So who's played Divinity 2?

[Forest Dweller]

It's been out for a while, yet I've seen it mentioned very little over here, which leads me to believe that it's probably shitty, but who knows? For those who've played it, some impressions would be nice. And most importantly, how's the C&C?

 

[Malakal]

I played it. Boring. Didnt manage to get as far as any C&C.

 

[Zed]

Tried it. Too buggy, didn't get far.

Original DD is probably a lot better.

 

[Lesifoere]

It is actually pretty decent, at least for the first area. Light fun, albeit heavy on hack-and-slash and a lot of goblin mobs.

Then you get to the dragon parts and it suddenly goes popamole.

 

[denizsi]

So it's Drakan with RPG Lite. It was obvious it would turn out that way.

 

[Monocause]

Give it a go. Lots of flaws countered by lots and lots of charm. Really worth it IMHO, but approach with caution, your mileage will vary depending on what are you looking for in games.

 

[Zlaja]

Pros:

- pretty funny at times (in a good way)
- cool ending (hated by popamole crowd)
- nice looking armor
- decent voiceovers (if you give a shit about that)
- pretty damn challenging at times (played on medium)
- mindreading is a nice touch
- no respawning

Cons:

- dragon combat sucks
- last areas are super-easy if you level alot (as in taking 0 damage)
- too few character models (everyone's related)
- standard good vs. evil story
- shallow character progression
- tactics = outlevel your opponent
- highly limited apperance choices for your char (if you give a shit about that))
- C & C is mostly non-existent (outside of a few sidequests)

 

[Cenobyte]

Yep, I agree with Zlaja and Monocause. If you don't expect the wrong game, Divinity 2 can make a lot of fun. Very importantly, do not expect a successor of Divine Divinity. The two games have nearly nothing in common.
Contrary to Zlaja, I also liked the skill system since it's very open and free.

 

[Jaesun]

When it hit's the $9.99 bin on Steam I might give it a try.

 

[DraQ]

Yep, I agree with Zlaja and Monocause.

Pretty much this, though I have to add excellentl music, awesome locations and, at times, cool art direction, together building some great atmosphere, to the mix.

It's a genuinely fun H'n'S (and by this I mean 'far more fun than Diablo 2') with some relatively minor, but not trivial C&C thrown in for good measure.

Suckiness of dragon combat is somewhat exaggerated (a 'meh' rather than 'WHYYYY!?' experience), but it's indeed very underwhelming, lacking both the degree of control of Drakan and the WMD rape of The I of The Dragon, as well as the ability to brutalize ground based enemies.

I agree with Zlaja on the ending, in spite of it being a shameless expansion hook.

 

[I.C. Wiener]

It's a fun Gothic clone. Better than Risen except for the random loot, until you get to the part where you have to play as a dragon all the time, then it gets kind of boring. It's kind of buggy but not enough to ruin the experience. I'd say it's worth trying it out.

I was surprised at the actually decent translation, which they put a little flair into. It doesn't help that the source material is doggedly generic. None of the characters are really interesting, including the main villain who is completely forgettable. Some of the music is really good, some of it is generic epic orchestra crap. The graphics are pretty good except it seems very unoptimized.

If you do play it, make sure to save with real manual saves, there's a nasty bug that removes all interactable objects on a quicksave sometimes (which includes the exit doors).

 

[flabbyjack]

It's shite. Plays like an MMO. Some stuff is cool like having your own servants and battletower, but I went through the whole game thinking 'Oh this is gonna be cool once I get to the main city' there is nothing of the sort

 

[Forest Dweller]

Just for reference, it was this news post that got me interested in the game.

In another similar scenario, we met a local farmer's wife named Dana. Dana asked us to deliver a letter to the blacksmith, but asked us to keep it a secret from her husband. We opened the letter to take a peek and discovered that Dana was having an affair with this blacksmith. From here, there were many options available. We could blackmail Dana and deliver the letter; blackmail the blacksmith instead; or perhaps tell her husband and create all sorts of bad will. Instead, we took the most intriguing option: mind reading. By reading an NPC's mind, you can discover important information: treasure locations, enemy locations, and other secrets that could come in handy. The drawback is that reading minds costs you experience, so if you choose that option, your XP bar will diminish. You have to be careful using this option, because you could spend XP only to find that the subject of your mind reading may offer no information of use.

In any case, mind-reading Dana led us to a key hidden inside the farmhouse. We used the key to enter the couple's basement, where we discovered the farmer's diary. We read it to discover that Dana was a bad girl; she'd already cheated on her husband in the past! But the juiciest part was that her husband murdered that gentleman. And again, we had more choices to make. The blackmailing choices were endless! In another instance, we could mind-read a quest giver, only to discover that he intended to pay too little for the items he requested. By refusing the request, he would then be found later in the goblin caves fighting them himself. If he were killed by these creatures, you would then be able to take his powerful armor for yourself, a choice you wouldn't get to make if you simply took the quest. Mind reading should make the already open-ended questing even more flexible.

So is this example just bullshit or not indicative of most quests? Because if not then the game seems like a definite must play. It made it sound like it was really focusing on C&C and that it would be to the first Divinity what Vampire: Bloodlines was to Redemption. Not true? If it's a Gothic clone, that's definitely one similarity they would share - appearing to be heavy in C&C while in fact having none worth speaking of. So which is it?

 

[DraQ]

Just for reference, it was this news post that got me interested in the game.

In another similar scenario, we met a local farmer's wife named Dana. Dana asked us to deliver a letter to the blacksmith, but asked us to keep it a secret from her husband. We opened the letter to take a peek and discovered that Dana was having an affair with this blacksmith. From here, there were many options available. We could blackmail Dana and deliver the letter; blackmail the blacksmith instead; or perhaps tell her husband and create all sorts of bad will. Instead, we took the most intriguing option: mind reading. By reading an NPC's mind, you can discover important information: treasure locations, enemy locations, and other secrets that could come in handy. The drawback is that reading minds costs you experience, so if you choose that option, your XP bar will diminish. You have to be careful using this option, because you could spend XP only to find that the subject of your mind reading may offer no information of use.

In any case, mind-reading Dana led us to a key hidden inside the farmhouse. We used the key to enter the couple's basement, where we discovered the farmer's diary. We read it to discover that Dana was a bad girl; she'd already cheated on her husband in the past! But the juiciest part was that her husband murdered that gentleman. And again, we had more choices to make. The blackmailing choices were endless! In another instance, we could mind-read a quest giver, only to discover that he intended to pay too little for the items he requested. By refusing the request, he would then be found later in the goblin caves fighting them himself. If he were killed by these creatures, you would then be able to take his powerful armor for yourself, a choice you wouldn't get to make if you simply took the quest. Mind reading should make the already open-ended questing even more flexible.

So is this example just bullshit or not indicative of most quests? Because if not then the game seems like a definite must play. It made it sound like it was really focusing on C&C and that it would be to the first Divinity what Vampire: Bloodlines was to Redemption. Not true? If it's a Gothic, that's definitely one similarity they would share - appearing to be heavy in C&C while in fact having none worth speaking of. So which is it?

It is an actual quest in game and it's certainly not the only quest like this (though there are straightforward quests there as well), so I'd say it's quite indicative and definitely not bullshit.

The game does offer a good amount of choice in sidequests, but I'd say they are a spice (an exquisite one, mind you) not the main dish itself, as the game itself concentrates on combat, conceptually grand, diverse locations, combat and not taking itself dead seriously. And combat.
It's a hack and slash, first and foremost, though unusual in the amount of C&C it contains.

 

[Forest Dweller]

not taking itself dead seriously.

Yeah that sounds like Gothic as well. Still, as long as it isn't too comical to the point where I wouldn't be engaged in the story, I'm okay with that. C&C is what I care about the most, and if it has enough of that I'll be happy. It's $30 on Amazon now. How is the main quest though? Is there any branching there, or multiple endings? Also, how is the writing?

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

the whole first area is pretty decent, presenting multiple quest solutions, a variety of quests etc. In the german version the writing, voice overs were at times very good. music & graphics were awesome.

some problems:
- a lot of mindreading happens in the first village at lvl1, that means you can easily gather an XP debt of several 1000 XP (mindreading costs XP) cementing you at lvl1 for quite some time, which makes killing the lvl3/4 goblins which are your first enemies a real pain. It's probably best to grind a bit to make at least lvl3 before you start the mindreading stuff in the first village.
- since outleveling the opponents is the only way (you can't use clever tactics to defeat higher lvl enemies, you can't damage them and you'll die in seconds) you're pretty much forced to follow a fairly linear path thru the open world, ie first kill all goblins in the lvl3/4 goblin cave so that you become powerful enough to take on the next area with lvl5/6 mobs etc
- while the character system allows for a variety of different builds that play differently you're pretty much forced to focus on a few abilities and constantly upgrade them to keep them effective, resulting in spamming the same abilities exclusively throughout the whole game, for me that becomes boring eventually

 

[Zlaja]

How is the main quest though? Is there any branching there, or multiple endings?

In your dreams.

 

[DraQ]

The MQ is linear. I don't think you have any other choice in it, than to choose your servants for the tower, which results in somewhat differently specialized services and different assortment of sidequests, but doesn't really influence the MQ itself.

 

[Monocause]

- since outleveling the opponents is the only way (you can't use clever tactics to defeat higher lvl enemies, you can't damage them and you'll die in seconds) you're pretty much forced to follow a fairly linear path thru the open world, ie first kill all goblins in the lvl3/4 goblin cave so that you become powerful enough to take on the next area with lvl5/6 mobs etc

That's not true, I remember killing higher level enemies quite often. Remember that the skill system completely lacks balance - perhaps you unintentionally crippled you build?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Best game of the year so far.

 

[Monocause]

BTW, Dicksmoker, perhaps you should wait for the expansion release. It is said to contain numerous engine improvements (most importantly performance-oriented) and they will release these also as a patch for D2 to use without the expansion.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

- since outleveling the opponents is the only way (you can't use clever tactics to defeat higher lvl enemies, you can't damage them and you'll die in seconds) you're pretty much forced to follow a fairly linear path thru the open world, ie first kill all goblins in the lvl3/4 goblin cave so that you become powerful enough to take on the next area with lvl5/6 mobs etc

That's not true, I remember killing higher level enemies quite often. Remember that the skill system completely lacks balance - perhaps you unintentionally crippled you build?

I meant if your enemy is significantly higher level, not only 1 or 2. Example: this killer rabbit (lvl 22), would just one hit kill me, whereas later after I had outleveled it, his attacks didn't even cause damage. The level seems to have an higher influence than say Armor Class or Magic Resistance.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS I JUST BOUGHT FAG DIVINITY 2 AND FAG EFFECT 2 I WILL BE GIVING TOTALLY HETEROSEXUAL BROTASTIC REVIEWS SOON IN A COMP[LETELY NEW TOPIC TO GET THE ATTENTION I DESERVE

 

[Forest Dweller]

I meant if your enemy is significantly higher level, not only 1 or 2. Example: this killer rabbit (lvl 22), would just one hit kill me, whereas later after I had outleveled it, his attacks didn't even cause damage. The level seems to have an higher influence than say Armor Class or Magic Resistance.

Sounds like Gothic.

 

[Terror Teats]

BROS I JUST BOUGHT FAG DIVINITY 2 AND FAG EFFECT 2 I WILL BE GIVING TOTALLY HETEROSEXUAL BROTASTIC REVIEWS SOON IN A COMP[LETELY NEW TOPIC TO GET THE ATTENTION I DESERVE

You deserve a lot more attention than you'll ever get here, BLOBERT. And I mean that with much .