I'm an old timer myself (been gaming ever since the
Odyssey was released in the mid 70s - my first computer game was
Ultima II - it came with 7 floppy discs and a cloth map - it was SERIOUS :P ) and loved DKS and I really enjoyed your write up. I agree with most of your points but disagree (or simply experienced things differently) with a few.
Also, most of the maps are beautiful, and don't bore you with countless repetitions of the same dungeon, unlike some other games *cough* Oblivion *cough*. When comparing to Oblivion, another positive difference that catches the eye is that NPCs don't respawn or grow in level together with you.
I agree the explorable areas of the game are great. My only dislike was how different areas of the game feel disjointed. I don't mind separate 'maps' for dungeons, but I do like the outside world to be contiguous. I also felt that the map feature in DKS was very well done, allowing players to make their own notes on the maps (I think Arx Fatalis was the last game to allow that and before that game, we're back in the 90s with Ultima Underworld) although I didn't like the art direction of the maps very much.
I also agree with the dungeons in DKS - very atmospheric and much better than the 'monster closests' of Oblivion. I also agree (and this is an important one) with you that the absence of level scaling in DKS really adds to the sense of character progression.
Performance. This is by far the worst one, I considered dropping the game more than once because of it.
I had zero performance issues. No crashes ever. DKS ran perfectly for me. I do admittedly have a beefier (and newer) system than the one you describe that you are using.
the first-person view gives greater immersion in the game reality
I disagree with you here. A first person view of this game probably would have been a show-stopper for me - especially during the many parts of the game where you are fighting many enemies at the same time. But the bottom line for me is I just like 3rd person view better despite some of the camera flaws you point out (and to which I agree with some of your criticisms). It's subjective.
thousand strikes skill causes the camera to be rotated, further disorienting the player; this is a classic example of a special effect destroying gameplay; it looks cool the first time, but is clearly a nuisance from then on; when you pause the game in the middle of thousand strikes, the camera would spin wildly for a couple of seconds after unpause (this is obviously a bug)
I agree with you on this point. I used Thousand Strikes and would tend to get disoriented after using it, especially in dungeons. It was a small annoyance that grew over the course of my play through of the game. I thought the same thing about the blurring effect as you explore the game world in dragon form - a special effect the first time you see it you think 'oh neat' but after that first time it was just a pain to see anything clearly as you explored the game world.
unskippable cut scenes, sometimes followed by a crash. I had a crash after the final fight's cut scene!
I never had a crash after a cut scene and that would be annoying. But I still agree with your point here in spirit because even if you don't crash, you can lose a fight with the boss enemy, only to re-load and re-watch a cut scene, which can be annoying having to watch it over and over again because the boss keeps killing you. A way to skip cut scenes would be great.
sluggish cursor movement in the menu (duh, 30 FPS)
I did not experience this although there are a number of games where I do have this problem, just not in DKS
the game heavily depends on saving a lot, but saving is slow
Again, I really didn't have problems here, my games saved in maybe 1 second or less. I guess just a newer faster system overcomes some of these problems.
random loot in chests, generated at the time of opening; would be easy to fix by generating loot in all chests when the game is started
I don't really disagree with you here but would like to add that chests that are involved with a quest line, puzzle, or are otherwise inaccessible until specific conditions are met by the player should NOT be populated with random loot, but rather, hand-placed loot.
limited supply of malachite gems and their random distribution in veins, one-time encounter with that trader who offers you to buy the gem (I met him before I knew anything about usefulness of malachite gems, so I didn't buy it)
Yep, I made the same mistake my first play through. Something should be mentioned in-game about malachite GEMS being the rarest of all. Also having malachite GEMS and malachite ORE was a bit confusing my first time through because I failed to notice they were two different things. This situation is analgous to when a movie is cast with two very similar looking leading characters - it drives me nuts!
endless hidden buttons and secret areas encourage a kind of pixel hunting
On this I respectfully disagree with you. I really enjoyed all the little secrets revealed by carefully observing an area to find buttons and levers and so on. There was an entire discussion on this very subject on Rpgwatch you can read it
here if you want a different perspective.
the dragon mode - a great idea - is basically wasted, because the dragon can't fight ground enemies. Also, the inability to rise higher than certain altitude or fly over mountains is a severe hindrance.
I agree with you here. Ironically, the idea of flying free as a dragon becomes a clausterphobic experience of hitting invisible walls and invisible ceilings. World of Warcraft really spoiled me in the area of flying mounts - love or hate WoW, they really nailed it with flying mounts and the freedom of movement and speed you have when you are in the air.
while I appreciate the possibilities you get by mixing different classes, I still think it's wrong from the RPG perspective; generally, I think the correct way to do mixing is to force the player to choose an initial specialization and then allow other specializations to be unlocked as quest rewards or for a price, and/or make the other classes' skills cost higher than the native skills
I disagree with you on this. This design choice is rooted in the original Divine Divinity game and really is an underlying concept of the series. With the recent announcement of Skyrim, the next TES game, there has been some discussion about the leveling system returning to an experience point system rather that the system which has been in place since Daggerfall - which is a system of leveling up as you level up your skills. This probably won't happen in Skyrim considering the leveling system has persisted for the last 3 iterations of the TES series. I believe the 'open skills' concept for the Divinity games to be the same - an underlying core and foundational design direction for the series. I happen to like it and find it refreshing actually.
citizens and guards do not react to you robbing their stuff
I agree. I like games like DKS to react when I take other peoples' stuff. There should be ways to steal things and consequences for being caught. Even better, there should be moral consequences even if you're not caught.
Anyway, I liked your write-up. I hope Larian is financially successful with Divinity 2 so they can make another game.
