Oh, RPG.
That three letter word can either turn you on like your honeymoon or it can immediately turn some people off. What a discriminatory world we live in, right?
So which one does Divinity II fall in?
It’s definitely a hardcore-like RPG game.
WAIT, before you skip the whole review and walk outta here, take a look at what I said.
I said hardcore-like RPG, not hardcore.
For example, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a hardcore RPG. Many gamers out there loved it, with its very clever system. But I do believe that the game really wasn’t for everyone, due to its hardcore fantasy RPG element. And with some people, you just gotta have weapons with first-person view mode. Compared to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Divinity II is more accessible to the common audience. And some people would be happy to find that Divinity II is in third-person. Feels more like an adventure game which many of us are used to.
In summary, we suggested that Divinity II isn’t something completely new. It doesn’t have, nor is it trying to put a never-before seen feature that might change the course of gaming history like Fallout 3. That being said, we also said Divinity II is closer to perfection. We said it and mean it because if you’re looking for an awesome, classic fantasy themed RPG game with action and adventure, this is it; Divinity II might just provide what gamers are looking for.
By comparing these two popular games, we hope that you have a clearer picture of what you might be getting into yourself into. And there’s also another reason why I compared such games as Oblivion and Fallout 3; Divinity II is built on the Gamebryo engine, which empowered Oblivion and Fallout 3. And naturally, the game looks really great.
Wanna dance? Let's dance!
We can go on and on about the game’s storyline and so on, but our philosophy about game reviews is not to spoil even a tiny bit, so we’ll just stick to the gaming system.
The story-telling is great. Just like any other RPG, you’ll be reading a lot but that’s one of the key element to the genre. A very interesting thing to point out is that they’ve recorded the voice of every character, which we think is very ambitious. And many times it’s not just plain old dialogues, but clever reactions. For example, when you want to choose a profession as a warrior and bring a sword, then go back and talk to the other profession trainers, they’ll notice your weapon and make comments about your choice of profession. A carefully designed dialogue like this only adds more fun the to game. We loved it.
And as we mentioned before, the game looks beautiful. The game didn’t look bad at all even with the normal graphic settings. No matter which graphic settings we chose, the game loaded quite fast. In addition to great visuals, enjoyable dialogue, the background music was favorable as well. It comes together as a perfect balanced-package.
The game system isn’t too complicated. If you’re a shoot-and-kill FPS kind-of gamer, it might take some time to get used to, but it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to figure it out. And though you choose your class at the beginning of the game, there are plenty, if not a limitless combination of classes you can come up with. This is a strong appeal of the Divinity series, and so far it’s worked well.
"I'm an archery-magician who can swing swords. And you?"
Perfection is such a complicated word to use. But the more we played Divinity II – Ego Draconis, the more we felt the word “perfection” fit the description. It’s not trying to do something crazy that might ruin the fun for some people. They didn’t over-emphasize one cool feature and try to sugarcoat and fake the rest with eye-candy. It feels like they carefully assembled this title from the ground-up; a traditional RPG game with current-generation graphics and sound, clever dialogue and a good story-telling presentation. Divinity II – Ego Draconis follows the simple yet conventional route, a field in which quality is somehow hard to find these days. Yes, Divinity II might not be a perfect game, but it’s heading to the right direction, and we liked it.
