Divinity: Original Sin II - Review Roundup #3

Divinity: Original Sin II gets more praise:

IGN:

With an amazing range of important choices, Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be remembered as one of the great RPGs.

Score 9.6 Amazing

Rock Paper Shotgun:

It’s no surprise that a construction as vast and complex as this would have some balance issues, and even though I found my interest in the story waning toward the end, I’m already planning to restart a game I’ve just spent sixty hours playing. Maybe next time I’ll actually feel like a hero come the final curtain. Whatever the case, the destination doesn’t really matter – it’s about the journey, and all those little stories that happen along the way. From its origin stories to its brief emergent narratives, few games let you take part in better tales than this one.

PC Gamer:

And it’s that intimidating, ambitious scope, that dedication to player freedom, that makes Divinity: Original Sin 2 so impressive. There isn’t another RPG that lets you do so much. Larian promised a lot, and it has absolutely followed through, crafting a singular game that juggles a bounty of complex, immersive systems, and never drops them.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a sprawling, inventive adventure and one of the best RPGs ever made.

Score: 92

More information.

Thanks henriquejr!

If IGN likes you thats alot of eyeballs on Larian. D:OS 2 continues to hold onto second spot on Steam and the game has been patched with the improved translations added now for German, French and Russian.

It's undeniably a great contender for RPG of the Year!

RPG of the Year is a shoo-in, where it's a contender is the review sites' overall Game of the Year. D:OS1 won GotY (PC of course) on GameSpot and many other places, and 2 is getting better reviews than 1 so far. Its score on Metacritic atm is higher than Witcher 3's.

I'd say that depends on what one likes. For party-based and tactical RPGs, yeah, I don't see anything else being close this year.

For me personally, I've got a feeling ELEX is going to hit that sweet spot a little harder, but I still have a lot of anticipation for D:OS 2 as well.

I didn't mean it would be "RPG of the Year" for any specific person (hmm, not sure if henriquejr meant that…) Just meant that it will easily win that title on all the review sites, RPGWatch, Codex, and so forth.

Perhaps. Many of those sites seem to favor RPGs with old-school flair like D:OS, and it's been a pretty weak year thus far for RPGs in general. I don't see it winning GotY though, but I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'd say that depends on what one likes. For party-based and tactical RPGs, yeah, I don't see anything else being close this year.

For me personally, I've got a feeling ELEX is going to hit that sweet spot a little harder, but I still have a lot of anticipation for D:OS 2 as well.

Isn't ELEX from Piranha Bytes? Then it will never be RPG of the Year. Super buggy and cluncky games don't get that title.

Originally Posted by Gwendo
Super buggy and cluncky games don't get that title.

Gothic 3 was the last buggy PB game and that was due to publisher issues. The game wasn't even finished when it was released. Risen 1/2/3 and especially 2/3 were damn near bug-free.

Originally Posted by Gwendo
Isn't ELEX from Piranha Bytes? Then it will never be RPG of the Year. Super buggy and cluncky games don't get that title.

It won't win RPG of the year, and not because its buggy, but because its an action rpg that won't be state of the art in terms of tech, nor will it be traditional enough for genre niche sites like the codex, nor mainstream enough for sites like PC Gamer or IGN. Action RPGs are usually held to higher state when it comes to things like graphics, animations, voice acting, et, because their target audiences is less concerned (in general) with things like character development and game mechanics.

Risen 3? Was that the one with the immortal companions and the repetitive fights with flamingoes? And the "witch doctor" companion with the laughable voice work?

Originally Posted by Ovenall
Risen 3? Was that the one with the immortal companions and the repetitive fights with flamingoes? And the "witch doctor" companion with the laughable voice work?

Yup. And it was still a good RPG. But they already stated for ELEX they fixed pretty much everything the community had a problem with in Risen 3.

Did anyone notice this tidbit from the PC Gamer review:
"Unfortunately I’m still yet to make something [a mod] as impressive as Larian CEO Swen Vincke’s recreation of the start of Ultima 7."

Does anyone know more about this? I'd love to see the mod or see a video showcasing it.

The tone in D:OS2 seems a lot more serious than in D:OS. One can almost empathize with some of the NPCs. That, and the level of choices, does make it a serious GotY contender in my mind. There is still some goofiness, but it's mostly on the sidelines.

I look forward to the (hopefully) 'not taking itself too seriously' approach I expect from Piranha Bytes/Elex. There's a lot I like about DOS2 but the overly dark/God storyline isn't one of them. And the environments in the first map are a hassle to navigate. And there's usually Tall Things in the way of my view, causing me to fight the camera all the time. And the rain spell is now useless. There, I said it.

Originally Posted by Stingray
I didn't mean it would be "RPG of the Year" for any specific person (hmm, not sure if henriquejr meant that…) Just meant that it will easily win that title on all the review sites, RPGWatch, Codex, and so forth.

Codex will crown Blue Horizon.