Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis Console Monster review- 81

I realize that Console Monster is not a widely known reviewer, but this little review seems to be very balanced. He lists all of the cons which I picked up on during my experience with the demo, yet he weighed them on the scale with all of the many redeeming qualities he found from the entire game. Instead of only subtracting points for glaring flaws, he also focused on the positives and weighed the game accordingly based on both factors. This is of course how it should be done, but far too often is not.

Anyway, this review pretty much cleared up any remaining questions I had for the game as a whole, as a demo will only tell you so much...especially in regards to a game of this size. In other words, despite the flaws, Divinity II seems to be exactly what I was expecting. Which is an old school, classic fantasy action/RPG with a deep skill/leveling system, good pacing and is only as rewarding as your level of commitment.

Here is the review:

http://www.consolemonster.com/article.php?id=0000000760

They lost all credibility when they said Divinity 2 has dire visuals. It isn't perfect but I've seen much, much, worse.

I won't say they lost credibility because of their "dire visuals" con, because I've heard many people say this game looks like crap, but I 100% disagree. Other than aliasing, weak character models, and subpar textures, I find the world to be beautiful. In the grand scheme of things, those 3 graphical negatives don't mean much.

The viuals are nice from an artistic standpoint, but from a technical standpoint they are indeed poor by todays standards...at least on the Xbox 360. Beyond that, the game clearly has glaring technical flaws in various categories, but there are many redeeming qualities elsewhere that make it an all around solid RPG and I think that is what this review illustrates in a very accurate and objective manner.

Personal I find the graphics more than good enough to play and replay this game many many times without NO irritating about the graphics!!

Also almost nothing of technical problems (bugs) with the xbox-version and that's really a great thing Larian make!


Edit:
O, I disagree about the reviewers opinion about the "graphics"!
But all the rest he write, I can agree with that !

Yeah I still disagree about the graphics (technical issues like frame rate and pop in aside). They're certainly no Gears of War or Crysis, but they're far from crap as some people put it. It looks really nice in HDMI.

Don't get me wrong, the visuals are fine for me as well. Especially in the use of color and art direction overall. I was merely pointing out that the reviewer here was correct in saying they are subpar on a technical level, because by today's standards (which is of course what he was judging them on) they simply are. I love the game, but that is just being honest.

Sorry but I just don't see what's so bad about these graphics.







They're far from "dire" in my opinion.

Perfect? No. State of the art? No. But far from dire.

Nice screenshots from the PC version. I am specifically talking about the 360 version on a technical level here and so was the reviewer. By today's standards, the graphics are simply not good...period.

There is aliasing galore, flat and muddy low resolution textures and not to mention the screen tearing and clipping which do not help the graphics either. Whether you want to admit it or not, these issues ARE there.

To drive my point home, Divinity II uses the Gamebryo engine, which Oblivion used as well. Yet Oblivion looks far better. With that, let's compare a nearly 4 year old game that uses the same engine, shall we? (pics removed by request)

Indeed, by today's standards, the visuals are lacking and that is just being honest about it. I love the game and do not have a problem with the visuals, but the fact that the game does not even look better than a 4 year old game that uses the same engine says a lot. I rest my case.

Heh, actually the IGN screenshot was from the Xbox 360 version, unless they lie of course. I can't validate the others 100% (though I did a Divinity 2 Xbox 360 google search for those).

Also nice to see PC screenshots in there for Oblivion aswell. It looks nice but even I know the difference between the PC and Xbox 360 screenshots. The third I believe is definitely from the Xbox 360. Hey even Oblivion had aliasing and suffered from being stuttery (which had to be fixed by clearing the cache). No game that sets out to be so large in scale lacks any issues whatsoever. Oblivion sure is a nice looking game, but even Oblivion has areas where it just looks plain bad.

The point is the graphics in Divinity 2 are not "dire". They're reasonably good enough to look at, and in some places the game can look absolutely stunning. If you want dire I can find games that look far far worse, and perform far worse from launch (Two Worlds was awful). I don't see any noticeably bad screen tearing, though I do acknowledge the frame rate and pop in issues (that I already did). The aliasing isn't that bad either, most certainly not on my 32 inch LG HDTV via HDMI.

Divinity 2 does has technical issues, as I already said, but it is hardly bad to look at either. There's a difference between acknowledging a game has technical issues graphically and the game just looking bad full stop. I am hoping that the technical issues get fixed in the upcoming patch.

And for the love of god use thumbnails please.

Also IronCreed please resize or remove those images your messing up the page width.

If were pulling out screenshots.
They'll be from PC.
On these review sites most screenshots are put under all the Platforms.
These are from 360.

From a technical point of view, Div 2 may look a bit subpar (in particular, character models) but when it comes to art direction & graphics style, it beats all the blockbuster RPGs out there.

Yes, I used a few shots of the PC version, as you did. Yet, the fact of the matter is that Diviniy II does NOT look any better than a 4 year old game that uses the same engine. No, I would not use the word 'dire', as the reviewer here does, but they are certainly not what you would call 'good' by today's standards. That was my only point.

At any rate, I love the game, but the visuals are clearly dated. I personally do not have a problem with how the game looks and quite like it from an artistic standpoint. That does not change the reality of how they measure against the standards of today, though.

The 360 version looks identical to those first 2 screens posted. PC version also lacks anti-aliasing.

"...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.

Hm, I actually thought that he simply weighed the pros and cons of the game and came to the conclusion that this is a very solid RPG, despite it's obivous flaws. He mentioned the graphical issues because THEY ARE PRESENT. Although, 'dire' is probably too strong of a term here. Yet, he turned around and weighed the redeeming qualities of the game and ended up giving it an 81, which is far from bad and seems extremely fair in my opinion.

Oh, the Fable 1 references I think come from some of the environment, whimsical nature and bits of humor sprinkled about in the game. I actually kind of think Divinity II has a bit more of it's own vibe in that regard, though. So, I sort of disagree with him there.