“Divinity Original Sin – An exceptional role-playing game not seen in such a long time”
Divinity Original Sin a Game originally funded by a Kickstarter campaign, and then moved onto Steams Early access to gain some more finance, as well as consumer feedback. Larian Studios Vision has finally seen its release on steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/230230/ for £29.99 and available through other authorised outlets. After what seemed like forever, constant restarts through Alpha and Beta, many alterations and additions, the final result is pure platinum, a world filled with magic, mystery and stories to be told.
No word of a lie, when I first saw this game,I instantly thought ‘awesome another Divinity 2 or another Diablo esc game’, however, what we got was not a Divinity 2 or a type of Diablo esc game, but instead we got a turned based RPG Game. I had already purchased the game, so there was no going back for me and asking for a refund. Not to lie here I felt personally let down a little, I thought WHY oh WHY, a turn-based system, why have you not stick to the play-style used for Divinity 2? Saying this, after a few hours worth of play time I was rather impressed and very felt very happy with the overall style and the way Larian Studios were developing the game.
‘Thank god for that, I did not buy another game that i would never play’
When you first start the game you must choose two starter classes, these are known as Source-Hunters, choose between a Fighter, Knight, Ranger, Rogue, Shadowblade, Wayfarer, Witch, Wizard, Battlemage, Cleric and Enchanter. A lot right so let’s break each class down:
- Fighter- A warrior at heart and good at close combat
- Knight – Rally the troops, Work out your tactics and fight
- Ranger – Self-preservation is your goal, the Marksman is your skill
- Shadowblade – The use of daggers and magic makes this class the ultimate assassin
- Rogue – In the shadows you strike, from behind you will kill, this is the call of the Rogue
- Wayfarer – Survival is what they do best, magic is their calling, evade if you can
- Witch – Chilling to bone, fear is where they live
- Wizard – From afar they strike, starting or ending a battle with their powerful magic
- Battlemage – A warrior they are, with magic to boost
- Cleric – The wind they follow, heal or strike down
- Enchanter – Battle from afar and control the minds of your foes
Recalling the first day off the boat, and hearing a voice that sounded rather close, but was unable to find, searching around with no joy we ended up in our first battle. This was the fist time we get to try out the new turned based combat system. The animations were wonderful, the sounds were perfect, everything seems to flow and work very well and also the combat system seemed rather fare. Into the first dungeon we went, nothing much to worry about, it was just a dungeon to get you used to the basics, and the basics it was. Using fire spells to ignite poison gasses, and water to douse flames, or using objects around the area to plug gas pipes. This was all a wonderful touch to how you could play and interact with the environment, and this was only the start, as you will find out as your adventure continues.
Dungeon over, we are set to start our main quest-line, recalling what that was, a member of the Cyseal Council was murdered, and you the Source Hunters have been asked to solve the case. What seems like an easy task, a simple job, turns out to be a lot more, in a sence, the typical end of the world scenario. The world is your oyster with Divinity Original Sin, with it’s sandbox nature, where you can choose, where to go, what to do, how to do it and who to speak to. Do you kill your objective, talk into submission or do you get them arrested. Would you turn to robbery instead of good old fashioned hard work , do you find that key to access that chest or open that door, or do you use magic to force your way in? The choice is yours.
‘A Typical end of the world scenario’
The game is can be very hard to get into and can be very frustrating, you will need to level wisely, use and think about your tactics within every battle and most of all pressing F5 to save. Yes, you will die a lot, and the battle do take some thinking to complete, however the game is also very rewarding, something that is not seen much within games of late.
Leveling your characters is fun and intuitive, as there are no class restrictions, something you do not normally see within many RPG’s. By having no class restrictions really opens up the freedom to create a class suited to your play style, the only issue is that there are loads and loads of choices.
‘Choices, Choices and more bloody Choices’
Move over the levelling, the combat, the story, animation, the sheer awe comes from, exploring a vast world where almost everything can be manipulated to reveal trapdoors, hidden treasure, secret passageways or using the environment to your advantage in combat. Electrify the water around your enemies, set alight oil to burn your foes, lead your enemies into a deadly trap of explosive barrels and traps, its so much fun.
The world has been wonderfully created in great detail, its in no way lore heavy, but it does not need to be. The wonderful people you meet along the way will make you laugh,cry and smile, the poor Orcs crying over fallen comrades, to the talking animals ‘did I just say talking animals, this is not a Disney game, oh well, they are here neither the less’. Every person and every creature you can communicate with, barter if you wish, flirt if you feel like, everything will help grow your characters’ personalities.
‘Hello Babes nice bum,seize him for sexual harassment’
I did not find the inventory to great work with and it could be refined a little more, a way to quickly put spells within the action bar would be grateful, instead of having to drag and drop. Some quests can be annoying, mostly the damn long ones, as the quest descriptions need to be flushed out a bit more to help us wandering fools, Google was my best friend most of the time.
However, saying this, the game is still, even now being worked on, to improve the quality of the game thanks to the community of gamers and Larian Studios. It’s not that often a studio listens and communicates with its fans, this may be the reason why and how Larian has created such a top notch RPG game.
If you are a fan of Role Playing Games, Like Diablo or Baldur’s Gate or any top down RPG game really, enjoy depth and a great story then this is for you, otherwise… close this page and go back to that COD clone you love playing you pussy or that new remastered game of a game your played on that other system 1 year ago.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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