First of all, I apologize for my English, I'm an Italian girl.
Well, I think it's time for my feedback. Let's start with my background: I've spent hours and hours when I was a girl playing divine divinity and beyond divinity. I've played divinity 2 also, loved it.
RPG, H&S, MMORG are my passion and I’ve always preferred old divinity to the diablo saga, this means a lot: I'm a huge fan of the serie.
I've pledged on kickstarter, I've always believed in the project, supporting the choice of turn based game play. Then i finally played the alpha. I cannot explain how much I’ve loved it, it is beyond imagination what you guys in larian were capable to do this time.
Ok, I'm a fanboy, I have to admit it. But I'm sure I'm not the only one with the tune of first divinity in the alarm clock!
It is really like I went back in time, 11 years from now and I’m sitting on the chair staring at my PC, not doing my homework but immerse in the wonderful theme song of the original divine. This feels exactly the same, I feel the music rough and not so refined but I still love it. Kirill is doing an amazing job, how can i define him other than a genius?
And the dialogues, the situation.. Even the quest! It all seem so nostalgic when I found myself talking to a cat trying to help him with his little crush (well, that pussy is kinda haughty)!
Combat system, I am into it. Every member in the party need to think, this is such a wonderful thing when every game out there is just click/kill/end. I found mandatory the use of Skype with my mate, there was a lot of laughs and screams during the alpha.
I really got mad in some situations, so I had to think about some combinations. I liked it.
At first I was like “meh” when I read about steam early access, It was risky you know. Now I think, after playing so much and loved almost everything in the game, that is was the best choice you could ever take. The game is worth the money and alpha is a good preview, there are bugs but it is possible to finish almost every quest (where is the church??? :P). You could decide your destiny when solving quests and you have to use a little brain like in the riddle of burial mounds.
I will try to summarize all my thoughts about the game and of course the major bugs I’ve experienced so far (about 30 hours).
- sneaking, in the early phase of the game is way too easy. With no skill at all I was capable to clean houses, even with someone in there. It could be better if the AI of npc could be more.. Ehm. Smart? I've read some complaining about the small amount of gold in the beginning of the adventure, and the possibility to give some gold from the start, I do not need it. I've searched everywhere, I've stolen when I was able to (ok, I'm not a good girl, I am a survivor!) and I managed to buy a lot of spells and try a couple of good bows. You could define two pathways for example, good and bad/light or shadow. For the first one you could provide some gold from the beginning.
- the followers are a little dumb too, I mean. There ice on the ground you know, so i walk on it trying not to fall, but them? They seem not to care about it, even if I’m walking and not running they follow me and then fall.
- the giant orc (level 7) at the entrance of black cave tends to stand still, no movement at all in combat, I do not know if this is intended or is a bug.
- black cove is definitively buggy, a lot of crash in there and at the end of it we found ourselves in a room “work in progress”, surely it is not completed yet
-followers tends to “detach” themselves when a game il reloaded. I mean, my partner had Madora, I had Jahan; every time we load a savegame I simply lose him. So i need to dismiss him, go to homestead and take him back. Madora, attached to my partner, never had this bug
-sometimes there are “ghosts” of my party member, floating in the air. It's a glitch I think.
- sometimes we had black screen instead of dialogues, it happens after one of us player did a trade with a npc. After that, we could not talk anymore with the character.
- we managed to clean the black cove, after a lot of crash, but when we returned to city everything was resetted. Black shadows like we never walked in the area. Even the houses were full of things we've already stolen; basically it was a total re-spawn.
- Madora wants to talk! I mean, she had this giant exclamation point on her head for hours but we couldn't talk to her. At the moment, she still has the mark on the head! Jahan is more social, he speaks every time the mark appears on him.
- we had some issues with crafting and repairing items, but I think is a known bug
- ok, this is creepy but... For testing purpose (!) I've killed almost everyone in the city, the reputation system is not so polished because guards did not attack me on first sight. This is what I expect when I'm such an assassin! Attitude shows -27 but no one runs away from me or attacks me. Seems odd. Blood on my hands and they still talk to me?
- some added vocals would be nice, I still remember the voice in "I wonder what that did" or "this door is locked tighter than a dwarf's ale purse" (or something like that, cannot remember it well). I miss this stuff.
Some improvement I'd like you to consider:
- spending points it is not so intuitive, I miss the icons. Font is really tiny on my 22” full HD.
- sometimes I'd like to know what are the effect on my enemies; debuff or curse for example. I cannot see the duration in turns, like I see on my party members.
- I'd like to see more damage from poison/fire and electricity. I feel like it's to easy being electrified or poisoned, I'm level 8 right now and it is strange took only 1-2 damage per turn when I’m under elemental effect (done by enemies or party members).
- In taking position before a combat I need the party to be in place, I cannot put Scarlett and Jahan in two different spots because one of them tends to return near the other one. It will be great if I could say him “rest in position now”
or something like that. Certain fights need preparation and need the characters being a little far from each other.
- there is no tutorial so I do not know if this will be fixed but it is not easy to repair things; you spent the point on the skill but it is hard to understand how it works. We managed to reach level 8 without needing repair but now my bow is completely broken. I cannot repair it, do not know why
I think I’ll post this on steam too, i would like to share my positive feedback about this great game. Keep up the good work boys, no matters of delays. Take your time, I know it is not easy at all after we put a lot of pressure during the kickstarter campaign. Trying to add all new things is huge, I'm really confident.
