Divinity 2: Ego DraconisFollow

I consider this game to be somewhat of a hidden gem. It’s Austrian and was released in Jan way to close to DA:O so did not get much press. I’ve been playing a lot of single player RPG’s lately as I weaned myself off of my WoW crack. ( Just cancelled WoW finally) After ME2 I was looking for something else to play next and found Divinity 2.

The graphics are pretty good. The landscapes are especially nice. I was able to play it on max graphics 1900x1200 with only medium quality shadows as my concession for framerate. There was a couple of issues when compared with a huge budget masterpiece such as DA:O. For one the NPC characters gesticulate to much when they talk. But at least they talk with full English voice overs. There are also not that many human character models so many of the females look like pretty barbies with different hairstyles and most bandits are the same guy with a mullet lol.

But the gameplay itself is excellent. And have I mentioned yet that you are a Dragon Knight? Oh and as a Dragon Knight once you unlock it you can transform into a dragon and fly around the world. The dragon form parts of the game are not as expansive as the on foot human parts but there are some rather sweet dragon on dragon dog fights. Plus you get to lay waste to fortreses and seige engines with your dragon breath.

The world areas are pretty wide open. You start in a small starter zone but after the opening act the next zone is pretty large and there are many nooks and crannies to explore. Tons of hidden trap doors and secrets. You are basically encouraged to explore every square inch and you won’t be disappointed by what you find. Then later as a dragon it opens up even more.

There’s everything you might want as you level. New skills, stat points in STR , INT . Dex ect to distribute. Also you are not locked into a class. You can spread points between Ranger skills, Magic, Warrior. It’s pretty interesting but sometimes if you don’t build right you get your face rocked off because the combat can actually be fairly challenging. After a bit when you get your battle tower you can respect and tighten up your build which is nice.

The one thing bad about this game is the ending. I won’t spoil it and it was brave of them in a way but man at first I was like “Huh WTF? seriously?” Especially since the last battle is crazy hard. I actually had to go back a save and find some quests I missed so I could be one level higher before I could beat it. There are places like that in the game that if you get there at too low a level you will die before you can even bravely run away. But you can find new places to level up if you explore around a bit. Ohh and monsters don’t respawn. So once you clear that valley of goblins you know you are good for that area which I found to be nice.

There are reports that Divinity 3 is going to be released some time this year and will continue the story which I hope very much is the case.
Overall a solid single player RPG. It’s not as epic as DA:O or as high a production value but surprisingly fun with a solid amount of content and a level cap of around 35. If you are really cynical or picky you might want to skip this one but with an open mind there is solid RPGing to be had here.

7/10










Edited, Mar 5th 2010 3:37pm by Shojindo

Oh, I played on PC. The controls were standard WASD and the camera was just fine. It did not seem hard to learn for me but I play allot of MMO's and RPG's. Was pretty standard stuff map stuff to hotbar and hit 1-8. Space for jump etc. Wonder if it looks dated on Xbox? On PC you can tweek the graphics up pretty high. My review was for PC. I don't play many RPG's on console. But my caveat covers it:



Your the guy who did not like ME:2 as well right? Have you ever enjoyed anything? ;)

S'all good. The world needs critics as well. I was a bit drunk when I posted that response to your xbox critique last night. It's funny how unforgiving it is to play some RPG's on console. Many RPG's just have too many commands to easily input with a standard console controller. On a PC we are all used to the common schemes for hotbar abilities and movement.

I don't have an Xbox but I do have a PS3, I tried to play Fallen Angel Sacred 2 on there. Man what a peice of crap that was on Ps3. Camera was terrible, Having more than 4 abilities were tedius to switch between.

I was just pleasently surprised that on PC Divinity 2 did not suck and gave me a couple weeks of fun between my warrior toon and my ranger toon.

The expansion after ego draconis was not quite as good but still worth playing if you enjoyed the first. I mean sure it's nice to see more of the story but it's a bit like DA:2 in the fact that your stuck in a city and it's immediate surroundings way too much.

The best thing about the first game was the awesome exploring around the valleys and canyons. Climbing around on stuff or finding hidden networks of caves.

But 20$ for both is a pretty good deal.