Review

• Recommended


• RPG, turn-based combat, similar to Final Fantasy games


• Customizable characters and classes


• Loot system and weapon attributes similar to Diablo games


• Variety of spell types and skills


• Craft (and steal) just about everything


• Humorous


• Many quests


• Great music


• Some minor annoyances


• Enhanced Edition > Classic


• Multiplayer

Divinity: Original Sin is pretty much a must-play, especially if you’re into RPGs. I realized the popularity of Divinity: Original Sin 2 some time ago and decided to look into it. I later bought a huge pack on sale which includes pretty much every game in the Divinity series, although I believe they’re pretty much unrelated. However, of all of those games, the earliest one that I deemed “playable” (as in doesn’t look horrible) was D:OS. I was at first unsure if I really wanted to play a turn-based game, although that really doesn’t make any sense since I really love Final Fantasy games (well, many of them). D:OS is quite similar. You can have a party of four characters with you throughout the game. You start with two, but, obviously, you’ll meet more that can join you later. This is quite a story-telling game. In the beginning, there is little combat. There is an optional tutorial dungeon you can visit, but I don’t see why one wouldn’t want to go through it, even if they know how to play the game. This is because the game has a loot system similar to a Diablo game. Loot in chests and such is randomized, so you may never know exactly what you’ll find. In one play through you may find an arrow in a chest and in another play through you may find something different.

Customizable Characters: At the character creation screen, you have two main characters that you can customize. There are presets with different fantasy-familiar class types such as Knight, Wizard, Rogue, Archer, etc. You can look over and customize their skills, attributes, and body. Though, if you’re just starting out, I’d recommend finding something you like and going with that. I ended up going with a Cleric, which is kind of like a Warrior with Healing that uses one-handed weapons and a Knight (I think) that has a little bit of healing, too, but uses two-handed weapons. I later met a Rogue, Wizard, Archer, and another Warrior. I now have a well-balanced team, although I typically stick with the first two characters I created along with the Wizard and Archer. I use the Rogue mostly when I need help with lock-picking.

As for the loot system I mentioned that’s similar to Diablo, weapons and armor are also very similar. You may find something you have to identify to see what attributes it has. You can do this with the Loremaster skill and an Identifying Glass. There are also levels of rarity, which like Diablo can give the weapon or armor extra attributes and make it much more valuable.

There are a variety of spell types such as Earth, Air, Wind, and Water, these are the four main elements in the game. There are also skills or spells for Scoundrel (Rogue skills), Marksman (Archer Skills), Man-At-Arms (Warrior skills), and Witchcraft (more Wizard skills). When you level up, you can put points into skills that will allow you to learn these skills from a skillbook, which you can actually craft. Otherwise, there are scrolls any class can use, but they disappear after one use, so it’s better to try to save them for making skillbooks, although the scrolls aren’t too rare.

Crafting: There are different types of arrows use with a bow or crossbow and grenades that anyone can use. These can contain many of the elements and also things like poison, charm, and more. You can craft these. In fact, you can pretty much craft just about everything in the game, so it’s good to have at least one party member level up their crafting skill. Blacksmithing is another good skill to level up, which will aid in crafting, too.

There are a lot of other attributes you can learn, I won’t get into them all here, especially since I don’t use most of the, but I will tell you about one of my favorites. Pet Pal is a skill that lets you talk to animals. This is funny (as are most things in this game), but it’s actually quite helpful. I recommend getting this skill very early on in the game as you’ll run into a dog that can help you on your quest.

Speaking of quests, there are very many. You have a log, which you can read about different things you’ve done, read, or people (or animals) you’ve talked to. I pretty much ignore the log and just know what I’m doing. Sometimes I’ll forget about something and I end up doing it anyway. Many of the quests are optional and there are actually many ways you can complete a quest. You do have choices and sometimes your choices will be reflected in the game or affect your reputation.

Outside of game play, one of my favorite things about this game is the music. It is very good, I think. It gets stuck in my head, too. The soundtrack seems to be included in the Enhanced Edition. This edition of the game seems to be much better than the original. It used to be a top-down isometric game, but that was changed and it looks really good! It has more of a 3D look to it and you can move the camera all around.

Minor annoyances:I really like this game and It’s pretty much a must-play. I would love to give it a 5 out of 5 (stars or whatever you want to use), but I find some minor annoyances. It’s hard to click on a person or animal that is always walking around, which is why I pretty much never talk to rats and very rarely get to talk to chickens. Sometimes I accidentally click on something I didn’t mean to. Sometimes this makes me start a dialogue that I didn’t mean to start. Sometimes I have to move the camera around to click on a person, so that I don’t accidentally steal something (you can steal pretty much everything). Also, it is sometimes difficult to click on an enemy during battle. There have been times where I tried to click on an enemy for my character to attack and ended up having my character move to a spot instead. The game is fully voiced, which sometimes is a big annoyance. Standing for some time in one area while a character repeats the same lines over and over can be quite annoying. Yeah, listen to that old Elf angrily shouting about his hatred for "Victoria!" Other than that, I don’t see anything game breaking. It is an enjoyable game and I think it’s well worth playing. I haven’t finished yet, but I feel like I’ve reached a good time to write a review for it. I’m looking forward to playing D:OS2 afterwards, which is what got me started playing this game. I don’t think it’s really required, I believe I read that this takes part many years before the sequel and may be unrelated. Still, from what little I’ve seen of the sequel, these two games look and behave very similarly, though I expect D:OS2 has some improvements.

Multiplayer:I know you can play these two games with others, but I haven’t tried nor have I run into anything that makes me feel like I should. There is one really tough boss about mid way through, but I figured out how to defeat it. There are also invulnerable enemies later you need to sneak by, but it’s real easy if you use the Rogue’s “Become One with the Shadows” skill.

Additional note
A primary goal in the game is to collect blood stones, or more than your enemy. Actually using them will unlock more portals at the End of Time (you'll discover this rather quickly when you start a new game). Blood stones will turn into inert stones after they are used. I very strongly recommend saving all of your blood stones (if you have any, and you may) and inert stones. You can sell them, but don't, it's not worth it. It's much better to know how many you have collected. I sold mine, so once I got to a point to where I needed more and therefore needed to know how many I had collected, I had no idea, so I've restarted the game from the beginning (I was pretty much at the end).

So, have you played this or D:OS2? Have you tried multiplayer? What do you think about all this? Does it sound like something you’d like to check out? Let me know!