Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition

When I was younger and read a lot more fantasy novels, I used to have a rule that if there were talking animals, the book or series wasn't for me. There's just something with animals being capable of human speech (more than parroting words) that puts me right off. It also tended to be a sign that there were other things I disliked. I guess the rule might apply to video games too.

A whimsical RPG

I saw someone comparing Divinity: Original Sin's writing to Terry Pratchett fan fiction. I'm not sure how accurate that is but the comparison does feel apt. The game definitely doesn't take itself seriously. That is why I find it impossible to care about the setting or story -- there is simply too much silliness.

In Original Sin you control a party of 2 to 4 members. One of the game's selling points is its support for co-operative play. It is very much playable in single player but even then you always create two main characters.

You can set them to have AI personalities but unless you want unwelcome surprises, you're better off leaving the setting empty. For instance, in a dialogue puzzle you might end up in a disagreement about the correct answer if your companion has a personality.

I decided to not set personalities but still do roleplaying. Inspired by Dragonlance, I made and played my pair of characters like the Majere twins Caramon and Raistlin, just female. It turned out to be an interesting experience, trying to pick options that suited them.

Sometimes I had to fight the system to keep Cara and Raistlina in character. I wanted Raistlina to be the one who would always get the final word without needing the game's dumb, randomized persuasion system. Thus I occasionally had to reload and change which character initiated dialogue since she gets the option to follow the other character's lead after an initial disagreement.

I was also tempted to powergame with decisions and dialogue choices as they give points in paired traits. A character gets a different bonus depending on which of her traits is higher and some of them are very specific while the others are useful to anyone. For instance, Vindictive gives +20% chance to hit on opportunity attacks (which require a talent and a melee weapon equipped) while its pair Forgiving grants immunity to Cursed debuff.

Like Divinity 2, Original Sin too has a classless skill system. You can spread your points around how you like but highly specializing in at least one thing is probably wise.

Apparently one should not bother with a shield-wielding tank and instead go for two-handed weapon for more damage. Block chance starts in single digits, not really increasing your survivability at all. It would be better to be able to kill enemies faster.

I kept to it regardless and towards the end of the game, with maxed Shield Specialist skill and a high level improved shield, Cara's block chance got to 63%. The blocking animation combined with its sound effect is rather satisfying, I have to say. However, even then you can only block basic melee and ranged attacks -- special abilities always hit. I stopped using Taunt early on after in one fight it managed to affect every enemy and Cara got killed in focused fire.

Plenty to play through

Original Sin is a long game; it took me 93 hours to beat it. Overworld maps are large and it can even be unclear where the game wants you to go and where you should go -- enemy levels make a big difference on encounter difficulty. I wish the camera's angle could be moved at least somewhat -- being able to see farther would be nice. Horizontal rotation only helped me to get more lost at times.

Managing equipment and crafting takes effort too. I think completely randomized item stats in a party-based RPG is probably not the best idea, at least when the game is not just about combat like Dungeon Siege is. You have to compare new items to current equipment so often. Larian Studios also thought that identifying items one by one is a fun activity and not a thing of the past. It's like Diablo 3 before patch 2.0.

Turn-based combat, however, is what you'll spend most of your time doing. I found the game fairly challenging even on Classic (normal?) difficulty. Maybe that's why, even though numerous and turn-based, encounters never got quite to the point of tedium as in something like Blackguards. Fights didn't usually last that many rounds either.

Braccus Rex was probably the hardest encounter, or at least getting past his first turn. He liked to initiate the fight with Meteorstrike that always one-shot my whole party.

Void Dragon was properly challenging for a final boss though not that difficult in the end. I still ended up retrying the fight multiple times because I wanted to beat it while Icara was in control of the Soul-Forged Sisters. She gets cleansed of Leandra that way but if the latter is in control, both will die. Saving Icara changed the after-battle dialogue slightly but I don't think it was worth it in the end.

I didn't count how many attempts it took but on the successful one, one of the lesser enemies managed to stun the sisters for a couple of turns, which prevented Leandra wrenching control at the end of the second round. I should've realized that works and disabled her myself instead of trying to win in 2 rounds (I got close) or to prolong the fight to have Icara get back on top.

Not completely enhanced

I reckon the decision to have turn-based combat was made at least partly to have smoother controller support. I found the lack of pausing to be annoying at times. Unlike in Harebrained Schemes' Shadowrun games, your characters don't get healed and status effects removed after combat ends which can be lethal if someone is bleeding or poisoned at low health. You have to quickly find a healing item or spell in the many action bars of your party or be forced to use a resurrection scroll.

Occasionally an enemy can think overly long of its turn without then doing anything -- sometimes even endlessly, forcing a reload.

Controlling your characters separately out of combat is also clunkier than it would be with realtime tactics style unit selection. You have to unlink them from the party to have not them follow another controlled character. And then re-link them to move as one group again.

It's easy to clutter your inventory with all kinds of items and nigh impossible to tell what you're going to need later for crafting. The game is stingy with recipe information and wants you to discover most of them yourself like in Ember. Majority of the crap I had gathered didn't get utilized in the end -- there are only a few actually useful recipes.

At least carrying all the stuff isn't too much of a hassle if you have someone with high strength. Special arrows one shouldn't just carry, though. In fact, you should try to use as many as possible in every encounter. Otherwise you'll be swimming in them. Especially the ones that create or interact with elemental surfaces are nice for comboing with your mages' spells.

Original Sin 2, a sequel to the game -- at least a continuation in genre if not in story -- was released last year and was well received. I have no idea why that is but I guess I'll play it eventually. It's also worth noting that the Original Sin games are maybe the only ones of the many new isometric RPGs that don't use Unity but an engine of the studio's own making. The first game (at least) runs well and looks good, so no complaints in there.