Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

I tried so hard to like this game, but my list of grievances grew far too long that I just couldn't recommend it. This review is a (long) expression of that frustration. I played on classic mode and made it through to early act 4. The first two attempts at playing were co-op at the behest of friends already familiar with it. Do not do this. It is a terrible way to learn the mechanics, follow the story, or immerse in the world. It might be better if none of you know it, but given it is possible to progress dialog without other players present to read it, I doubt it. Once I was able to start progressing through Fort Joy, with a little guidance, it started growing on me. The art, music and voice acting are all great. The characters and the world are compelling, but hampered by the slow progress of the game. Between the main story, your party's character arcs, pop up events, act-spanning quests, and side quests, there's a lot going on at any one time, but none of it is delivered in an ordered fashion. Inevitably you cannot follow a quest through to completion because you either can't access the next step yet, or you need to level up and come back later to progress, by which time you can't remember where you were at or why you were doing it. This also sees you seeking alternate quests to get enough XP such that you end up with tons of concurrent quests, compounding the problem. The journal should help with this but the dot-point notes paint an inadequate picture. The unread flags are unreliable, often seeming to appear when no new information is on offer. Updates often appear in the middle of an interaction or fight, by the time you read the journal it can be unclear what it was connected to, and when a quest gets completed (or invalidated), often unexpectedly, it is immediately moved to a long list of archived quests without an unread flag. The quest notes are often too vague, as well. "Something bad happened here. Find out what". As a result, I couldn't completely follow what was going on. Paladins, magisters, witches, gods, god king, voidwoken, divine, lucian, black ring... pretty much everyone/thing seemingly wants your head, but their motivations (and yours) are hard to discern. A jumbled mess of power, chaos and destruction, everyone seems to either want to end the world, or gain the power of a god. There seems to be very little 'good' in the world. Even those that help you (or you help) seem to be shady and selfish with ulterior motives, which leaves you always expecting it to come back to haunt you. Loot, crafting and inventory management is basically hell. There is a lot of stuff to pick up... dozens of books, notes, scrolls, foodstuffs, reagents, runes, keys... most of which give no information on what might make them useful. You can find and learn recipes by looting and reading *everything* but usually few and too late to be useful. You can discover them by crafting trial and error, but even logical attempts usually result in invalid combinations. Even when you learn a recipe, there's no tooltip in the crafting pane for the item's effect. Each character in your party has a bag, that can contain other bags you pick up, presumably to help you organise things, but it requires a lot of manual manipulation to keep in check. It doesn't seem to matter as any character can use anything from any bag, except you soon discover weight limits are connected to Strength, so one Strength stacking character ends up holding almost everything. There is no item search. There is only autosort, which, as items get used, still leaves gaps that newly acquired items will fill... good luck finding them. Items you pick up also automatically flood your action bars, even when locked. At one point in Act 3 I looted a quest item long before I had any sort of quest pointer that might have told I needed it or what it was for. By the time I did, it was lost in my inventory, and the game gave no suggestion that it might even be something I already had. The pick up and add to wares (to sell) function, and sell all wares function, were certainly useful as you come across tons of items to sell while seeking out the spells, recipes and objectives you need to progress. To the point where I never felt limited by gold, which made bartering skills and levelling up with merchants feel pointless (particular when I couldn't return to those merchants). When you finish a quest you are sometimes presented with options to loot, but you can only take one. you can compare loot with your current character, but you can't swap characters and you can't get out of the dialog without choosing a piece of loot. Combat. The two words I would use to describe it are 'unfair' and 'cheese'. It's not that it isn't beatable, it's that you need to know the fight is coming, and what you're in for, in order to have a fighting chance. So many fights start unexpectedly with your party grouped up, only to have them obliterated in a mass of higher initiative AoE. You're supposed to come prepared with certain specs, items, split your party, and sneak to pre-position, which frankly is one of the least fun mechanics I've encountered in any game. Action points are extremely limited, and eaten by movement, items, or even changing gear. And with the constant ground effects, you gotta move, or suffer the incoming CC/damage combos around which the combat is heavily oriented. The opponents meanwhile seem to have no problem casting 4 abilities every turn, some insanely strong. You are constantly on fire, and often silenced, rooted, charmed or decayed, making healing ineffective. This all tips the scales against certain builds/spells. Much is made of gaining the ability to use source magic, which does seem powerful, but then becomes a issue of never having enough source to use them. When I got stuck and reluctantly looked for advice, I found it basically comes in two forms. Firstly, relying on cheesy 'clever use of game mechanic' tactics like out of combat long distance height advantage kills, teleporting, thievery, deathfog and so forth. The second is preparation. You have the wrong items, the wrong build. You should use these builds, go back to the mirror and respec. From what I've read this is all contingent on the armor and resistance aspects of the fights. This reveals the actual lack of freedom you have in playing the game the way you thought you could. Early game felt punishing without knowing where to acquire certain spells and items. As you progress, that feeling inverts as you end up with tons of spells and items, more than you could reasonably utilise, leaving some choice paralysis. I picked character archetypes and built to that, only to later find that my choices had hindered me. Again the intention seems to be to respec to utilise fight appropriate spells/items and devastating environmental combos. Succesful combat seems to be heavily indebted to knowing what is coming, and so the combat feels secondary to the build. That is contrary to how I wanted to play. Once I hit that realisation, I stopped enjoying any aspect of combat, and my desire to continue moved increasingly from fun to sunk cost. Experiencing the first few fights of act 4, and reading that it only gets worse from there, was enough for me. Overall it seems like a game whose enjoyment is somewhat dependent on presumed knowledge, that might be suited to a multiple playthrough model but is too long and does not have enough variation to be appealing to any but die hard genre fans. A rare abandon.

====================================== 永远跟党走，心中有党，事业理想。 ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⠋⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⢁⠈⢻⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠈⡀⠭⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠄⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣷⣶⣿⣷⣶⣶⡆⠄⠄⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⢀⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠄⠄⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣇⣼⣿⣿⠿⠶⠙⣿⡟⠡⣴⣿⣽⣿⣧⠄⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⣿⣟⣭⣾⣿⣷⣶⣶⣴⣶⣿⣿⢄⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⣩⣿⣿⣿⡏⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣹⡋⠘⠷⣦⣀⣠⡶⠁⠈⠁⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣍⠃⣴⣶⡔⠒⠄⣠⢀⠄⠄⠄⡨⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡘⠿⣷⣿⠿⠟⠃⠄⠄⣠⡇⠈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠟⠋⢁⣷⣠⠄⠄⠄⠄⣀⣠⣾⡟⠄⠄⠄⠄⠉⠙⠻ ⡿⠟⠋⠁⠄⠄⠄⢸⣿⣿⡯⢓⣴⣾⣿⣿⡟⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄ ⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⣿⡟⣷⠄⠹⣿⣿⣿⡿⠁⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄ china NO.1 =====================================

很好玩的一款CRPG，可以探索的地方非常多，内容超级丰富，高自由度且文本带有配音。 原神2真好玩吧！

4/10. Игра, у которой был потенциал стать нормальной. Второй акт максимально разочаровал. В игре жестокая система уровней. Я выполнил очень много квестов, получив 12 лвл, а другие зоны это 14–16 лвл. Игра обещает СВОБОДУ ДЕЙСТВИЙ. Если ты убьёшь какого-то персонажа, потому что ты так захотел и ведь игра свободная, ты потеряешь дофига опыта, потому что отказался от его квеста или решил сделать по-своему. Игра с свободой действий, но ты не можешь телепортировать персонажа в бою на какой-то камень или крышу здания, можно только в тех зонах, которые сделали разработчики. Ты нашел шикарное место, но при попытке забросить туда персонажа пишет "Путь Заблокирован". Тупое разделение на физическую и магическую броню, тебя игра заставляет играть либо только за физиков, либо только за магов. Опять же, свободой действии тут не пахнет. Игре 9 лет, а багов которые убивают впечатления тут полно. Быстрые сейвы перезаписываются, что очень мешало, если ты хочешь откатиться на 10 быстрых сохранениях назад, то твоего сейва с большой вероятностью уже не будет. Как можно называть игру со свободой действий, если в ней жестокий и ужасный баланс уровней, линейность локаций? Тем более можно ходить только там, где выделил разработчик. Ты не сможешь обойти как что-то через лес. Ведь 50% карты просто как декорация, а не свобода. По итогу, у игры реально был потенциал стать шедевром. Назвать эту игру можно лишь имитацией свободы.

Абсолютный шедевр от Larian Studios, одна из лучших RPG. Сюжет. Хороший и глубоко проработан, в отличие от первой части более глобальный. Хочу выделить огромную вариативность и свободу действий, каждый спутник хорошо прописан и имеет свою интересную историю. Графика. Приятный дизайн, красивые и атмосферные локации, отличные модельки и эффекты, немного хромают анимации. Боёвка. Самая интересная и сложная часть игры. Огромная вариативность способностей и билдов, которые нужно грамотно комбинировать для победы. Постепенно с прохождением будут открываться новые способности, поэтому боёвка постоянно будет ощущаться интересной и разнообразной. По сравнению с первой частью стала легче и более понятной для новичка. Музыка. Одним словом, шикарная. Идеально вписывается в атмосферу, можно выбрать музыкальный инструмент, который будет радовать уши в каждом бою. А песня Лоусе - это отдельный кайф. В общем, очень доволен прохождением, однозначно буду перепроходить в будущем. 9/10.

Лариан приятно удивили деконструкцией собственного лора взяв за основу сюжета идеи из своих классических игр развивая и дополняя его новыми знаниями. Особенно приятно знать, когда ты шаришь за лор предыдущих частей франшизы Дивинити. Видеть знакомых тебе уже персонажей, читать найденные записи упоминающие произошедшие события за которыми тебе довелось наблюдать - вызывают греющую душу нотки ностальгии. ОСТы таки вообще услада для ушей от которых не просто кайфуешь слушая их, но считай музыка в этой игре является само по себе инструментом в руках разработчика отражающий для игрока происходящую ситуацию или передающий погружающую атмосферу локаций. Это сложно описать словами, нужно это самому прочувствовать в самой игре. Ещё могу добавить, то что D:OS2 в плане геймплея показался мне более свободным и предлагающий больше возможности в бою чем BG3. Моя оценка: 10/10

10\10 What this game have offered me is absolutely unique, I have finished this game about a year ago yet I am still in complete fascination and awe for the marvelous experience. The story aspect in this game is extremely rich, each and every character having their own story, derived from their background have offered a sweet flavor as good as the main storyline, after finishing the game you can never forget the narrator speaking every word with sparking passion and delivering the plot through his tongue in an extraordinary manner, the consequences of your choices and actions really add boldness to the overall journey, with each moral choice being considered, you do really notice change in your characters in how they think and percieve as you progress in your journey, making the repeatability in this wonderful game worth your time. Since I played this game with a friend, we spent a lot of time discussing the moral decisions we would make, very rare games can make you do that and that alone was extremely fun and satisfying. Easily a 10/10 experience, though i understand that a lot of players wouldnt think and act based on their character’s mindset, but doing so makes it immersive and fun Despite the combat in this game being Turn-based, I can never stop thinking about the first time i started utilizing teleportation in fights and bliss, the feeling there is as if i am a caveman and just discovered fire for the 1st time or as if i just discovered electricity, the various possibilities in winning and strategizing your fights in this game is utterly one of its kind, very fun No matter what you do in your puzzles or fights, as long as it works then it works, there are million ways to do it. In summary, buy the game and invest ur next 150hrs in it, its worth it

神界原罪2一周目通关！这下Divinity系列除了Dragon Commander就全部打完了 总的来说这个游戏毫无疑问是优秀的CRPG，对得起需要玩家付出的时间，但并不足够完满（即使考虑年代问题），而且有些缺憾显得相当可惜 先说个人比较喜欢的点： - 战斗的策略性很好，尤其后期很容易进入专注思考下一步行动的状态。一路打下来也能明确感觉到build成型和自己对游戏机制理解的提升，会很有成就感（当然我目前只打了classic难度，基本是按照个人理解+朋友建议培养的角色，没有刻意去找强力build，除了最终战都可以不死队友通过 [strike]复活卷轴留着继承给下一作吗[/strike]。尚不确定荣誉难度会不会让人抓狂 - 任务设计能明显看出拉瑞安一路以来的进步。从早期作品相对单一的解法，到DOS1开始提供多条路线，但时不时还是会遇到“这个方法为什么不行”“这个触发你们是不是没考虑过”，再到DOS2，几乎能想到的路径都能得到回应 - Lohse的个人线 [spoiler] 在地下室看到烛海，再到击败医生之后听她弹唱《Sing For Me》[/spoiler] 给我的震撼感完全没有因为演出规格远不如BG3而打折扣，个人真的会觉得叙事能做到这样就已经非常了不起了 但是！ 也正因为如此结局才显得有点微妙。整个游戏的收尾用心程度居然还不如部分角色的个人剧情线。刚打完Lohse线时情绪还在最高点，而接下来的终章反而会让我对游戏的评价有所下调。 - 首先是最重要的结局选择，能看出来虽然制作者有进行一个端水的努力，但最终营造的效果是微妙的，在已经有“好结局”预设的前提下这种端水显得像：诶你虽然得到了一个挺不错的结局大家都approve还开心，但是这个结局不圆满哦—— - 其次是其他角色的关系。既然已经做了好感度甚至有发展恋爱关系的选项，作为玩家期待的必然是结局中有更正向（或者根据实际选择，更负面）的体现，实际的结局更像是开头就根据每个角色的立场预设好的通用收尾，主打一个“好的冒险结束我们各回各家”，就……你还不如给我留在大家个人剧情线那里呢 - 以及拉瑞安传统艺能：在玩家最没心情解谜只想战斗爽然后看大结局的时候掏出一堆需要和制作者对电波的谜题 另外与前作的关联也比预想中弱了很多。这次意外地没怎么玩前作梗，少数几个呼应也没有那么重要。没玩过前作完全可以直接入坑，好好读一读捡到的书就基本不会因此损失什么体验 考虑到系列前作，Lucian在本作的塑造多少也有点吃书感，而神界2的剧情时间线实际在这作后面……就不能太细想怎么接续两个作品，包括Malady作为重要伙伴的故事也没有展开。不知道后续新作会不会填坑 但不管怎么说我已经不用为Divinity新作再补前作了！那么进行一个新作的催更（