Game News Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter Update #74: Enhanced Edition - Before & After

[Mangoose]

Then the game will still be shit, other than the combat.

I prefer Wasteland. Divinity just turns into a boring diablo clone with turn based clombat after the first location. And dont get me started on writing and mini games during dialogues. This is just bad, I mean bethesda bad.

Did you...

Spoiler

Steal everything in the treasure room of Cyseal's prison without doing the related sidequest. Have one character talk to the main guard, teleport with the other character just to the right angle that no other guard can see him, walk in shadows, steal everything, teleport (pyramid) back out.

Beat an enemy by teleporting him to the other side of a locked caged door?

Ffind Heartseeker?

Find the secret area behind the waterfall in the Immaculate Village, where one of your companions turn on you?

Find Maradino's secret hideout... Where within he has a secret room?

Go into the Immaculate Village, stealing as much Tenebrium as you could carry, and then selling or upgrading all of your shit.

Stealth/teleport past filler encounters with one character and then have the rest of the party teleport to said character?

 

[Irenaeus II]

Didn't do any of the above. Hopefully will do some in my next playthrough.

 

[Daedalos]

Did you...

Spoiler

Steal everything in the treasure room of Cyseal's prison without doing the related sidequest. Have one character talk to the main guard, teleport with the other character just to the right angle that no other guard can see him, walk in shadows, steal everything, teleport (pyramid) back out.

Beat an enemy by teleporting him to the other side of a locked caged door?

Ffind Heartseeker?

Find the secret area behind the waterfall in the Immaculate Village, where one of your companions turn on you?

Find Maradino's secret hideout... Where within he has a secret room?

Go into the Immaculate Village, stealing as much Tenebrium as you could carry, and then selling or upgrading all of your shit.

Stealth/teleport past filler encounters with one character and then have the rest of the party teleport to said character?

I did some of what you described, however, like I said, most of that revolves around combat oriented encounters or skills or otherwise gimmicky play.

I'm not saying the game doesn't have cool moments and stuff like that, it does.

Its just that, other than the combat and some uses of combaty skills in things you describe, the game fell pretty flat on its face. Without a somewhat compelling story, writing, engaging C&C etc., I'm afraid the RPG is not really for me.

Once you get past the novelty of combat and doing "funny" little stuff with the skills like you describe, the game becomes a bore.

 

[Watser]

Spoiler

Find the secret area behind the waterfall in the Immaculate Village, where one of your companions turn on you?

Spoiler

bairdotr sided with me in my playthough, I suppose it is depending on how you have responded to her throughout the game?

 

[Mangoose]

I'm afraid the RPG is not really for me.

Anyone with an IQ above 20 realizes DOS is not a proper CPRG. It's clearly an adventure hybrid. Not sure if you've ever played any of the previous Divinities, but none of them were pure CRPGs.

In other words: Do your research before buying a game. I'm not sure how many times Swen has to mention Ultima 7 before people get it through their heads.

 

[Arkeus]

Not sure how anyone can say D:Os is a Diablo clone, given that D:Os has none of the things specific to Diablo-clones (randomized maps, corridor gameplay, no town gameplay, only one character, real time), and Diablo has none of the things specific to D:OS/Ultima (lots of random crafting, lots of traps, lots of puzzles, lots and lots of dialogs, lots of secrets and backtracking, lots of secondary options in quests, lots of stealth and stealing).....

There is not much they have in common, if anything.

I'm also not sure you can say WL2 story is better than D:OS... and D:OS is not particularly that good, as we know.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Doesn't D:OS has random loot same as Deablo?

 

[Daedalos]

Anyone with an IQ above 20 realizes DOS is not a proper CPRG. It's clearly an adventure hybrid. Not sure if you've ever played any of the previous Divinities, but none of them were pure CRPGs.

In other words: Do your research before buying a game. I'm not sure how many times Swen has to mention Ultima 7 before people get it through their heads.

Then why does it get compared to "pure" (whatever the fuck that is) cRPGs if it ain't one? On this site in particular. It was voted top 2 cRPG of the year in 2014 on this site or so. Seems strange to me.

Not to mention that the game has all the trappings of a real cRPG. Of course it tries to be one. It tries it hand with story, writing, C&C, turn-based isometric, character creation system, encounter design, combat etc. It just fails with all except the combat.

 

[Infinitron]

Anyone with an IQ above 20 realizes DOS is not a proper CPRG. It's clearly an adventure hybrid. Not sure if you've ever played any of the previous Divinities, but none of them were pure CRPGs.

In other words: Do your research before buying a game. I'm not sure how many times Swen has to mention Ultima 7 before people get it through their heads.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Last year we didn't have PoE and AoD. D:OS was, along with WL2, the incline game of 2014. Yeah, I'm not sure what Mangoose is going on about D:OS not being a proper cRPG and being a adventure hybrid. Maybe he's mistaking the game with Quest for Infamy and Heroine's Quest?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Last year we didn't have PoE and AoD. D:OS was, along with WL2, the incline game of 2014.

Which is just a reminder that if the voting for the 2014 GOTY had some drama, this year could be glorious

 

[Irenaeus II]

I forgot about those Shadow Run games, but that's because I didn't play them yet. The SJW shitlib fakecyberpunk setting along with cartoonish graphics made me disinterested, but I have one of the games of the series installed and will give it a try after I finish my 100th AoD playthrough, PoE expansions and D:OS and WL2 enhanced console versions.

 

[Black]

Today is the day!

Our busy little brains and fingers have worked for months and months making Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition. We've made thousands of changes to the original game, adding controller support, local co-op splitscreen, full AAA voicing, new quests and situations, new difficulty modes, and an entirely new ending featuring several new regions.

full AAA voicing

I think we had a preview of that with Wasteland 2 DC

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Is there a conflict? There are people who prefer Wasteland to D:OS here?

Yeah, some people preferred the second most popular CRPG of 2014 to the most popular, in what world is that surprising?(Edgy retards aside, the game was received extremely well.)

So far the EE for D:OS looks leagues ahead of the one for W2 though, which broke as much as it fixed..

 

[himmy]

I'm confused as to why the Larian Facebook page keeps saying how many hours until launch there are left. I've had it in my inventory since this morning, already installed it and am playing right now. Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Isn't it just the console version that's already out?

 

[Bubbles]

No, everything's out.

 

[Daedalos]

Yeah, some people preferred the second most popular CRPG of 2014 to the most popular, in what world is that surprising?(Edgy retards aside, the game was received extremely well.)

So far the EE for D:OS looks leagues ahead of the one for W2 though, which broke as much as it fixed..

What did WL2 -DC, break?

 

[Irenaeus II]

No, everything's out.

 

[Bubbles]

What did WL2 -DC, break?

Dismissed companions permanently disappearing is the biggest problem, but there's plenty of others.

 

[Mangoose]

Then why does it get compared to "pure" (whatever the fuck that is) cRPGs if it ain't one?

Think for yourself.

On this site in particular. It was voted top 2 cRPG of the year in 2014 on this site or so. Seems strange to me.

Think for yourself.

It just fails with all except the combat.

Actually the mechanics were quite unbalanced to the point where combat didn't evolve well as the game went on, and build customization was severely limited.

Let me quote myself (which I was doing lol):

Now, I'm going to backtrack and I agree the "traditional" RPG mechanics could be a lot better. I've criticized it before... it's less about combat mechanics than about really unbalanced ability selection, crappy progression. Crappy progression in a lot of aspects - encounters, quests, loot, skills (mein gott, how shitty the last "ultimate" abilities were).

Also in addition to the unbalanced skills, the way attributes worked terribly limited character customization. Because, for example, only Strength boosts Man at Arms abilities, only Intelligence boosts the different magic schools' abilities - then combine that with the fact that those attributes ALSO worked like traditional RPG attributes in e.g. needing Constitution to be a melee character... That meant things like custom Hybrid characters were useless because you have to spread out your attribute points way too much in order to make such a character. There are only a few ways you can make an unorthodox character, and that's by picking out a few specific abilities that luckily complement each other (and don't depend on attributes as much. Also you can ask RK47 for his interesting ideas). You may say that this is how most RPGs were anyway, but with the type of combat that DOS was designed for - a lot of reliance on environmental/elemental effects and stuff like that - the game would be so much better without being limited to cookie-cutter characters.

Well, genres are genres, and "What is an RPG?"

But what I mean to say is that Ultima7/DOS is not the "typical CRPG" we tend to mention on the Codex - games that emphasize features such as character-to-character dialogue-interaction, skill-checks, emphasis on branching plots/subplots etc. (Edit: I wasn't talking about combat btw)

DOS instead has its interaction more-to-do with environment interaction - even during combat (teleportation example). Not really many skill/stat checks outside of combat. Less emphasis on plots/subplots than on exploring and finding secrets and solving riddles that have nothing to do with other plots.

So what I mean is going into DOS thinking you're going to have huge C&C impacts on a town (besides Hunter's Edge) like you would in FO, FO2; or having impacts on party member character-plot* development, that's not what you're going to find.

*Incidentally as mentioned above you'd more likely see your party NPC simply become an enemy (funnily enough like BG/BG2) rather than be a permanent party member who is sulking with "0" friendliness towards you.

 

[Daedalos]

Dismissed companions permanently disappearing is the biggest problem, but there's plenty of others.

I never had that problem, ever. And I've played 80 hours already of the DC. What other problems? Give me some examples.

Because I've had literally close to zero problems playing the DC.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Well, genres are genres, and "What is an RPG?"

But what I mean to say is that Ultima7/DOS is not the "typical CRPG" we tend to mention on the Codex - games that emphasize features such as character-to-character dialogue-interaction, skill-checks, emphasis on branching plots/subplots etc. (Edit: I wasn't talking about combat btw)

DOS instead has its interaction more-to-do with environment interaction - even during combat (teleportation example). Not really many skill/stat checks outside of combat. Less emphasis on plots/subplots than on exploring and finding secrets and solving riddles that have nothing to do with other plots.

So what I mean is going into DOS thinking you're going to have huge C&C impacts on a town (besides Hunter's Edge) like you would in FO, FO2; or having impacts on party member character-plot* development, that's not what you're going to find.

I feel like you subscribe to the C&C and storyfag definitions of What is an RPG? too much.

D:OS world interaction is systemic, which is as RPG as it gets (or rather, more RPG than most RPGs get, which is why I believe D:OS pushes RPGs forward -- and not adventure games or whatever). Secrets and riddles, yeah, those are adventure game elements, however those have been present in RPGs since the early Wizardry games at least.

 

[Mangoose]

I feel like you subscribe to the C&C and storyfag definitions of What is an RPG? too much.

Ughh no I don't. I don't really care about genre.

I spoke that way because I was replying to the comments:

So a great combat simulator, but a terrible cRPG

...

Without a somewhat compelling story, writing, engaging C&C etc., I'm afraid the RPG is not really for me.

Which means I wasn't the one subscribing to definitions.

In fact the reason I said that DOS is an adventure-whatever is because it was a simple and relevant way to differentiate DOS versus the cRPG that the other person wanted.

I really don't care if something is an RPG or not an RPG. I was explaining to someone else why it's different from what they expected and those differences don't mean that it's a bad game.

I will have to say though that

Secrets and riddles, yeah, those are adventure game elements, however those have been present in RPGs since the early Wizardry games at least.

There are way way secrets and riddles in Divinity 2, Flames of Vengeance, and DOS than most RPGs. And when I say secrets I mean riddles that lead to secret areas that have riddles that lead to secret rooms, etc. Like I said, there was one secret area that had a secret back room.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Fair enough. I guess I just dislike the way you push the "adventure-RPG" angle too much, since it's just as (or maybe even more) misleading.