Game Review: Divinity - Original Sin 2
Talking about RPGs does not just talk about genres that are only strongly associated with equipment systems or damage attacks that now appear as numbers on your screen. He first took root from the gameplay system of a tabletop game - Dungeon & Dragons that as the name suggests, did ask to play a certain character. Underwent an adventure designed by a Dungeon Masters, this super-popular game later found its way into the game industry in digital format. Slowly but surely, along with the development of gaming platform technology, it is also interpreted as form. There are so many different RPG games out there, with a charm that has a different characteristic. As offered by Divinity: Original Sin 2.
without hesitation calling it a potential candidate for the best PC exclusive game of the year 2017, it comes with a real Role-Playing concept. That unlike Japanese RPG or western RPG games that focus on a single character narrative, you are given the opportunity to enjoy a story from the perspective of your character rack. There are so many alternative solutions, rational or not, to overcome the various challenges that exist. An RPG game that's ready to make you spend hundreds of hours without you even knowing it.
So, what is actually offered by Divinity: Original Sin 2 this? Why do we call it an almost perfect RPG game? This review will discuss it more deeply for you.
Plot
Looking at the number "2" that he offers, it is not surprising that most of you might feel and assume that this is a direct sequel series from Divinity: Original Sin. The assumption is right, but it may not end up like what you would think of before. Divinity: Original Sin 2 alone will start the timeline 100 years after the first series. Therefore, in addition to sharing the same universe and perhaps references at some point, this is a separate series that you can enjoy without the need to understand, understand, or enjoy the first series altogether.
Like the RPG games you should have, you have the freedom to choose the main characters you use - some have background stories and some are positioned as "original" characters with no depth behind the scenes. But the main story itself will share a major red thread if we talk about the plot to be offered. Waking up on a foreign ship and being a prisoner with a Source necklace that makes you unable to access your best ability, your life is under threat. But because of a "luck", the ship you were flying was suddenly hit by a disaster, drowned and stranded. You are supposed to be executed in a place called Fort Joy, starting to get free.
As far as the eye can see, you can see a strong persecution of the magical user group that is now seen as a "villain" by another group. Their magical abilities are seen as the reason for a race of creepy and dangerous creatures named Voidwalker, penetrating the dimensions of dimension into a world of dimensions. But of course, the world does not work that simple. Along with your journey, while trying to be free and against the Magisters who are hunting you, you understand that there is a much larger line of destiny awaiting you. Undergo your duty as a holy warrior to fight the monsters. Destiny to become a "Godwoken".
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Source
So, what is Godwoken? What's that Voidwalker? Can your character cope with every challenge? What kind of world should you explore? The answer to that question, of course, you can get by playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 this.
Interactive World
As an RPG game with an isometric point of view that allows you to approach the camera's point of view closely enough, you can guess that Divinity: Original Sin 2 is not a game that makes visual detail and graphics quality a major selling point. This is not a game like Dragon Age: Frostbite-based Inquisition, a machine that is known for its superior visual capabilities. Nevertheless, in the midst of its limitations, the "world" of Divinity: Original Sin 2 offers something far more fantastic. Interactive levels that will remind you of quality RPG games that can be spelled out, you rarely find in the market.
In the middle of a world divided into several chapters with different designs and themes, you will still enjoy some of the details. Like the beautiful grass when you zoom or just placing a variety of objects that will strengthen the atmosphere that you are "in" into a world that you never expected before. The NPC characters that you find will move with enough life, though not quite dynamic. Given this game does not have a system day and night, then the world you face will appear constantly. The movement and activity of the "live" NPC in Divinity: Original Sin 2 will not be much different from every minute you meet them.
Although visually unattractive, Divinity: Original Sin 2 offers something tempting in the world he is the rack. True, like the subtitles we choose is the interactivity of the various elements of the world that we stretcher. You can do many things that will affect the world itself. As an example? From simple things like rain and fire, for example. Throwing a summon of fire over the meadows will burn and make them ashes, while Spell themed water and rain will cause puddles at some point. Although it is more viscous for battle strategies, it will have consequences on the environment.
You are also given almost absolute freedom to influence other elements, something that appeals to Divinity: Original Sin 2 itself. NPC, for example, does play an important role, but you always have a chance to kill them for no rational reason at all. Those killed will be forever killed, and you will not be able to access their conversations or functions forever. You also have the opportunity to meet with a crate or a locked door while traveling. But unlike other RPG games that may "demand" you to find the right key, most of these doors or chests you can destroy with brute force, using your physical attacks. In fact, by simply holding down the Alt + Click, you can attack anything, anyone, whenever you want to attack. As an example? If you want to fill the ground with poison, for example, use a magic wand. You can attack the ground with the same element, wherever you want. Divinity: Original Sin 2 offers such freedom.
Such interactivity is what makes the Divinity world: Original Sin 2 itself becomes so special. That unlike most RPG games that lock what you can or can not do in accordance with the narrative that he using, Divinity: Original Sin 2 offers you the freedom to influence the existing game environment, according to what you want.
Role Playing
One of Divinity's main attractions: Original Sin 2 as an RPG game is its focus on the role-playing aspect itself. For you who are not too familiar, the gameplay itself is not much different from the isometric RPG game with a thick element of strategy, something that we will discuss later. Because in our eyes, and maybe a lot of other fan enthusiasts around the world, Divinity's main attraction: Original Sin 2 is indeed in your own character role play. That you decide what kind of story you want to rack, something that is greatly facilitated by the team of developers - Larian Studios that deserve to be thumbs up.
No need to dive far, even this you will find at the beginning of the game. True, unlike most RPG games that will require you to meet some of the main characters and then build stories from their interactions, Divinity: Original Sin 2 does not make it a necessity. Believe it or not, you can play this game as a Lone Wolf adventurer or build a party of 3 extra people who, too, can be built from so many options from the ones available. This we are still talking at the beginning of the game. Along with your journey exploring the adventure provided by Divinity: Original Sin 2 is, then the more you understand the complexity that offers you, the real role play.
Every character you choose will come from a special race, whether it is human, elf, undead, or dwarf for example. Even the choice of this race alone will be able to provoke some special conversation options during a story or a side mission, which you may not find in other races. As an example? There is a puzzle mission that asks you to answer a philosophical question from an Undead philosopher who suddenly awakens from his "long sleep." If you do not have Undead races in your party, the only way to answer this philosophical question is to read at least three specific books in a house. But if your party has an Undead race? Fellow Undead seems to understand this philosophical problem, and you will get through it more easily. Remember, we just talk about one side mission alone.
With so many side missions and main missions that will usually also demand a conversation with a variety of responses that produce different consequences, then you can imagine what kind of potential story you can get. To the extent, in our opinion, it is very rational for Divinity gamers: the Original Sin 2 one to undergo a different adventure with other gamers, although ending on the same line. Because of the craze imagined, the developer even injected "Alternative road" to the main story itself. Like on the first island - Fort Joy, for example. Interested gamers may be able to move from this island to the next island in 5-6 hours of gameplay, where you can meet and free a child ready to row a boat to leave immediately or just follow the quest of one man who demands you to play Lone Wolf. But for you who want to dive in, you can even "stuck" on the same island for 30 hours, and still, have not found all the secrets. Hopefully, it can give you a clearer picture of the content of Divinity's role: Original Sin 2 itself.
Interesting again? Fighting has never been the only solution to all existing conflicts. Like RPG games a la DnD, for example, characterization of your character will also greatly affect your build style. The level-up system will give you the ability to allocate various skill points to status, skill, and talent, each of which will affect your way of dealing with the specific conflicts that arise. There are conversations that you can "finish" if you have a high Finesse number, or maybe an avoidable battle if you have Strength above average, up to new pieces of information if you can tease NPCs with your high Wits status. So does the talent you get. There are talents like "Pet Pal" that allow you to talk to animals, which sometimes provide information, secret passages, to new side missions. Wow!
His ability to make this trip as a personal story of your character also deserves thumbs up. Once you familiarize yourself with what Divinity: Original Sin 2, you will begin to accept that it is almost impossible to get a super perfect playthrough from a casual "RPG" perspective that usually encourages you to complete any existing side missions. Fight because you were wrong to talk to one of the NPCs? Think of it as a part of your world-saving journey. Missed the opportunity to dig information? You begin to develop a sense of optimism that there will be other ways to get it, and usually, it will be fulfilled either through another NPC or just a letter/document you find randomly. Or you have to accept, that you can not talk to animals because the talent is lacking, and ends up making you have to fight with certain monsters.
Removing your knowledge of the "closed" RPG game you've known seems to be opening a door that's so tempting and massive for a Divinity-style RPG concept: Original Sin 2 that makes role-playing a focus. It's not about games that require you to live the story as well as possible but instead build your own storyline through your own play style and character. Even believe it or not, in our playthrough we even ended up killing one of those seemingly important characters (after us Google) without the fatal consequences for the progress of the story we rack. The reason we kill? Simple, because he looks suspicious. Do we sound like a bunch of shit parties? Believe it or not, that is the essential role of Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Want to use violence as a solution to all problems? Please. Or do you want to take diplomacy course? Please. Are you more interested in siding with one of the factions in this game universe? Please. You want to see all the factions are enemies and want to make sure more bodies fall to the ground? You always have an option for it. Everything is wrapped with a sense of certainty and security, that there is always an alternative "solution" that you can find and pursue if it ends up in touch with your main storyline.
Not easy
But still, as an RPG game, the fight will be an integral part of Divinity: Original Sin 2. And rest assured, it will contain a battle system that will not be as simple as you think. At the level of difficulty it should be - "Classic", the core of winning battles will depend heavily on so many trial and error processes, and of course, optimally leverage the Quick Save and Quick Load functions offered. Because instead of just coming and attacking, he will demand a lot of things to think about, from the placement of characters, the height of the battlefield, to just the priority scale.
To move and act, each character will be equipped with AP (Action Points) up to a maximum of 6 pieces AP/turn. Any action, from moving to a certain point, attacking, until using a certain skill will sacrifice some APs, which will then return to the next turn. Each skill, depending on the intensity and the damages, necessitates a different number of APs. The greater the damage, usually the greater the number of MPs demanded.
Meanwhile, each character will be equipped with three bars to show your resistance to a particular attack. There is an HP bar, which of course, will define your "life" before it kills if it ends with the number "0". As a layer to protect HP itself, Divinity: Original Sin 2 provides two other extra bars - Physical Armor (gray) and Magic Armor (blue) as an additional bar. True, every armor will protect you from certain types of attacks. A physical attack will injure Physical Armor first, while magical attacks will kill Magic Armor. Once they are depleted, you have a chance to start reducing the enemy's HP.
The presence of Physical and Magic Armor will also affect the resilience of your character on certain status effects. As an example? If you get or throw a physical attack called Cripple that makes the target unable to move, this effect will only enter if the target's Physical Armor is drained away. But if he still has Physical Armor in it, then the entry is just damage without the existing Cripple status. The same thing also happens with status effects involving Magic, like Impale or Scare for example that will also be protected as long as you have Magic Armor. The result is a strategic understanding of when to use your skill that is possible, capable of producing negative side effects on existing enemy characters.
Interestingly, the enemy characters you face will also have different characteristics related to the equipment and the type of main Armor they are the stretcher, for example. Paladin's class enemy characters, for example, will have high physical armor, but sometimes - have low armor magic. Until it is sometimes more effective to continue to beat and kill him with magic, rather than trying to finish off his physical armor bar that is so thick. But not infrequently you meet the character of the boss, human or non-human, which usually comes with two bars as thick and also extra new skills to make the fight more challenging.
So, what makes us call it not easy? First, because like them, you are also a fragile character. That trying to subdue the enemy who controls you in terms of quantity is not something rational. Fortunately, there is a mechanism we talked about earlier, which allows you to manipulate not only your enemy but also your environment. Making them burn, blocking their paths with more poison pools, trying to stir them with Water and Electric magic at the same time is an effective strategy. By positioning the characters according to the role, such as Ranger that you can position high and far as the damage will also allow you to achieve the required damage effectiveness. But again, remember, that party composition always depends on your freedom to choose. While the effectiveness will also depend on what skills you choose and track for each character that exists.
Because unlike other RPG games, "class" is not something that will inhibit what you can / cannot do with your character. What will determine it exactly is the allocation of skill points, status, and talents like what you are after. It is not possible, that some characters will run two or three jobs together. As we did with our Undead character - Fane is at first, a Fire Spell-based wizard. After continuing to raise Pyrokinetic skills that make his fire spell-based damage ever-increasing and effective, we decided to submit a second role to him - Necromancing. That he is not only capable of summoning fire, he can now also create creepy monsters to help you in battle. Just as we do with our tankers who are also focused on being able to reflect the damage he gets through a status called "Retribution", to make his role more effective. Cooler? With most of the skills and spells you can learn through the variety of books sold in the merchants, you always have room to build what kind of character you need.
Another important thing to consider in combat is the nature and status of different characters. Undead characters, for example, enemies or friends, will have different characteristics with other living things. They, for example, will be injected with magic Healing and can only be cured with poison only. Undead also does not mind and will not get hurt if it goes into the "cloud" named Deathfog which will kill the others instantly. Then, there are other status effects such as "Decaying" for example that may be attached to the character of the enemy on your character. As long as you are exposed to this one status, all forms of healing will end up in damage, regardless of whether you are Undead or not. So learning to understand the situation that occurs during combat is also essential. You who stand on a puddle, for example, will be vulnerable to Shock Status if the enemy uses electric magic or it ends up freezing and losing the turn if they use Magic status. Considering where you should move, whether you should dodge, and the like will be of great help to you.
Along with the progress of the game, you will also meet another resource named - Source. You can simplify it as an "Ultimate" attack with a different gem-shaped bar. Depending on your upgraded status, each character will be able to use this Source to access more action and other cool functions. You can use it to use "Bless", which not only removes the character effects status but also increases the element level for whatever surface you are on. If you stand on water for example and use Bless on the water, it will turn the function into "Holy" and make the surrounding area a place for Healing. So also with fire, etc. Each character can also use this Source to access their own specific skill variant which of course, will help you in battle.
So with all these combinations, then the fight in Divinity: Original Sin 2 will continue to challenge you. That not just go in, fight, and hope to win, there is a level of strategy that you have to think about and plan carefully before testing it on the battlefield. Fortunately, the Quick Save and Quick Load functionality will be ready to ensure you do not end up crying after these battles end. Believe me, he is ready to test your patience.
Cheese
So with this combination of freedom and high level of game difficulty, it's just a matter of time before you will find a way to do "Cheese". For those of you not so familiar with this term, we certainly do not talk about the cheese you might find on your toast this morning. Cheese can be simplified as a sentence to represent gamers' efforts in searching conventional ways to solve one particular problem. That in order to solve a challenge, they think of ways that might never have been predicted by the previous developer and then exploit it for a certain profit. In Divinity: Original Sin 2, with all these freedoms, Cheese is something absolute and sometimes, essential for you to try it.
Of all the spells you can exploit, Teleport seems to be the best "Cheese" weapon so far. That spell that you can get pretty early in this game will allow you to move NPCs, enemies, to objects even with a considerable distance. In a normal and honest way, you can use Teleport to pull one of the hardest enemies out of the group in order to overcome them, before confronting the cronies that will naturally corner you in quantity. Or you can use it to move barrels that may contain oil or toxins for example to near existing enemies, in secret, before exploding them as a "surprise". But it is hard not to be recognized, that he also became the main weapon to do a lot of Cheese action.
One of them is fishing agro NPC. You find it difficult to deal with a specific boss because it comes with so many buffs that are hard to accept with common sense? Then you can always check whether in the vicinity, you can find camp or city with NPC or not. If you feel lazy against it directly, you can find a way to Teleport to the enemy, bring it as close as possible to the existing NPC, let the agro appear, and then let the NPC and the enemy fight each other to death. Just calm down, as long as you had time to generate damage at the beginning, you will get the full experience as long as the enemy is killed. You can sip coffee and enjoy the hot pancakes you just bought during this process.
Teleport can also be used to do Cheese that "destroys" the game itself, something we also did in the name of frustration. Against one of the bosses who continue to use "Shackle of Pain" permanently, a skill that makes all the damage you are bossing on now must also be felt by your player, we who have spent up to 1.5 hours looking for a solution ultimately using the way The most "cheat" cheese we could find. How to? By using Teleport, of course. To make sure the aggro of the boss is never triggered and you can get through the battle more easily, we decide to continue to Teleport, hide, teleport, hide, constantly, to successfully "throw" the boss to a distant area. Killing another enemy first, this allows us to confront the boss alone.
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Along with the journey you are passing, with more solid battles that sometimes arise out of unbalanced boss designs, you will find many creative ways to take action on Cheese, especially those that make Teleport the main focus. Moreover, if executed with the right distance, not infrequently your teleport targets even heed the existing agro and more focused on staying in one place only. This will make your trip simpler at some point.