Divinity II: Developer's Cut

Divinity II was another installment in the series of role playing games released by Larian Studios in 2002 and 2004. Unlike Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity, Divinity II features fully 3D graphics and is not isometric. Divinity II tells a story set in the kingdom of Rivellon 50 to 100 years after the events of Beyond Divinity. The player initially takes on the role of a dragon slayer and becomes a Dragon Knight, but then gains the ability to transform into a dragon. In dragon form he can fly and use new abilities.

Our main protagonist decides to visit the farthest regions of the magical fantasy world filled with various monsters such as goblins, ghosts and flying hell creatures. Battles with enemies are the most important feature of the game. The player can use melee weapons swords, axes, bows and spells. However, fights are not the only feature. For most of the game the player can talk to the characters they encounter and complete side quests without resorting to violence.

Some quests, for example, the player may receive a quest about delivering a letter from an unfaithful wife to her lover. She can decide whether to deliver the message or destroy it. She can even deliver it to the betrayed husband. The player's actions can influence the story and what other characters think of him/her. Being on good terms with some characters, such as a blacksmith, can help the player to negotiate better prices and thus obtain better equipment, which can help to end the game. The game's soundtrack was composed by Kirill Pokrovsky, the creator of the music for previous Larian Studios games.

A completely remastered and improved version of Ego Draconis, the original adventure of the Divinity II saga, was released a few years later. Released in 2012, the content and graphics engine of this new version have been greatly improved and overhauled to provide a more beautiful and richer gameplay experience. Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga also includes the all-new adventure Flames of Vengeance, which adds dozens of hours of gameplay to the original story and features a ton of new quests, creatures and items, as well as a spectacular finale to this great saga. The Flames of Vengeance expansion continues from the main game's finale. Together with its side content, it offers an average of 50 hours of gameplay.

Intro

Divinity 2 is a hub-based third-person action-RPG. You fight enemies with spells and weapons, or as a dragon. Along the way you do quests and get new stuff.

NB: This is the old game, not the Original Sin game.

The Good

There's some solid RPG-stuff in this game. Entertaining quests, interesting items, a decent levelling system, a nice variety of enemies, etc. This game also blissfully lets you teleport instantly and freely to your base where you can store/sell items and the like. Every game should have something like that.

The Bad

The combat is really boring. Ranged attacks require no aiming and can't miss. Health/mana regeneration is really slow and you'll often find yourself switching to your dragon form just to heal.

The whole "dragon" thing is just a really bad fighter sim thing that Fury³ and Terminal Velocity did better ages ago. There's only a handful of abilities and enemy types, it's completely worthless.

There are a whole bunch of areas that reminded me of the places you go to in TES: Oblivion. They consist of floating islands (accessed through a portal as well) with anti-dragon towers and tons of enemies on the ground. It wouldn't surprise me if these were all made by the same person or an algorythm, they're completely lifeless.

Smaller flaws include the bizarrely bad combat music, which sounds like something out of a parody. Navigation is a pain with clunky teleporters and having to find tiny caves. There are still bugs and typos despite this being the final final final version. Some quests are also borderline unsolvable without looking up the solution. There are other flaws too, but these stood out especially.

The dreadful

One of the loading screen tips mentions you should flee if you can't win a fight. And the game subsequently features several boss fights in which you are trapped in a tiny room. Oof.

This game has the worst boss fight ever. It also has another really bad one (easily in the top 5) in which you are trapped in a tiny room with tons of enemies and a boss that can completely heal by walking to one of two machines. After several tries i only managed to win because he got stuck behind some scenery.

Conclusion

A poorly designed product that you should avoid. Larian had some good ideas and a lot of bad ones. Between this and the Witcher games i've gained a new appreciation for Risen/TES/Fallout/TW2 and other similar games that are mediocre at worst.