I finished Divinity 2 yesterday. Here are some of my impressions and thoughts.
I have enclosed possible spoiler stuff in spoiler tags.
First, high points..The voice acting was absolutely amazing. It's been a long time since I enjoyed voice acting as much as this. I played the German version, obviously, but I remember thinking several times how high the bar has been set, and that the English voice actors have big shoes to fill. The characters really came alive because of it and I hope other games learn from this.
Especially Igor made me crack up. He's the perfect example of someone that is hilariously creepy - without being corny.
The skill and stat system. There is freedom of choice available at any point in the game. You're never tied down to one path or one type equipment. If you're smart or strong enough, you can wear equipment or use weapons that match this. It doesn't depend on your chosen profession.
There are many cool skills and you will have to specialize to get the most out of them. I ended up with something of a cross between a mage and a ranger and pretty much destroyed anything before it could reach me, especially in the late game. It was quite satisfying, since I had been getting destroyed myself early on by even measely goblins. It is possible to make yourself quite powerful, but then rightly so. After all, if every monster was as powerful as you in the end game - then what purpose did you serve? Anyone could have filled your shoes in that case. I sincerely hate games that scale with your development, like Oblivion did, and thankfully Divinity avoids that horrible fate.
The game world has many interesting personalities and locations scattered around it. The diverse individuals that populate the world are definitely worth exploring for. What kept the game from getting stale was undoubtedly the people, their attitudes, predicaments and the thought put into the design of levels and environments. It was always fun to go somewhere new.
Large parts of the game can be skipped entirely. It would be unwise, however, as the end game might prove too difficult unless you're very lucky.
Incidentially, most of the big optional parts are those that involve the most arcade-like dragon action.
When flying, people and monsters on the ground disappear. It was disappointing, because one of the things I enjoyed a lot, in the now almost 10 years old game Drakan, was the ability to take revenge from the skies on foes that have otherwise proven quite difficult.
It would have been sweet to see people cower in fear and run screaming from your airborne vengeance. As it is, they simply disappear until you conveniently start running on foot again. If one could engage foes on the ground from the air, there could still be plenty of challenge from foes defending themselves with arrows, spells and such.
There could have been a reduction in XP earned from simply torching foes, but to be able to turn into a dragon and NOT terrorize those on the ground, that's a major loss in game satisfaction.
On the plus side, flying monsters generally ignore you too while you are on the ground. Even so, having full out interactivity between sky and ground at all times would have been the most satisfying.
The battle tower is a great idea and every RPG should have something similar. Even heroes need a place to call their own.
The game keeps reminding you to talk to people in your battle tower. As it turns out, they don't have much to say apart from a few things pertaining to upgrading your tower. It made them less entertaining than they could be, because their background stories and what led up to them being in the tower could have opened up plenty of opportunity for more things to happen. In short, the tower felt less like home than it could have.
Foes do not respawn. There are no random encounters. This makes it feel like you have cleared a level, rather than you live in a breathing world. Larian could even have spiced it up. It could have been fun, for example, to see other tribes and monsters take over after you disrupt the balance of things.
People seem completely unattached to their belongings. You can rob them in broad daylight and they don't pay attention to it.
Overall..Aside from these minor niggles, the overall experience is a great one. I'm not sure about replayability for others, but for me the game stands as a great one time experience. If modding tools were released I'm sure the longevity could be vastly increased.
The ending was interesting. It has upset some people, but personally I find it a great setup for part 3. As long as there IS a part three. Hopefully soon too, and not after another decade.
The game is heavy on action. While airborne extremely so. Certain parts of the game will have you feeling you're playing an almost pure arcade game. I still mostly enjoyed it, though some may be turned off by it.
My most favorite part of the game was the initial map. It really held my interest firmly. The second map, that requires dragon form, was okay too - but seemed much smaller and obviously tailored to dragon transport. The various flying fortress maps were ok too, but if there had been anymore than there was I would have gotten sick of them. Those parts of the game seemed like the most recycled ones and the most like "filler" material. The few dungeons on those map did make up for it a bit and were the sole reason for going through with destroying all those towers and nests.
I hope to see a sequel soon since the game definitely deserves one.
