Divinity: Original Sin
Discussion
If you have been on the Steam store this week, you may have noticed a bit of an oddity. A game you have quite likely never heard of, is at the top of the sales list, and has been all week.
What is it? It’s an isometric display RPG with turn based combat, that was originally a kickstarter and has just been released as the full game. Why have you never heard of it? Because they spent all their money making the game and had none left for any advertising. So how come it is top of the charts even though nobody knows about it and it is full price (£29.99, monetary value fans). It’s because it is quite simply brilliant.
I played it solidly for around 4 hours yesterday and loved every second. It wasn’t till I stopped playing that I realised that even after that serious chunk of playtime, I’m still only level 4, i’m still in the starting city, i’m still wearing the majority of gear that I started with and i’ve had less than half a dozen fights. Yet I didn’t even notice that while I was playing.
Why is it so good? For starters, it’s pretty f
king hard, go the wrong way and you will get beaten down and know about it, but it is brutally fair. If you fk up you know why.
When you kill something it stays dead, no forever spawning here.
The questing is actually interesting. The first main quest is to solve a murder in the town, which mainly involves talking to people, and the conversations and characterisation are just lovely.
You feel like you have been dropped into an ongoing world and you have to carve your place in it. I ended up killing two legionnaires at the start as I wasn’t clever enough to reason with them effectively and they wouldn’t let me pass. A few hours later I wander back to find someone standing over them wondering what the fk has happened and I agree with them that it must have been those awful orcs and what a terrible situation it is. All the time feeling incredible shame for my actions, especially as they were drunk and couldn’t fight back that well, and after i’ve talked to the legionnaires in town and found out how much they hate it here, and they only volunteer for duty outside the city walls in the hope that will get them a ticket home…
There is loads of stuff to do and you can interact with everything.
The combat is very nice, it’s turn based and the environment matters, winning is as much about skill and tactics as it is about level. Fighting a fire demon, who has set one of your characters on fire? Switch to your dude with the water spell and make it rain! Fire gets put out, everybody is now wet, oh wait, he has an electricity spell… BOOM! Electric shock baby, fire demon is now stunned… along with everyone else around him as they were all in the water too… oops…
I haven’t tried this yet as i’m playing solo, but it is fully co-op for the whole game and has been built around it. Even playing solo you start with two avatars that you can control, either linked together in follow mode, or separately. If playing in co-op mode then you can choose to work together or not.
Sure, it has a few problems. Inventory management is a nightmare, the UI in general is a little clunky, knowing what to do next can be a little tricky. I’m used to being led around by the nose these days, so it’s a bit of a mind shift to have to work everything out myself.
If you like RPG games, then (bearing in mind the short time I have had with it so far) you should buy this, it’s the best RPG i’ve played in a long long time.
What is it? It’s an isometric display RPG with turn based combat, that was originally a kickstarter and has just been released as the full game. Why have you never heard of it? Because they spent all their money making the game and had none left for any advertising. So how come it is top of the charts even though nobody knows about it and it is full price (£29.99, monetary value fans). It’s because it is quite simply brilliant.
I played it solidly for around 4 hours yesterday and loved every second. It wasn’t till I stopped playing that I realised that even after that serious chunk of playtime, I’m still only level 4, i’m still in the starting city, i’m still wearing the majority of gear that I started with and i’ve had less than half a dozen fights. Yet I didn’t even notice that while I was playing.
Why is it so good? For starters, it’s pretty f
king hard, go the wrong way and you will get beaten down and know about it, but it is brutally fair. If you fk up you know why.When you kill something it stays dead, no forever spawning here.
The questing is actually interesting. The first main quest is to solve a murder in the town, which mainly involves talking to people, and the conversations and characterisation are just lovely.
You feel like you have been dropped into an ongoing world and you have to carve your place in it. I ended up killing two legionnaires at the start as I wasn’t clever enough to reason with them effectively and they wouldn’t let me pass. A few hours later I wander back to find someone standing over them wondering what the f
k has happened and I agree with them that it must have been those awful orcs and what a terrible situation it is. All the time feeling incredible shame for my actions, especially as they were drunk and couldn’t fight back that well, and after i’ve talked to the legionnaires in town and found out how much they hate it here, and they only volunteer for duty outside the city walls in the hope that will get them a ticket home…There is loads of stuff to do and you can interact with everything.
The combat is very nice, it’s turn based and the environment matters, winning is as much about skill and tactics as it is about level. Fighting a fire demon, who has set one of your characters on fire? Switch to your dude with the water spell and make it rain! Fire gets put out, everybody is now wet, oh wait, he has an electricity spell… BOOM! Electric shock baby, fire demon is now stunned… along with everyone else around him as they were all in the water too… oops…
I haven’t tried this yet as i’m playing solo, but it is fully co-op for the whole game and has been built around it. Even playing solo you start with two avatars that you can control, either linked together in follow mode, or separately. If playing in co-op mode then you can choose to work together or not.
Sure, it has a few problems. Inventory management is a nightmare, the UI in general is a little clunky, knowing what to do next can be a little tricky. I’m used to being led around by the nose these days, so it’s a bit of a mind shift to have to work everything out myself.
If you like RPG games, then (bearing in mind the short time I have had with it so far) you should buy this, it’s the best RPG i’ve played in a long long time.
Just downloaded this. Pretty fun so far - it is a bit of a time-thief isn't it?!
I'm not taken by my second "main" character so far so will have to try to branch her out. I made myself grin though after I made myself a pumpkin helmet early on! Crafting;s quite fun and, despite the fact that I've never played a turn-based combat game I'm finding it quite enjoyable!
I'm not taken by my second "main" character so far so will have to try to branch her out. I made myself grin though after I made myself a pumpkin helmet early on! Crafting;s quite fun and, despite the fact that I've never played a turn-based combat game I'm finding it quite enjoyable!
Suprised more aren't playing it here, though it certainly has come out quite under the radar like you said.
On PC at least, I've always played FPS right from Quake 3 through to COD4 and lastly TF2, I felt like picking up some of the games and genres I was always interested in but never really played, and ummed and ah'd around on GoG for months looking at CRPGs and various things. I got the Age of Wonders trilogy recently (I know 3 is out now) and have dabbled with the first one occasionally, though I've been playing Neverwinter in and out since beta (D&D based mmo), and I keep thinking I should be trying Baldur's or Planescape etc.
I saw D:OS a while back on Steam, looked at it briefly and thought that looks interesting then forgot all about it. Browsing GoG again the other week, I looked at it again and thought wtf am I doing, what a better route into proper rpgs with something modern, get it bought now!
Very pleased I did, I'm impressed so far at 5 hours in, still in Cyseal of course. Though I dropped the first playthrough there (rogue and mage), and I've restarted with different character builds and to take account of a few things I worked out and read on the reddit. I was watching the first look by Force Strategy on youtube, and liked the look of the two builds he used, base Wizard changed around slightly with hydrosophist skills for heals among some other changes, and a fairly default Fighter with Bully (for a little bit of synergy with the Wizards build). I can always change course with them a bit later, but I think they'll work well if I pick up the Madora or whatever her name is and the mage in the library you can pick up early on, which I missed last time.
I really like the combat mechanics and element interaction. No real problems with the UI so far, I wanted to find a complaint in the options for character appearance, though I suppose I've been spoilt lately and that's secondary to other things in these games.
Gradually getting into the story/lore though, the first story of the stones bit after killing off one of the patients was the only bit that lost me a bit admittedly, at least the convo log is there
Its certainly full of charm and has me grinning regularly. I haven't even scratched the surface yet with crafting, using sneaking and separating the part to steal, or getting out to fight properly.
On PC at least, I've always played FPS right from Quake 3 through to COD4 and lastly TF2, I felt like picking up some of the games and genres I was always interested in but never really played, and ummed and ah'd around on GoG for months looking at CRPGs and various things. I got the Age of Wonders trilogy recently (I know 3 is out now) and have dabbled with the first one occasionally, though I've been playing Neverwinter in and out since beta (D&D based mmo), and I keep thinking I should be trying Baldur's or Planescape etc.
I saw D:OS a while back on Steam, looked at it briefly and thought that looks interesting then forgot all about it. Browsing GoG again the other week, I looked at it again and thought wtf am I doing, what a better route into proper rpgs with something modern, get it bought now!
Very pleased I did, I'm impressed so far at 5 hours in, still in Cyseal of course. Though I dropped the first playthrough there (rogue and mage), and I've restarted with different character builds and to take account of a few things I worked out and read on the reddit. I was watching the first look by Force Strategy on youtube, and liked the look of the two builds he used, base Wizard changed around slightly with hydrosophist skills for heals among some other changes, and a fairly default Fighter with Bully (for a little bit of synergy with the Wizards build). I can always change course with them a bit later, but I think they'll work well if I pick up the Madora or whatever her name is and the mage in the library you can pick up early on, which I missed last time.
I really like the combat mechanics and element interaction. No real problems with the UI so far, I wanted to find a complaint in the options for character appearance, though I suppose I've been spoilt lately and that's secondary to other things in these games.
Gradually getting into the story/lore though, the first story of the stones bit after killing off one of the patients was the only bit that lost me a bit admittedly, at least the convo log is there
Its certainly full of charm and has me grinning regularly. I haven't even scratched the surface yet with crafting, using sneaking and separating the part to steal, or getting out to fight properly.Edited by mizx on Thursday 11th September 21:43
I'm enjoying this one so far. The fighting is really tactical which I enjoy and its a challenge just on Normal settings. Inventory management is a pain but not the end of the world. Story line is so-so for me right now. I'm not engrossed yet i'm not bored. I like the slight confusion as to what to do next. You really have to think about things rather than being prompted all the time or led around. I'll probably get more into the story as I settle into the game mechanics.
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