Alright guys, to kick start my website again I am here to bring you some impressions on a sleeper hit called Divinity II: Ego Draconis for the Xbox 360 (also available on the PC). I picked this game up on a whim, not knowing too much about it. I had actually tried the demo very briefly and honestly was not very impressed. I decided to take a chance however and buy the game, it's just one of those impulse buy moments I have every once and awhile. I am very glad I did, as I am now nearing 8 hours into the game and am sucked into the fantasy world that Divinity 2 provides.
First of all, this is a single player action RPG which plays quite similar to an MMO. You are in a large semi-open world and tasked with slaying monsters, taking on a multitude of quests, and advancing your character though stat, skill, and equipment upgrades. What sets Divinity 2 apart from other games of the same genre is its attention to fine little details, tons of hidden areas, engaging story, and oh yea...you can transform into a dragon. Unfortunately I am not yet up to that part of the game yet, even though I am 8 hours in I have not been able to play as a dragon besides a brief moment in a storyline sequence.
You start off the game not knowing much, all you know is that you are going through a training ritual so you may become part of the Order of Divine so that you may have the power to become a Dragon Knight. The story is backed up by some of the best voiced characters and NPC's I have heard in awhile. While not all are delivered to their best extent, but I must admit I am very surprised by the quality of each interaction I have, even minor NPC's have tons of character to them. One refreshing aspect to NPC dialog is the ability to mind read every NPC in the game and see what they are thinking (at the cost of experience points), this opens up otherwise hidden areas and dialog brances that normally would not have been obtainable otherwise, such as finding out the password to ender somewhere. One good example of how this is uses is I was approached by someone in the wilderness offering to build me a house for 500 gold (a feature in the game which is opened up later on, including servants you can hire to do your bidding), so I gave him the gold and later on he approached me again asking for more gold to continue the construction, so I gave him 500 more. I later learn that this is a scam and I could have mind read this guy to see that he was lieing to me all along, things like this really set this game apart from others in the genre. The world itself is rich and fleshed out with tons of back story and characters to interact with. The dungeons and areas all feel like the developers really put some time into crafting their world over time.
The gameplay boils down to simple button presses for your melee attacks (I am playing as a warrior, the other classes are Mage and Archer, thought you can mix their skills at your own will) and you also have 8 hot keys for abilities and items which are tied to the D-Pad and face buttons. Every level grants you 4 skill points to up your stats and 1 skill point to spend on one of the 4 skill trees in the game. All of the abilities are fun to use and really let you customize you character as you see fit. For example, right now I am specializing in summoning and hard hitting warrior skills, a combination which has proved to be quite useful so far. Speaking of which, Divinity does not hold your hand, there are no quest markers to tell you exactly where to go for your current quest, and no clear cut way of how you should make your way through its world. It is not uncommon to stumble upon a dungeon or area where the monsters proceed to kill you in seconds. This was intentional by the developers and they encourage finding the path yourself. It does add to the uniqueness of the game, as I have really enjoyed wandering around and finding secret dungeons on my own, not being led by some dot on my map telling me where to go next. Just be warned, this game is not for the casual, it can at times be unforgiving and overly difficult (there is however an Easy difficulty to use).
Now for perhaps the games weakest aspect, the presentation. The game suffers from some serious frame rate and slow down issues. It is not so bad that it makes the game is unplayable, but it is bad enough to seriously take you out its world by constantly reminding you that you are playing a video game, and not living in the world the game creates. Characters and enemies in the distance also move at what can sometimes appear to be only a couple frames per second, looking like a poor and sloppy PC game port. Not only that, but the game also has long load times which are at their worst when you wander around a town, happening nearly every time you enter a door. It's a shame the game suffers technically, because the game otherwise looks great from a visual stand point in terms of detail.
So would I reccommend Divinity II? It's a tough because on one hand, the game appeals to hardcore RPG players craving a fleshed out fantasy world and rewarding character progresion, but on the other hand it suffers from severe presentation issues which may ruin the game entirely for some. I also might as well mention that the game also has some bugs in its save system, which can potentialy overwrite your save data or corrupt it, currently (I hope it gets patched) the only way to avoid this is to make a brand new game save everytime you save instead of overwriting previous save states, a hefty price to pay considering you end up saving sometimes every minute to while in tough areas of the game.
I say if you are an RPG fan and are not affraid to take a risk, and think you can look past its glaring issues, give Divinity II a buy and you may be pleasantly surprised.