Divinity: Original Sin II - RPG Codex Review

As I posted on the Codex, this was a spot-on review. DR nailed it.

Sorry, can't agree. I doesn't contain enough negativity to be a spot on which makes it troll level amateur. A level not surprising considering the place it's published on.

Originally Posted by Dilvish
I found DOS1 underwhelming, mainly due to the lackluster story and level design. The combat was okay I guess. I played Underrail that same year and it was much better. So was AoD.

Same. I didn't think DOS1 combat was okay. No interest in sequel.

Originally Posted by DarkELVES
Has anyone tried offering the codex reviewers a happy pill?

Roxor won't have any of your "happiness"

The review itself isn't even wrong on many aspects. D:OS2 is mechanically inferior to D:OS1, mostly because of the absurd armor system which reduces everything except high damage to almost useless levels. The largest amount of abilities is entirely useless as it simply won't have any effect on enemies because they still have 1/1557 armor.
Add to that the reduction of AP from a very viable system to "you can do two things at most per turn", and all the other reductions like removal of resistances and hit/fail chances
(played through the game and I cannot remember seeing more than a handful of misses).
In the end, there is just much less to the combat than what was in D:OS1.

Still, it is very much enjoyable (if you don't try to get through the HP sponge mode somehow called "Tactician"), which is a detail Roxor just didn't get in his strange hatred of the game.
The game got voted as GOTY on the Codex for a reason, and to much butthurt by the few haters like Roxor.

The Codex is such a gosh darned hipster site. They hate everything.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Edit: Also, D: OS2 got the GOTY of the Codex, just as it did here on the Watch.

That’s funny. What a bipolar response to D:OS2. Hey you’re game of the year to us and a disaster on every front!

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
Roxor won't have any of your "happiness"

The review itself isn't even wrong on many aspects. D:OS2 is mechanically inferior to D:OS1, mostly because of the absurd armor system which reduces everything except high damage to almost useless levels. The largest amount of abilities is entirely useless as it simply won't have any effect on enemies because they still have 1/1557 armor.
Add to that the reduction of AP from a very viable system to "you can do two things at most per turn", and all the other reductions like removal of resistances and hit/fail chances
(played through the game and I cannot remember seeing more than a handful of misses).
In the end, there is just much less to the combat than what was in D:OS1.

Still, it is very much enjoyable (if you don't try to get through the HP sponge mode somehow called "Tactician"), which is a detail Roxor just didn't get in his strange hatred of the game.
The game got voted as GOTY on the Codex for a reason, and to much butthurt by the few haters like Roxor.

Beat the game on the hardest difficulty and then complain about mechanics. You will find many of the mechanics work when you do. I beat the game on the hardest difficulty on my first try, i now know more to do it better, but the armor system is important to tanking which is important for taunting which is needed on the highest difficulty. While taunt doesnt work 100% it makes enemies target your character most of the time stopping them killing on of your weaker characters in one turn in many fights in a single round. Taunt even bypasses physical armor now making it more useful. You absolutely need to repair armor and magic armor in the harder difficulty, you need to heal on top of that.

Hmmm… there are some really nice classes added by the modder "Heleane" on steam. I am going to try the class, vampire, valkyrie, priest and tricker this run. Seems fun.

EDIT actually just vampire and valkyrie this run with lone wolf on both of them to make it harder.

Codex or not, some very valid criticisms that I agree with. Quest markers are terrible and I also don't like what they did with abilities and skills all being +5%.

Not sure on story as I have not played the game yet (played about half of first one and thought it was pretty good but not great). Just don't have much time and long list of games. Will probably bargain price play it eventually.

I also agree on his comments on the games not really being open world. DOS1 sort of felt boxed in as each area was mostly level scaled so you could not openly explore until you reach higher levels.

I still think Divine Divinity is their best game (even though I don't like real time combat)

Just in case the junior-high-school-locker-room atmosphere wasn't enough to drive you away from the Codex, the geek snobbery ought to do the trick.

Originally Posted by GuybrushWilco
The Codex is such a gosh darned hipster site. They hate everything.

Wrong, they didn't hate D:OS2 at all. It's their game of the year for 2017 and by a wide margin. In their voting, which was done by assigning each game a score of 1-4, D:OS2 scored an avg of 3.32, with 58% of voters rating it a 4 and 24% rating it a 3. Only 8% rated it a 1/4. It was one of the most well-received games in the history of their GotY polling.

The review is the opinion of the one guy who wrote it. The Codex doesn't mind listening to, and sharing, contrary opinions. Though it's worth noting a lot (maybe even most?) of the opinions in the review are considered legit even by people who thought the game was great overall.

RPGCodex has a very vocal minority that hates everything. Just like everywhere on the internet the haters are the loudest.

That said, I mostly agree with the review, although it's overly hyperbolic at times, making the game seem much worse than it actually is. It de-emphasizes the game's good points. Very predictable Codex review.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
RPGCodex has a very vocal minority that hates everything. Just like everywhere on the internet.

Well then they shouldn't hand this minority the Codex 'official review' of games.

Seems Sven is bonkers for Diablo II style of itemization. But I don't remember it being this extreme even there( and that game is all about loot, loot, Loot! addiction), most uniques ( or even much lower rank) could last you up to full chapter.
Did he ever respond why he keeps pushing for this? Seems a bizarre contrast to rest of (crpg) mechanics.

I could do without the smug superior tone which is often too aware of its own giggling audience, but I do agree with a few well made points, namely on the initiative system (which is quite strange) the criticisms of the character system and the scaling nature of itemisation, which has definitely slowed me down in my current and only tactician play-through. I'm already over 100 hours in and haven't finished Act II yet!

That said, I haven't encountered any of the sexual content he goes on about (which sounds exaggerated for laughs.) If more tonal attempts were made toward sincerity, perhaps I would take the review more seriously, but as it stands, non-completion (I mean pardon me, but that's pretty piss weak!) and lazy argumentation also gets minus points. On the whole, it's a perfunctory review with some good insight, but mostly predictable too.

Originally Posted by wolfing
Well then they shouldn't hand this minority the Codex 'official review' of games.

I don't think there's any such thing as an "official" review at the Codex. I believe if anyone who's "respected" there does a well-written/researched review of a game, they post it. Some games have had 2 (maybe even 3?) different reviews posted, from different people.

The closest thing to "official" might be the RPG Codex Steam Curator. Although even it comes with this caveat: "Recommendations may or may not reflect the consensus or popular opinion of the RPG Codex."

But here's what that Curator says about D:OS2, which is "Recommended":

"Divinity: Original Sin, now with origins, races, cool new skills, more story and more roleplaying. Some won't like the changes made to its systems, but it's still one of the most fun RPGs you'll play."

Bottom line, the narrative being pushed by some here that "Codex hates D:OS2" is just as wrong as you could possibly get.

Originally Posted by Saxon1974
Codex or not, some very valid criticisms that I agree with. Quest markers are terrible and I also don't like what they did with abilities and skills all being +5%.

Not sure on story as I have not played the game yet (played about half of first one and thought it was pretty good but not great). Just don't have much time and long list of games. Will probably bargain price play it eventually.

How do you agree with criticisms of a game you haven't played yet?

Originally Posted by Saxon1974
I still think Divine Divinity is their best game (even though I don't like real time combat)

While DD is a very good game indeed, I liked Divinity II: TDNS even more.

Originally Posted by Stingray
Bottom line, the narrative being pushed by some here that "Codex hates D:OS2" is just as wrong as you could possibly get.

Well, wait a minute now.

-"Finally, we get to the last item on this list of disasters."
-"…Original Sin 2 is a disaster on every front…"
-"I've never finished the game. I gave up after some 40 hours of deluding myself that it’ll eventually get better…"
-"The game is oversimplified, dull, scaled down in the worst of ways…"

I guess we should have all deduced the reviewer loved the game? Regulars of that site might understand the nuance that RPGCodex allows multiple reviews. But still, to the rest of the internet, recommending the game on Steam, naming it 2017 GotY, and then attaching a review like this one to their site is bipolar in the extreme.

Every once in a while I re-visit RPGCodex because I really want another RPG website to frequent because there aren't too many good ones. Sadly, the codex remains one of the bad ones. Not because it's members are dumb or have invalid points, but because they're just way too angry and life's too short for that.

Ah yes, another 'sublime' review crawls out of the Codex toxic waste dump. At least they do pump out the occasional quality review from time to tome.

The review comments remind me of Abraham's description of Rick in The Walking Dead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJOnLt-rFCI

Jesus. You guys should set aside about 10% of the mental energy you put into hating on RPGCodex and develop your own game!