Review — Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition
Larian delivers another classic roleplaying game in the Divinity universe
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is developed by Larian Studios, Belgium’s national pride when it comes to gaming. The studio has known success with its previous games, most of them set in the Divinity universe, with its previous iteration Divinity: Original Sin dating from 2014. Original Sin 2 was released for PC last year, and can now be obtained for PS4 and Xbox One as well, as a remastered edition. Since its release for PC, the game has received universal acclaim and has been considered as one of the best strategy role-playing games of 2017, if not of all time. This is quite some praise for a Kickstarter-funded game, which managed to reach its intended goal of €500.000 in about half a day. The game is, as stated before, a strategic role-playing game, featuring an isometric viewpoint and an immense amount of variety concerning character creation, skill crafting and story progression.
From top to bottom
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a strategy RPG in heart and soul. Players who remember Baldur’s Gate or the original Dragon Age games for PC will feel right at home. The game features an isometric viewpoint, with the option of zooming in and out on your characters. Your skills and attacks are neatly organized in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen, with your mini-map at the top right making navigating the various areas uncomplicated. You can interact with basically anyone and anything you encounter: other characters and animals, boxes and shells, candles and vases,… Searching every box for loot might become tedious though, and not everyone has something interesting to say. That doesn’t mean you should just run past everything, but be wary not to get too caught up trying to search every container for scraps.
The singleplayer campaign starts you off at the character creation screen. You can create your own character, choose your own class and starting skills, or you can pick one of the pre-made characters that already have some fleshed-out backstories. Don’t worry should you decide to go for custom: you’ll encounter this colorful cast of misfits as you progress through your game, allowing you to recruit them to your party. The game doesn’t focus on just your character, and will allow you to switch to other members of your party for full control. You can even start the campaign with a friend in co-op, making for an interesting alternative to the standard single-player RPGs. What makes this game more accessible to everyone is the option of picking a difficulty before you start, even offering a “story mode”, which allows you to truly play at your leisure without much pressure. This is nice for newcomers to the genre, since the game actually has quite a steep learning curve. The game is certainly not easy, and boast an immense number of side-quests. You can easily spend over a hundred hours in this game if you’re a completionist, so being able to do this on your own pace can be very relieving.
Release the Kraken!
The game’s premise is as follows: you play as a Sourcerer, a person who can manipulate the divine power known as Source, to cast spells. You, and many others, have been granted this power by the seven gods that watch over the world called Rivellon. One of these characters was Lucian, who was chosen by the gods as the protector of this power, and given the task of preventing the evil Void from overtaking the world. Lucian was killed, and creatures from the Void — aptly named Voidwoken — invaded Rivellon, wreaking havoc and causing chaos among the world. This led to the persecution of the Sourcerers, who are being hunted down and captured, and then send to Fort Joy. Here, the Sourcerers are turned into mindless beings, in an attempt to rid the world of the Source, and in addition, hoping to push back the Voidwoken. You, the player, takes control of such a Sourcerer, and in the beginning of the game you have been captured and are put on a ship to be “shipped” to Fort Joy. Of course, things go wrong, and the boat is destroyed by a monstrous kraken. Your character awakes at the shores of an island, and from there you are set free on your journey.
The game’s opening mission serves as a perfect tutorial, explaining the basic concepts of the game like moving around, searching for and picking up items, interacting with doors and various other elements, and of course combat. What makes Divinity interesting is the amount of freedom you get as a player to tackle any challenge in the way you want to. Combat is not focused on just battling your opponents. It is turn based, making use of action points which you’ll have to spend to perform said actions. Moving costs action points, just as using a regular attack or a special skill, magic or item. But instead of just attacking your opponent, you’ll have to be wary of your surroundings. Running through fire is not a good idea for example. But turning over a barrel of oil and then setting it on fire with a spell or even a nearby candle, which in turn sets your enemies on fire, might turn the tide of battle in your favor. You’ll have to carefully consider how you’ll tackle each battle, looking for opportunities in your environment. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses of course, and assembling a diverse party will prove to be very beneficial.
Anything goes
Are you usually a very nice person who always does the right thing and helps out anyone in trouble? Ever wanted to know what it feels like to do the exact opposite of that? Well, look no further, because Divinity allows you to do just that. You can decide to help out anyone in trouble, or not. The choice is yours. The game offers a variety of conversation options, ranging from nice and friendly to just plain rude or aggressive. Who you want to be is entirely up to you. Are you annoyed by a certain NPC? Engage in combat! You can resolve basically any situation in the way you want to. Don’t like the way someone is addressing you? Teleport away! Anything goes.
Updated
The PS4 and Xbox version is actually an upgrade to the previously released PC game, and is therefore named the Definitive Edition. Aside from bug fixes and numerous other tweaks, the game received some updates to its story as well. Usually, PC-games that are this intricate don’t translate well to console, since you lose access to your mouse and entire keyboard. But Divinity doesn’t feel clunky at all. The switch to console has been well made, and if you started with the PC version you’ll hardly find yourself getting frustrated. True, the lack of a mouse is noticeable, but hey, you can’t have it all. In short, you’ll barely notice that this game was originally created with mouse and keyboard functionality in mind.
The verdict
As mentioned, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is massive, and reminds me in a sense of The Witch 3: Wild Hunt. The amount of quests is immense, and most of them have very complex stories and interesting characters. But what sets Divinity aside from most other RPGs is the massive amount of freedom you get to handle basically any situation the game throws at you. Graphically, nothing bad can be said either. The game is gorgeous, which you’ll notice if you really zoom in on your character every once in a while. The attention to detail is astounding to say the least. If you somehow manage to complete the single-player/co-op campaign and want to try something else, there is always the option of going for the multiplayer experience. Divinity: Original Sin 2 offers so much content that you’ll never run out of things to do. Running through various playthroughs with different characters will keep things fresh. Aside from the occasional bugs, of which many have been already addressed, the game is basically flawless.
5/5
Reviewed for PlayStation 4
