Divinity: Original Sin

I no longer remember details or have that save, but when I first played Divine Divinity I hit on some warrior based build that could routinely smear enemies 10+ levels higher than me so I had no trouble progressing really. I just got distracted from the game, as happens all too frequently with me. I’ve tried to go back more recently but, well, fun fact: the game doesn’t autosave, and I didn’t notice this, and…

I don’t think any other game I ever played let me run from a fight movie style by jumping off a cliff and transforming into a dragon mid-fall to fly away. Only thing missing was being able to turn around and roast them (on-foot characters stop existing in dragon mode), but I suppose you can’t have everything.

I had the same issue until I discovered I didn’t have to necessarily complete that dungeon in one go. I think I gained a few levels there, went back to the surface, killed me a few orcs, completed a quest or two, and then went back down a few levels stronger and better prepared and had a blast.

The game world was massive and there were lots of cool quests sprinkled all over the map. The game really gave the feeling of a world at war.

Finally giving this a go; are there any must-have (or strongly suggested) mods before I start my first run?

I’m late, but Divinity 2 is currently on the Steam sale for $2.

Third time is the charm, I guess. After an aborted first attempt years ago, and a second attempt that fizzled out, I picked this back up and it finally stuck, finishing it today while making sure nothing else distracted me for the last few weeks. I got past the quirky tone of it, something that I rubbed me wrong in my original play, and I found the variety of tactical combat situations to be engaging.

Now I feel I can look forward to playing DOS2 without worrying about being turned off by nitpicky things.

I’m finally playing this game past the initial hour or so, and have a question regarding spells/abilities in combat: when trying to use a ranged spell/ability, is there a way to instruct a character to close to range and then fire off the spell/ability? I’m finding I have to refer to the range of the spell/ability, hover over the target to see the range-to-target, and then move my character using X AP to be within the max range of the spell/ability. That’s very tedious. I’ve noticed, though, that characters will close to range when attacking with a melee weapon, so that’s good.

Thanks!

I was in the mood for an old school isometric RPG and landed on this game. After playing for about twenty hours I decided this is not for me.

The whole game felt very linear. There was always a right spot to be in, and I feel you really need to complete 90% of the quests that are available or you will get stuck in a progression bottleneck. Getting out of those bottlenecks is extra difficult because of the quest system that doesn’t have markers. Don’t get me wrong I loved the quest system but it is sometimes hard to figure out what to do next therefore the threshold to making progress in the main story should be lower. Another thing I didn’t like was all the fourth wall breaking humor. There was a lot of it and it took me straight out of the world and fiction of the game.

It wasn’t all bad though, I really liked the combat. It was always super engaging. Stopping and thinking instead of going on auto pilot always paid off. I also really like that the quest system was just a journal with snippets of what happend instead of markers on a mini map. It really made you pay way more attention to what was happening.

How does this compare to Pillars of Eternity and Original Sin 2. Does one of those provide more freedom?

I also really loved the combat… but I actually didn’t like the game as a RPG. I disliked the writing, the plot concept and how little agency you have on it. Also most quests were kind of meh, only a very few felt interesting enough. Although I didn’t particularly mind the ‘gating’ structure used in the game.
Thinking back, I wish this would be something like King’s bounty, with a more ‘thin’ streamlined non-combat parts and focusing instead on their strengths. an turn based ARPG, I guess.

Started playing the enhanced edition recently after bouncing off the original at launch getting stuck in Cyseal. Now I’m still in Cyseal after restarting a few times to try different characters and… getting stuck in Cyseal. I feel like I should power through since the consensus is that the game gets drastically better after Cyseal.

But I’ve also heard really good things about the sequel. So in a world where D:OS2 exists, is there a reason to play the original?

No not really, you can move straight on to the second. They are set at different time periods in the same world.

I jut started playing the Enhanced Edition for the first time (never owned the original edition). I really want to like this, as so far it seems right up my alley, but OMG, the camera focus and controls seem like they were engineered to fight the player at every step. SO FRUSTRATING!

I think I used WASD or arrow keys to move the camera. Don’t give up on it or just play the sequel which is even better

That’s what I have been doing, and it works, but it’s so clunky for a modern game. Click to move my team to spot X, then WASD to move the camera, then click to move team again…UGH, there are 25 year old RPGs that do movement focus better than this.

I also dislike that there seems to be no way to turn on item highlighting automatically. In a game with so many useful small items “hidden” in the beautiful artwork of the landscape, I need to be able to have them highlighted as I move around, not have to hit ALT constantly while also left clicking and WASDing and middle-mouse camera panning.

All that said, I’m still enjoying the game thus far. It just got very weird last night with the visit to the end of time and the discussion held there…but OK, I’m rolling with it.

You can (double?) click portraits to center iirc. Been a while.

I remember Enhanced Edition was built with controller in mind. I’m not sure how well it works with mouse and keyboard. I played the Classic using m+kb but I don’t remember it being so frustrating!

Give a controller a go. I’m using an Xbox One pad and it works great with the game and in one case even better than M&K like when searching multiple crates and barrels. Hold down A and it will search everything within the shaded circle. Pressing right stick down will toggle highlight everything you can grab vs holding down ALT on the keyboard. As far as awkward camera controls go, you just get used to it the more you play. I’m on my first play through with several hours logged and the camera doesn’t bother me as much as it used. I still would love to be able to zoom out more though as it feels claustrophobic coming from a recent Pillars of Eternity run.

I thought the experience was great with keyb + mouse.

Same here! I was very happy with the pc controls & rotating camera. So much so, that I really struggle to get back to a static iso perspective in pillars & other current RPGs.

I bounced off the first game about 15 times. I saw 2 was on sale and decided to give it a shot. Played about 3 hours and I think it’s vastly better than the first. Loving the narrator bits. I don’t recall that from the limited time I played the first one.