Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General So just finished the game...

I am sorry for the long post. TL;DR--OS2 is a bit lacking in the roleplaying and combat balance departments. Feel free to skip.

So I came at the end of my very first, long(150 hours), and as thorough as I can, play through on tactician straight from the bat. I have never played another game from the Divinity, or whatever it is, series. And I just want to share some thoughts about Original Sin 2, plus ask you guys a question in the end.

Firstly. Cheers for the game, Larian! It's a good game in short, but...

I do think in the future you need to take a better look at the general combat system, though. Today, for instance, I had three enemies take a turn in a row in the Lord Kemm fight, and all doing so before my avatar who had higher initiative than any single one of them(!).
It's an interesting scenario. As I am saving Arhu, the mobs spawn, the battle begins and my party opens up(Sebill, Red Prince, Avatar, Beast in that order(cuz why put initiative on Beast ?)), with each of my characters ccing the first from their order. Red Prince charms the guy after him; Lord Kemm spawns, and the battle continues with a new order. After charm wears off there are three consecutive baddies on the order list, all queued after the Prince . I have no real idea how that happened, LOL. But it was a good laugh.

Or that time when the Red Prince showed Braccus(That's BRACCUS!!!) how 4 consecutive meteor showers look up-close...with some more fire spells in between. Ye...one shot last boss, cuz why not.

I think that this game relies very heavily on Act 1. It could even be why it's getting so very many positive reviews. I am not saying it should be otherwise, but perhaps this game was overhyped. Act 1 had a very varied, much more interesting and balanced overall design than any of the other acts. It had more lore, more atmosphere; it was telling a story better, it had better roleplaying, better secrets, better puzzles, better baddies, even. The combat felt more balanced as well. By the end of it there was too much power creep, with the result being--if I don't cc the shit out of their ass, I'd get wiped. I am probably wrong to say all of that on a general note, but it's exactly how I feel. The gameplay ended up being more tedious and less reliant on tactical insight towards the end. I was glad it was over when it did. Arx felt like a mess, minus the Doctor. But that's only because there was a whole island dedicated to his persona, with plenty of lore and a lot of interesting characters having conflicts with each other, and, in contrast to a lot of what is happening towards the end, enough writing as to make sense to the player. The nameless Isle was graphically beautiful, but bland from a story's perspective. Reaper's Coast had some very nice and interesting encounters, which benefited exploring(I am particularly fond of The Djinn and, correct me of I am wrong with the name, The Harbinger of Doom). Act 1, however, had it all.

Is this a case of a game trying to be too much, and not having enough resources to achieve it? Stretching it thin, as it were. Sometimes, less is more. I was pleased with the ending I chose. I purged all source with Malady restoring all of my beloved characters and Windego finally having peace(Spoilers!) . But I realize that my best moments in this game, my best battles, me really thinking what to do, roleplaying--that all happened before I earned my 2nd source point. After that it was just a steady power creep and a slowly declining gameplay quality with less roleplaying, less lore, less explanation, unclear and non specific quest entries, obscure and non-intuitive item locations...The world felt less alive, combat felt less balanced.

Thank you for reading. I hope Larian reads this.

They will read this, and should.

Your points are valid, well presented and it's never enough praise in an online environment. It's so easy to complain without constructive feedback, and much harder to compliment. Your comment plays as an Act 1

I agree. Very nice read. Well presented.

I also feel that when you start your race for power, the game starts to feel less interesting. And besides Source abilities are not that great either.

That is a good assessment. The game is a masterpiece early on and does degrade somewhat. I feel that the whole game was good, but they should learn from early on.

Good review.

It really highlights the difference in quality between what was publicly tested vs internal testing. Larian has only released Act 1 for early access in DOS1 and now with DOS2. And for both games the quality of the following acts degrade very noticeably.

I hope they realize this and make a significant change with their next product. Either release everything they have during early access and take advantage of the improvements that will bring. Or vastly increase both the number of people in closed Beta, as well as the breadth of their expertise with this style of game.

(The following refers to single-play only, which is all that I care to do...;))

I think the problem a lot of people have had with this game is that they don't realize how *big* this game is...;) I don't mean in hours played, I mean in depth and scope--don't think I've ever seen a larger RPG, frankly. It matters a lot what team members you decide to play with--has a distinct bearing on the game, the atmosphere, the flow, etc. IE, you can't play this game once through and think you've got it down because you haven't--not by a long shot. I'm going to play again when I finish this game and start over with all new characters, which should be fun.

Also, here's another thing I mean by "huge"--OK, by now everyone has seen the extensive bug list fixes that have accompanied the several patches for the game so far. And of course we've heard of various show stoppers and etc. Like Tarquinn not being where he is supposed to be, and so on...

So, OK, I've got 127+ plus hours in as of today and I just reached Arx...;) I didn't finish every quest in either Act I or Act II getting here, either. But anyway, out of all of those bugs I believe I have experienced 2 of them--two bugs. And...no crashes--not a single one. Both were display bugs having to do with some treasure being present on the map but inaccessible regardless of wits--fixed in an update. The other bug had to do with skills not showing up on the screen when you activated them--I mean the skills installed and were there--it was just the "Skill learned" feedback that wasn't showing up for awhile. Also fixed by a patch.

That's what I mean by *huge*---Main character is a fighter; next is ifn as a ranger; Sebille as a thief, and Fane, of course, as my Wizard. I'm playing with those characters but other people playing other games a slightly different way--or maybe in a much different manner--are reporting these bugs are plentiful and the fixed bug notes in the patches would seem to bear this out. So if this was a small, narrow game *everyone* would be experiencing most of the bugs the patch notes refer to. But the fact that I've run into only a couple of them --and no crashes at all--and I have played this far indicates the game must have a huge depth and scope. I hope I've communicated this properly...;) While *my game* has been practically bug free--others are experiencing a lot of bugs. Only possible in a truly huge game, imo.

Overall this is one of the best RPGs I have ever played--right up there with Witcher 3--but really those two games use entirely differently styles of play, but I find them both equally entertaining on balance.

And, I actually found Act I to be the least entertaining act...;) Mainly because that's where you "cut your eye teeth" and grind a bit to move up in levels. II I thought was much better because it really allowed me to advance both in levels and the story. Just my two cents...I do have a question about the Chapters in this game--but I'm going to start a new thread on that one...

Great Thread!

I'm not sure I've played a game where I can envision so many alternate possibilities to play the game through again:

1. The standard first run.
2. Fane led all skeletal team.
3. Running each hero separate w/group of nobodies.
My only regret on my first run, bringing 4 heroes to me is not the way to play it.
4. 1 man run.
5. 6 man mod run.
6. I'm also on the side working on a 1 turn TB mod, where you only get one move period per player turn, like chess. That I think will give a whole new feel.
7. The kill everything evil team run. (Perhaps marry that with the all skeltal run.
8. The avoid combat at all costs run.

And others I've already forgotten. There are so many NPC story choices you can make in this game. It really is right up there or surpassing BG2 in that realm.

9. The Enhanced Version run, you know it's coming. That cleans up the game from start to finish and will be the legacy.
10. The all magic run.
11. The all blade run.
12. The all once class per char run.
13. Two player coop.
14. Four player coop.
Look at the mods...

And still all enemies and most part of the stories will be the same during every run.

Did you expect this to be the last game ever needed to be made?

I enjoyed Act 2 more than Act 1. But both acts were very good. Easily toppling the likes of Baldur's Gate and Planscape (which it seems this game took a lot of inspiration from). Act 3 and 4 on the other hand are clearly unfinished and feel rushed. Act 3 is just short and bland. And Act 4 feels almost like a mod made by the community when compared to the first two acts. Overall the full package is still good and the game deserves its acclaim. But I do think they should've condensed the game into three acts and shortened it a little and worked more on overall quality for the second half. Especially with a game with replay value it doesn't need to be 60+ hours long, 40-50 would've been enough.

But how big is it?

Do you realize how big it is?

Brother, I don't mean to be playing the devil's advocate, but I get a sticky suspicion you're just going for eye candy.

I also kinda preferred Driftwood over Fort Joy. Probably since it has the Cyseal feel, and I do like the city-experience from the likes of Divinity 2:FoV more than the explorer gameplay of the original Divinity 2.
Also it helped it didn't have that horrible maze. Worst piece of gameplay in a Original Sin game so far, easily beating out the D:OS worst. The Imp Realm did a valiant try to trump it, though, but ultimately wasn't as badly designed as that maze.

ACT III did take a sudden leap. While I found the map design good, it really suffers from having a large area with fairly little to do. Since not a fan of the combat I welcomed the lack of a lot of combat, but it wasn't really replaced with anything in it's place. Basically just a giant fetchquest for 7 altars (although you can literally skip the entire island entirely) and the one thing that breaks it up (Imp Realm) is just... bad, really really bad. Amalia's wasn't so bad but it was basically press a couple buttons to win, just running past/over everything.
It offers some great ways to thin enemies out by having them fight each other, setting them up the bomb etc. but just like D:OS1 doing actually interesting ways of thinning foes rather than combat gives zero rewards, as all the XP is tied up in combat.

Can't give an opinion on Arx yet since I just started on it, by blasting foes that cannot climb from atop till they're dead. Hmmm... D:OS2 combat.

Again, different strokes for different folks. I personally find act I the most polarising - there are bits that I absolutely love and other bits that I absolutely loathe. I find other acts more consistent in this regard. Also, Arx is my absolute favourite by a very long shot. I like major city hubs and it really reminds me of Tarant from Arcanum in terms of both layout as well as quest design.

I have to say I don't get this "Act 1 so much better than the others" meme.I thought Driftwood and Arx were very good. I thought Wrecker's Cave surpassed pretty much any other level in the game. Only Bloodmoon Island and Nameless Isle felt slightly below par for me.

Maybe it's 'cos Fort Joy is so much more difficult without tools and trying to get to grips with the gameplay mechanics and not really knowing what's going on makes it feel that much more intense.

Perhaps the EA made Fort Joy just too good for the game's good. In the sense that if the beginning of any game is that good, where the hell do you go from there?

I agree with the shortcomings of Arx (Seems really empty until you get to the city), but I liked the driftwood area and plot very much. Could be better if you have more freedom to change the order you do things ( It is somewhat forced because of the fixed level of the enemies). Nameless isle have some interesting insights in the story of the game if you have fane, but it is more exploration than talking compared to other areas, and it could not be for anyone´s taste.


Good to know somebody remembers tarant and arcanum =D

Speaking my point of view here only:

Act I had more side stories that were not only more varied and very consistent with the world, but also provided interaction with more interesting and fleshed out side characters. Kniles the Flencer--an optional side NPC, had more character than Lord Kemm(whom I couldn't take seriously for whatever reason). It was providing lore without info-dumping it and telling you shortly how you should feel about something(for instance, all the information that you gather retrospectively about Braccus, without the game telling you one time--'Braccus is evil!'). It was approaching crucial components of the story from multiple directions--most of which, optional for you to see. Like the silent monks and everything surrounding their case. It had a more complex level design with more secrets and more ways to do things, without being too large. It had more balanced combat. Now, looking back, possibly the best encounter I had was the strange sister in the blood rose cave. She and her bugs put up a good fight, and I barely managed to survive on first try. A rather rewarding feeling for me, especially since I needed to use more variation of skills, items and evaluation there than in my late game which was chain-cc-one-trick-pony matter or get wiped in a turn by foes for whom height, distance and surfaces(except web) mean nothing.

My reasons why Act I is my favourite. I would easily trade my 168 hours play-through for half that with more quality.

Graphically the game looks VERY pleasing. But I doubt anyone has got any issues with that.

PS: off topic question. Any way to give my steam copy of a game to somebody else? I am actually looking to donate my OS2 to a reviewer.

You can only give it away, if you did not redeem the key for it.