After Divinity II, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this game. I mean sure, it looked a lot like the old Divine Divinity games which I really enjoyed, but I was still hesitant to try this one, mainly because of the high price point. After purchasing it together with a friend in the last sale, I quickly realized that I should’ve picked up this game much sooner.

As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too!

Let’s begin with the rather annoying rock/paper/scissors minigame during dialogs where you have to win multiple rounds until you get 10 points. While funny at first it quickly becomes a chore where you just save and load if you fail. Your stats simply give a little point boost during the minigame which I feel could’ve been done much better with just using the stats to determine if you are successful or not. Corpses can’t be moved or removed, which lead to one quest being unable to be finished and it thankfully wasn’t a main quest. NPCs will repeat the same sentence over and over again if you’re standing close by which is super annoying if you are sorting your inventory or while selling/buying stuff. A clearer indication as to what is junk and what is used for crafting would’ve been really nice; I bet that half of the stuff in my inventory is just rubbish. You can’t change your race during character creation and the only one available is human.

It all starts with the character creation which is fairly basic; chose your name, your starting class and your desired appearance and you’re ready to go. Eight different skill paths to chose from each with their own distinctive abilities and you can pretty much skill everything if you desire it. Spells are learned through skill books or unlearned if you simply chose to forget about them. You can only have a limited amount of spells at the same time based on the tier of your skill level. There are six different weapon classes that all have different requirements to fit the chosen skills and play style. Pick one of four different difficulties, where the hardest one deletes your savegame once each character in your party dies; there’s something for every type of gamer out there. The game offers an extensive world stretched over four big maps with small and big caves in between and sometimes basements. Various enemies and traps will make you want to quick save often, as it can be game over very fast.

The combat is executed in a turn based manner with action point management where everything has different AP costs; Movement, attacking or using spells and you can even chose to preserve them for next turn to cast even more expensive spells or just do crazy combos. Mix and match dozens of different elements to generate various status changes that can affect your enemies when they walk through it or just blow them up to turn them into a pile of ashes. Ice for example will knock enemies down once they try to run over it but it will melt at some point and leave behind a puddle of water that you can then evaporate with using a fire just to shoot the steam with a thunderbolt to create a thunderstorm which can even stun enemies for several turns. Or burn stuff and get a huge cloud of thick black smoke to block everyone's line of sight so enemies need to run through or around it. However, most fights can even be avoided by having high enough traits and winning the previously mentioned rock/paper/scissors minigame. The game just offers a ton of freedom and even killing most of the NPCs in towns will let you proceed through the main story just fine.

An old-school attribute/ability/talent system is also quiet nice to see in which you spend points earned through level ups in order to shape your characters into what you want them to be. Sneaking lets you steal stuff without anyone noticing as long as they don’t look in your direction. Pick up objects like chairs, crates, and even chests and store them in your inventory or throw them around, if you're strong enough. I was okay with the inventory weight limit since you can increase it and it has infinite space which I really like since I love to pick up everything. Crafting is also very functional since you can pretty much craft anything that you can use; Armor, Weapons, Potions, and even Arrows with elemental tips.

It offers an excellent co-op experience for online and split-screen play. Each player controls up to 2 characters (or even three if one wants to play solo) and fights can even be fought apart from each other resulting in situations where one is in a battle while the other one fights somewhere else. While one of the players is talking to the boss, the other one is not frozen in place and can prepare for battle however he likes or already loot the chests behind it. Important decisions however will be made by both players where they can argue over different outcomes, resulting in rock/paper/scissors to decide or they can simply agree with each other to finish quests more quickly. Additionally, items that are needed to open chests and doors or to advance through the story line are taken right out of the owning player’s inventory and you can easily drag and drop items in other players/characters inventories.

Graphics are reminiscent of old divinity titles but polished for the modern era and are pleasant to look at. Vastly different areas are presented in a believable way and elemental effects are especially beautiful.

While the soundtrack is good to listen to and rather funny sometimes, it fits each of the games situations very well and makes use of a variety of different instruments.

Checkout the composer’s website for a preview![soundcloud.com]

I would’ve loved a more serious story since Divine Divinty is rather humorous but the Divinity series always been like that. The game is very text-heavy with walls of text in dialogs and books to discover, but you can quickly skip them if you’re not interested. A bunch of easter eggs also show the love of the creators and you can tell they enjoyed making this game.

A second game is already on the way, and while I’m really happy about it I still urge you to check out this game first so you see and appreciate the improvements that will be made. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-rich RPGs with turn based combat or just fans of the old Divine Divinity and similar games like Baldurs Gate or Shadowrun. Check it out with a friend/girlfriend, it’s a lot more fun!

[h1][Introduction][/h1] After Divinity II, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this game. I mean sure, it looked a lot like the old Divine Divinity games which I really enjoyed, but I was still hesitant to try this one, mainly because of the high price point. After purchasing it together with a friend in the last sale, I quickly realized that I should’ve picked up this game much sooner. As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too! [h1][Negatives][/h1] Let’s begin with the rather annoying rock/paper/scissors minigame during dialogs where you have to win multiple rounds until you get 10 points. While funny at first it quickly becomes a chore where you just save and load if you fail. Your stats simply give a little point boost during the minigame which I feel could’ve been done much better with just using the stats to determine if you are successful or not. Corpses can’t be moved or removed, which lead to one quest being unable to be finished and it thankfully wasn’t a main quest. NPCs will repeat the same sentence over and over again if you’re standing close by which is super annoying if you are sorting your inventory or while selling/buying stuff. A clearer indication as to what is junk and what is used for crafting would’ve been really nice; I bet that half of the stuff in my inventory is just rubbish. You can’t change your race during character creation and the only one available is human. [h1][Gameplay][/h1] It all starts with the character creation which is fairly basic; chose your name, your starting class and your desired appearance and you’re ready to go. Eight different skill paths to chose from each with their own distinctive abilities and you can pretty much skill everything if you desire it. Spells are learned through skill books or unlearned if you simply chose to forget about them. You can only have a limited amount of spells at the same time based on the tier of your skill level. There are six different weapon classes that all have different requirements to fit the chosen skills and play style. Pick one of four different difficulties, where the hardest one deletes your savegame once each character in your party dies; there’s something for every type of gamer out there. The game offers an extensive world stretched over four big maps with small and big caves in between and sometimes basements. Various enemies and traps will make you want to quick save often, as it can be game over very fast. The combat is executed in a turn based manner with action point management where everything has different AP costs; Movement, attacking or using spells and you can even chose to preserve them for next turn to cast even more expensive spells or just do crazy combos. Mix and match dozens of different elements to generate various status changes that can affect your enemies when they walk through it or just blow them up to turn them into a pile of ashes. Ice for example will knock enemies down once they try to run over it but it will melt at some point and leave behind a puddle of water that you can then evaporate with using a fire just to shoot the steam with a thunderbolt to create a thunderstorm which can even stun enemies for several turns. Or burn stuff and get a huge cloud of thick black smoke to block everyone's line of sight so enemies need to run through or around it. However, most fights can even be avoided by having high enough traits and winning the previously mentioned rock/paper/scissors minigame. The game just offers a ton of freedom and even killing most of the NPCs in towns will let you proceed through the main story just fine. An old-school attribute/ability/talent system is also quiet nice to see in which you spend points earned through level ups in order to shape your characters into what you want them to be. Sneaking lets you steal stuff without anyone noticing as long as they don’t look in your direction. Pick up objects like chairs, crates, and even chests and store them in your inventory or throw them around, if you're strong enough. I was okay with the inventory weight limit since you can increase it and it has infinite space which I really like since I love to pick up everything. Crafting is also very functional since you can pretty much craft anything that you can use; Armor, Weapons, Potions, and even Arrows with elemental tips. [h1][Co-op][/h1] It offers an excellent co-op experience for online and split-screen play. Each player controls up to 2 characters (or even three if one wants to play solo) and fights can even be fought apart from each other resulting in situations where one is in a battle while the other one fights somewhere else. While one of the players is talking to the boss, the other one is not frozen in place and can prepare for battle however he likes or already loot the chests behind it. Important decisions however will be made by both players where they can argue over different outcomes, resulting in rock/paper/scissors to decide or they can simply agree with each other to finish quests more quickly. Additionally, items that are needed to open chests and doors or to advance through the story line are taken right out of the owning player’s inventory and you can easily drag and drop items in other players/characters inventories. [h1][Graphics/Art][/h1] Graphics are reminiscent of old divinity titles but polished for the modern era and are pleasant to look at. Vastly different areas are presented in a believable way and elemental effects are especially beautiful. [h1][Music][/h1] While the soundtrack is good to listen to and rather funny sometimes, it fits each of the games situations very well and makes use of a variety of different instruments. [url=https://soundcloud.com/livsy90/sets/divinity-original-sin-ost]Checkout the composer’s website for a preview![/url] [h1][Story][/h1] I would’ve loved a more serious story since Divine Divinty is rather humorous but the Divinity series always been like that. The game is very text-heavy with walls of text in dialogs and books to discover, but you can quickly skip them if you’re not interested. A bunch of easter eggs also show the love of the creators and you can tell they enjoyed making this game. [h1][Conclusion][/h1] A second game is already on the way, and while I’m really happy about it I still urge you to check out this game first so you see and appreciate the improvements that will be made. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-rich RPGs with turn based combat or just fans of the old Divine Divinity and similar games like Baldurs Gate or Shadowrun. Check it out with a friend/girlfriend, it’s a lot more fun! [code] Enjoyed this review? Curious for more recommendations by Excurious Curations? Check it out over [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28338439]here[/url]! [/code]