Divinity 2 - Review @ Eurogamer

Lacks pollish and wait for it…. 6/10 on a PC and Xbox review of Divinity 2.

Whilst I encountered nothing game-breaking I did lose count of the number of minor irritations the engine threw at me, and more than a few expirations were the result of the skills simply refusing to trigger. A little polish could have gone a long way here. I can't help but feel that an extra couple of weeks in Q&A would have nudged Divinity II from an almost-ran into the winner's enclosure. As it is, this is a good game which suffers a death of a thousand cuts - a viable alternative to Dragon Age for the less statistically minded, but sadly prevented by becoming a winner in its own right by any number of minor faults.
The story is compelling and well told, and there's certainly enough flow to put it in the category of "just ten more minutes" games - but you'll need a lot of patience to get the most out of Ego Draconis.

More information.

They say that the game was played mostly on the 360, but the differences between PC and 360 weren't significant enough to justify a separate review. When he mentions the more glaring technical problems (e.g., falling through the floor), he explicitly states that he's playing on the 360.

Hmm. I'll be playing the game, if at all, on the 360, so I'm concerned about these technical issues. On the other hand, the techical problems he cited don't seem like dealbreakers to me — more like annoyances.

He also sounds kind of jaded and bored with the genre. I'm not sure if that affected his evaluation.

Between Risen, Farewell to Dragons, Dragon Age and Divinity 2, not to mention Kings Bounty Armored Princess and the trilogy of add-ons for Elven Legacy … if you are not a hardcore fantasy lover it s easy to see how a reviewer could get 'fantasy fatigue'. That said, if it is true, he shouldn't be the one doing the review.

In my opinion, it sounded like the reviewer liked the game for the most part. Until the very end, I was confused why it got a low-ish score, considering the reviewer praised the skills, the balance, the exploration, etc.

The polish issues sound pretty severe though. Skills not firing, or firing when backing out of a menu is extremely poor. I have some hope that the pc version will get some patches that sort that stuff out.

Still, considering they precisely missed the holiday season, it's a shame they couldn't take another month and squash those last few bugs.

None of those problems effect the PC version since I have been playing it for awhile and haven't seen one of the problems he complained about. I am playing as an arcane archer and unlike what this reviewer suggests enemies rarely ever get close to me and they die before getting close. (except for boss battles and other very difficult battles.)

PS. His score doesn't make any sense and also if those bugs are really on the Xbox 360 version the PC version would have gotten a higher score.

My skills fire with no problems at all, so maybe the PC version is more bug free than the 360. I don't own a 360 and don't plan to own one either!!

Eurogamer's reviews don't hold much weight to me.

These are the same people that gave Risen a 6/10.

Review @ Eurogamer

Originally Posted by Corwin
My skills fire with no problems at all, so maybe the PC version is more bug free than the 360. I don't own a 360 and don't plan to own one either!!

Oh yeah, well I don't own a PC and don't plan to own one either! er…

It does sound like, based on what you guys are saying, the problems are mostly with the 360 version. Short end of the stick again … sigh. Oh well, I'll take the hand-me-downs. I just hope we don't get Risened again.

I might have a little fantasy fatigue myself, after dumping 80 hours into Dragon Age. I'll probably play something else first, rather than jumping right into Divinity 2.

I can certainly see the appeal of this game. The ability to gain your own stronghold, create your own minion, and read minds are all very appealing to me. It also sounds like it has a significant amount of depth to it.

As someone who has played and enjoyed a lot of action oriented RPGs though, I am having an enormously hard time getting past the animations. I've watched numerous videos, both official and unofficial ones, and I have to agree with the reviewer that the combat animations are seriously lacking. While I'm not someone who ranks visuals above gameplay, in the case of an action oriented game like this, I would expect some more gripping looking combat. The animations and attacks look disconnected with no satisfying "clash" against the enemies, and you only know you've struck due to some poor looking damage numbers that appear above your foe.

The spell effects are especially disappointing. I don't know what it is specifically, but they just look bad to me. I think it's the fact that the projectiles do not deliver a powerful visual effect upon impact, instead hitting the target and disappearing in a very quick flash (or just disappearing with no visual impact effect at all other then some damage numbers).

The camera also appears to jerk around in combat a lot, based on what I've seen.

I don't know, I want to like this game, but there are so many games to spend money on this holiday season… I'm on the fence, so if I could demo it first I'd feel a lot more comfortable with making a decision.

The German reviews say that the XBox port is mediocre. Clearly better than Risen or Two Worlds, but not without its problems. The problems are under controls though. So it should be tolerable if you don't have a decent PC.