Divinity Original Sin 2

[dan-likes-trees]

The definitive edition of this launches on PC and consoles tomorrow - anyone here played it / planning on picking it up? The PC release from last year is currently sat on a chunky 93% on metacritic. I've actually enver played one of these top down RPGs but from all the ranting and raving I had to get a preorder in to see what all the fuss is about!

[Ganepark32]

It's a game that's very much on my radar and has been since last year. It looks and sounds great. Haven't quite made my kind up on whether to pick it up or not as the next couple of weeks are game heavy and this is undoubtedly a game that you need to devote all your time to, or at least from what I hear you'll end up doing that with all the side quests that seem to have taken to heart what The Witcher 3 did on that side of things.

If I'm out and see it in GAME at the weekend, I'll likely pick it up as I've got a gift card to use and I know my local one has a bad habit of buying in a very small number of copies and then not reordering once they've sold out of them so I'll want to nab it in case.

It's just when I'd play it that's the issue. I've got Spiderman pre-ordered for next week and although I'm in two minds about that game, I'm still likely to pick it up unless the reviews aren't up to snuff when the embargo lifts on Tuesday. Tom Raider is the week after and I'm toying with picking up the legendary collection for Destiny 2 to grab all the expansions and Forsaken so not sure.

Definitely want to try it though. I have a feeling everything else will fall by the wayside once I've got hold of this.

[Mandalore]

Been a while since I played any top down RPGs, Baldur's Gate II is still one of my all time favourite games. Divinity and Pillars of Eternity are both games I'd like to try at some point, not sure if it'll be a frustrating experience on consoles though now that I no longer do PC gaming.

[Shorty]

I've played it a fair bit on PC. It's... tricky to get into even if you've played the first. It's a bit buggy and clunky and damned hard. It's a shame there's not a lot more and a lot better mods for it because I think it really needs an overhaul. Maybe the definitive edition will bring some polish to it.

It's still a very good RPG and I'm enjoying playing through it. The story is decent and all the characters excellent. So many quests with so many twists and turns and different results, it's certainly a very deep game. The challenge can get frustrating in that typical tactical RPG bullshit way, (one very popular mod simply stops the enemies from being fucking psychics who relentlessly target any weakness even on normal mode) but in the same vein that makes it more gratifying when you do win.

I feel like it also could've just been more dynamic in terms of world and NPC interaction. Let me look around the world from shoulder view. Give me a close up camera angle and make some of the NPCs feel alive by giving them more than the usual nod and wave during speech, close ups and cutscenes are something we've been taking for granted now for over ten years.

[dan-likes-trees]

On 8/30/2018 at 10:37 PM, Shorty said:

I've played it a fair bit on PC. It's... tricky to get into even if you've played the first. It's a bit buggy and clunky and damned hard. It's a shame there's not a lot more and a lot better mods for it because I think it really needs an overhaul. Maybe the definitive edition will bring some polish to it.

It's still a very good RPG and I'm enjoying playing through it. The story is decent and all the characters excellent. So many quests with so many twists and turns and different results, it's certainly a very deep game. The challenge can get frustrating in that typical tactical RPG bullshit way, (one very popular mod simply stops the enemies from being fucking psychics who relentlessly target any weakness even on normal mode) but in the same vein that makes it more gratifying when you do win.

I feel like it also could've just been more dynamic in terms of world and NPC interaction. Let me look around the world from shoulder view. Give me a close up camera angle and make some of the NPCs feel alive by giving them more than the usual nod and wave during speech, close ups and cutscenes are something we've been taking for granted now for over ten years.

Picked this up yesterday and.. yeah. Pretty much agree with everything you say there. Hugely daunting to get into, nothing's really explained if you're new to the genre, and though it's to be expected from a CRPG, I'm finding that top down view hard to get into in terms of engaging with the characters and such. I also find the visuals a bit kind of.. muddy, especially for a tactical game - everything blends together, so much stuff on screen all the time, compared to a game like Bnner Saga or XCom.  Intrigued to keep going as I'm liking some of the characters but just... not sure I can be arsed...

[Shorty]

The Definitive Edition came out yesterday and... saves don't carry over! This isn't a surprise for people who played the first on PC apparently, but I was shocked. It's basically just a big patch, not sure why they would roll it out like this.

Not wanting to miss out though, we decided to take a leap and start our characters again. It's kinda fun doing the beginning with a little better understanding.

[Ganepark32]

I picked up my copy on the PS4 on Saturday and I've managed to put just over 5 hours into it so far. Have to say that although I was worried the difficulty would put me off (I'm playing in Classic mode), I've really enjoyed what I've played so far.

It's not exactly been smooth sailing at times as last night I felt I was banging my head against a wall with a fight that, it turns out, I didn't have to fight. I'd forgotten to select an attribute for one of my characters when I'd levelled up and was stuck trying to figure out how to beat the bloody fire slugs under Fort Joy. When I realised that, I quickly grabbed the Pet Pal skill and no more unnecessary stress.

It's definitely a game where you have to take your time and read through what you're given and pay attention to what you're doing as that example from me was a bit stupid. Thankfully, although I've struggled through a few other fights I'm starting to get the hang of things. Still not got to grips with unlinking party members and placement for battles but I've been experimenting and it's starting to work out for me more often.

I've just finished the arena in Fort Joy, got my collar removed and done a small amount of exploring in the swamps area so still early days but yeah, enjoying it. The characters are great; I've gone with Fane, The Red Prince and Sebilla so far (and I picked Ifan) but think that I need to grab Lohse for some magic use as I'm struggling with a lack of ranged attacks. Does anyone know whether I can get them all to tag along, but only have 3 of them fight with me, or do you have to leave 2 behind and come back for them if you want to change party members?

I can definitely see myself putting a lot of time into this which may prove problematic. Spiderman is out on Friday and I've got it pre-ordered and while I want to see what that's like, I think my attention may be maintained a bit more by this. Same can be said for Tomb Raider next week though. Same September being game crazy.

[Shorty]

I don't know if Definitive mode is way easier but we've absolutely sailed through on a second playthrough. Fights that took us 4-5 attempts felt like they were on easy mode. Actually making it much more enjoyable too.

[Ganepark32]

I've been playing this a lot over the last few days and though progress has been slow on some goes, I'm now at the point where I can leave Fort Joy behind after just under 15 hours.

That last main battle to get to that point of no return took forever. So many retries but I eventually nailed down a strategy of teleporting some of my party into the area, taking out 1 or 2 enemies and then fleeing/teleporting the bodies out to revive them. After I'd manage to get rid of the adds, taking down the main guy wasn't so hard, especially as playing as Ifan gives you the Soul Wolf ability, thus giving you an extra party member for 10 rounds.

Despite all the trials of getting over that hump, I'm still really enjoying the game. I thought I'd find it frustrating but it's anything but and I think a lot of that comes down to being able to handle the battles however you see fit. There's no one strategy that's better than the others and at times, it's felt like I've cheesed some fights but the variety of ways to go about things, being able to use the environment around you and segmenting your party really adds a huge amount to depth.

Really interested to see what's beyond Fort Joy now but just wrapping up side quests before I can no longer return. Also tempted to try out the two party members I'm not running with (Beast and Lohse) as I'm not sure I'm running the best group currently so may take the time before things hit the fan again when I move on.

Easily one of my favourite games this year and there's still so much more to see of it. Don't know how I'm going to juggle this and Spiderman (and Tomb Raider next week) but I'll definitely be busy right up to the end of the year with this and September's release schedule, nevermind what's coming after.

[drahkon]

Gonna bump this 5 year old thread. Sue me!

After I finished D:OS EE a few days ago, I immediately jumped into the sequel.

The first installment, while being a good game, suffered from very inconsistent pacing (regarding both story and gameplay), a couple of bugs (some of which had me reload earlier saves) and an overall pretty uninteresting plot.

22 hours into the sequel and: It's better in every way

What I did so far:

Spoiler

• escaped from a ship
• became champion of an arena
• murdered a creepy fuck who experiments on living beings
• murdered a drug addict after I stole all his shit and in turn helped someone escape
• freed the soul of a knight
• helped a dragon who in turn helped me (which wasn't really necessary)
• killed a dwarf who sat on a hatch - BITCH, I WANT TO GO TO THE BASEMENT
• helped someone get a ring back
• got kissed by a spider queen - then killed the spider queen

And that's probably only 30% of what I did. There's so much to do and so many aspects of the game's world interact with each other...it's crazy. And I love it.

I spent 17 hours in the first area (which is apparently regarded as Act I) alone...the second Act is supposed to take up 50% of the entire game. Oooohhhh boy.

 

And Baldur's Gate 3 is even better?

[drahkon]

Just had way too long fight against a bridge-guarding troll who was 8 level higher than my party. He was able to one-shot everyone in melee range, so what did I do?

Collected a bunch of...things. Like cooking pots, crates, etc. I then sneakily placed them on the bridge in a line to create a barrier.

The troll couldn't pass because he dumbdumb. He did have a ranged attack, but it was poison and my undead mage heals from poison So while everybody else was chilling in the realm of the dead (i.e. they got smacked with the poison blast), undead skelly man splish-splashed in the poison pond and kept blasting Mr. Stupid in the face with fire magic.

Got 38k exp (which is about a quarter of a level up where I'm at right now) and a very nice ring.

It was way too much effort, though

[drahkon]

This game's ridiculous...

Wanted to take part in an arena fight and talked to someone beforehand. That person challenged me to fight a battle with a blindfold so I can fight her afterwards.
The arrogant, noble lizard-prick that I am...I accepted.

It was tough. Two of my characters were pretty useless as they are generally ranged fighters and being hit with the blind status reduces your range to a small circle around you. But I emerged victorious and went on to battle the person mentioned above.

That fight turned ugly once something happened.

I did win, though, thankfully and got a prize: A KEY TO SOME TREASURE.

So I went to the back of the arena, opened a hatch, came across a petrified door which I managed to open with a certain skill, moved into the next room and got petrified myself thanks to some weird steam coming out of pipes.
Luckily one character survived and I managed to get him out of that room before he succumbed to the stony vapor.

After some valve-closing and healing I found the treasure: A key...what is that key for? NO IDEA.

I guess I will stumble upon the lock eventually...or not...that's the beauty of the game. You never know what happens.

 

Oh, I also freed a Lich and it seems he's now going on a killing spree...hope I find him before he kills someone important

Anyway, after the Bundesliga match is over I'll get back to D:O2. Let's see when I'll go to sleep tonight

[drahkon]

Man, this game suffers from pacing issues just like the first one...not so much gameplay-wise this time around, though. Fights, exploration and dialogue are spread out quite nicely...
But the plot...good lord. Act 2 took me 36 hours and the plot barely moved, even if I only consider the main quests. Act 3 took me 5 hours and it was just a bombardment of plot reveals.

It's still a better game than the first one and I'm enjoying the heck out of it
I'm in the final act now and it should last me another 15 hours.

After that...time for some more action games Got Sniper Elite 5 ready to go. Gonna be a great palette cleanser right before BG3.

[drahkon]

Phew, act 4 was a drag...I just wanted it to be over...The plot is pretty boring in the end and the quests reflect that.

D:OS2 starts strong in act 1, gets better in the second, loses steam fast in act 3 and the finale is lackluster.

Still a great game overall

Now true wait for Baldur's Gate 3 begins