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Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:35 am by 
Publisher: DTP Entertainment
Developer: Larian Studios
Genre: Action Role-Playing Game
Platform: PC, Xbox
Release: USA: 6th January 2010, EU: 29th December 2009
ESRB: Mature
Note: This review was made on the PC version of the game but may also apply for the Xbox version in some parts.
Story:
Well, I haven`t played the first Divinity so I don`t really know if it`s related to it or not. But if you are in the same boat, don`t worry, I have not found any difficulty in understanding the story itself.
The story starts you being a beginner "slayer". More precisely a Dragon Slayer. Their main objective is to slay the Dragon Knights. A Dragon Knight is a somewhat descendant of a dragon, possessing the ability to even take a dragons form. As there is only one Knight remaining by the time our journey begins, it seems that they don`t really need another Slayer to join the hunt. However, your accidental encounter with that last Knight reveals you the other side of the coin. And that is where your true journey begins.
Graphics:
I must say that there is nothing really special about it - unfortunately. The graphics are not so well made as you would think in these times. Maybe the sun was the only graphical part that hit my expectations. That lighting effect seems pretty good to me (I`m not an expert). Oh, and I liked the dragon form. When you keep diving down, you really get the expression that your speed is increasing.
Something like that.
What made me feel that they does not put enough work in the graphics was that I kept going "through" walls then kept falling into the big dark nothing. I think it is a serious glitch. Also found "indestructible pots" that keep rolling over and over again when you leave a room and reenter - even if you destroyed it. The dialogue box is way too large in my opinion, and I don`t mean the height of it but the width. It`s stretching all over the screen and what for? There are a lot of choices that you can make or say which contains only tree to four words so I can`t see the point of a big dialogue box.
See what I mean?
Sound:
Lets start with the music. First of all the musics in the game are fitting the situations you are in. But as it is not really a "quick" game, you can get the expression "oh, this music...again". They could have made a little more flying, dungeon and battle themes. The dialogues are good enough in the main storyline, although there are some pretty sentences that are lacking the right tone for it. But those are not so noticeable as they are in some "shortie" side quests. But what made me laugh is when you pick up some food, your character says: "shiny!" I mean, seriously? How can a bread be so shiny?
Controls:
The controls are as you can expect from nowaday RPGs. Camera movement with mouse, left click-attack, some quickslots for magic and potion. The real pain is the targeting system. You must target your enemy before you attack it `cause without that, you probably won`t hit too many times or you won`t hit at all. It took me some time to find this out. The reason for that was that there was no button assigned to that command by default (but it could be just in the version I played). Aside from that, I`ve got no difficulties while I was playing.
Gameplay:
The real good part of this game is the gameplay itself. Your character is highly customizable. You can use various types of combat techniques and decide which direction will you take. You can use a lot of magic - if you want so -, take a bow or be a warrior. You also have tree equipable weapon slot from which you can switch back and forth. There are dozens of magic and skills you can chose, maybe a little too much if you ask me. The weapons, armors and accessories are highly customizable too. You can enchant them with gems and other materials making them a lot more powerful. There is loot in every crack and bush, which is an essential part of every RPG game. You can even make your own creature later in the game to fight for you or just create a distraction with it. You can learn alchemy and make your own powerful potions. And I must mention that you will have your own battle tower where an enchanter, an alchemist, a trainer and a necromancer will work for you, of course free of charge.
There are plenty of armors and weapons you can find all around the world of Divinity.
Lot of skills. And there is two row that did not fit in the screen!
The map gives you a clean overview but if you need more info, you can place a custom marker wherever you want.
I didn`t liked that you obtain your dragon form way too late in the game. Some may think: "if yo can be a dragon, why don`t you just keep flaring enemies sparing time?" I tell you why. Because you can`t. When you take your dragon form, you can`t even see the enemies on the ground. And beside, what would be the fun in that? On the other hand, if you are in human form, you see the flying enemies around you.
A cleaned "flying fortress". It`s fun to fight your way through the bad guys as a dragon.
The kickback of the game is the unbalanced difficulty level. Sometimes you just run through your enemies with a single blow, and sometimes you will find almost "impossible to beat" hordes of monsters which can be really annoying (at least it was for me). The enemies won`t respawn so you are stuck with the experience you have. And that is not much I think. An RPG where your max level can`t go above 34-36. Black point from me. And my favourite: when you lure an enemy far from its original location, some magical force will keep healing it until it returns "home", making him invincible. I really can`t understand why did the creators made that. Also didn`t liked the ending. There is no ending at all I think. It`s like you made a huge sandwich and you could not eat all of it. You will see what I mean if you decide to play through this game.
And now for the bugs and glitches. I found several annoying glitches while I was playing. Like when I stucked in a conversation forever preventing me to start or finish a sidequest (I don`t know which one because the conversation never finished), and the only thing I could do is to restart the game. I heard talks about a certain save glitch too. When you save your game in a dungeon (and you will), and load that, you end up outside of it and the entrance will disappear for good (I have not experienced this one). These are the most serious issues in the game.
My thoughts:
Despite all I wrote above, I enjoyed the game `cause I am a big "loot fan". I like to explore every corner of a fantasy world hoping that I will find something new and better. And I noticed that the creators mixed in some famous characters from movies and TV shows. There is an NPC with the name of Scofield and he really helps in the escape of his comrade. And there is Baal. That one is the exact Alien from the movies. I liked that a lot. For a gaming experience it was not so bad and it was challenging, as a viewing it was lacking some details. But if you like to discover virtual worlds like me, I recommend this one for you too.
Well, I haven`t played the first Divinity so I don`t really know if it`s related to it or not. But if you are in the same boat, don`t worry, I have not found any difficulty in understanding the story itself.
The story starts you being a beginner "slayer". More precisely a Dragon Slayer. Their main objective is to slay the Dragon Knights. A Dragon Knight is a somewhat descendant of a dragon, possessing the ability to even take a dragons form. As there is only one Knight remaining by the time our journey begins, it seems that they don`t really need another Slayer to join the hunt. However, your accidental encounter with that last Knight reveals you the other side of the coin. And that is where your true journey begins.
Graphics:
I must say that there is nothing really special about it - unfortunately. The graphics are not so well made as you would think in these times. Maybe the sun was the only graphical part that hit my expectations. That lighting effect seems pretty good to me (I`m not an expert). Oh, and I liked the dragon form. When you keep diving down, you really get the expression that your speed is increasing.
Something like that.
What made me feel that they does not put enough work in the graphics was that I kept going "through" walls then kept falling into the big dark nothing. I think it is a serious glitch. Also found "indestructible pots" that keep rolling over and over again when you leave a room and reenter - even if you destroyed it. The dialogue box is way too large in my opinion, and I don`t mean the height of it but the width. It`s stretching all over the screen and what for? There are a lot of choices that you can make or say which contains only tree to four words so I can`t see the point of a big dialogue box.
See what I mean?
Sound:
Lets start with the music. First of all the musics in the game are fitting the situations you are in. But as it is not really a "quick" game, you can get the expression "oh, this music...again". They could have made a little more flying, dungeon and battle themes. The dialogues are good enough in the main storyline, although there are some pretty sentences that are lacking the right tone for it. But those are not so noticeable as they are in some "shortie" side quests. But what made me laugh is when you pick up some food, your character says: "shiny!" I mean, seriously? How can a bread be so shiny?
Controls:
The controls are as you can expect from nowaday RPGs. Camera movement with mouse, left click-attack, some quickslots for magic and potion. The real pain is the targeting system. You must target your enemy before you attack it `cause without that, you probably won`t hit too many times or you won`t hit at all. It took me some time to find this out. The reason for that was that there was no button assigned to that command by default (but it could be just in the version I played). Aside from that, I`ve got no difficulties while I was playing.
Gameplay:
The real good part of this game is the gameplay itself. Your character is highly customizable. You can use various types of combat techniques and decide which direction will you take. You can use a lot of magic - if you want so -, take a bow or be a warrior. You also have tree equipable weapon slot from which you can switch back and forth. There are dozens of magic and skills you can chose, maybe a little too much if you ask me. The weapons, armors and accessories are highly customizable too. You can enchant them with gems and other materials making them a lot more powerful. There is loot in every crack and bush, which is an essential part of every RPG game. You can even make your own creature later in the game to fight for you or just create a distraction with it. You can learn alchemy and make your own powerful potions. And I must mention that you will have your own battle tower where an enchanter, an alchemist, a trainer and a necromancer will work for you, of course free of charge.
There are plenty of armors and weapons you can find all around the world of Divinity.
Lot of skills. And there is two row that did not fit in the screen!
The map gives you a clean overview but if you need more info, you can place a custom marker wherever you want.
I didn`t liked that you obtain your dragon form way too late in the game. Some may think: "if yo can be a dragon, why don`t you just keep flaring enemies sparing time?" I tell you why. Because you can`t. When you take your dragon form, you can`t even see the enemies on the ground. And beside, what would be the fun in that? On the other hand, if you are in human form, you see the flying enemies around you.
A cleaned "flying fortress". It`s fun to fight your way through the bad guys as a dragon.
The kickback of the game is the unbalanced difficulty level. Sometimes you just run through your enemies with a single blow, and sometimes you will find almost "impossible to beat" hordes of monsters which can be really annoying (at least it was for me). The enemies won`t respawn so you are stuck with the experience you have. And that is not much I think. An RPG where your max level can`t go above 34-36. Black point from me. And my favourite: when you lure an enemy far from its original location, some magical force will keep healing it until it returns "home", making him invincible. I really can`t understand why did the creators made that. Also didn`t liked the ending. There is no ending at all I think. It`s like you made a huge sandwich and you could not eat all of it. You will see what I mean if you decide to play through this game.
And now for the bugs and glitches. I found several annoying glitches while I was playing. Like when I stucked in a conversation forever preventing me to start or finish a sidequest (I don`t know which one because the conversation never finished), and the only thing I could do is to restart the game. I heard talks about a certain save glitch too. When you save your game in a dungeon (and you will), and load that, you end up outside of it and the entrance will disappear for good (I have not experienced this one). These are the most serious issues in the game.
My thoughts:
Despite all I wrote above, I enjoyed the game `cause I am a big "loot fan". I like to explore every corner of a fantasy world hoping that I will find something new and better. And I noticed that the creators mixed in some famous characters from movies and TV shows. There is an NPC with the name of Scofield and he really helps in the escape of his comrade. And there is Baal. That one is the exact Alien from the movies. I liked that a lot. For a gaming experience it was not so bad and it was challenging, as a viewing it was lacking some details. But if you like to discover virtual worlds like me, I recommend this one for you too.
