Divinity: Original Sin - Two New Reviews

Divinity: Original Sin was released last week and I have to say there are barely any reviews on most major sites. Still I found at least two more today.

MMO RPG - 8.2/10

Divinity: Original Sin is able to both channel the roots of its old-school RPG ancestors such as Ultima and Baldur’s Gate, while also improving the genre as a whole in the process. From start to finish, Divinity: Original Sin is an incredible experience that is full of deep and engaging roleplaying. The true turn-based combat is a breath of fresh air in an industry obsessed with quick satisfaction and it brings you back to a time of tactics and thought. The roleplaying potential presented in quests and dialogue options puts Divinity: Original Sin decidedly above its peers in most aspects, but leaves room for improvement down the line. Larian Studios is on a strong path to returning their long-running franchise to the spotlight, for fans both new and old.

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Mousenjoypad - 92/100

Divinity: Original Sin is already a contender for the title of the RPG of the year. It’s the indie RPG that could. A definitive recommendation to everybody who appreciates a good role-playing game, including those who yearn for the likes of Baldur’s Gate. You just might be nicely surprised by what’s waiting for you in this package. As if that’s not enough, we’ll have complete access to mod tools and Steam Workshop in a couple of weeks, plus additional party members and some more fluff to go with the usual array of patches that are bound to fix the few bugs the game currently sports around. Perhaps the prolonged loading screens will be looked upon, too.

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More information.

These are good reviews. ^.^

It's a shame that none of the big sites have weighed in yet...maybe they're waiting for Larian to finish their cleanup patches first. Even Metacritic is missing its usual bunch of official reviews. Though it's got tons of glowing 10's from everyone else. ^.^

..and 9.3 on Metacritic so far. Damn. I don't want to get my hopes but what if the big publishers realize there is a market for these games? Would be to good to be true...

"Perhaps the prolonged loading screens will be looked upon, too."

What prolonged loading screens? I have about 20 secs on startup and maybe around 15 loading the first save from the main menu. After that the quick load takes about 5 secs...

I'm surprised to see it getting so many high scores despite not even being completely finished yet. It currently has an average rating of 9.3 from 446 user reviews on Metacritic.

I look forward to the finished product.

So am I but I'm really struggling to curb my enthusiasm

tomasp3n said:

..and 9.3 on Metacritic so far. Damn. I don't want to get my hopes but what if the big publishers realize there is a market for these games? Would be to good to be true…

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It's honestly one of the highest scores I've personally ever seen on Metacritic. Hopefully it doesn't change too much once the news sites start weighing in...

I hope the big publishers get the hint too. From what I saw from E3 - and call me a cynic if you want - it seems like big AAA publishers prefer pandering to teenage console FPS audiences. Though maybe they'll wake up and take notice that honest, heart-and-soul RPG's will sell a whole lot more in the end than some half-finished FPS.

User score on Metacritic for this kind of "crowd-driven" game is not exactly reliable. I'd wait until the critics have had their say, and then assume it's somewhere in the middle.

That's my experience, anyway.

In that same way, you can't really rely on Metacritic for new Bioware games - as it's the other way around - with excessively low user scores for some of them.

That said, I think this game is likely to score ~8 with critics - which, theoretically, means it's probably an 8.5ish game overall, which is rather fantastic for us old-school fans. An 8.5 old-school game is like a 9 or 9.5 regular game, using the common 7-10 range of scores.

yeah, the whole purpose of this project is to change the way people see what a video game should be and how much it can tackle.

This and Eternity.. and Wasteland.

Go go Isometric.

that being said, i have low expectations for all of them in this order Eternity > Wasteland >> DOS

Aubrielle said:

It's a shame that none of the big sites have weighed in yet…maybe they're waiting for Larian to finish their cleanup patches first.

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Sven said in release video that they where busy and they didn't send review codes,I assume codes are sent now so expect lot of reviews soon.
On side note game has sold very well with barely any reviews so it should be good times ahead for Larian once reviews form major sites start coming.

I'm glad how Divinity: Original Sin turned out in the end: Perfect situation for the competitors! Project Eternity in fantasy setting and Fallout-type games like Underrail, Krai Mira, After Reset.

I'm happy for Larian and of course I'm excited to play this when some more bugs get squashed, but to suggest publishers are taking notice I think is premature…

1) This game was not "funded" by Kickstarter. It was made better by KS as Larian could add features but from what I understand, 75% of the game was basically done already on Larian's dime (err… 300,000 dimes).

2) That said, recent numbers suggest the game has, or will have shortly, broken even financially. "Breaking even" is not exactly inspiring to a publisher.

There is a market for this game, obviously. But despite the excitement, it's still proven to be a very small market compared to most games. Publishers could care less, at least so far. Larian may make a million or two profit, but publishers want mega-profit. I just don't see that happening.

"So Chaos Theory, why not have smaller publishers take these games for smaller profits?"

— Good question. Problem is, a small company can go out of business with one poor-selling game. There's a huge history of this already with RPGs developers (SEE: History of Gaming 1998-2005). The bottom line is that these types of games will probably always have to be crowdfunded, at least partially, for us to continue to see them. The numbers just won't be there for larger publishers to really care. *shrugs*

JDR13 said:

I'm surprised to see it getting so many high scores despite not even being completely finished yet.

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It is completely finished.
Whoevers says it is not is a liar. Install, run, play. Stop waiting for totally irrelevant no my chars won't be romantic or selfish, one will be stupid and another will be immoral "DLC"!

It won't be 10/10 from me in the end, there are some things that could and should have been designed better.
But that doesn't mean it's not the best game in my hands so far in this year! It definetly is. If in the end it gets GOTY, that will be well deserved.

Only one thing bugs me so far. You can see items inside buildings and behind walls, etc. I love the isometric view, but you shouldn't have foolproof x-ray vision.

Minor quibble though.

ChaosTheory said:

2) That said, recent numbers suggest the game has, or will have shortly, broken even financially. "Breaking even" is not exactly inspiring to a publisher.

There is a market for this game, obviously. But despite the excitement, it's still proven to be a very small market compared to most games. Publishers could care less, at least so far. Larian may make a million or two profit, but publishers want mega-profit. I just don't see that happening.

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You sure about that? It's been the top selling game on steam since its release.

*Checks*

Yep still at the top. The game could very well be doing well enough to meet or beat the numbers by some of the more "experimental" games that big publishers such as ubisoft budget for.

The Metacritic score will likely go down. Lots of people that don't have the patience to read reviews and just look at scores instead will buy the game when they see the 9+ rating. Then they will show up 4 hours later to give the game a 1 rating because the game isn't the action RPG they were expecting.

The score is about as reliable as the scores on GOG, everything have 9 or 10/10.

i played it quite alot now 40h and it really is a very good game and if PoE dont come out this year it will almost certainly be my GOTY RPG

I'm 44 hours into the game, too -> still in first map (lvl 8/9)
Great game!

HiddenX said:

I'm 44 hours into the game, too -> still in first map (lvl 8/9)
Great game!

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, is that in the same playthrough?

I'm at something like 23 hours in (first map), but not exactly first characters. I restarted a few times to get characters that I felt were "right" (I do that often when I'm learning a new gameplay system, I'm picky on playstyles).

This game is amazing. I've just now logged 20 hours. I wish they would fix the camera automatically jumping out when launching an attack in combat, but besides that, it's the best game I have played in I can't remember how long.