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Preview Divinity: Original Sin Hands-on Preview at Rock Paper Shotgun

Crooked Bee

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Tags: Divinity: Original Sin; Larian Studios

RPS' Adam Smith has written a nice detailed preview of Larian's upcoming turn-based RPG Divinity: Original Sin after playing it for 16 hours "over two days in Belgium last week." Lots of things that sound great about the game in the preview; here's a snippet:

For example, to find a way into one suspect’s house, me and my partner found that we could pick the lock, teleport inside using arcane magicks, talk somebody into giving us the key, or murder the person carrying the key. Everyone in the game can be killed and Larian have ensured that every quest can be completed using alternate means if an essential NPC dies. Many of these backup solutions are intentionally obscure and/or challenging, but that they exist at all shows Larian’s strength of commitment to this particular brand of sandbox/open world.

It’s a simulated place, with basic but functional behaviours for all of its inhabitants. Even the creatures out in the wilds have been hand-placed rather than spawning randomly and it was during a test of the ways in which monsters interact with NPCs that I created a catastrophe. I just wanted to know if orcs would attack guards if a group were lured close enough to the town walls. I ended up with blood on my hands. And on my clothes and coagulating on the soles of my shoes where I’d stepped through the rivers of the stuff that had spilled from all of the dead people. The dead people that the orcs had killed.

I instigated a massacre.

Yes, it turns out, orcs absolutely will attack guards. They’ll attack citizens as well, and let’s not forget cows and, most heinous of all, other ITALICS orcs. Of all the deaths that I caused during my silly experiment, the first stung the most. [...] Turns out the guards aren’t quite ready to face a mob of orcs and we had to lead them through the town, massacring as they went, to the barracks, where the final surviving guard managed to kill the last of them. It was a bloody disaster and a member of Larian’s team, watching over our shoulders, whistled through his teeth: “Nobody has ever done that before.”

That’s the brilliance of the game though. It was a daft thing to do and it took ages, but it was memorable in a way that only that sort of deviance from the ‘correct’ path can be. Original Sin is a heavily scripted game, with thousands of lines of dialogue, hundreds of quests and characters, and carefully constructed tactical encounters – but everything is built on flexible systems, starting with those flowerpots, and that means almost anything is possible within the very broad rules of the world.​

Be sure to read the preview in full.
 

Roguey

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That sounds like a nice semi-sim sandbox to play around in but what about the game??????????????????????????

Oh right, the part about balance being nonexistent.
 
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what's the difference between semi-sim and quasi sim? is it that one is 360-degree realism and the other 180?
 

undecaf

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
What if balance, interpreted as nonexistent, is actully there in a different metaphysical space-time level - and ergo does and does not exist in the same time?
 

toro

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what's the difference between semi-sim and quasi sim? is it that one is 360-degree realism and the other 180?

it's like the difference between full retard and half retard, but in the end it doesn't matter cause you are still a retard. like roguey.
 

Mrowak

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Well, I have to say this sounds most impressive. I am really curious how far you can break this game and get away with it.
 

Mrowak

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Project: Eternity
What if balance, interpreted as nonexistent, is actully there in a different metaphysical space-time level - and ergo does and does not exist in the same time?

I think I just attained true Zen.
 

AstroZombie

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Divinity: Original Sin
RXB0jzF.png
 

himmy

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Doing stuff like the massacre he describes was pretty fun in the Gothic series, luring a horde of orcs or a single shadowbeast over some unsuspecting lumberjacks sitting around a campfire. I can't wait to try it in TB. And considering that everything is pickupable and that you can control the two characters separately in the game, the opportunity arises to build elaborate traps and mazes in which to pit mobs against each-other.
 

Kem0sabe

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If only Larian could manage to write something half decent to go along with the gameplay of their games. Maybe i just cant get Belgium sense of humor. *shrug*
 

Chunkyman

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It's previews like this that reaffirm my belief that D:OS is going to be the best out of the upcoming kickstarter RPGs.
 

Cenobyte

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Yes, I must say the preview sounds very promising. Looking forward to this game!
 
Self-Ejected

Davaris

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It looks very impressive. I'd love to know if they use any specific AI techniques, to control their creature behaviors, or if its all scripting.
 

Jaesun

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Of all the fucking morons on the planet having RPS review this made me at first fucking cringe.

But apparently these people get it.

:bounce:
 

Lancehead

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Larian certainly seem to have the correct design paradigm. Although, I'm not too sure of their xp system; in a game where you're encouraged to find creative solutions to problems, thoughts of xp gain maximisation are a deterrent.
 

Kruno

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Of all the fucking morons on the planet having RPS review this made me at first fucking cringe.

But apparently these people get it.

:bounce:

I understand that RPS can have some stupid political pieces, but what is wrong with their game reviews? Granted I have not read many of them, but they are nowhere near as horrendous as IGN.
 

tuluse

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Of all the fucking morons on the planet having RPS review this made me at first fucking cringe.

But apparently these people get it.

:bounce:
Really? Is there any other remotely mainstream site you would prefer? RPS at least has a measure of intelligence to their criticism even if is misdirected and doesn't cream itself over every new CoD.
 

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