Divinity II: FoV - DKS Reviews @ Resolution, Neoseeker

Dhruin

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Here's a couple of new Dragon Knight Saga reviews and below, news that the retail version has sold out in the UK.
First, Resolution Magazine scores 8/10 in their critique:
AFTER THIRTY minutes with Divinity II it’s easy to conclude that it shouldn’t work. After all, video gaming provides such an infinite scope for storytelling, so why do so many resort to ‘ye old adventure?’ “Developers who peddle such traditional RPG claptrap in the year 2010 are outright lazy”, you’ll cry! And yet, for all its goblin slaying, Divinity II manages to do something magical, appealing to the inner child before unleashing it on a fantasy world full of charm.
...and 9/10 at Neoseeker:
Divinity II won't be remembered for an incredible story, but it is solid in its own right. The real treat is the dialogue and characterization, both of which stand up to heavyweights like Obsidian, Black Isle and Lionhead.
Conversations are well-written and at times outright hilarious -- I found myself many times having to really stop and laugh out loud. One scene in particular stands out, where I had the option of trading with a skeleton or giving him an existential crisis -- I'll leave the rest to your imagintion and amusement. As with all skilled writing of this variety, it's woven perfectly in with the more serious overarching story, including some horrific bits.
On a different topic, Lar posts on the forums that Mastertronic is rushing more stock after selling out in the UK:
Mastertronic has promised to provide more stock for Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga after the first batch sold out. The launch allocation has run out ahead of it's release today. But the game's distributor has assured retailers that there will be sufficient supply to meet demand. "Our experience with the original Divinity II meant that we were expecting good things for the launch of this expanded edition, but the demand has really taken us by surprise" said Mastertronic's group sales director James Cato.
More information.
 
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DKS manages to do humor really, really well.

It's not a comedy game, of course. It's subtle and used sparingly. But it just works because it's done with intelligence and a light touch.

Fun game. I wish the combat were a little better, and there's a few problems overall but I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
 
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The humor has a strong tradiition within the Divinity series, imho. ;)
 
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The humor is one of its strongest points, it's not forced like in many RPG's, it just comes very natural and often really hilarious.

I have played maybe 50% of it and i would rate it 7/10 so far.. It's kind of an arcadey Oblivion with much less exploration, even the loot hovers over ground like in a Mario game + there's jumping puzzles (i like those though).

The characters are quite good, better than TW2 or Oblivion (might not be that hard but..)

Combat is quite poor, archery with its autoaim is very, very boring after a few hours. I've started investing in strength now at least so maybe it'll be at least a bit more fun with some melee combat too.

Performance is some of the worst i've encountred in game. Oblivion or FO3 (which uses the same engine) gives me twice the FPS, if not more. Very disapointing. Not everyone seems to have this problem though.
 
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The game runs mostly flawlessly for me. Of course, I have a quadcore Phenom II 940 and an ATI 5770 video card. I've hit one bug where I fell through the ground twice by the goblins at the start, but haven't ever had that problem since I left that area so I don't really think anything of it.

This way this game uses the gamebryo engine makes Oblivion and FO3 look like amateur hour. This game is easily my favourite RPG since Risen. It may even be a little better than that, putting it a #2 after Arx Fatalis. :p I even stopped playing New Vegas (the charm of hourly crashing may have worn off, though) partway to play this instead. It's that good.
 
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It looks a litte bit better than Oblivion, most parts at least (buildings are great for example).. But in Oblivion you have day/night cycles and weather changes, kind of miss that, makes games so much more atmospheric i think. The game also doesnt have much varietity with the folliage/trees, it seems to have like 4-5 tree models while in Oblivion you have 20-30 at least.. maybe it's just the first areas though, might get more varied later on.

My C2D @ 4.2GHz with 4870x2 should easily run this at 50-60 FPS, dont know what the problem is. Maybe its optimized for CPU's with more than 2 cores.
 
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Just curious - any companions in it like in other games (not counting the creature I read about). I tend to prefer games with companions - either just as controlled party members or as interactive NPC's.
 
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The game runs mostly flawlessly for me. Of course, I have a quadcore Phenom II 940 and an ATI 5770 video card. I've hit one bug where I fell through the ground twice by the goblins at the start, but haven't ever had that problem since I left that area so I don't really think anything of it.

This way this game uses the gamebryo engine makes Oblivion and FO3 look like amateur hour. This game is easily my favourite RPG since Risen. It may even be a little better than that, putting it a #2 after Arx Fatalis. :p I even stopped playing New Vegas (the charm of hourly crashing may have worn off, though) partway to play this instead. It's that good.

Well, I had about the same amount of crashing with Divinity II when it was released as New Vegas but the problem with Divinity II was that one crash in the starting map was a gamestopper only solved by going the illegal way. It always annoys me when illegal purchasers get a better running game.

Glad to see they seem to have solved the crashing with the add-on. Hopefully sending in my savegames helped.
 
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Just chiming in to say that DKS runs much better than D2 for me, and also looks much better. And I haven't had one crash or bug yet on my not-awesome system.

I had to give up on D2 several months back because the performance was so choppy on this same system no matter what I did. DKS is a huge improvement.
 
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9/10 seems kind of high compared to what I've heard from people who have been playing it.

I'm the reviewer, and I'll fight you to the death over that 9/10.

Regarding performance, be sure to download the hotfix, uncap the framerate, and enable the Timeslice Shadows Update option. I get 50fps minimum outdoors, minimum 70 indoors (and often much higher). It's not quite as optimized as it should be, but overall, quite pleasant.
 
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9/10 seems kind of high compared to what I've heard from people who have been playing it.

My score aswell. 1/10 scale is realy not good to review videogames, i rather have the 1/100 but alas... on a 1/10 i would definately give it a 9/10.
 
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My score aswell. 1/10 scale is realy not good to review videogames, i rather have the 1/100 but alas… on a 1/10 i would definately give it a 9/10.

I was planning on getting it anyways, but it's good to see other members here speaking so highly of it.
 
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How much of the game is a shoot 'em up (dragon part)?

Based on your posts, you're obviously going into this game with a negative preconception. I'll help you here, don't bother. If you are going into just anything thinking it's a piece of shit, you're gonna find a piece of shit.

Easily the best RPG I've played since Arx Fatalis.
 
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i'm just curious of how much of it there is, what's wrong with that? If its like 5% of the game i don't care, but too much of it and i doubt i'll bother, or i'll just play up till that part..

It's good enough so far i think, like all games its not perfect, combat being the weak part (hoping it'll be better now when i've invested in more than just archery/stamina).

How's a 7/10 a "piece of shit" anyways? I cant even see how a score like that is offensive, if that was your problem with my post. Would be one thing if i has said it was a 3/10 game.

Would also be interesting to know how far i am into the game, im doing some puzzle quests right now, i'm in a room with lots of gold (that im not supposed to touch), trying to figure out what to do..
 
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Dragon combat is more prevalent during the first campaign, but even then it's not the total focus. You'll spend more time on the ground than in the air. Dragon game play isn't bad anyway, dunno what people's problem is with it honestly. Too much coordination required or something?
 
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