"...introductory plot handed out through frankly copious amounts of highly detailed dialogue..."
I get a depressed when I read statements like this. There was a time when RPGs required the player to read. Too often, it seems, if a player or reviewer is asked to endure more than a few lines of dialog before heading back out to kill monsters they complain. One of the things that has struck me about this game is how UN-detailed the information in dialogs has been. In the "Better than Dragon Age" thread someone made this comment: "...you don't learn about the chapions or seekers. you don't learn about aleroth or rivertown. you don't learn about how the black ring was made."
I'm not far enough into Divinity 2 to evaluate that statement but, if true, I think it's a good thing. One of the tell-tale signs of a poor storyteller is overloading the reader/listener with too much exposition in the beginning. Tolkien, for all his faults, created a nice sense of history by supplying the reader with only tantalizing hints of ancient history.
"...disastrously and unjustifiably sub-par..."
The emphasis in gaming reviews on gimmicks and graphics is something else that depresses me. Dangle a shiny object in front of a reviewer and they will be mesmerized. But I guess that's just the way it is: today's developer has to catch the attention of the reviewer quickly. And the quickest way to catch the attention of someone who has little time to spend with a game and may not be paying attention when he is spending time with the game is through flashy graphics. If a developer does not offer better graphics than the last game it will be the first thing the reviewer notices and will form the bulk of his review.
I guess I feel differently because I began my CRPG life back in the days of 2D gaming. I'll take interesting characters and an involving story over the shiniest graphics any day and do not award a game demerits because it is not graphically cutting edge. But, sadly, I think players with my attitude may be disappearing.
"...animations are dreadfully shoddy..."
This is something I can almost agree with. I was put off by D2's animations when I first entered the game. But the more I have been playing the more I have begun to think the animations are kind of charming. They have a slightly retro, hand-made feel to them that I'm beginning to think was deliberate. The conversation interface also feels deliberately retro to me. I'm beginning to think this is part of the game's design aesthetic now.
"...Divinity is all a bit Fable 1..."
I've not played Fable1 so I'm not sure I understand the reference. Can anybody who has played Fable1 explain why the reviewer singles out this particular game? He seems to be saying that a game that marries quest-based gameplay with hack-n-slash harks back automatically to Fable 1 - as though no other game has combined these two features before, which is an ignorant thing to say. I guess I'm just missing something here.
Ultimately, this was a very shallow review - but that's nothing new or surprising in game reviews.
