Divinity Original Sin
It was released a few days ago and I think it's time to give some impressions.
I still haven't played it a lot, I have just exited the tutorial dungeon but i really liked the fact that instead of hunting rats in a cellar, I have to start my career investigating the murder of a nobleman and an undead invasion
Turn based combat is not something I normally like but it is not bothering me.
I liked the graphics.
I really liked the character creation system... with a little thought you are able to build whatever style of character you want to play.
That's it for now. From my first impressions I would recommend the game but I'm very early in it to be sure I won't come to dislike it
Something I forgot to comment... three patches in three days...
I still haven't played it a lot, I have just exited the tutorial dungeon but i really liked the fact that instead of hunting rats in a cellar, I have to start my career investigating the murder of a nobleman and an undead invasion
Turn based combat is not something I normally like but it is not bothering me.
I liked the graphics.
I really liked the character creation system... with a little thought you are able to build whatever style of character you want to play.
That's it for now. From my first impressions I would recommend the game but I'm very early in it to be sure I won't come to dislike it
Something I forgot to comment... three patches in three days...
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Comments
A more in-depth comment when I'm not on my fuggin phone mashing at tiny keys.
Anyway my impression so far are this: The game is f****** awesome! I seriously had almost no expectations about this game before launch, but bought it anyway to try it out. I'm so glad I did as this game is the biggest positive surprise for me in years. It is absolutely massive from what I've seen so far, maybe even SoA big though I can't say yet for sure. The combat system is great, the areas are interesting, dialogue is well done, the music is wonderful, etc.
Simply buy this game! I can't imagine there being many people that enjoy the BG games, but wouldn't like D:OS.
Which explode if you set them on fire.
Especially them any ways to customize your character. The only thing that really bugs me is that you have to play 2 'main characters' it disturbs my normal rping way.
Anyway, you can just select a party ai but there's only 'loyal' to pick from and that turns your 2nd character into an npc, but it felt random at the first part.
Has anybody played it online?
For those looking to get this game, be warned there is a save game issue that causes the game to crash randomly during saving. So there's a chance you will lose your progress from your last save game if the game crashes while you're saving. It's happened to me twice already, and there are a slew of posts about it on the game's forum.
The game is also not very forgiving. I've still not figured out how to detect traps. It might be a skill I need to put points into when leveling. Some traps explode, or shoot high volts of lightning through your characters doing massive DEATH damage. That's okay I suppose, but right now I'm at a disadvantage if there is a trap detection skill, because I didn't take anything of the sort.
Mechanics are interesting, and you can create whatever sort of character you want after selecting a base class to start in - Witch, or a Fighter as examples - and they offer you the starting attributes and skill points of said class. After that, it's all up to you how your character gets defined. The world is quite open, BUT ... it's not world exploration open. There are area edges and paths you follow along, bottlenecks that force you into specific plot battles and the like. It's like Diablo 3 in that sense. You enter a forest and it's edged as a forest until you find a Waygate or an exit to another area, but you can't walk in any direction to exit the forest.
Waygates. Gosh, I dislike this design. I understand the back and forth travel that might be required, but make it a little more interesting at least. Like a runic stones or pillars with magic designs on them, when touched in a specific order, would whisk you to another location. Finding a book to read and learn about them would also be a nice touch to add more depth into the world, rather than just BWOOP! Waygate Instant Travel!
There's a lot of Ultima in this game, especially being able to move almost every item around in game. That means finding keys under barrels, or a hidden trapdoor beneath canvas bags. Candles can be turned on or off, you can sleep in beds, steal items, block a door before combat starts to use ranged weapons, bake food and other little gems that become time sinks when you're not adventuring.
The ALT-KEY ruins the aspect of hidden items though, especially keys. Enter a room, hit ALT, and all items you can take pop-up with their name. Old Cellar Key will appear, even if you can't see it without hitting ALT. It's fast forward thinking in today's generation of gamers, but hidden items like this should not appear if you hit ALT, only those items you can see with your eyes when in a room. That's just me though
One puzzle in the game has you take hanging meat off meat hooks near a wall, which reveal a button on the wall. When pressed, a bookshelf moves and reveals a new room. That was a nice touch, and no doubt a lot of hidden rooms exist in old crypts and dungeons just like this, hiding their treasure.
As for the journal, it gives basic information. If you're asked to find something, it might read, "Jimmy the Painter is looking for his stolen painting of a Zombie. It's very special to him." That's it. Someone stole his painting, it could be anywhere, so keep an eye out for it. It could be hidden, it could be in a container, it could be hanging on a wall for you to steal back. There's also no compass arrow pointing you in the right direction, or a ! over an NPCs head or house to let you know THAT'S WHERE THE PAINTING IS!
Now I'm not fond of the graphics, it's too cartoon-like for me, but it's a blotch on an otherwise interesting game.
More AI options would be interesting, and as brave warrior @Deefje mentioned, only Random or Loyal exist. There's been nothing I've found in download packages that add additional AI personalities. Oh! Rock. Paper. Scissors. It's a neat concept ... at first ... but I've grown tired of it. During conversations, you can INTIMIDATE, CHARM or REASON with someone, and I've yet to have my traits work automatically - such as a high charisma vs. the NPCs charisma against CHARM. Instead, it's always rock, paper, scissors to work it out. If my CHARM is higher than the NPCs, I shouldn't have to go and do rock, paper, scissors. Maybe I've not reached a high enough level yet. *shrugs*
That in itself can become annoying, when you pick a conversation option that best suits your character and how you play it - keep an NPC alive vs. killing them vs. getting them arrested - and then LOSING in rock, paper, scissors because another NPC wants to kill them. You lose? Other NPC wins, and you're off to kill the NPC instead. Ug! NO!
Also, there is no day/night transition. It's all static design. If it's raining, they're forcing it to rain. If it gets dark, they designed it that way. When you're in town, it's always nice and sunny.
There's supposed to be a Toolkit or Toolset, but I've no clue where it is. Maybe it's not released yet and will be in the future.
I give this game three and a half arrows out of five. The save game bug brings the score down due to time loss in one's adventure for fortune and fame.
I can't say enough about the strategic turn-based combat either. It really is fantastic. There are so many different ways of winning a fight. Also, you can interact with the environment during and out of combat. See a barrel of water? blow it up to douse the fire spell cast on you. See some water on the ground? fire some electricity to electrocute and stun your enemies. A blast!
I'm about 35 hours into the game (it's at LEAST 100 hours, btw), and have not encountered ONE crash or bug.
It is well worth it's 39.99 (USD) Price tag. That is an understatement. It's one of the best RPG's to come out in years, people. Of all places to appreciate a title like this, it would be here.
The environment/spell interactions/combos are awesome as hell though. Especially when you use telekinesis to throw a barrel of gunpowder (or oil works too) into the middle of some units and then pop it with a fire spell, and then drop a poisoned cloud on top of them that not only poisons them, it reacts with them being on fire and explodes again! And then create a rain storm to pool some water up around them and shoot a frost spell at it to freeze it into a patch of ice that they have to make a dex check when crossing or fall on their ass for a turn and wasting AP and can be thawed out with another fire spell to make a big puddle, and then drop some lightening in it to stun/deal damage to everyone in the water.
Or quickly stacking some barrels and crates up to create a barrier to give you cover from ranged attackers, forcing them to come to you, or waste time destroying the barrier or taking the brunt of a fire-ball.
They removed the mana meter from the earlier builds, and all spells/actions are simply cool-down based, but quite balanced. It keeps the combat from getting bogged down but without allowing you to just spam stuff willy-nilly and is very well done.
There's a lot of freedom involved, and the co-op mechanic is interesting. Less so in single player since your ai options for their responses are limited, but very fun in multiplayer.
Trap/secret switch detection is based on perception, though there are perks that improve it a little too.
It reminds me a lot of Temple of Elemental Evil's combat...though instead of the classic PnP combat actions, you get a lot of enviromental/spell/combo potential. Though most of those actions, like tripping/bull-rushing etc, are possible, if you learn the skill for it.
It's a classless system, though you can choose a pre-set "class" if you aren't sure what to do. But it can be freely expanded on later if you change your mind and want to go in a different direction.
The game also promotes modding, and we'll probably see some NWN level custom content and scenerios as time goes on. And it definitely has a solid base of which to build further adventures off of.
You can also save up un-used AP, up to a cap, allowing you do a little extra next turn.
The rock - paper - scissors thing is based on who has made the most compelling argument thus far. If you have an advantage you start with pips and need fewer wins to make them accept your decision. Of course if you simply crush them with your argument, they concede and the mini-game is skipped.
Though you can always just set them to loyal if you don't want to do the mini-game. Or you can turn off the party-chat entirely in the options.
Your ability to win using particular arguments also depends on how often you use those arguments. They used to be tied to stats, but they changed it, so as you become more skilled in a particular area you can make stronger arguments in that type based on the personality that your character develops based on the choices you make. But not every argument style will be available for every situation, so if you've built your character's personality about carefully reasoned arguments, and are thrown into a situation where reason is useless, you'll be at a disadvantage and may get crushed by someone else using a stronger argument style. Also you have to juggle how much a particular NPC/Companion likes you, as well as take into account their own personalities, since even if they like you, a very Egotistical Companion may still reject your ideas in favor of their own.
All in all it does have an interesting dynamic that stuff like BG currently lacks. You aren't in control. You do have a measure of ability to influence the direction things go, but your party is a team effort, and you can have your choices veto'd if of the other party members makes a stronger argument. Where as in BG, you can pick whatever you want, and usually the most that'll happen is them leaving or becoming hostile. Here they can literally tell you, NO, we're doing it this way because your argument for why we should do your way sucked.
I like that they have the class templates to give you ideas, but you make any class or multiclass you want.
I am doing my first playthrough as myself, Todd, and my fictional companion, Rafe. I am a two-handed sword wielding fighter-cleric tweaked from the Knight template, and Rafe is a mage-thief tweaked from the Wizard template. Between the two of us, we should have most game functions covered pretty well.
I have water magic and man-at-arms, with attack-of-opportunity and speak-to-animals feats, and Rafe has fire and air magic, plus lockpicking, loremaster, and the extra perception and extra ranged magic feats. We both took willpower skill, because I know how deadly "states" are in these games.
My main stats will be strength, constitution, and intelligence, and Rafe's main stats will be intelligence, speed, and perception.
I am hoping to find a good archer somewhere who will build dexterity as a main stat.
First impressions:
-nice graphics and interface
-nice old-school exploration feel
-great starting dungeon
-very helpful tutorial tips
-overwhelming possibilities in character builds, promising great replayability
-excellent turn-based combat, reminding me of Might and Magic 6-8, which I love
I look forward to continuing it tomorrow. These were only first impressions, and I've barely started the game, so I'm sure I'll encounter some frustrations and minuses eventually, but we'll see.
Assuming my positive first impressions hold out, I will definitely want to support and promote this game. Again, we'll see. I'll make more posts as I increase my experience with the game.
Oh so much gaming goodness here.
I'm playing a battlemage with man-at-arms skills and aerothurge because teleport seemed awesome and it has been since now. I always give my PC's my own name so, David.
My companion is a spider summoning Witch called Morrigan(yes yes, unoriginal..., but Morrigan was after all my first true love...) I guess they really went to a new world when they stepped into the mirror.
I hope the story will pick up in pace soon.
The thing I'm missing really is different races, Dragon Commander had a lot of races and I'm disappointed none of them are playable.
I think I know why; this game reminds me of ToEE. Like a lot. Pretty good character customization, party-based RPG and the battles often requires quite a bit of thinking. My biggest gripes is probably that it's freaking hard at times (I spent -at least- 5 hours on this one boss battle) and it's a bit buggy still... but nothing game-breaking thankfully, minor annoyances.
I'll have to try this in co-op, looks like it might be fun, especially since it's apparently made for it. Actually you can pick a trait that disallows companions. Not tried that since I actually like having party members, but I imagine it should appease Iron Man and No Reload weirdos.
Addendum: oh and in response to a comment further up here. The combat isn't too hard to describe; it's similar to Fallout Tactics with regards to how the action points are handled and Temple of Elemental Evil in how the turns work.
About an hour in I really liked the first dungeon and the game seems very promising.