I've been playing Divinity II for most of yesterday and today, and I'm positively surprised. I expected a good Action-RPG title (since I enjoyed Larian's first Divinity), but what I actually got was a really good western RPG. Since there hasn't been much hype on GAF for this game (I would have skipped it were it not for a friend reminding me and some very positive German reviews) I thought I'd provide some impressions and information on what to expect when the English version is released.
I'll often refer to Oblivion as a comparison, not because this game is very similar to it (it's not), but because it's in the same (sub-)genre and extremely well known.
Gameplay
It's a single-character WRPG with an action-based combat system. Sounds a lot like Oblivion when you put it like that, but it takes the interesting combat skills and magic types from Diablo-likes, making it faster paced and (IMO) more interesting. Two examples are jump attacks that knock enemies back and instant-movement attacks. They also lifted some (good!) elements from MMOs, like food/drink for fast out-of-combat regeneration and a variety of crowd control spells.
Outside of combat, there's an alchemy system, Diablo 2 style item enchanting and a fun necromancy system. Finally those body parts you leave in your wake are good for something!
Quests
This is the part that really surprised me: unlike Action RPGs the quests often have a variety of choices and different ways of solving them. From what I played so far there seems to be more choice on average than in Oblivion. I also find many of the sidequests very refreshing in terms of story compared to the generic low-level sidequests you often see.
One quest-related feature I absolutely love is the ability to read the mind of NPCs. It works on pretty much every NPC in the game: for a small (or, in a few cases, not so small) experience debt you are able to perceive their current thoughts. In some instances this can help in or provide an alternative method of solving quests, and sometimes it allows you to find hidden rooms or items. The mind reading also aprovides some of the game's humour, of which there is quite a lot.
World
The areas the game takes place in are less expansive than, again, Oblivion, but this allows for a more focused experience. It also helps in combating the Disney-land feel that games that try to encompass a far too vast part of a fictional world often suffer from (eg. leaving one city and walking 5 minutes to the next, or "capital cities" with 50 inhabitants). There is no world levelling at all, which - to me - is a very good thing. Of course it can mean that you open the wrong door in a dungeon and are annihilated in seconds, but I like it that way.
Graphics
Technically, the game is about on par with other Gamebryo-engine titles (eg. Oblivion, FO3). The texture resolution is a bit lower but it has some nice post-processing, including pseudo-god-rays. More importantly, I think the character/enemy art is far better than in Bethesda's games, but judge for yourself from the screenshots.
Animation is good for a Gamebryo title (and average for a WRPG), but rather weak compared to other current games. There are also some technical hiccups related to world animation of far-away entities, but I assume those will be fixed in a patch and it's entirely possible to live with them.
Sound
The game's music is a bit inconsistent -- I absolutely adore it in some parts, but there are some (thankfully few) titles that get on my nerves. I didn't notice anything particular about the sound effects, but I never do unless they are bad so this is a good thing.
The german voice acting is very well done, much better than I expected. But obviously that doesn't say anything about the English version. However, I can say that everything is voiced, and that should presumably stay the same.
Technicalities
For a WRPG the game seems quite bug-free: I had no quest errors, crashes or perceivable gameplay bugs at all so far. What stands out in particular is saving and loading, which is almost instantaneous -- I can't believe it's the same engine as Oblivion.
There are a few annoyances, but there always are: AA only works half of the time, the main menu is locked at 30 FPS for some inexplicable reason and the prerendered (in-engine) story videos may be fine for 360 at 720p, but they look a lot worse than the realtime rendering on my PC. Small niggles all -- there were some more but they were fixed in a release date patch. Starting from such base the English version should be practically perfect once we (German/Austrian players) have beta tested it for you
In Conclusion
Another European WRPG that is easy to overlook but shouldn't be. I think it is maybe the most accessible out of the recent ones (certainyl more so than Drakensang, and probably even more so than the Witcher), so I hope it sees the success it deserves. I haven't written about the main story or the dragon mode simply because I don't think I'm far enough into the game to give a valid opinion on that (I can say the main story feels like they decided to play it a lot more "safe" than for the sidequests, but that is understandable). If there is some interest I'll write more about it when I can.
Screenshots
Let's start with character creation:
Some NPCs put together in one screenshot: (To demonstrate the utter superiority in character art and diversity compared to Bethsofts games. All IMO of course)
Battle - attacking a goblin camp: (this is not a very good shot, the game isn't easy so I don't have time to take screenshots in really interesting fights)
Inside a church:
A landscape shot:
A closer look at some enemy design: (again to show the art style)
Inside a dungeon:
And finally, the most awesome screenshot I made so far (no, I wasn't the one who killed the dragon)
I'll often refer to Oblivion as a comparison, not because this game is very similar to it (it's not), but because it's in the same (sub-)genre and extremely well known.
Gameplay
It's a single-character WRPG with an action-based combat system. Sounds a lot like Oblivion when you put it like that, but it takes the interesting combat skills and magic types from Diablo-likes, making it faster paced and (IMO) more interesting. Two examples are jump attacks that knock enemies back and instant-movement attacks. They also lifted some (good!) elements from MMOs, like food/drink for fast out-of-combat regeneration and a variety of crowd control spells.
Outside of combat, there's an alchemy system, Diablo 2 style item enchanting and a fun necromancy system. Finally those body parts you leave in your wake are good for something!
Quests
This is the part that really surprised me: unlike Action RPGs the quests often have a variety of choices and different ways of solving them. From what I played so far there seems to be more choice on average than in Oblivion. I also find many of the sidequests very refreshing in terms of story compared to the generic low-level sidequests you often see.
One quest-related feature I absolutely love is the ability to read the mind of NPCs. It works on pretty much every NPC in the game: for a small (or, in a few cases, not so small) experience debt you are able to perceive their current thoughts. In some instances this can help in or provide an alternative method of solving quests, and sometimes it allows you to find hidden rooms or items. The mind reading also aprovides some of the game's humour, of which there is quite a lot.
World
The areas the game takes place in are less expansive than, again, Oblivion, but this allows for a more focused experience. It also helps in combating the Disney-land feel that games that try to encompass a far too vast part of a fictional world often suffer from (eg. leaving one city and walking 5 minutes to the next, or "capital cities" with 50 inhabitants). There is no world levelling at all, which - to me - is a very good thing. Of course it can mean that you open the wrong door in a dungeon and are annihilated in seconds, but I like it that way.
Graphics
Technically, the game is about on par with other Gamebryo-engine titles (eg. Oblivion, FO3). The texture resolution is a bit lower but it has some nice post-processing, including pseudo-god-rays. More importantly, I think the character/enemy art is far better than in Bethesda's games, but judge for yourself from the screenshots.
Animation is good for a Gamebryo title (and average for a WRPG), but rather weak compared to other current games. There are also some technical hiccups related to world animation of far-away entities, but I assume those will be fixed in a patch and it's entirely possible to live with them.
Sound
The game's music is a bit inconsistent -- I absolutely adore it in some parts, but there are some (thankfully few) titles that get on my nerves. I didn't notice anything particular about the sound effects, but I never do unless they are bad so this is a good thing.
The german voice acting is very well done, much better than I expected. But obviously that doesn't say anything about the English version. However, I can say that everything is voiced, and that should presumably stay the same.
Technicalities
For a WRPG the game seems quite bug-free: I had no quest errors, crashes or perceivable gameplay bugs at all so far. What stands out in particular is saving and loading, which is almost instantaneous -- I can't believe it's the same engine as Oblivion.
There are a few annoyances, but there always are: AA only works half of the time, the main menu is locked at 30 FPS for some inexplicable reason and the prerendered (in-engine) story videos may be fine for 360 at 720p, but they look a lot worse than the realtime rendering on my PC. Small niggles all -- there were some more but they were fixed in a release date patch. Starting from such base the English version should be practically perfect once we (German/Austrian players) have beta tested it for you
In Conclusion
Another European WRPG that is easy to overlook but shouldn't be. I think it is maybe the most accessible out of the recent ones (certainyl more so than Drakensang, and probably even more so than the Witcher), so I hope it sees the success it deserves. I haven't written about the main story or the dragon mode simply because I don't think I'm far enough into the game to give a valid opinion on that (I can say the main story feels like they decided to play it a lot more "safe" than for the sidequests, but that is understandable). If there is some interest I'll write more about it when I can.
Screenshots
Let's start with character creation:
Some NPCs put together in one screenshot: (To demonstrate the utter superiority in character art and diversity compared to Bethsofts games. All IMO of course)
Battle - attacking a goblin camp: (this is not a very good shot, the game isn't easy so I don't have time to take screenshots in really interesting fights
)
Inside a church:
A landscape shot:
A closer look at some enemy design: (again to show the art style)
Inside a dungeon:
And finally, the most awesome screenshot I made so far (no, I wasn't the one who killed the dragon)
