Extra! Extra! Read all about it! People love this game!

Well deserved honour.

It is a great feeling to have spent a whole evening with the wife on one battle.

The greatest joy was yesterday when we beat a bunch of level 15 dudes - us being level 13.

So glad we decided to back this.

More like "people is getting paid to give awesome reviews".

Yeah, feel very skeptic about the quality prowess of those critics, before all regarding combat.

Right, so all the major game reviewers who gave this game high ratings are either incompetent or just getting paid to do it.
Pay no attention to these skeptics here who go around the forums saying only negative things about the game.

It IS well deserved!

I agree it's well-deserved. It seems to have made quite an astonishing impact for a fairly small studio compared to the publishing behemoths out there.

it's definitely my game of the year

don't lose sight of what a terrific game this is because of the various bugs and issues. visuals, music, voice acting and dynamic combat all flow together wonderfully

congratulations larian and thanks for all the effort you put in

So you are qualified to judge?

"I never played this game that much"
Isn't that what you wrote? When was that? 4 days ago.

The fact that everyone just claps "OMG game of the year!!1" without hesitating just baffles me. The insane amount of flaws this game has makes me feel that it was released before schedule, and funny enough, not only all of them have been recopilated in a thread in the suggestion forum (conveniently avoided by the dev team and clapping seals), but also many were reported before launch, yet they landed anyways.

By ignoring all these flaws you're just saying to Larian "your game needs no attention", which is wrong. We need to voice our opinions about a game that not only we payed for, but also founded (another issue that I'm yet to understand... if the game has been basically free to develop, why has been launched with this many errors, and still charge for it? Greedy much?).

I can honestly say that this is the first time in my life that I play an RPG and leveling up feels like a chore. In other games, every single time I leveled was like "Hooray!", yet here is like "Ugh, shopping time...". I only have to spend those crappy two points in STR / INT / FIN, whatever gives me damage, and a point in the skill I use, that's it - most of the spells have been learned already like 10 levels ago, so there's nothing new to aim for. It's nothing but stacking numbers, there's no real strategy involved.
Then, it's like half hour of scavenging vendors in search for more armor points. The sense of progression is nonexistant, I actually feel weaker every time I level up, in a strangely similar way to Diablo III. The difference is that D3 is a game that I actually enjoy playing because it's made to be just a constant genocide of monsters that drop loot, here you're just crossing your fingers expecting Lucky Charm to proc. I haven't seen a single item that is worth preserving for more than one level, and that's just the most lame and anti-RPG feature I've ever seen.

I'm sorry, but allow me to doubt all those "reviewers" who weren't there when DOS1 came out, which, while flawed, was a truly magnificent experience, completed with the release of EE.

BowieFunes,

Thankfully, the professional game reviewers out there have a 'slightly' less superficial take on the game than you do. I can agree about the loot, but that is such a tiny aspect of what this game is as a whole. You completely ignore the excellent writing, story lines, interesting characters, variety of quests, fun combat system, choices, etc. I can't think of many (if any) other game I've played that triggers so many different emotions. You seem to define the game by one of its relatively small flaws like the loot, and you're missing the big picture.

DOS 1 was also great for its time because it was original, there was nothing else like it. But the story and characters in DOS 2 are so much more nuanced and multi-dimensional. In comparison, the DOS1 story now seems boring and predictable.

The fact that you're even comparing a turn-based, heavy story-driven RPG like DOS to a real-time button-masher like Diablo III, which has no story to speak of, means that this type of game just isn't for you my friend. It's like comparing a golf simulator to a racing game, just because both are called 'sports'. One is much more intelligent than the other.

The game has its flaws and certainly could have been released in a more 'finished' state, but that pails in comparison to its strengths. And I'm happy that real reviewers see this.

Great game!

I've been watching you/Kalrakh for a while, and I do think the game definitely deserves GOTY, but the game definitely also has a lot of flaws. I've come to realize the key difference between you and I (As well as I presume Kalrakh, Bowie, etc) when it comes to this game is an integral difference in how we play/perceive the game..
You play the game for the story, whilst I play for the tactical combat. I did enjoy the story but it's not why I'm here. Correct me if I am wrong in my assertion.

I loved DOS1 to death (Having beat it ~5 times) not for it's story, but for it's highly tactical combat and wonderful progression system (4 of those playthroughs were modded however).

I loathe playing DOS2 as the reason I play it is for the tactical combat and progression, but both of those areas the game.. Really rather sucks pretty bad. If you don't think so then I'd just like to point you to the various in depth articles on the subject posted close after the game's release. If I played the game only for the story then I'd probably just lower the difficulty. But that's not why I'm here and that's where the game has failed spectacularly in my eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that the story is a major part of the game, but I'd just like to reiterate that it's not why I'm here to play the game.

You might make the argument that this means the game isn't the one for me, but it along with it's predecessor are among the very, very few games that occupy this space.

Instead of asking for the devs to fix it all I'm actively working on a mod to fix all of the issues I have with the game.

I agree with BlueFeuer, BowieFunes and Kalrakh. I already wrote a very thorough review of the faults (and positives) of this game, and kind of regret not throwing it into its own thread. So will do that tonight as well…

http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=629044&page=3

The effort put into D:OS2 is way above the norm, which is generally why it invokes so many excitable responses. But people tend to be very forgiving about the obvious weaknesses. The writing is the weakest part of the game by far, and it’s kind of sad that the Larian can’t resource a decent writing team, when they can clearly afford the best artists, animators and devs in the industry.

The design, too, is quite weak, with only a few battles actually standing out as original or inventive. Mostly, it’s the same battle over and over, with just a reskin of the monsters/guards you fought before, who have the same AI and abilities/skills.

Apart from my review, I would like to start a final thread on ideas learned from Assassin’s Creed Origins, of all things – a largely risibly commercial experience that nonetheless trumps D:OS2 in many areas (in short, the levelling system is excellent, and solves the problem of inflated stats very elegantly and intelligently, but I’ll expand more on that later).

No game, film or book is ‘perfect’, but sometimes it’s rather depressing when the team behind the art is top heavy on talent in one area, and full of lightweightedness in other areas that should be of key importance.

You’ve got the money now, Larian. Maybe hire Aaron Sorkin for the next story. At least as an advisor. Clever game systems you’ve got. But Shakespeare you certainly are not.

LoL BlueFeuer,

at least BowieFunes is pretty consistent in his opinion that the game is crap, but you went all the way from "I do think the game definitely deserves GOTY" to "I loathe playing DOS2" and "the game has failed spectacularly".
How does one even respond to that... If you loathe playing DOS2, for whatever reason, then you can't possibly think it deserves GOTY. But then again I'm not a shrink, so... what do I know.

I don't think the game is crap. I'm not so naive as to not see why it got a well deserved GOTY; It did, overall, a very good job at what it set out to do. However, the areas of the game I'm most interested in also happen to be the poorest. There isn't a black and white either you love it or you hate it here.

I can loathe playing it and think it deserves GOTY at the same time, granted it's one of the few games that's interested me that was released in the last year.

I've liked this game, though I'm still on Joy Island.

Our group has especially liked this game because it's felt like a close approximation of tabletop RPGs (and the freedom thereof) in a video game setting. It's felt pleasantly original, and, despite being a sequel, it has so far built upon the first game (the initial, not the Enhanced Edition since I know too little of the EE to fairly comment) in notable ways like the Narrator, character tags, rebalanced skills, and 4-character limit.

Is it game of the year material? For our group, aye! The ability to screw around in ways reminiscent of tabletop D&D 3.5 has kept us engaged. We know the game has had certain problems with balance, but the game, for us, is still fun and that's mattered a lot.

This is exactly why don't trust reviews by random people on forums. This person should never attempt a career in professional game reviewing.

Everything about DOS2 was great except for the area I cared about most, but overall I think the game was better than any other game released in 2017.
There is no contradiction there.
If you can't understand as simple a concept as that then I don't know how else to tell you.

The main issues with this game: the combat and character progression are painfully obvious from the start, you don't really need to play to see that coming.

Also I am active in the forums since start of the EA and I was one of those, that pointed out, that the first take on attributes was even worse than the current one. I put over 90 hours in this game, mainly EA but never progressed far storywise so far, though just reading in the forum already proves that my fears are not only met but also beaten on a bad way.

actually combat is one of the most fun aspects of the game

This might be for you, but for me and my friend it is to much of a predictable puzzle.

when people say things like this, i wonder who it's in reference to? i find people typing dismissive, sweeping statements like this tend to presume a lot about people whose opinions about a video game run contrary to theirs

it's very presumptuous and condescending to assume that anyone who believes this game is very worthy of this sort of praise cannot possibly think so with any nuance

it's probably true that plenty of reviewers who gave this game 10/10 scores only played the first act or so, but that doesn't mean that the game is not still of high quality. and you are perfectly within your rights to think the game sucks because of the issues (which many people who think this game is excellent have no problem acknowledging) it has

in case you haven't noticed, this forum is full of threads pointing out problems, suggestions, bugs, and plenty of other types of feedback, so i have no idea where you're getting the idea that people are ignoring the flaws of the game, and a game reaching game of the year status on one website does not mean that anyone thinks this game is flawless. i actually haven't seen anyone say that, anywhere

The short answer is, regardless of your opinion, a well-renowned PC gaming magazine (PC Gamer) named it PC Game of 2017.

Just checking their 'review' of this game, I know again why I don't check those 'gaming magazine' for their game scores, when I look for a new game.

Did you read the "review"? It's nothing but "OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!!!11" with zero effort put into describing how the game works, omitting every single flaw it has, and only talking about the main characters, avoiding any discussion about the story itself or the antagonists, which are a total mess in my opinion. I honestly laugh when people call this story deep, it's just your typical "chosen one" drama which leaves no room to expand beyond the strings of your puppeteer, regardless on how many plot twists you can throw on it. I'm still waiting for the story of my main character Beast to actually grow, so far nothing happened except some random dialogue about the queen. It's as deep as a puppy dog piss pool.

Do I think the game is bad? Of course not, it's actually a great game, but the amount of flaws it has really makes me wonder if Larian is actually thinking in delivering a quality product like they did with DOS1, or they're just now milking the franchise for all what it's worth, releasing a half-finished product to meet consumer demands.
It just makes me sad that this amazing game fell into the "appeal to the masses" category, dumbing it down so a monkey can play it without much effort. Yay you leveled up, put two points in STR and scour the shops for an hour, there's your amazing RPG experience...

EDIT: I just saw another article in which they're actually trying to convince us that DOS2 is "dethroning" Ultima VII. I laughed so hard that I think I wet myself.

It seems like YOU haven't read the actual review my confused friend. LoL
The link posted by the OP here is to GOTY article, with comments from PC Gamer staff. That is NOT the game review. At the end of the article there is a link to the actual review which you seem to have missed.
http://www.pcgamer.com/divinity-original-sin-2-review/
And yes, the review talks about many aspects of the game.

Want more detailed reviews? Here
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/divinity-original-sin-ii
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/09/21/divinity-original-sin-2-review
https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/divinity-original-sin-2-review/1900-6416769/

Yes, apologies, you're right. Sadly, what I said applies also to the actual "review". Every single point is basically described as flawless, and not a single one of the mistakes or bugs are adressed...
If you're going to talk about the battlefield hazzards, why not adress the obvious flaw of cursed stuff covering half the map with almost no chance of removing it because the enemies keeps spamming curse for free?
If you're going to talk about the classless system, why not adress the fact that some skillsets are almost mandatory in order to progress in Tactician, like Warfare for example?
Not to mention, why avoid the glaring issue of non existant character progression, vital in any RPG?

Sorry, but that's shortsighted to me, and an obvious favoritism that will applaud anything.

Sadly D:OS2 is not really classless at all. Thanks to the armor system and the attributes, going mixed class is not really an option. You either go Str, Fin or Int and either Magical or Physical, both work heavily as class restrictions, except from buffs who are kind of classless now.

In D:OS1 you could go equally high on Str, Fin and Int and it still worked well in combat. You could mix scoundrel with aerothurg and it worked like a charm, now all that classlessness is gone.

It's a 2-minute game review, not an hour-long listing of game features and flaws. No game review will go into that level of detail and minutia like how large is the area of cursed surfaces, or which skills may be preferred over others. These are small things in a much larger picture. A review is meant to focus on the large aspects of the game, things that are important to new and old players, including people who haven't played any RPGs until now. It seems that you're grasping at straws and complaining about nothing, really.

So, all the major game reviewers are shortsighted and showing favoritism toward one specific game? Yea sure, it's a big conspiracy. This is just petty nonsense.


My party has Str, Fin, and Int equally spread, and it works wonderfully. If it doesn't work for you, you're doing something wrong. The armor system is very good and fixes a big issue in DOS1 combat - you could start every fight by CC'ing a bunch of enemies, and they never got up again. You could stun or freeze some bosses from the very beginning, and they never got a turn. That was too easy. I would cast a Hail Attack before a fight, and it was all over. The armor in DOS 2 fixes that, so I like it. It adds variety - every fight has two stages. First, I strip armor with damage, and then I go crazy with CC. So it's not true that it's all about damage. I use more CC than damage actually, and some CC works on armor too, e.g. 'slowed' status.

No, you are misunderstanding me: Str, Fin and Int equally spread on one character, not one party.

Don't do that, it's not very smart

The main problem with ‘professional’ reviews of the game is the forest fire of excitability surrounding the game’s legitimate successes, both within the gaming the community and, it seems, Larian itself.

Simply put, this game has virtually no competition, particularly in the vapid world of commercial gaming. It trounces rivals with regards to ambition, originality and just the balls to do things differently. It’s the equivalent of The Sopranos, or The Wire – it shakes things up so dramatically, and so shamelessly, that we’re naturally inclined to be far more forgiving of imperfections.

However, there are some serious imperfections in the game that hardly constitute ‘minor flaws’. The story suffers from some kind of narrative ADD, starting a plot thread, only to abandon it completely for another one over and over, as if it’s constantly reinventing itself, never confident enough to stick to one thing and develop it properly – a problem that exists right until the end. Think of characters like Dallis who are introduced and completely forgotten about for vast stretches, only to get the most hare-brained character reinventions at the last minute. Dallis, in particular, sums up all that is wrong with the story – without going into detail, there is no story in game, just a series of stopping and starting narratives and character introductions with no development, no ‘arc’, no emotional or psychological meaning.

The better parts of the plot consequently get lost – especially the void creatures, which largely, and wisely, go without spoken lines, and remain a vicious, mysterious presence throughout, with enemies on all sides.

Gameplaywise, the battles, although always enjoyable, have taken a massive step backwards in the invention department. How many can you actually remember? Roughly 5% are brilliantly conceived, easily the best any game has offered. The other 95% are the same battle over and over. Same number of enemies, same types of enemies (just reskinned), with only bigger stat points. Combat is a key feature of the game, and, with the exception of some outstanding set pieces, it simply doesn’t get the same creative treatment it got in the previous game.

Armour, also a huge feature of the game, clearly never evolves according to plan, and becomes a very obviously broken mechanic, particularly at higher levels, where both armour bars are inflated to comical proportions.

These are just 3 random ‘big features’ of the game – story, combat variety, armour – that clearly don’t hold up. There are many others that I’ll avoid mentioning for the sake of brevity.

But really, the biggest issue is Larian’s seemingly self-congratulatory stance on all of this. Just look at the last video update on the modding community. Sven quoting the positive review stats on steam and metacritic, as if it’s as simple as high numbers = job done. Or Sven quoting the number of bugs squashed in the latest patch – 1000s! – as though it’s once again a numbers game. There’s just no real acknowledgement of the specifics mentioned in the community’s feedback on abstract, more creative issues that numbers alone won't solve. There's just a very general thank you for the feedback at the end of the video – but what feedback in particular?

That’s what everyone really wants to know. Because the majority of the game’s issues have very simple solutions that many in the community have brainstormed and devised, only for it all to disappear into the black hole left by Larian’s silence on the topic.

Not being a purist, I must say that I (and my wife) are enjoying this game very much.

101 hours into the game, mostly we walk around rather than fast travel. If we do fast travel, we have to get to a travel point rather than using the option on the minimap.

Had ONE crash (I know now that quickswapping in and out of the game to check if you shut down a file transfer can be annoying to your partner).

The only bug we have encountered is an oxen that walked through a pole. Unless you count the MegaMosquitoes that suddenly kidnap and scatter your party. Or the WoodLice that pop up all too often.

We have morals. Don't kill people who don't deserve it. Don't steal from people. Perhaps that is why we don't progress as fast as we could.

Still not sure of CC (unless it means Colour Climax).
Area of Effect (YIKES! I spelled it out rather than initialising) is fun. If you are not careful/considerate, you will damage your partner as well. Seems fair.

Story kind of thin? Must say I haven't noticed. Neither do I care.

Cheesing the game? When is it cheesing and when is it tactics. Depends on who you ask and what threads you read.

AI? Well there's another mess. How unfair that the enemy also can check my status'ses (stati) and always goes for my most important character. And what's this obsession with cursed fire?

What I hate most?
Fellow members that keep telling me about how simple minded and stupid I am because I don't dislike the same things they dislike.
Even if they don't dislike the same things I dislike.

All in all. I'm a happy simple minded camper (and the missus is too).


EDIT: I forgot to mention, that I am really irritated that I have to finish the game before we can restart and use the valuable lessons we have learned thus far.

Yes we can respec, but we have decided against it. Make choices and live with them (or die) is our motto.

I don’t believe anyone’s doing that friend. Certainly not me. People will have critiques of the game that don’t mesh with other people’s views, but that’s just the nature of the critiquing business. There’s no insult to anyone’s intellect going on there.

And where are all these wives coming from that love to play the game with their husbands? I’m not saying my mot doesn’t like the thing, but it clearly doesn’t quite light her fire either – different strokes for different folks, maybe… Happy hunting with your wife anyway. If you managed to get her to play more than three hours of it, that’s something I’ve yet to see myself.

Perfectly put. My crappy english skills prevent me to write a well thought post like this one, hehe.



I think he's talking about the ingame NPCs, who constantly treat you like some kind of retard who can't figure anything by his own.

Yet again you prove, that you are completely missing the point.

And also +1 for smokey comment.

Sorry. I may have come across a tad too heavy handed.
It's more of a comment on a number of dirrent posts in different threads that resulted in an outburst.

The wifey?
Uhhh.. We started way back when it was only Dungeons and Dragons Pen&Paper. Before Ad&d. Before there were computers in private homes.
We now have a setting every friday after I come home from work and we play for 4-6 hours.
I freely admit that I am jumping to the rescue often enough. She definitely plays for the fun of it, not caring one bit about crafting and spreading her two characters out before an attack. I accept that we loose more fights than we could have. But we have a blast. Together.

the game is a lot of fun when done through trial and error with another person

Yes...It's just like Netflix viewer reviews...;) Often we find the movie very good--in contrast to most reviewers who said it stunk--or we find that it stunk, despite most reviewers who said it was great.

Reviews are merely opinions--not science or fact. Of course.

Witcher 3 got GOTY in '15 and it was riddled with flaws too--most of which CDPr fixed in a timely fashion. This game deserves GOTY because it is so good, despite the flaws some encounter--I've encountered almost none in my current play through with the last patch.

Bottom line--like with movies or books, game reviews are opinion and nothing more, or less than that. My opinion is that if you are an RPG fan for whom a 10-hour game is not in the least attractive, then you will love D:OS2's massive amount of content and variation. It really satisfies. But if you are a click-click person who loved Diablo II/III, you are not going to like it, probably, exactly because this game has so much depth. GOTY, for sure.

Whether or not OS2 became GoTY is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is whether the game made you happy and content playing it.

Wonder how many of those critics made it past Act 1...