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Review Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga Reviews

VentilatorOfDoom

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Tags: Divinity 2; Larian Studios

<p>With <strong>The Dragon Knight Saga</strong> having been released, there are some first impressions hitting the web.</p>
<p>Besides, DKS and FoV are now available at the <a href="http://www.larianvault.com/" target="_blank">Larian Online Store</a>.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the impressions, <a href="http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0001/00013749-divinity-ii-the-dragon-knight-saga-test.htm" target="_blank">JeuxVideo hands out</a> a massive rating of 18/20:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>C'est bien simple, la premi&egrave;re r&eacute;f&eacute;rence qui vient &agrave; l'esprit de l'auteur de ces lignes pour &eacute;voquer les qualit&eacute;s narratives de cette extension, c'est Planescape Torment. Certes, on a vite fait le tour des diff&eacute;rents quartiers d'Aleroth, mais leur densit&eacute; est assez exceptionnelle. Ils regorgent de PNJ qui ont tous une histoire &agrave; raconter et un r&ocirc;le &agrave; jouer, et qui sont parfois au centre de plusieurs qu&ecirc;tes annexes. La d&eacute;marcation entre la trame principale et les missions secondaires n'a d'ailleurs jamais &eacute;t&eacute; aussi t&eacute;nue. Flames of Vengeance propose un r&eacute;seau de qu&ecirc;tes en toile d'araign&eacute;e d'une surprenante efficacit&eacute; : quoi que vous fassiez, vous &ecirc;tes sans arr&ecirc;t parasit&eacute; par d'autres sollicitations, et c'est g&eacute;n&eacute;ralement en effectuant une t&acirc;che ou en explorant un endroit qui n'a a priori rien &agrave; voir que vous tomberez sur l'&eacute;l&eacute;ment qui d&eacute;bloquera la qu&ecirc;te que vous aviez laiss&eacute;e en suspens. De mani&egrave;re g&eacute;n&eacute;rale, cette extension ne prend jamais le joueur par la main, et lui demande m&ecirc;me r&eacute;guli&egrave;rement un effort auquel il n'est plus vraiment habitu&eacute; : chercher un peu !</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of our francophone bros plz translate and/or give a recap of the article. They compare the writing to PS:T which might be pushing it a bit.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Then there's some fan <a href="http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&amp;Main=25481&amp;Number=423403#Post423403" target="_blank">giving his impressions in the Larian forums</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><span id="body0">Straight back in with the Ego Draconis side and I have been blown away from what I have seen for the first hour or so. I'm only at River town, but that is more than enough to see not the icing on the cake but the most awesome update you could ever wish to see! It's much more smoother, slicker and metallic looking with better more solid animation of everything. The animation was the most important feature I wanted to see and it's really nice now. The player camera has been moved in like 10 meters so it's just behind your character now and you can see things like never before. I was looking at a traders table and it looked cool, almost like playing a new game because you had never seen it like that before - cant wait to see more of the game and what new surprise it has. Not forgetting it has Flames of Vengeance adventure which is going to have to wait till I see Ego out!<br /><br />Lots of new art work such as the inventory icons and NOW (under line) you can see your character for the first time from the menu's which is really cool because you can now see individual items you maybe using/wearing which is much easier to understand, follow!<br /><br />It's a real shame the game was not like this in the first place, but in this day and age with the likes of Halo, COD &amp; Kinect you never see updates of your most loved games and to see one like this makes it worth every ounce of gold you paid for it and then some.<br /><br />Really pleased. If it was not for Ego we would not have the pleasure of what is infront of us today!</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/100327-divinity-ii-the-dragon-knight-saga-reviews.html">GB</a></p>
 

Sceptic

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Divinity: Original Sin
VentilatorOfDoom said:
JeuxVideo hands out</a> a massive rating of 18/20:</p>
Aren't these the people who did the good preview? If so I'd say they're reasonably reliable. Let's see...

They wish there was a FoV boxed version, but say DKS is an excellent deal for those who don't have ED yet. They deplore the incompatibility of ED saves in DKS, but that would only apply if you go that route instead of getting FoV for ED (and who would buy DKS on top of ED anyway?)

They spoil the ending of ED, so I skipped the next paragraph.

Graphics are improved, small changes to gameplay (they don't detail anything here), but they praise Larian for not doing the usual marketing checklist but instead focusing on writing, and the result is superb.

They do compare the writing to PST, but not necessarily in terms of quality. The comparison is specifically because of the sheer amount of talking you can do in the starting city, much like in the Hive in PST. Apparently they all have interesting things to say, interesting backstories and are involved in multiple quests. The line between main and side quests is also blurred (I like that). No handholding: you need to do some thinking and go look for the answers yourself (and they actually say it like it's a good thing! incline of game reviews?)

As for the quality of writing, they actually compare it to a good adventure game (I'm guessing they had Lucas in mind). They love the humor and think it's almost always spot on. More praise for the quest structure. Game's only 20h, but since it's good stuff they don't mind.

Apparently challenge level is higher, and you no longer feel like you're a god among men just by being 3 levels higher than them. There is less combat, more focus on interacting with NPC's. But the dragon sequence is "spectacular".

Verdit: immensely pleasurable.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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thanks for your help Sceptic!

- the Dragon sequence was the only thing that sucked imo
- FoV was much easier than ED imo, but maybe that was because I had a fully equipped imported character, dunno
 

phanboy_iv

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Since I skipped Ego Draconis I've been watching this with anticipation.


Is there going to be a US retail release of DKS, or are they going to stick with DD sites?

I know they have a shop with what appears to be the UK boxed version, which I may end up importing if they don't do a US retail release.
 

DalekFlay

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DraQ said:
Sooo... FoV or DKS? Decisions, decisions.

Yeah, same boat here. I could just get FoV on Gamersgate for $20 as it is a big DLC basically or I could get a box and disc of DKS for $40 imported from Canada. Not sure which I want really, and some of the changes to the main campaign may be for the worse for all I know. They changed the menu music, which alone worries me.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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Apparently challenge level is higher, and you no longer feel like you're a god among men just by being 3 levels higher than them

Also that does not compute. You're almost the whole game behind in levels, at least I was but I did mindread a lot (XP cost), but anyway you start at lvl35 and the first enemies you have are like lvl38. And despite the fact that most enemies were higher level than you it was pretty easy, contrary to ED where fighting higher level enemies was a pain.

Unless of course this is one of the changes they did to ED&FoV with DKS.
 

Cosmo

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Project: Eternity
Exact translation (not that exact to be honest) :

Quite simply, the first reference that comes to mind when trying to describe the narrative qualities of this add-on is Planescape Torment. It's true the various districts of Aleroth seem a little bit small at first, but their sheer density is quite exceptional. They're literally teeming with NPCs, and they all have a story to tell and a role to play, to the point of sometimes playing a crucial role in several quests. What's more, the limit between main plot and side missions has never been so tenuous. Flames of Vengeance can boast a surprisingly effective network of web-like quests : whatever you do, you're constantly assailed by requests, and often, it's by poking your nose in remote places or just performing some minor task that you end up stumbling across a key item that prevented you from finishing a quest. More generally, you never feel like being taken by the hand : the game even requires that you move your lazy casual gamer ass and do a little searching !

:salute:
 

DraQ

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DalekFlay said:
DraQ said:
Sooo... FoV or DKS? Decisions, decisions.

Yeah, same boat here. I could just get FoV on Gamersgate for $20 as it is a big DLC basically or I could get a box and disc of DKS for $40 imported from Canada. Not sure which I want really, and some of the changes to the main campaign may be for the worse for all I know. They changed the menu music, which alone worries me.
Well, whatever happens, I'm going with a box, so if FoV doesn't come in physical form, I'll go for DKS.

Change of the menu music is indeed worrying, but the consensus so far seems to be that the game is incline over ED, and that this includes stuff like more dialogue, more good humour and more lack of handholding.
I still have my ripped soundtrack, in any case.
 

Ancient

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there is already RELOADED release guyz , so you well don't have to buy it just to try it out u know :smug:
 

DalekFlay

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Humanity has risen! said:
Not paying for this one, I already paid for Divinity II and they won't make me buy the same game twice. Fuck you.

They released the expansion on its own too dimwit.
 

Sceptic

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Divinity: Original Sin
Dicksmoker said:
Are they referring just to the expansion or to the changes made in the Dragon Knight Saga?
My guess is to DKS itself, since they mention savegame incompatibility. Not that this will be an issue once the full patch is out, and aside from that FoV and DKS content are identical (it was only relatively minor things that are DKS-only, IIRC).

VentilatorOfDoom said:
thanks for your help Sceptic!
- the Dragon sequence was the only thing that sucked imo
- FoV was much easier than ED imo, but maybe that was because I had a fully equipped imported character, dunno
Happy to help and sad to hear the dragon sequence isn't as spectacular as they make it. Also, that you found FoV easier than ED surprises me - they claim the exact opposite. But eh, it might have something to do with different builds you had, they had one that's easier at low levels and you played one that's more powerful late-game?

VentilatorOfDoom said:
Also that does not compute.
Maybe I didn't translate well - he meant that in ED it was way too easy if you were a few levels ahead of enemies. But, I can't really say more than that, as I have played neither (hey, don't shoot the messenger)

DraQ said:
Sooo... FoV or DKS? Decisions, decisions.
There will be NO boxed FoV, that much is certain. So, if you want a shiny box, DKS. The Reloaded DKS is out, I'm assuming they did it on the boxed. I'm checking to see if that also requires Steam. If not, it's DKS all the way baby!
 

MetalCraze

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Getting my copy of DKS from the online "store" right now. Haven't heard too much bad about the game so it's probably worth a try.
 

bonescraper

Guest
MetalCraze said:
Getting my copy of DKS from the online "store" right now. Haven't heard too much bad about the game so it's probably worth a try.
What? Can't you tell it by the screenshots?
:retarded:
 

MetalCraze

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bonescraper said:
MetalCraze said:
Getting my copy of DKS from the online "store" right now. Haven't heard too much bad about the game so it's probably worth a try.
What? Can't you tell it by the screenshots?
:retarded:

I don't judge games based on screenshots.


Also what's with the retarded 30 FPS lock? How to disable it?
 

Zed

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DKS was fucking shit so I'll give this a shot and hope it's better.
 

Kz3r0

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MetalCraze said:
I don't judge games based on screenshots.
Directly from the concept art?
Man,that's hardcore.
 

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