Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an isometric (top-down view), turn-based RPG. The game has a fantastic and sandbox elements with many deep systems that provide hundreds of hours of content.
Breakdown
Class Creation like you’ve never seen
This game has an in-depth class creation system that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen in other game. It has all the standard stuff of being able to choose your race, gender, appearance, and attribute points. It is here that the fun begins. You can choose your character’s class, and based on your chosen class and attributes, you get to choose 3 abilities that you can use in combat (of which some have effects outside of combat as well). Then you choose some perks. These perks don’t offer any stat upgrades, but change the way you can play the game ever so slightly. I do talk about one specific ‘Pet Pal’ perk later on in the review.
Next, you have what I find to be the most interesting part of this menu - the backstory. You can choose from a few predefined backstories for your character that give your character a few fixed perks, as well as some specific objectives in the main game, and change the way your character behaves slightly. You have a choice of around 10 stories and each one changes the way you play this game, offering immediate replayability. If you want to, you can also choose a blank character with no story and make your own way in this amazing world that Larian Studios have created. Making things even more interesting, you can also meet these other characters in the game and hear about their missions and backstories!
A proper RPG
One thing that I absolutely love about Divinity: Original Sin 2 is how it is a true RPG. What do I mean by this? Think of Skyrim, where there are actual consequences to your actions. There isn’t always a right or wrong choice to make. Sometimes, you will have to sacrifice a member of your party, and a future side quest might become unavailable to you because you needed that character.
The other thing that makes this game a proper RPG is proper consequences to your ‘everyday actions’. If you want to take some goods from someone’s house, then don’t think you can walk in, loot everything and walk out with no consequences. If you are caught in the act, then you better run and not show your face in the town for a while. If you do and are caught by the authorities, then expect to spend some time in jail. What makes it all the more engaging is the amount of freedom you are given over your choices. You can send the remaining members of your party to break out the jailed member, or you can do some quests to collect the money for bail, or you can even just leave them there for a while! All in all, this is a proper RPG, unlike most modern RPGs where you can walk in to an NPCs house and rob them of everything while they treat you like a king from the get-go.
Intricate story with a lot of replayability
The game has one of the best stories in a video game that I have ever experienced. It has twists and turns with many layers of depth. There are also a LOT of side quests, and they aren’t always fetch quests, or just there so you can grind up levels. Many of them add a lot of small bits to the story and game world. Learning more about the world naturally always adds to the satisfaction of completing the quests and, hence, immersion. On a side note, while this isn’t necessary, please take the ‘Pet Pal’ perk available at the start of the game. This perk will let you converse with animals, and you will have a lot of hilarious conversations with them. You will be able to get a lot of quests from these animals which you would usually miss out on if you didn’t have the perk. It’s highly recommended that you get this perk so that you can spice up your playthrough and make it even more enjoyable.
Taking into account the impact of your decision in quests, character creation, and perks, it is obvious that the game branches out in a lot of paths, and you will surely miss out on a lot of content in a single playthrough. You could be on your 10th playthrough only to realize that there were several quests hidden in your previous playthrough only available now because of your choices. With how fun the game is, you will be replaying it a lot and still be discovering new things about the game. Simply put, this game has an amazing value for money in terms of both quality and quantity of the content.
For the negatives..
NOPE. There isn’t any part of the game that fails to deliver. Unlike how it can be with games of this design, even the combat is a great aspect of the game. Although some players may not enjoy turn based style combat, I must say that this is a thoroughly in-depth combat system similar to what is seen in games such as XCOM, which are purely based on their combat! Although the combat could have been tedious after you’ve played this game for about a hundred hours, I can’t say that I found it so (admittedly, I am a fan of turn based strategy games). I still enjoy it now! If you really dislike the combat, then it’s not a big deal. You can avoid a large number of combat engagements just by talking your way out of it! Another aspect of this game that makes it a true RPG.
One word: MASTERPIECE
This is the only word I can say that would do justice to this game. I have nothing to nitpick about with this game. It is an amazing experience even for players who don’t enjoy turn based combat! Oh, and not to mention Steam Workshop support for everyone’s favourite mods. You can find many mods that customize this game to your taste! You won’t regret getting this game.
Reviewer: Michael UG & Emma UG
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Masterpiece
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Workshop / Mods
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Story Mode
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Co-op
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Re-Playablitiy
