Dragon Commander - Review Roundup #7

At $40 USD, Divinity: Dragon Commander is priced well, though in my opinion the real sweet spot to get people to take notice would have been $30, especially with indie games offering better and better value and replayability every week. That said, for any fan of Larian's past games, I think it's well worth the money. It might not do much to impress fans of strategy games who are expecting more depth, but for RPG fans who want a game that incorporates a wide variety of gameplay styles into a cohesive, and most importantly, fun package, I don't think you can go wrong with Divinity: Dragon Commander.

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Divinity: Dragon Commander came out of nowhere to become one of my favorite games of the year. Swift, brutal dragon combat paired with large RTS battles works way better than I ever expected it to. And though the plot never deviated from its main arc — unifying the world as the new emperor — I spent a lot of time thinking about the many decisions it presents you with. My choices gave me a personal stake in the matter and made the repercussions feel meaningful, even if they were just a handful of opinions and some numbers on a board.

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At the end of the day it manages to stand out as a unique and fun jack-of-all-trades strategy game, marred only by some hit-or-miss decisions in its policymaking portions, a seemingly dead-on-arrival multiplayer community, and the fact that it’s too busy being solidly good at too many things to be downright amazing at any of them in particular. For people who live fantasy-world strategy games looking for something new, and who don’t mind some soap-boxing in their games, Divinity: Dragon Commander is a game worth a serious look.

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Divinity: Dragon Commander tries to juggle several balls at the same time. To give it fair credit, it manages to provide an entertaining, albeit simplistic experience. Each part of the 3 main game styles intersect with the other styles well. The biggest issue is that the carefully devised real-time strategy section, with lots of options and gameplay styles, is mainly rendered useless in single-player by the ease of winning with your overpowered dragon. You rarely use all the wonderful options, simply because you don’t need to. Plus there are no enemy dragons to provide a challenge. Attacking the enemies is usually like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. The squidgy remains are tasty, but you feel like a bully for being so forceful. But there is plenty of life to be had from the multiplayer, so do be sure to invest in it, especially as you get 3 games for the price of 1!

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GhanBuriGhan said:

If you want to see one go to quarter to three - they gave it 40%.

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QT3 said:

Dragon Commander depresses me because I don’t like it. I desperately want to like it. It deserves to be liked. It begs to be liked. It should be liked. It has an endearing and deliriously loopy playfulness, like a dog chasing its tail. Here is a videogame that refuses to adhere to any established genre, giving it an unhinged quality you won’t find in better games.

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Cacheperl said:

On a completely unrelated note, someone needs to remake Drakan.

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