Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis Gamestar Review-Box Translation

for those of you who are interested: Gamestar (one of europes biggest gaming mags) has just released their test online with the following points:

Graphics 7/10
+ lots of details
+ lots of variety
- "strange" animations
- muddy textures
- game and cutscene transitions could have been handled better

Sound 9/10
+ very good to fantastic voice actors (german version here of course)
+ lots of variety and fitting music
- environmental stereosounds are weak

Balance 7/10
+ game can be beat with every skillset
+ well done and logical puzzle sections
- only 1 relatively easy difficulty setting
- boss fights too easy (except for final boss)

Atmosphere (8/10)
+ nice mix of traditional fantasy setting and humour/irony
+ fun to explore the world
+ spot on humor
- change of character too quick (not even sure what they mean in german)
- some weak plotlines

Controls/Handling (8/10)
+ good mouse/keyboard handling
+ assignable hotkeys
+ able to teleport
- unclear/confusing inventory
- weak map

Game length (10/10)
+ huge amount of quests, most of which are optional
+ huge and varied world
+ upgradeable player fortress

Quests (10/10)
+ nice story
+ good/evil paths
+ interesting characters
+ surprise twists

Character/Skill system (9/10)
+ you're free to choose what skills you want
+ opportunities to experiment
+ lots of useful skills
+ dragon has own skills

Combat system (6/10)
+ exciting
- no active blocking
- close combat hard to avoid
- dragon flight is limited

Items (10/10)
+ huge amount of items, weapons, and potions
+ powerful set-items
+ you feel your character improving

Overall Score 83% and thus rated "Top Game" (Gamestar is a pretty strict magazine and such aa score is VERY good from them)

Thanks Mate.

What do they mean by no active blocking?
I'm slighty dissapointed you can't change the difficulty.

Overall nice review If there strict I'm guessing the game must be good!

There also new screenshots at there website.
They look much better than the batch EuroGamer released.

- no active blocking

That is a + IMNSHO.
I assume they mean there is no key or combo to block/parry an attack if you time the key press to the opponent's movements.

- close combat hard to avoid
Why would you want to avoid it?


Perhaps a difficulty setting could be added in a patch, or included before the English version is released. If not, I guess it is easy enough to pick a handicap to make the game more challenging...

by no active blocking i'm assuming there is no "block" button and it may be random, as stated above

Oh Ok Guys.
Also theres some short gameplay clips at Gamestar.

Sounds excellent overall. Hopefully the english version will make it to North America this September.

- dragon flight is limited




What? Does that mean you can spend only a limited amount of time in dragon shape? If so, that's just stupid !

No it means that you not only have these red forcefields your dragon isn't able to pass but also you can't target enemies on the ground. To bad I was hoping for instant fly-burn with enemies.

Read Above.
That person knows his stuff.

That's right. Was mentioned by various persons including devs and game testers from magazines.

No active blocking is good. This isn't freaking Street Fighter. Blocking should be determined by stats and equipment.

I wonder if close combat was hard to avoid because they only used the over-the-shoulder view (I plan to zoom out to mimick isometric view and blast stuff with mage spells) or because enemies are too fast. I hope it's the former.

I'm really excited to see the reviewers gave good scores to quests and NPCs. For me that's the most important thing on a RPG. But I'm worried about the game difficulty, I hate easy RPGs, like the ones you can be stronger than a god since the beginning.

Lots of the things that really matter to me (and reminds me of DD) are covered fine it sounds. I am happy on Larians behalf that ED is rated a Top game, I hope we will see lots of positive reviews like that in the near future.

I've played the game enough and seen enough playtesters try it out for the first time and I can assure you even though there is only one difficulty level, it is not an easy game.

Thanks for the answer. My hype is back to normal. In fact, even higher than before.

Sounds like it came together well. My only concern is the negative on the inventory, described as being unclear/confusing. Considering the inventory system is something you are constantly using, repeatedly and often, throughout the game, having one that is potentially annoying to the player might mean it's something that Larian may have to work on in a patch. It may not be an issue, but we'll know more as reviews start dropping in.

Don't listen to what larian_QA is saying, he just sucks!!!!!

But ehm remember to save a lot, you will need it

True!

Haha.
This is what we need some comedy and some fun.
I'll save don't worry.

Yes you wouldn't want to lose 2 hours of gameplay like a certain someone i know.