Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

[t]

Ok guise, time to get serious after 35ish hours of gameplay.

This game, although fun, is fun in a guilty kind of way. Character progression and systems are basically Dungeon Siege / Torchlight sort of stuff. I get the latter vibe also from graphics. Setting is as generic as forgotten realms, if not for the artistic style, I would've said that some of it remainds me of BG1's wilderness. Add in cheesy dialogues and pretty much wonderful combat system and that's it.

Now I've heard this game compared to Planescape: Torment and I don't understand that one bit. If I were to summarize it, I would've said: "Well made turn-based dungeon crawler with Torchlight-like progression/artstyle plus funny dialogues and a cool spin on co-op mechanic."

 

[Mangoose]

Meanwhile, Larian drops all pretentions and just delivers popcorn with neither salt nor butter. There's nothing there to offend you, but honestly you might as well eat air. Every piece of world-building, plot and writing just sort of exists.

I guess it's a question of taste whether you dislike total blandness more or less than failed ambition and pandering bullshit (though the Codex usually likes the first part of the latter more than the former). For me, personally, I see no reason to excuse or applaud either.

So, not a fan of fighting the Power Rangers, constantly trolling a Dragon, getting a quest to free a pig, or a Killer Bunny coming after you if you kill too many rabbits?

Maxos!

 

[Zed]

Now I've heard this game compared to Planescape: Torment and I don't understand that one bit. If I were to summarize it, I would've said: "Well made turn-based dungeon crawler with Torchlight-like progression/artstyle plus funny dialogues and a cool spin on co-op mechanic."

What manner of mongoloid ever compared the game to PS:T? There is absolutely *nothing* even *remotely* resembling PS:T in D:OS.

 

[Gord]

This game, although fun, is fun in a guilty kind of way. Character progression and systems are basically Dungeon Siege / Torchlight sort of stuff. I get the latter vibe also from graphics. Setting is as generic as forgotten realms, if not for the artistic style, I would've said that some of it remainds me of BG1's wilderness. Add in cheesy dialogues and pretty much wonderful combat system and that's it.

I honestly don't understand how you come to that conclusion, character system is nothing like either of the two. Art-style might be considered somewhat close to Torchlight since both use a wacky/cartoon-y style, but that's just about it.

Now I've heard this game compared to Planescape: Torment and I don't understand that one bit. If I were to summarize it, I would've said: "Well made turn-based dungeon crawler with Torchlight-like progression/artstyle plus funny dialogues and a cool spin on co-op mechanic."

No idea how someone could say that, since indeed it's nothing like PST either. But fact is, it's nothing like Torchlight, except for superficial similarities in graphics.

 

[t]

What manner of mongoloid ever compared the game to PS:T? There is absolutely *nothing* even *remotely* resembling PS:T in D:OS.

Don't remember, some fucktards on the internetz.

I honestly don't understand how you come to that conclusion, character system is nothing like either of the two.

Level scaled weapons, 1 main ability for every class, bloated damage and hp.

 

[Perkel]

Level scaled weapons, 1 main ability for every class, bloated damage and hp.

- Place scaled weapons.
- Bullshit. Every ability is useful you learn because they scale with your level. There are some better abs like Arrow Spray but those have way longer cooldowns.
- This i agree.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

PST is a weaboo VN with shit combat gameplay thrown in. cause of a retard like Chris.

DOS is a game with great combat gameplay. Exploration is p. solid too with lulzy writing thrown in. Not to mention the modability.

Fuck you snobish storyfags... but DOS is way ahead of PST.

Spoiler

Expecting a ? Go replay PST for the 7th time then

Spoiler

 

[t]

Level scaled weapons, 1 main ability for every class, bloated damage and hp.

- Place scaled weapons.
- Bullshit. Every ability is useful you learn because they scale with your level. There are some better abs like Arrow Spray but those have way longer cooldowns.
- This i agree.

Sorry, checked manual and I meant 1 main statistic. So str for fighters and so on. I know that other are useful to have, but that's very much like Dungeon Siege 1.

"place scaled" -- well, "this sword cannot be used until level 13 without AP penalties" is what I meant. Or "this sword cannot be used until STR 11, period".

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Meanwhile, Larian drops all pretentions and just delivers popcorn with neither salt nor butter. There's nothing there to offend you, but honestly you might as well eat air. Every piece of world-building, plot and writing just sort of exists.

I guess it's a question of taste whether you dislike total blandness more or less than failed ambition and pandering bullshit (though the Codex usually likes the first part of the latter more than the former). For me, personally, I see no reason to excuse or applaud either.

So, not a fan of fighting the Power Rangers, constantly trolling a Dragon, getting a quest to free a pig, or a Killer Bunny coming after you if you kill too many rabbits?

Maxos!

Grunker gonna Grunk

 

[t]

Spoiler

Go replay PST for the 7th time then

What is it, 2004 or what?

 

[Xeon]

AFAIK you can't activate more than 1 mod per playthrough or activate a mod in an existing save unless you download a hotfix or follow some steps or something.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Spoiler

Go replay PST for the 7th time then

What is it, 2004 or what?

You are a faggot for comparing PST to DOS. Did you get your head out of your ass and look beyond PST?

 

[Zed]

No idea how someone could say that, since indeed it's nothing like PST either. But fact is, it's nothing like Torchlight, except for superficial similarities in graphics.

It resembles Torchlight in that it's a bland fantasy world with very little effort going into characters. Even if it's turn-based, there are also a lot of similarities between skills.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

None of these game companies promise any sort of interesting future for RPG writing - in fact they both highlight the core problems we suffer from in their own unique ways.

Again, I'm sticking with what I said in the bit you quoted. And what I wrote earlier in the thread. And what I probably wrote earlier than that. While it's certainly lamentable that every RPG can't have PS:T levels of writing and dialogue it's just not why I play games. It's also why I don't get upset that I'm not quite getting the tactical and strategic combat experience out of this Thomas Pynchon book I'm reading. I'd rather have a serviceable pile of dialogue and story to go with a great world and combat experience than PS:T's "other way around". I can't tell you how many times I thought "God, PS:T is so fun let's start it up again!" only to quit because the actual "game" part of that game is complete shit after the first few areas.

 

[t]

Spoiler

Go replay PST for the 7th time then

What is it, 2004 or what?

You are a faggot for comparing PST to DOS. Did you get your head out of your ass and look beyond PST?

Of course you meant "did you get your head out of PST's ass" and no, I didn't.

 

[Gord]

It resembles Torchlight in that it's a bland fantasy world with very little effort going into characters. Even if it's turn-based, there are also a lot of similarities between skills.

He quoted character system, though, not writing.
Even in the writing department, while I don't think that it's exceptionally deep or extremely well written, I still consider it serviceable.
And come on, characters do have more depth than Torchlight. I mean, seriously...

 

[Perkel]

I think there is big difference between creating cRPG which is story heavy, heaving shit writting and cRPG that was created to have fun with systems and have good enough story to motivate player to finish it.

Point is Larian focused simply on different aspects of cRPG. If they wanted to create some story heavy epic their scope and openes would need to be much more trimmed.

This is why i compared it to Acranum. Arcanum didn't have amazing quests or amazing story. Most of it was mediacore to even shit. Still it gave you enough motivation to use systems in that game and that was main reason of "fun".

 

[t]

And come on, characters do have more depth than Torchlight. I mean, seriously...

I can only agree with that, but still don't understand why you would deny the fact that the way that loot and equipment works and also main atributes'/statistics' roles are very similar.

I think there is big difference between creating cRPG which is story heavy, heaving shit writting and cRPG that was created to have fun with systems and have good enough story to motivate player to finish it.

Yes.

Point is Larian focused simply on different aspects of cRPG. If they wanted to create some story heavy epic their scope and openes would need to be much more trimmed.

This is why i compared it to Acranum. Arcanum didn't have amazing quests or amazing story. Most of it was mediacore to even shit. Still it gave you enough motivation to use systems in that game and that was main reason of "fun".

Arcanum's combat is more like the opposite of fun. The similarities come down to creative usage of broken shit.

And I can't agree on what you say about the quality of questing, but whatever, let's not start that flame war again.

 

[Perkel]

Some hyperbole from me yes.

 

[Gord]

I can only agree with that, but still don't understand why you would deny the fact that the way that loot and equipment works and also main atributes'/statistics' roles are very similar.

So random loot/equipment is something we have in both, true. I'm not a particular big fan of it, either.

As for the rest, I still think it's pretty different.
There are a few things they did similar (in their own way, adapted to the respective game), but I could as well say the game is like Rune because you can use a sword to hit enemies.
E.g. one or two stats to focus on for a "class" is a staple of pretty much every rpg out there and can in D:OS be evaded by building hybrids.
Ultimately D:OS plays pretty different from Torchlight or Dungeon Siege (which has to do also with the small detail that D:OS is turn-based, with sensible amount of combat, while TL and DS are realtime aRPGs focused on nothing BUT combat).

 

[Loriac]

Sorry, checked manual and I meant 1 main statistic. So str for fighters and so on. I know that other are useful to have, but that's very much like Dungeon Siege 1.

I'm not entirely sure I buy into this idea to be honest. If you're playing a focused character in a party of 4, sure you'd probably emphasise your 'primary' stat, but you'd still want a couple of points into speed and con for ap and vitality. Without glass cannon, its unlikely you'd have enough ap to take too many actions per turn, so spreading your attributes around would be suboptimal because with 3 other characters, you can afford to specialise a bit.

If you're playing with a party of 2, and probably using lone wolf, you get enough ability points to specialise in a few different types of skill, and would also need to do so because you don't have 3 other characters to spread the load on your skills, but just your companion. The lone wolf trait meanwhile eliminates the need for speed and con to a large degree (con is still nice though) so you'd have extra to spend on your 2nd attribute for skills.

Meanwhile, once you get the minimum threshold to wear the equipment you want to, additional attribute points are nice but may well be better spent elsewhere. With appropriate buffs (e.g. bless) you don't e.g. need the additional to hit from a slightly higher str and so on.

Of course, its simplest to build for one attribute per character, and have 4 characters in the party, but thats not the same as saying that you can't make dual-focus characters effectively.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Of course you meant "did you get your head out of PST's ass" and no, I didn't.

You are a faggot for comparing PST to DOS

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

PST is a weaboo VN with shit combat gameplay thrown in. cause of a retard like Chris.

DOS is a game with great combat gameplay. Exploration is p. solid too with lulzy writing thrown in. Not to mention the modability.

Fuck you snobish storyfags... but DOS is way ahead of PST.

Spoiler

Expecting a ? Go replay PST for the 7th time then

Spoiler

Truth. So fucking sick of PS:T being paraded around as a good game, much less a game that anyone else should emulate.

Also, have we reached the backlash point yet? It looks like we are getting close.

 

[Athelas]

Good thing nobody seriously compared D:OS to PST except for you.

 

[Perkel]

And come on, characters do have more depth than Torchlight. I mean, seriously...

I can only agree with that, but still don't understand why you would deny the fact that the way that loot and equipment works and also main atributes'/statistics' roles are very similar.

Loot maybe. But not stats. Sure there is main stat. But it is not that crucial.