Divinity: Original Sin II hits all the sweet spots for adventure gaming
Happy Autumn folks! I hope the taste of pumpkin spice and presale Halloween candy is keeping your spirits and blood sugar up as we forward-march into the depression oblivion that is winter.
I’ve started my annual study of seasonal isolation early this year because of a game that hit the download market in September and it has sucked my soul into it with mystical ferocity and hasn’t turned me loose since (and probably never will.)
Larian Studios, a small Belgium company, produced one of my favorite turn based RPGs some years ago called Divinity: Original Sin with great fanfare. D:OS gave us the ability to manipulate the weather and environment by electrifying water or blood or creating steam clouds to make a hasty get away. On higher difficulties you quite literally had to play as a fantasy combat MacGyver to get through fights by the skin of your teeth. It was challenging and brutal fun and each combat round felt like the last turn your adventurers will ever have until you reloaded after a smoke break.
D:OS’s brilliant storytelling offered a fresh and often tongue-in-cheek approach to playing the fantasy genre and, with user mod support, the game grew a cult following. A sequel would be inevitable and mandatory but long in the making. Larian Studios set the funding goal for D:OS II at $500K and closed Kickstarter with a whopping $2 mil and change with around 43,000 backers!
But enough of the backstory, just get on with it! Okay fine.
D:OS II is an amazing love child between pen and paper RPG fanatics and digital RPG tacticians. A beautiful designer baby that is oozing with fantastical lore, great voice acting and stunning art design. There is a fully voiced narrator that actually speaks about character descriptions and actions. Which means no long screens of narrative to read through. Every decision you make for your chosen hero is immediate, permanent, and directly or indirectly shapes the outcome or approach of another quest down the road. I’ve logged at least 10 hours on the beginning section alone, learning all about the flesh eating customs of Rivellon’s Elvin race and the pretentious supremacy of the Lizard people. Flesh eating in this game is not only encouraged, it’s sometimes required, especially if one of your characters is an elf.
Not only does eating a severed foot offer healing, but also the absorbed memories can provide insight for solving quests or unlocking useful powers.
The characters and story are some of the best I’ve experienced and, yes, I’ve experienced many though it’s hard to imagine that anything new can come from an isometric adventure RPG. This game raises the bar and then knocks it out of the park.
Fantastic story writing, dialogue, and questlines aside the turn based combat will keep you up at night letting the dog starve at your feet. Larian Studios has clearly taken all the best things from the first game and enhanced them with tons of new skills and newer ways to manipulate the environment.
Now can you cast a wave of fire and then you can also curse that fire producing Necroflames! Necroflame sticks to everybody in an area like a case of chiggers spliced with napalm. If you manage to douse the cursed fire, it will turn into a swarm of disease-infused insects.
Mastery of combat in D:OS II is like having a firm grasp of chemistry and economics. Each power and skill has a trade off or something to sacrifice in combat, so managing your parties’ skill sets and equipment is important because the combat AI is merciless and insidious. Spamming a favorite overkill spell with a wizard is not a thing anymore because every skill and power has a counter spell or nullification element that bad guys won’t hesitate to exploit.
Some fights are pushovers at the beginning but this can make you over confident. I’ve spent over an hour slogging it out with a pack of possessed scarecrows only to drag my last adventurer away bleeding, cursed, terrified, and crippled to the nearest rally point while the corpses of my team dried in a cornfield. So much for valor. D:OS II will make your head spin with glee and heartache with the numerous twists and turns of amazing story telling and nail biting strategic combat. It’s a bit of fantasy novel mixed with chess and a lot of addictive fun. A must have for any fantasy gamer.
When not vaporizing zombies or leading space marines as a mousepad Mattis, Brandon Watson is making gourmet pancakes and promoting local artists.