RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin II Review

Keep in mind there's likely to be an Enhanced Edition of this game. It doesn't actually need it, but there is likely to be one. That's the version people will be playing years from now, and I agree that it'll be remembered as a classic.
You have a point there.
Have to agree. :)
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
43 reviews on Metacritic. Of those 42 rate this game 88-100. One and only one statistical outlier rates the game 80. 658 User Ratings giving 8.7 mean average user score (despite some 0 review bombs averaged into mean).

Game has set crpg records on steamspy for concurrent user players. The CCU rating continues high and undercuts any argument that the massive high ratings for game are just "media hype". Gamers are playing and continue to play in record numbers -- not media hype.

The overly negative rating of this game here is a statistical outlier by any reasonable analysis. Who knows the possible cost to Larian Studios in game sales…

__


You are having an emotional response to a logic problem. 4/5 means exactly what Myrthos said it does. No reason to compare it to Andromeda, metacritic, IGN etc.
Maybe they shouldnt use stars so people stop having hissy fits.
4/5 Wombats...
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Oh come on. This "overly negative" rating of 4 out of 5 stars basically called it a great rpg game with a few small issues with bugs and praised it every which way in most every important department.

Plus, the review only has two typos that I noticed, which is remarkable in itself, since it is a rather long review. :p

Now some of you are trying to make this out as if its some sort of big review "controversy". Baloney. This makes me more interested in the rpg codex official review of this game now, it'd be pretty funny if they also don't give it a maximum score! :p

I appreciated the review, as someone who hasn't really played the game yet and is waiting on patches, and I think its a fine review - I like reviews that tend to be more critical, because I tend to learn more from them. Even reviews like this which just have very mild criticisms, which some fanboys apparently can't deal with!
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2009
Messages
2,244
Location
Pacific NorthWest, USA!
You are having an emotional response to a logic problem. 4/5 means exactly what Myrthos said it does. No reason to compare it to Andromeda, metacritic, IGN etc.
Maybe they shouldnt use stars so people stop having hissy fits.
4/5 Wombats…

Review comparisons are not emotional. Your term "hissy fit" is OTOH unquestionably your emotional reaction.

Whether you like it or not reviews are compared to others as a normal and natural matter. It is both fair and natural to compare this review to others. The number rating is an important aspect, same as the verbal analysis, This review, taken as a whole (numerical rating included), falls short. Plain and simple.

__
 
43 reviews on Metacritic. Of those 42 rate this game 88-100. One and only one statistical outlier rates the game 80.
That one is probably the only real one that took everything into account.

The problem is… What cons is in those 20?
Probably lack of The Witcher 3 with hairworks graphics, lack of spectacular music (sorry, it's IMO good but spectacular it is not), some bugs I guess, didn't play DM mode so perhaps it stinks? But wait.
By the same logic how on earth Destiny 2, an utter trash of a game, scored 90 on that same site?
http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/destiny-2
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
The overly negative rating of this game here is a statistical outlier by any reasonable analysis. Who knows the possible cost to Larian Studios in game sales…

Haha, what? Did you just claim a review stating the game is excellent will somehow negatively impact the sales? I'd love to have that kind of influence, but I don't. Also, I'd still recommend people buying the game.

As for hype, I was mainly referring to the likes of MEA, ME2 and DA2, all good examples of games that were affected by hype in various directions. ME2 has a 94% metacritic score, while MEA has 72%. I prefer the latter, and while I don't mind people preferring the former, there's no way the gap is 22%. That's absurd.

Plus, the review only has two typos that I noticed, which is remarkable in itself, since it is a rather long review. :p
Wait, what? Typos? What typos? Noooo!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
#MaylanderReviewGate2017
Revolution here we come.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
A few comments. I've read a few people comments but not all. I'm just about finished with island 2 (level 16) but put it down for a week+ due to travel:

a) the game has lots of hand holding (imho)
b) the game is unforgiving if you make a big boo boo.
c) it has quite a few bugs but kind of expected giving newness and complexity
d) stuff for varied played (like lone wolf, iron man, ...) should be mentioned but not really consider in final score. These are options for 2nd play through or advance players and it is nice they have them but ...
e) I personally (so far) would give this game a 4.5; i'm forgiving of the bugs and the story aspect (rpg) is 10x better than d:eek:s.
f) don't try to compare with tw3; the two games are not comparable. Like was for me adormada.
g) It has been a long time since someone had tried to make a game of this quality and scope. Well tw3 as probably larger and higher quality but see (f :) ); and sales have already passed 750K. Maybe EA/UBI/shithead publisher 33 will get a clue. It isn't the total amount of sales on release but the profitability (shithead publisher spends 10x more on advertising than development and it shows).
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
7,758
Location
usa - no longer boston
A few comments. I've read a few people comments but not all. I'm just about finished with island 2 (level 16) but put it down for a week+ due to travel:

a) the game has lots of hand holding (imho)
b) the game is unforgiving if you make a big boo boo.
c) it has quite a few bugs but kind of expected giving newness and complexity
d) stuff for varied played (like lone wolf, iron man, …) should be mentioned but not really consider in final score. These are options for 2nd play through or advance players and it is nice they have them but …
e) I personally (so far) would give this game a 4.5; i'm forgiving of the bugs and the story aspect (rpg) is 10x better than d:eek:s.
f) don't try to compare with tw3; the two games are not comparable. Like was for me adormada.
g) It has been a long time since someone had tried to make a game of this quality and scope. Well tw3 as probably larger and higher quality but see (f :) ); and sales have already passed 750K. Maybe EA/UBI/shithead publisher 33 will get a clue. It isn't the total amount of sales on release but the profitability (shithead publisher spends 10x more on advertising than development and it shows).

Thanks for the feedback. If we had "half stars", I'd probably give it a 4.5 myself to indicate that it is indeed ahead of most 4's. However, I feel the review itself states that it is, and that a potential EE might very well be a full score if they decide to make one. :)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
That one is probably the only real one that took everything into account.

The problem is… What cons is in those 20?
Probably lack of The Witcher 3 with hairworks graphics, lack of spectacular music (sorry, it's IMO good but spectacular it is not), some bugs I guess, didn't play DM mode so perhaps it stinks? But wait.
By the same logic how on earth Destiny 2, an utter trash of a game, scored 90 on that same site?
http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/destiny-2

Chuckles. To me the real telling statistic is the CCU score that set records and continues very very high. Gamers are heavily engaged playing and continue to play this game. CCU represents an objective review of how the game community actually receives the game.

CCU has been incredibly positive for this game. Glitches have not stopped gamer engagement.

__
 
Wait, what? Typos? What typos? Noooo!

Heh, just 2 minor ones, under the exploration section, "resuce" (instead of "rescue") and at the end of the review, in the cons section, it says…"especially in the second h" (obviously meant "half")
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2009
Messages
2,244
Location
Pacific NorthWest, USA!
Haha, what? Did you just claim a review stating the game is excellent will somehow negatively impact the sales? I'd love to have that kind of influence, but I don't. Also, I'd still recommend people buying the game.

This review, taken as whole, including both the verbal analysis and the 4/5 star rating, could impact game sales. Some borderline buyers might hold off due to the numerical rating. You might ignore the number rating you gave the game but the number rating remains important to many who will consider this review when deciding whether to buy the game.

People consider reviews when deciding whether to buy a game. Numerical ratings are important to many of those potential buyers. Nothing new there.

__
 
Great review! I'm on Mac only these days, so I won't be able to play for a while, which means… after it's patched up.
Can you explain this part of your review?
Another change that will take some time to get used to is a "Mass Effect 2" style protection system, where it's impossible to use crowd control abilities while someone is protected. A consequence of this is that the "Constitution" stat is almost worthless, as it's much better to simply target gear with the right protection.

Sorry, I just don't understand what you're saying here. Thanks!

This is the game I'm most looking forward to!
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
1,561
Location
Downtown Chicago, IL
This review, taken as whole, including both the verbal analysis and the 4/5 star rating, could impact game sales. Some borderline buyers might hold off due to the numerical rating. You might ignore the number rating you gave the game but the number rating remains important to many who will consider this review when deciding whether to buy the game.

People consider reviews when deciding whether to buy a game. Numerical ratings are important to many of those potential buyers. Nothing new there.

Er…what? Perhaps if you're talking about an extremely anal and/or cheap gamer who only buys what he/she thinks is close to being a "perfect" game. Otherwise, I don't see anything about that review that's going to scare people away.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,142
Location
Florida, US
People consider reviews when deciding whether to buy a game. Numerical ratings are important to many of those potential buyers. Nothing new there.
True, but our scores don't show up at metacritic, so that means people have to actually go to this website and read it here. Our ratings are explained here:
https://www.rpgwatch.com/show/info?infoid=2

Pretty clear that this rating is a good indication that the game is well worth buying and then some.

Great review! I'm on Mac only these days, so I won't be able to play for a while, which means… after it's patched up.
Can you explain this part of your review?


Sorry, I just don't understand what you're saying here. Thanks!

This is the game I'm most looking forward to!

Certainly!

What it basically means is that there are now two levels of protection, depending on the type of attack. Physical attacks attack physical armor and magical attacks attack magical armor. That armor is primarily gear dependant (a massive plate armor is gives a lot of physical armor, but very little magical, for example). Until the armor is gone, spells that freeze, stun, charm and so on simply won't work. A knock down is typically a physical form of stun, which means you need to remove physical armor before it can be applied. Freeze is magical, so that means you need to remove magical armor before it can be applied.

If you try to apply freeze to an enemy that has 0 physical armor, 1000 health and 1000 magical armor, it simply won't have any impact. The magical armor will prevent it from being applied. However, the enemy can be knocked down, because it has 0 physical armor.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
Er…what? Perhaps if you're talking about an extremely anal and/or cheap gamer who only buys what he/she thinks is close to being a "perfect" game. Otherwise, I don't see anything about that review that's going to scare people away.

More chuckles. Perhaps you don't realize that all gamers haven't achieved your high level of enlightenment. An 4/5 star score might certainly scare off some gamers. Even though you might believe to such gamers "cheap" or "anal", absence of their purchase money could still be important to Larian Studios.

__
 
Regarding what it might do to sales, um, ...so what? That should have no influence on his review in the first place. Unless you think rpgwatch should be or is beholden to Larian studios and should be a sales arm of their company...in any case, you are acting as if he gave it a 1 or 2 out of 5 rating, when it's 4 out of 5. Hardly worth the outrage.
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2009
Messages
2,244
Location
Pacific NorthWest, USA!
More chuckles. Perhaps you don't realize that all gamers haven't achieved your high level of enlightenment. An 4/5 star score might certainly scare off some gamers. Even though you might believe to such gamers "cheap" or "anal", absence of their purchase money could still be important to Larian Studios.

It's cute when you go into troll mode. You should do it more often. I think it's the rest of us who are getting the chuckles here. :)
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,142
Location
Florida, US
More chuckles. Perhaps you don't realize that all gamers haven't achieved your high level of enlightenment. An 4/5 star score might certainly scare off some gamers. Even though you might believe to such gamers "cheap" or "anal", absence of their purchase money could still be important to Larian Studios.

__

New rule! Only 5/5 Wombats for studios that are deemed worthy, regardless of the game. This way we get max revenue in their hands.
#MaylanderReviewGate2017
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
2,871
Back
Top Bottom