Lysiander
Novice
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2009
- Messages
- 24
Well, to answer the OP's question, Divinity 2 is not a good game. It is fun, entertaining and does a good job of keeping you interested, but it is not a good game.
Storywise, the whole of the mainquest is relatively thin in terms of writing, linear and doesn't offer any meaningfull choice to speak of. And while it did keep me interested without the 'whatever, I just wanna be done here' problem that usually occurs in such linear games, it is simply not a well written story.
The sad thing is, it could have been. They actually missed by only a couple of sentences. I don't wanna spoil anything here, so lets just say they had a decent shot at presenting a good story that could have stood out of the usual safe the world happy end bla bla bullshit, but the blew it by not thinking it through.
From a technical standpoint, the game is amazingly well done. While there are numerous bugs, I haven't encountered a single gamebreaking bug and very few minor ones in about 40-50 hours of gameplay. This however comes at a price, the price of convenience. The inventory is badly done, you cannot handle stacks for instance. You cannot doubleclick savegames to save or load, the keyboard is disbaled for conversations or quest rewards and quite a few other similar things that could have easily been implemented but weren't.
Gameplay wise the game has more than a few balance problems. There is no way to adjust dificulty and depending on what skills you choose the game goes from impossible by the numbers to easy as shit. Some skills are so insanely powerfull that its not funny anymore while others are either okay or underpowered as hell.
Equipment plays a huge role in this too, but due to the fact that pretty much everything is randomized diablo style you can either save and reload before quest turn-ins until you get what you want or risk not beeing able to survive in certain areas.
The greatly hyped mind reading feature is exactly that, hyped. While it is an interesting tool to play with and does offer some hilarity at times, it quickly moves from a meaningfull choice (Do I use mindreading here to get this nice item but delay my level with it) to just another button you habitually click in conversations because the cost equalized with one more mob kill.
All in all, the game feels like they had a couple of great ideas which could have filled about a fourth of the game. But instead of either making a small game or thinking things through, they implemented those ideas and just filled the rest up with more of the same. Many of the sidequests after the starting area significantly loose in quality and appeal and combat quickly becomes a clickfest. I'd like to say a couple of more month of polishing could have done it, but the truth is that the game is flawed in it's basic design and writing.
Yet, I still maintain it is a fun game and even worth playing. Despite its many flaws I wasn't overly frustrated in my first playthrough (broke off my second about 3/4 through the game) and I felt well entertained. It could be that I was just starved for an RPG I didn't know by heart or that I just had low expectations, but again that wouldn't be true. I had fun playing it, but from an objective standpoint it simply is not a good game.
Storywise, the whole of the mainquest is relatively thin in terms of writing, linear and doesn't offer any meaningfull choice to speak of. And while it did keep me interested without the 'whatever, I just wanna be done here' problem that usually occurs in such linear games, it is simply not a well written story.
The sad thing is, it could have been. They actually missed by only a couple of sentences. I don't wanna spoil anything here, so lets just say they had a decent shot at presenting a good story that could have stood out of the usual safe the world happy end bla bla bullshit, but the blew it by not thinking it through.
From a technical standpoint, the game is amazingly well done. While there are numerous bugs, I haven't encountered a single gamebreaking bug and very few minor ones in about 40-50 hours of gameplay. This however comes at a price, the price of convenience. The inventory is badly done, you cannot handle stacks for instance. You cannot doubleclick savegames to save or load, the keyboard is disbaled for conversations or quest rewards and quite a few other similar things that could have easily been implemented but weren't.
Gameplay wise the game has more than a few balance problems. There is no way to adjust dificulty and depending on what skills you choose the game goes from impossible by the numbers to easy as shit. Some skills are so insanely powerfull that its not funny anymore while others are either okay or underpowered as hell.
Equipment plays a huge role in this too, but due to the fact that pretty much everything is randomized diablo style you can either save and reload before quest turn-ins until you get what you want or risk not beeing able to survive in certain areas.
The greatly hyped mind reading feature is exactly that, hyped. While it is an interesting tool to play with and does offer some hilarity at times, it quickly moves from a meaningfull choice (Do I use mindreading here to get this nice item but delay my level with it) to just another button you habitually click in conversations because the cost equalized with one more mob kill.
All in all, the game feels like they had a couple of great ideas which could have filled about a fourth of the game. But instead of either making a small game or thinking things through, they implemented those ideas and just filled the rest up with more of the same. Many of the sidequests after the starting area significantly loose in quality and appeal and combat quickly becomes a clickfest. I'd like to say a couple of more month of polishing could have done it, but the truth is that the game is flawed in it's basic design and writing.
Yet, I still maintain it is a fun game and even worth playing. Despite its many flaws I wasn't overly frustrated in my first playthrough (broke off my second about 3/4 through the game) and I felt well entertained. It could be that I was just starved for an RPG I didn't know by heart or that I just had low expectations, but again that wouldn't be true. I had fun playing it, but from an objective standpoint it simply is not a good game.
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