Divine Divinity - Review @ Huff Post

Dhruin

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The Huffington Post has a review of Divine Divinity nearly 10 years late. Describing it as "ome of the greatest role-playing games" the author has ever played, here's a snip:
But the main appeal of this game is that the world it takes place in simply feels alive. Not only is it large, there is so much going on in it, too, and Divinity does an excellent job of creating one hell of an immersive atmosphere that you can almost feel like a part of. One of the ways the game accomplishes this is by sprinkling little events throughout the game world. For example, in the middle of one of the forests there is a series of gold coins laid out in a "trail" that leads off the main path; if you choose to follow the trail of gold, you'll eventually end up into a clearing where a large group of orcs will ambush (and likely kill) you. Another example -- there is a random human army outpost in the middle of the woods that seems friendly enough -- that is, until you enter. Once you enter, a mage from the Black Ring cult (your chief antagonists in the game) magically appears and casts a mind control spell on everyone, turning them all against you. Little things like this really serve to immerse you in the instability and danger that permeates the land. Immersion and narrative are the chief things I value in a video game, and Divinity delivers in spades.
More information.
 
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Excellent game… a cross between Ultima 7 and Diablo.
Fans of either game who missed it should check it out.

Ultima 7 is known for its interactivity, large number of NPCs w/ complex dialog and behaviors, and huge detailed world to explore. Divine Divinity has none of this. Divine Divinity an "ok" game, and barely adequate as far as RPG's go. It did have slightly more of a story than the Diablo series, and a tiny bit NPC interaction, but otherwise it's pretty much just another Diablo-style hack and slash.
 
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Ultima 7 is known for its interactivity, large number of NPCs w/ complex dialog and behaviors, and huge detailed world to explore. Divine Divinity has none of this. Divine Divinity an "ok" game, and barely adequate as far as RPG's go. It did have slightly more of a story than the Diablo series, and a tiny bit NPC interaction, but otherwise it's pretty much just another Diablo-style hack and slash.

I disagree. Now, I hated the gameplay, because I personally find that style very unappealing and boring, but I still sank a lot of time in Divine Divinity. I did so despite not liking the gameplay because the atmosphere was very engaging; moreso than I ever would have expected from a game of this nature. It seemed as if almost every single cave, dungeon, town, forest, etc had its own story, and even tiny "mini-stories" could be found in unexpected places. Divine Divinity is a game that has a lot of soul, and other RPG developers could learn a thing or too from it in terms of how to build an engaging world that feels alive and has personality.
 
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Ultima 7 is known for its interactivity, large number of NPCs w/ complex dialog and behaviors, and huge detailed world to explore. Divine Divinity has none of this. Divine Divinity an "ok" game, and barely adequate as far as RPG's go. It did have slightly more of a story than the Diablo series, and a tiny bit NPC interaction, but otherwise it's pretty much just another Diablo-style hack and slash.

Um…no.

That doesn't describe DD at all, and I have to wonder if you've ever actually played it.
 
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yeah, have to disagree as well.. DD is quite interactive, lots of items to pick up just like in the ultima 7's. E.g you can pick up a shovel or a rake and use it as a weapon, you can even use a pot as a helmet. The graphics are absolutely great in 1920x1080, have it installed currently and play it from time to time.. a lot more atmospheric than most hack'n slash games, and a lot more interactive, the world is very detailed too.
 
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Let me join the pile on also. Div Div was simply one of the biggest surprises of all time and it currently rates in my top 5 of all time RPGs. And with this":

There is SO much to see, do, and explore in this game -- I barely scratched the surface and I managed to hit well over 300 hours in a single playthrough

the reveiwer put some time into the game. Additionally I'm glad the reviewer gave some props to one of the best sound tracks of all time, of any game. I'm also happy that Div Div is still getting good reviews (albeit late), it is often available in the Target casual game section for $9.99. And with the game being as old as it is, it should run on any machine, maybe even a Netbook.

Simply a great great game that deserves its praise.
 
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Forgot to add this tid bit about game detail.

In the early game when you first leave the city the monsters are real tough. REal Tough, However you can lead the monsters to the city front gate and a guard will handle the baddies for you. Unfortunately the guard also takes damage over time. After one too many bait and runs, my heroic guard finally bit it. And man, did I feel bad. So I had to load an early save game and let my heroic guard retire in peace. I never quite had that play experience before at the time and Div Div had me hooked from there on.
 
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Ultima 7 is known for its interactivity, large number of NPCs w/ complex dialog and behaviors, and huge detailed world to explore. Divine Divinity has none of this. Divine Divinity an "ok" game, and barely adequate as far as RPG's go. It did have slightly more of a story than the Diablo series, and a tiny bit NPC interaction, but otherwise it's pretty much just another Diablo-style hack and slash.

Well, like a few others have already commented, I really disagree.
 
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To be honest, I think Babelobo was actually just trying to distance Divine Divinity from being compared to Ultima 7, which I think is valid, even if he/she didn't express it precisely.
I agree with him in the sense that the comparisons are a little exaggerated and unnecessary, they're both different games. Ultima 7 has a much more virtual world oriented interactive focus with stronger dialogue, without the heavy combat aspect which dominates the Divine Divinity experience, particularly towards the second half of the game.

For me, I liked Divine Divinity just fine, particularly the soundtrack. It was a fun exploration based action rpg, but it did feel very similar to Diablo 2 in many ways. I don't think these derivations can really be argued with.

I implore fans of the game to record their characters in the honour thread here at the 'Watch. Although it amuses me to no end to see over 400 views and only the one character entered, it'd be nice to have some more heroes recorded for posterity. ;)
 
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I implore fans of the game to record their characters in the honour thread here at the 'Watch. Although it amuses me to no end to see over 400 views and only the one character entered, it'd be nice to have some more heroes recorded for posterity. ;)

I'll be there soon... I stopped playing DD at the start of the month when I left for vacation, and now I'm playing Deus Ex: HR. I'll be going back to my level 35 warrior as soon as I finish DX. :)
 
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Ultima 7 is known for its interactivity, large number of NPCs w/ complex dialog and behaviors, and huge detailed world to explore. Divine Divinity has none of this. Divine Divinity an "ok" game, and barely adequate as far as RPG's go. It did have slightly more of a story than the Diablo series, and a tiny bit NPC interaction, but otherwise it's pretty much just another Diablo-style hack and slash.

The problem with this is, that no-one did an Ultima-like game - read : any game that comes as close to the Ultima series as possible - in ages.

Divinity came as close as possible - compared to everything else.

Not even Baldur's Gate showed this high level of reasonable NPCs within the game.

PS:T is the only game that imho came closer to the Ultima games concerning NPC backgrounds.

Plus, Divinity 1 is the only other game I know of where you can actually produce honey.

Gothic 1 was famous for the ability to forge swords and roast meat.
 
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I played this game for the first time one year ago, and I'd say it's a good game for what it is, something between a RPG and an actionRPG, between Diablo and Baldur's Gate.
But, I remember one thing, the dialogs : very very poor narration and dialogs.
And we are clearly not in the same category of Ultima7.
 
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What do you define as "good" ?
 
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The problem with this is, that no-one did an Ultima-like game - read : any game that comes as close to the Ultima series as possible - in ages.

*heavy sigh* Don't I know it. :(

I've been searching for the next Ultima 7 since the early 90s. Once in a great while I'll see little bits and pieces of it in a game but never the entire experience. Mostly I just get an action oriented game with stats and some mediocre dialog that passes itself off as an "RPG". :p

I do need to play this game one day though. I've had it from GOG for a while now. As long as I don't go in and expect Ultima 7 and also realize the dialog was translated from another language I'll probably enjoy it.
 
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DD was an incredible RPG - and incredibly underrated. Those who insist it was a Diablo clone or barely an RPG didn't really play it.

Sure, the first couple of hours it feels like a Diablo clone, especially with that ridiculously huge first dungeon. But once you get out of that first town it feels more and more like a true RPG - in fact, maybe more so than other games.

The world certainly felt alive. I loved that there was a war/invasion occurring and nothing in the game took you out of that - it was all around you. The quests felt natural and were actually structured in a logical way. And the game has a nice sense of humor with some amusing dialogue.
 
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To be honest, I think Babelobo was actually just trying to distance Divine Divinity from being compared to Ultima 7, which I think is valid

Interesting conclusion. I played DD in 2004, roughly 2 years after it was released. After playing the game my view was that the devs seemed to successfully combine 3 major feature sets where normally just 1 of these feature sets would be emphasized in a single game.

These features were Action (akin to Diablo and Diablo 2), Story (similar in quality to Baldur's Gate - though not nearly to the same level as BG but still very good), and finally, world interactivity (similar to U7).

In fact, U7 came to my mind during my playthrough of DD and remained a valid comparison (at least to me) after I finished DD and reflected on the experience.
 
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