When you try to open it, guard stops you. After taking the right dialog choice rest is up to your charisma (and smelly panties...)
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Divinity Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition
- Thread starter Abu Antar
- Start date
When you try to open it, guard stops you. After taking the right dialog choice rest is up to your charisma (and smelly panties...)
Avellion
Erudite
Kevin Van Ord is one probably the only decent reviewer on that site.
At least it is not Carolyn Petit who would probably write a paragraph or two whining about that one dialogue option where you can imply that your characters are NOT feminists.
Angthoron
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2007
- Messages
- 13,056
Huh, never tried that, thanks.
Kem0sabe
Arcane
D:OS will be remembered as an inclined rpg for years to come not because of its writing and C&C, but because of the care and thought Larian put into its world design and game systems. It's a marvelous experience that gives you the freedom to play as you want in terms of exploration, combat and character development.
That being said, there are no grounds on which to defend the writing, it's better written and voiced than previous Larian games but a slight improvement over mediocrity can only go so far. The characters are forgettable, the story is one cliche after the other, the tropes being paraded in front of you are just too many with too few twists to make it all interesting.
My advice to Larian for the future... give up on this ridiculous universe you have built, get your hands on some good IP, preferably Scifi, hire some decent people to develop the script, preferably someone who isnt in touch with his inner teen nerd, and proceed to make something beautiful.
That being said, there are no grounds on which to defend the writing, it's better written and voiced than previous Larian games but a slight improvement over mediocrity can only go so far. The characters are forgettable, the story is one cliche after the other, the tropes being paraded in front of you are just too many with too few twists to make it all interesting.
My advice to Larian for the future... give up on this ridiculous universe you have built, get your hands on some good IP, preferably Scifi, hire some decent people to develop the script, preferably someone who isnt in touch with his inner teen nerd, and proceed to make something beautiful.
Arkeus
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2012
- Messages
- 1,406
In divinity, random sailors ask you for help in finding them a job- you can find a local captain to take them in, or the fabulous five. If you chose the fabulous five, you then can later on save them (or not). If you save them, one becomes a guard to treasure room that you can charm into opening it. I have no clue what happens if they get to go under the captain, but i expect a whole other quest chain.
In Divinity, you get to find that a sheep has been buried instead of a corpse- you can then talk to the murtuary, get him to bribe you to keep it quiet, then go and give the sheep back to the owner, and help her convince the guard captain to imprison the mortuary.
In Divinity, you can help a blacksmith and his wife to get to a new village- if the blacksmith or the wife dies during the travel, the items they sell will be different, and later quests will be too.
In divinity, you get a enbittered old elf asking you to kill the survivor of a clan that massacred his- you can kill that orc, pretend to kill her, tell the mayor about it and you get his blessing to kill the elf, and later on there might be other quests about the elf.
In divinity, you have the necromancer mayor ask you to find a staff he bought and was stolen inway. You can side with either side, and choose to give it or not to him even if you don't side with the 'bandits'. Given he is planning to use this staff to become a lich.....
etc etc etc.
bonescraper
Guest
Yes, that's retarded. But plot-holes aside, it most likely will have longer-lasting and C&C intertwining quests. That's enough to blow DoS out of the water in that aspect. Not that you really need much to do so.
Just to be clear. DoS is a really solid game. The setting, story and general atmosphere just really doesn't make me want to push forward and play it 'till i faint from exhaustion. Combat is great, crafting i neat etc. But it lacks... i dunno, some sort of hook? So, in my opinion, it's not a 10/10 classic. I guess i'd prefer a flawed gem than a mechanically solid, but all in all bland game like this.
But let's get back to this discussion in a year, when all the hype wears out
nikolokolus
Arcane
- Joined
- May 8, 2013
- Messages
- 4,090
I'm in a similar boat. I find myself not really giving a fuck about the actual characters and story, which has always been a hook for me to keep pushing on in most RPGs ... but it just doesn't matter in this game, because the actual gameplay has been so good. It's one of those rare games, where you feel like everything you try is going to lead to some kind of result when you're interacting with the environment and the combat system. Which is a long-winded way of saying, most RPGs seem to have lackluster mechanics and use the story as the payoff for sticking with it, whereas playing D:OS is its own reward.
That quest is mostly a reference/homeage to Divine Divinty where you can save both patients by copying the gem.
bonescraper
Guest
Binary choice with a reward. And don't tell me what you "expect". Facts please. I bet there won't be any other quest chain related to that choice. Quest resolved, that's it.
That's one example of not-so-binary choice (the only one you give). Because you can make a deal and fuck him over anyway. Ok +1 for you.
A binary choice. And the items he provides are worthless anyway, just like 90% of the stuff i find (and they're not identified? WTF?).
There might be, but there anen't. Binary choice.
So he can become a lich and cause havoc in the city? No? Binary choice. The background shit is meaningless.
Yes, i know. Doesn't make it less retarded. Your point?
No, retard. I'm not a powergamer. But i don't know what the game will throw at me later on, and i don't know if i'll be able to win every fight. And because - check this out, i choose a sub-optimal party! A rogue, 2 knights and a mage! OMFG, your brain = blown? I want to, you know, finish the game in my lifetime. There are what? 5 leves of every skill/ability/whatever? They are there for a reason. So, just because you're a hardcore, "mature" roleplayer you set your standards not to reach level 5 in any skill because that feels dirty? Jebus fucking christ. It's not like i'm presented with really robust choices, since diplomatic skills don't really matter with that whole minigame.
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I feel that D:OS is a great game not by the individual brilliance of its mechanics, but the sum of its parts. In fact, it is a great game for the opposite reason that makes most of the classic games of the Codex be considered as such.
Fallout, Arcanum, Planescape, Vampire, etc. All these games are amazing, (almost) nobody doubts it. But the common thread among them is that they all have one or two main features that stand out (like history, or C&C), and the rest of its features are somewhat limited or even broken. But in what they are good, they are so good that everything else turns out to be insignificant. D:OS is a game that isn't brilliant at anything in particular, but the amount of content is so massive that you cannot help but be astonished. Individually, no part stands out as much as the classics, but they were all done carefully enough to be functional and fun. You have such a complete experience that you ends up being satisfied, like the feeling of having eaten a massive meal. It's good as a whole and, in that way, it becomes amazing.
Fallout, Arcanum, Planescape, Vampire, etc. All these games are amazing, (almost) nobody doubts it. But the common thread among them is that they all have one or two main features that stand out (like history, or C&C), and the rest of its features are somewhat limited or even broken. But in what they are good, they are so good that everything else turns out to be insignificant. D:OS is a game that isn't brilliant at anything in particular, but the amount of content is so massive that you cannot help but be astonished. Individually, no part stands out as much as the classics, but they were all done carefully enough to be functional and fun. You have such a complete experience that you ends up being satisfied, like the feeling of having eaten a massive meal. It's good as a whole and, in that way, it becomes amazing.
Yeah.
For some reason, one of my dudes when talking with the door guard just started walking for no reason, and he managed to IDCLIP through the wall inside. After which he still kept walking, breaking through a cliff and some other places until he went off the map and returned to his original place.
Meanwhile my 2nd dude could TP to him when he was crossing the locked part of the warehouse
Good that I just took it for yourself as Good
And in case of elf you can just tell Good Captain to send some legionaries to arrest him; its good to play the game where you don't have to do everything yourself.
Some choices in quests and dialogues give you various skill bonuses and magic immunities so make sure to check often an pick what you need.
The hook? Its pretty much the combat encounters, puzzle/adventure sections and lulz here and there. That is a bit on the hard side is a pretty good thing too cause it feels a bit better when you beat a bit more difficult encounter.
People expecting end-all be-all RPG aint gonna get it and its fucking stupid comparing or critisizing the game cause the game B and game C had this one feature and D: OS doesnt.
Its their own(Larian's) take on turn-based RPG and play it as a new fresh game instead of comparing it at every step to other games.
Same shit with Blackguards, OMG the gaem story doesnt move me like Baldurs Gate, tehrefore its teh suck.
Its your fucking loss, choose to live in bitter nostalgia or play new games with a fresh take on the genre. I'm happy that someone still makes 'em and that they turn out to be solid games suprisingly.
As with Blackguards, same applies for Original Sin. If Sawyer, Fargo, Laidlaw made it instead you'll be sucking on their dick for hours to no end.
People expecting end-all be-all RPG aint gonna get it and its fucking stupid comparing or critisizing the game cause the game B and game C had this one feature and D: OS doesnt.
Its their own(Larian's) take on turn-based RPG and play it as a new fresh game instead of comparing it at every step to other games.
Same shit with Blackguards, OMG the gaem story doesnt move me like Baldurs Gate, tehrefore its teh suck.
Its your fucking loss, choose to live in bitter nostalgia or play new games with a fresh take on the genre. I'm happy that someone still makes 'em and that they turn out to be solid games suprisingly.
As with Blackguards, same applies for Original Sin. If Sawyer, Fargo, Laidlaw made it instead you'll be sucking on their dick for hours to no end.
Anyone got to gauge the extent of the game world yet, especially in terms of geography? I haven't been yet able to find a "world" map...
e-mailio estevez
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2012
- Messages
- 1,662
In Fallout 2 you can fucking outplay 4 crime families, join or destroy the slavers (with each choice having it's own pros and cons), marry a woman and turn her into a prostitute (
I know this is off the subject, but... how do you actually accomplish this in Fallout 2?
I even remember seeing this, uh, 'feature' as a bullet-point in FO2 ads. But I never could figure out how it's done.
Loriac
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2007
- Messages
- 2,375
You haven't played a lot of RPGs then, even those you mentioned above it seems?
You gotta be kidding me. DoS has a few binary choices and some flavor text, that's fucking all. Nothing really impacts the game world, and every quest works in its own little vacuum. Compare that to NWN 2 (vanilla, just because). That's an example of a game where your choices matter. Your race matters, your background matters, your class matters, your alingment matters, your plot choices matter and your build matters in pretty much every part of the game. From combat to conversations (shitload of skill checks) to NPC reactions. If you're a paladin, you'll have paladin exclusive choices, if you're a drow, you can talk to/befriend a spider easily, and people will react to your race with an appropriate comment etc. There's a ton of reactivity and roleplaying choices.
In Fallout 2 you can fucking outplay 4 crime families, join or destroy the slavers (with each choice having it's own pros and cons), marry a woman and turn her into a prostitute (
That's roreplaying you know.
And in Divinity... Evelyn asks you to choose which of her patients to cure, just because the devs felt like forcing the player into a "tough moral choice". How ridiculous was the whole situation. "Hey, i'm the doctor's assistant! I have this healing stone, but i can't decide which of my patients i'm going to save. So why won't you - the random stranger i've never met - choose who's going to live and who's going to die? Because i don't want to, tee-hee!" And if you'll walk out the door, they''ll both die, and i'll blame it on YOU!"...
Really? Fucking seriously?
That just proves this game is an excellent proof of well executed craftmanship. Nothing more, nothing less. But just like i said, i'm not impressed by its story, dialogues and roleplaying aspects. I bet Wasteland 2 has better and more meaningful C&C, even if, as a whole, i consider it an enormous disappointment.
There are (at least) two aspects to 'roleplaying'.
One is what you've set out above, and which I'll call 'plot roleplaying' for want of a better term. In a PnP session, this would be the type of roleplaying where you decide how the big story unfolds, what your group chooses to do, what their long term goals are etc and the DM can adjust to this by tailoring the long-term campaign. This type of roleplaying is extremely difficult in a computer game, because by definition it requires that the game developer think ahead of time of all of the reasonable options for a given scenario and code them in. If you want to accommodate this playstyle, the logical conclusion is probably something like AoD - which goes for verisimilitude in the setting, and packs in several different strands into the same campaign, each strand representing a particular protagonist class's perspective.
The second aspect is what I'll call 'tactical roleplaying'. This is where you are given a scenario with a set objective, and your roleplay consists in optimising your actions to achieve the objective. So a classic example here is say a mission based game, where the objectives are set in stone (orders from your superiors or whatever as the plot device) and where a good game will give you several different ways to achieve that outcome, depending on your build (e.g. stealth vs. all guns blazing, hacking/technology vs. brute force etc).
When people say that DOS offers superlative roleplaying, they're talking about tactical roleplaying. You can use the environment, your skillset, enemy patterns of behavior etc to significantly alter how the game plays out. Its still not as good as a PnP session of course, but its much better than the vast majority of cRPGs and it can be a lot of fun as you start to focus on the situations presented by the game designer rather than the best mechanics to use which apply across the board (which is the usual way cRPGs play out). Another excellent example of this type of approach is Blackguards, where each set piece battle allowed you to work out specific tactics for your particular team in that situation.
Its a matter of choice as to which aspects people look for in a computer game, but I do think there tends to be an eliteness sometimes from people who want plot roleplaying and see it as the sine qua non of 'proper' RPGs. Either way, you can't deny that at the tactical level, DOS offers players an experience that has probably never been done as well or as comprehensively in the past.
TheEntitledOne
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2012
- Messages
- 4,065
So I just met Dark Underlord in this game.
I hope I don't encounter
I hope I don't encounter
ITT: people who think that linear CYOA gamebook is roleplaying.
Gord
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2011
- Messages
- 7,049
It's not exactly huge when you measure the surface area, I think.
It does feel reasonably large however due to frequent winding paths and high amount of content.
jdinatale
Cipher
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2013
- Messages
- 422
>Implying that Baldur's Gate, Torment, IWD, and Arcanum weren't linear CYOA gamebooks too.
Yea, they were. Nothing wrong with that, as long as people don't go around claiming that they were great roleplaying games because of that.
The refreshing thing about D:OS is that it has gameplay mechanics that allow the same kind of creative thinking and out-of- the-box thinking that traditional PnP roleplaying does. Because that is what roleplaying is for me.
Chaotic_Heretic
Arcane
Arcanum sure wasn't
himmy
Arcane
bonescraper
Guest
Sorry guys, the game is perfect. There is no way it could be improved upon, it does everything better than any other cRPG, ever. Item interaction is teh new roleplayings. Over and out.
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