Belgian Protestant D&D
Oof this was a big one. Even considering i spent a decent 30 hours messing with mods and restarting a few times, that's still a chonky playthrough. CRPGs will be the death of me…
Divinity: Original Sin is an actually-pretty-good game that's unfortunately overshadowed by its sequel (looking forward to it.. one day), which itself is in the even bigger shadow of Baldur's Gate 3 (maybe you've heard of it ?)
At the start of games like these, i usually spend a not-insignificant amount of time agonising over the class and style i want to play. I check the companions and the available skill trees, trying to remove overlaps and maximise class "coverage" - even sometimes resorting to the lore or "canon" to make a choice. Multiply that by two protagonists, and you can maybe imagine why my time is like it is
All that time spent, only to find Divinity has a mostly classless system, so i could pick and choose whatever skill-trees and combine them into my own thing. The starting templates did help setting up a base though. As far as skill systems go, this one is kind of table-top-y ? Six main attributes and a bunch of stats derived from them, traditional stuff. Next to that there's ability scores, which either give passive bonuses or unlock higher level skills. Familiar enough but different enough. Same same but different
I tried co-op a little bit, and it's impressively seamless (i think the two protagonists are a sign that they designed for this to begin with). Running around is done in real time like the old Baldur's, but combat is turn-based, which is a change very much appreciated by me (let's me actually use my skills), but it can look a little goofy when one of your characters is running around freely while the other is stuck in the turn-based dimension. I bet there's some cheeky exploits people have done with this..
The other thing that added hours to my counter was modding the game a bit. I'm not a fan of juggling companions in and out of the party - especially when they each have their own overarching stories with specific triggers - so i added the six party mod. Then i had everyone's opinion of events all the time, so happy me. The trouble is that i was really enjoying the game-pad control scheme on Steam Deck, but the UI seems designed for four characters. Cue the hours spent trying to figure out a workaround, then seeing if i could make my own mod (couldn't), and finally giving up and playing on the laptop, which was.. acceptable at least
D:OS's narrative is long and winding (much like this review is becoming) which is in line with games in this genre, if a bit much. Each act is it's own thing, with side-quests aplenty, and an overarching main quest to pull you through. The tone is all over the place, with humour and grimness popping in and out whenever they feel like it. I'm not sure this is such a bad thing though, as while it does make everything seem a bit erratic, it does make it all seem more true to reality, in a weird way
The Diablo loot system felt really out of place though - i wouldn't be surprised to find managing loot took up a third or more of my playtime. Perhaps i didn't need to be optimising so much as i already had an unbalanced party, but the lure of those colours is so strong. Would've much preferred equipment that was more intentionally designed, which is one of the places where the old Infinity Engine games come out on top
A giant review for a giant game, i guess. As i said at the beginning, i did very much enjoy DIvinity: Original Sin, and would easily recommend it, but the time investment is maybe a bit daunting for most. Keep in mind that i am a slow and exhaustive player (read: obsessive)
I really need to get around to playing D:OS1 properly. Only briefly tried it before getting distracted by other games. How did you set character personalities? From what I understand it’s supposed to mirror another person so it adds a degree of RNG to every decision you can make because the other guy can disagree and win the roll.
Ehh, so i started with a bit of role-playing, just having an idea of the basic characters and choosing what i thought they would say. Once i saw different personality traits gave different buffs, that fell away quickly though.
In terms of RNG, if your characters are in agreement about what to do, you don’t have to roll against each other. So it’s only the cases where you want them to have opposite traits (not that often for me), and then you can keep re-rolling until you get the outcome you want (if it even matters), and each character still gets the trait increase that they chose.
It’s a bit of an arcane system, but i could kinda see how it would work nicely as just role-playing between yourself or a friend - if i wasn’t so focused on having particular traits for certain quests
I remember setting opposite personalities which made every choice a 50/50. Not a good decision in hindsight. Thanks for the info.
You plan and play a lot like I do / did. I downloaded a spreadsheet template and created one for each character and companion, planning out their build, reading build guides, etc. I initially played MP with a friend, but that was just untenable so eventually I continued solo. I finally got bogged down by my own OCD and stopped playing about 2/3 through the game. I played on an alt via family share, so ignore my playtime and zero achievements.
I really enjoyed my time playing the game, but this isn’t the first time I’ve had to set aside an RPG because my playthrough just collapses under its own weight.
I also made spreadsheets!! :D Man, it’s a problem. Part of me really enjoys the whole planning phase, but you’re right, it does burn you out a bit..
I have the brand of OCD that pushes me through to the end, but then i don’t feel good about after.
What made the MP game untenable? I started a much more casual run with my sister, kind of hoping i can just sit back and enjoy things this time
What made it untenable is that I wanted to spend half my time looting everything and selling everything that wasn’t nailed down, min-maxing everything, doing every side quest, etc. And he was more well-adjusted / casual. Plus we didn’t have much time IRL to play so it was hard to sync up and get a full play session in.
Ah yes, that sounds familiar to me..
I’m hoping that because i’ve done the min-max playthrough, this time i can let it go, but we’ll see
Good luck! Game on!