I never actually got to the end of the game. Oh, I got to the battle with Damian: it was a total stalemate. 100% stalemated. He couldn't kill me and I couldnit hit him. I learned what a total, utter waste of time it was to make my hero a strong archer, because she just wouldn't SHOOT. After spending about three hours going back and forth and reloading from just before the battle and trying it again, I gave up. It was totally stalemated and there was nothing I could do about it. I watched the "outro" movie in the game files and then uninstalled it (though I'm sure I'll reinstall it again someday, because I'm like that) because I needed the HD space.
All the way through the game I'd been telling myself that it was sure to get better, that it was really building towards something. Then Samuel showed up, and I fought him for twenty minutes, and didn't even get any XP out of it. That was a big fat "whatever." Then the stalemated battle with Damian. Then, after all that, I went and looked at a walkthrough.
Despite my meticulous "uncover every map" method of gameplay, I was staggered how many quests I'd never triggered along the way through the four acts. I was frustrated that it was so easy to trigger the Act-changing quest without even knowing about it. Had I finished another half-dozen quests, or known to make my hero the melee fighter instead of my DK, I might not have been stuck at the end.
I think it's bad design when you can (a) miss that many quests and (b) stalemate the endgame. Even though in DivDiv's wide open map it would theoretically be much easier to miss a quest, I only ever learned of three that I didn't find on my first playthrough.
Maybe I'm the only one who came through the whole game hoping for more and ultimately feeling let down but, well, there you have it. I know everyone at Larian tried hard, and I'm not really angry or bitter or anything, just... disappointed. I loved DivDiv so very much last summer that I once played it for seventeen hours without noticing (though I did take meal and bathroom breaks). I was so very excited to follow this project, as it went from the announcement of "Riftrunner" to the "Beyond Divinity" we finally got... maybe there was no game possible that could have lived up to my heightened sense of anticipation. But stalemating the endgame was the final straw. Someday (after I can scrape up the cash for a second hard drive) I'm sure I'll reinstall it, and I'll use a walkthrough to make sure I find everything that's there. But, you know, I can't help but feel that's not how it should be.
I still hold out high hopes for Divinity 2. Just... slightly wiser ones.
