bucks though...wait for a drop..

brainee

Thanks for bumping this up - I'll have to check out the new version. I enjoyed Divine Divinity ages ago ... kind of a cross between Diablo and Ultima VII. No XBox, so it'll have to be the PC version for me.

Glad I missed the earlier version now. A little "rant" - as a RPG fan, it seems almost every game has the same pattern: buggy 1st version, add-ons dribbled out over the next year, full-blown expansion (running about 70% of the cost of the original game with just 30% more gameplay). Finally 12-18 months later you get a version with everything included (called "game of the year", "ultimate", "complete", or whatever) for less money than the original solo game. Makes me feel like a sucker for ever buying the games when they come out. Witcher 2 and Mass Effect 3 are coming out soon, and I won't be touching them. I know games of all genres have these things happen, but it seems to be worse with RPGs (like they know RPG-lovers have so few good games to play that they can be easily suckered).

nickdawgy

I downloaded this for $5 last night after hearing about a sale. Had never heard of it, but took the plunge. Liking it a lot so far, might not be a Skyrim type winner, but it's a fun experience and a steal at the price.