Am I the only one who preferred the first game? The writing is kind of wonky in both, but the combat was superior in the first one IMO. The inclusion of armor just turns every fight into an endless slog, and substantially mutes the impact of the elemental interactions (which are the fun part).
I played about 30 hours of DOS2 with a friend before we left off to wait for the definitive version. In retrospect, I’m kind of dreading going back.
Probably not, but I personally vastly prefer the sequel.
So I started this recently and then they release this new edition that I will never play because I don’t want to restart. They could always have enabled the arc changes for saves not past a certain point, but that would be effort…
DOS1 was sometimes too much a puzzle game, with two characters chilling around. It was a game of one rule, and entire world that obey that rule. You can probably complete DOS1 using only barrels.
DOS2 seems to be a homage to Baldurs Gate, the rules still exist, but to me they are less convenient and seems to play against the player more than in his help. Because DOS2 is more a story and characters game, a lot of the enjoyement come from liking the story and the characters.
Kind of agree with the armour thing. Make the game too complex, in his defense it helps differentiate chain characters versus cloth heros, I guess.
If you make a focused party, like all physical or all magical, then its not bad at all. Ill admit the armor system was a nice idea on paper, but in practice it doesn’t work very well.
Also physical damage is vastly superior to magical damage. Aside from picking up a new 2H weapon that will really amplify your damage, magic suffers with the fact that most mobs have decent resistances. IE: If it only has 20% fire resistance, that means you all your fire damage is that much weaker. Nevermind the fact that you occasionally run into mobs that have high resistances to not just one, but two schools of magic.
Physical damage abilities have no such counter (thankfully). Also all physical damage scales with warfare, even bows. With magic, the fire tree only buffs fire magic. Air only buffs Air, etc… another bad design decision.
Despite all that, I do like D:OS 2 over the first one.
If you want a party that will cut through the game like a hot knife through butter, make 2 lone wolf, physical damage based characters. My 2h melee dude, one-shot some bosses (well killed them on the first round, it might have taken 2 swings).
Uh oh. I’m running a party of 2 lone wolf wizards. I hope I’m not in for some punishment later.
Now there’s a ringing indictment, to my mind. Again, to me, the fun of the first game was finding interesting combinations of effects, coordinating physical and magical attacks, and the general wondrous variety of it all. If the best approach to DOS2 is to have no variety, and I totally believe you that it is thanks to the armor system, then they’ve pretty much killed the combat for me. Being as I was never very fond of the story (honestly, it’s been 3 months since I played and I remember nothing about it) and the quest logic is just a tick above your typical 90’s adventure game, what’s left? I guess there’s a good reason I don’t feel like going back to it.
Can I sincerely ask why? I’m trying to find the good, here.
It’s not any one thing or any one memory, it’s more my gut telling me what I once knew for fact - it’s been years since I played the first one (to completion with @ShivaX) and only hours since I last played D:OS2, so it’s really hard to articulate exactly why the sequel is better, I just know it is.
I’m trying to remember the first game, I know the story was kind of dumb (to me) and it was a much “sillier” game in some ways I didn’t appreciate. The story and events/characters in the new one are much more interesting to me, from my recollection.
Mechanically, I really prefer what they have done in the sequel with regards to how armor (physical and magic) block effects to help you avoid spending half of a battle frozen, stunned, or knocked down. Stripping the armor of something is usually a death sentence, because once you lack protection against various effects, that’s gonna be a bad day. In the first game you could just end up stunned before you even got to take a turn, which I remember being super frustrating. In the sequel the satisfaction of finally taking the physical armor off a tough foe and then knocking them down or petrifying them is so good, every time.
I don’t remember the crafting system specifics from the first game, but i hated them. I love crafting in OS2 though, it’s awesome and it’s easy and it’s super useful, all the time.
They added Races like elves and such that have cool abilities I really like. I remember being really excited about that. And the sequel has a LOT more interaction with regards to dialog, like with the races and tags (Mystic, Scholar, etc.) and various ways persuasion skill checks are done now. I also prefer giving each character (all four even) a voice during conversations, and having secondary characters play a role, rather than you playing their role for them. The story elements are done really well here.
I do not miss having to rock/paper/scissors with my co-op partner.
I remember when I first played D:OS2 really liking the skill system a lot better, the variety of skills and skill “schools” and the way you can craft/merge skill books to create new stuff with multi-school requirements is really awesome. The level up progression system is a lot more interesting to me, but I don’t remember the first game’s that well. Looking at old screenshots it seems a lot more simplified and less about diversity in builds, but I can’t really quantify that with an example or anything. I think the skills themselves are just a LOT more interesting and tactically varied/viable.
In general, I think the improvements to combat and mechanics from the first game can’t be stated enough. I can’t imagine not having access to the tools and QOL stuff added in the sequel.
Thank you for the detailed response. Unfortunately, I just can’t see what you’re seeing - with the exception of the skill system improvements (which don’t matter much thanks to the armor system) and the additional races, it all feels the same or worse than the original to me.
Perhaps its time I accept that it’s just not my cup of tea, but the idea of a sprawling turn based RPG that I don’t love is hard to accept.
You could also rotate the camera in the second one :)
Ha! Fair point.
To clarify, it’s not that I’m some huge fan of the original - the writing and quest logic was pretty wonky and unappealing there too, but the combat more than made up for it (for the first 70 hours or so anyway). As a result I had high hopes for improvements in 2, but they don’t seem to have gone the direction I was hoping for.
Nope, I definitely preferred the first one over the second, and that’s from someone who kickstarted the 2nd.
I read after install you can delete one of the folders and free up 22gb. Do a quick search.
tl;dr - Delete the \Data folder (I just did this/tested it and it seems to work fine, and I did reclaim a LOT of data. Now just just get rid of the useless splash screen. I should be able to pin the def ed. exe to my taskbar, I assume.
EDIT - Yep, found it. Actually launching the direct .exe resolves another issue I was having - it would take a good 30-60 seconds to actually start the game (just staring at a desktop until it does) once I clicked on Definitive Edition in the start up splash. Launching the .exe directly makes the game start immediately.
\Steam\steamapps\common\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\bin\EoCApp.exe
I don’t suppose it’s possible to load a pre-definitive edition save in the definitive edition? I’m guessing enough has changed that this isn’t possible.
I read that saves aren’t compatible, and I’m inclined to believe that’s true.
If the game patches, will it try download that 32gb back?
It might, yeah. Not 100% sure. You could optionally opt out of automatic updates, and update only when you are ready/wiling I suppose.
32gb is like a 24 hour download for me… ;)
Might just move the folder to another drive, save it in case.
Thanks. I’d have been shocked otherwise, but figured I’d ask. I really don’t relish replaying Fort Joy, it had seemed like the game might be opening up right when we learned about the Definitive Edition and therefore stopped playing. I wonder how many of my issues would be resolved/helped simply by playing further, but man do I not want to slog through the beginning again!
I may be a little conflicted about this game, perhaps you’ve noticed.