Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General This is my favourite game of the last 2 years

Hi,

I have posted before about how much I love this game, but I have recently started a new game with a warrior, and I just HAD to come back and lavish more praise on the most deserving development team on earth.

You guys are awesomely talented, caring people who poured your hearts and souls into the creation of Divine Divinity. It's evident in the graphics, the gameplay, the characters, the stories, the side quests, the humour... basically, if this game was a person, it would be a fully formed, beautiful, well-balanced individual who everyone would to well to model themselves after. I base my opinion on the fact that this game is FUN TO PLAY, it keeps me coming back for more, and there is always something new and interesting to discover by playing it again and focusing on different attributes and skills as demanded by the character class I am role-playing. Of course, the fact that I am willing to role-play and I don't simply want the best of everything helps.

I still can't believe some idiot game reviewer thinks DD's graphics are mediocre (I can't remember where I saw that, though). They are gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking, and they are smooth as silk on my PC and I honestly can't believe that doing them any other way would have made the game any more beautiful than it is. Kudos to the art team (again!), you guys are creative geniuses!

Story-wise the game was a little cheesy, but I LIKE cheese with a meal like this one! It was part of the bigger experience that was DD, and the final encounter between myself and the Big Bad Guy that was making all the bad things happen was to be expected.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" />As a philosophical aside, isn't it interesting how the game's story reflects the desire of humanity to be able to encounter Evil in physical form, and defeat it once and for always? Of course that raises the question of who to blame once things start going awry afterwards, but that's not really important, since seeing beyond the defeat of Ultimate Evil was never our strong point anyway (which would ultimately lead to us discovering that WE are the root of all evil and not some disembodied demon, and we can't have that because that would mean taking responsibility for our actions and those of our peers, children and leaders... no no can't have that, let's just create an evil we can lay the blame on and leave it at that). Something to ponder, though.

Yeah, okay, that aside aside, let me get back to DD. Playing as a warrior has changed the game completely for me, since I went through it as a Survivor the last time. I restarted only a week ago and am already on level 23, I have discovered the Singing Blade that Pedro was carrying plus a sword that does Frost damage. I played for a few minutes this morning before coming into work and watched my warrior do 203 damage with one hit (no spiritual damage included in the 203)! I was surprised, but pleasantly so. My ending character (level 47) hardly did 150 damage with his bow, I am beginning to suspect there were subtleties about using a bow that I missed the first time around since I am doing so much more damage so early into replaying the game with my warrior.

Anyway, the point I am making is that there is SO MUCH to this game to discover, so many tricks to use and exploit that replaying it is a huge pleasure, something few recent games can actually claim. I love the development team for putting so much into their game that experiencing everything the first or even the second time around is just about impossible. Thank you SO MUCH!

Okay, enough ranting for now. Suffice it to say that I wish the dev team eternal sexual pleasures in the afterlife for the job they did on Divine Divinity! Can't wait for BD!!

Cheers

Deon du Plessis

Welcome to this Forum, Deon. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well, as a sidenote to your rather philosophical thoughts : I'm just these days pondering about whether philosophical aspects of a game are wanted by gamers at all. There is too much action for my own taste in games nowadays, and philosophical discussions - at least in the boards that I've seen - except this one, maybe - are often spammed by remarks of those who don't want to think.

From what I have experienced, there are no intentional philosophical aspects of Divine Divinity. This is because you are right in that the majority of gamers do NOT want to be bogged down with philosophy when they are playing a game. Still, one can philosophise over games which contain no intentional philosophies (as I did), because ultimately our games are produced by the minds of men and often they reflect either the circumstances they find themselves in or how they are feeling at the time of the game design. I saw a "behind the scenes" feature about Halo 2 in which one of the designers tells the camera that the Master Chief being shoved down a shaft with a bomb strapped to his chest by a female colleague-cum-traitor was evidence of a particularly nasty breakup the lead designer was going through during the development of Halo (please correct me if I am wrong, I have not got far enough in Halo to confirm whether this is part of the first or second game).

So although gamers may not want philosophy in their games, it is still there because games are human expressions, modern works of art, whether they be expressing a desire to do something, be something, say something. Think about it - what does Duke Nukem do? He kicks everybody's [nocando] and has chicks digging him all over the planet... could that be any more of a subdued-geek fantasy? Granted, that was just one example but I am pretty sure you can all come up with your own and draw your own parallels between our human fantasies and desires and the games we play, and the underlying motivations for all of them. Even insanely violent games are expressions of the feeling of repression a lot of people experience on a daily basis, it's an outlet for all their frustrations. Plus, it caters for the fantasy of just going postal without suffering any consequences. I believe our entertainment is our pressure release valve, and without it we'd be a whole lot worse off than we are today, which is in itself a scary thought.

Anyway, this is just something else to ponder. Or skip, whatever, the choice is always yours.

Cheers

I Agree! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

This is my favourite game of the last 2 years ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" />
.....ever.

when it comes to rpgs, <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> is definately my fav right now. it was so disapointed with TOEE. i cant wait for <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> ...or a decent patch for TOEE.

Yep this is the BEST rpg's I've played <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" /> and I've played alot of rpg's. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

It is easily the best rpg of the last few years, and i've played most of them. I personally liked the might and magic series, as i enjoyed the build of your characters via experience, levels and skills, Divine has the same sort of values. Still the best game I have EVER played is underworld 2, which came out in about 95. Sadly no game has ever been quite like it, but Divine Divinity reminds me a little of it, due to an enviroment which you can interact with, rich storyline, and a unique mix between solving puzzles and fighting monsters/enemies. It also has a wide range of skills and abilities, so you can personalise your character to be just how you want them e.g a warrior who can open locks and cast healing spells.

I agree with the rest. I bought <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> at the same time as Morrowind. It was surprisingly better then Morrowind ( a lot less boring at least )