Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition

 PC
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 682 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 538 out of 682
  2. Mixed: 78 out of 682
  3. Negative: 66 out of 682

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  1. Dobian
    Oct 13, 2016
    7
    As a big fan of old school isometric party-based RPGs, I made it a point to play both Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity, each in their own way an homage to those games of old. Original Sin is a flawed gem that mixes many delightful moments with some extremely frustrating ones. The cliché story (based in part on the story of creation and Cain and Abel), works because of the spiritedAs a big fan of old school isometric party-based RPGs, I made it a point to play both Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity, each in their own way an homage to those games of old. Original Sin is a flawed gem that mixes many delightful moments with some extremely frustrating ones. The cliché story (based in part on the story of creation and Cain and Abel), works because of the spirited repartee between your two protagonists and the characters they encounter. The otherwise dark "world facing impending doom" tale is presented in an almost jaunty upbeat way thanks to the music and excellent dialogue, where humor abounds. That, combined with the interesting character building model, unique crafting system, and strategic turn-based combat makes Original Sin worthwhile despite some obvious shortcomings. Pros and cons to follow:

    Pros

    Character creation and development
    Music (great soundtrack, love the music in Cyseal especially)
    Spell classes and Skills
    Dialogue (for the most part - see Cons)
    Two player co-op
    Companion stories and quests
    Side quests (talking cats, talking wells, lovelorn skeletons...it's all good)
    Crafting
    Main story (cheesy but serviceable)
    Tactical combat
    Impacts for your choices (character traits are great)
    Creative usage of environmental surfaces
    Bright colorful graphics befitting the high fantasy theme

    Cons

    Inventory management is tedious (no quest items tab, no way to sort items alphabetically)
    Way too many traps (tripping over mines and through poison fields everywhere you go gets tedious, and don't get me started on sentinels)

    Obtuse and sometimes overly long puzzles (Phantom Forest, cough)
    Rock Paper Scissors (a fun mini game at first, but gets old after the hundredth time, I chose to skip it)
    Small game world given the illusion of size via winding paths funneling you to the next set of enemies
    Balancing issues where you can breeze through one encounter then have to resort to cheese in the next (Braccus Rex, cough)

    That awful camera (not being able to look up made me feel like my character had a neck cramp)
    Too much exposition in dialogues at times (I don't need to hear for the tenth time the story of Braccus and his sister...and ZixZax, grrrr)

    Original Sin is far from perfect, but play it, it's a lot of fun and you won't be disappointed.    … Expand
  2. Ostrypwns
    Jan 5, 2020
    5
    75% of this game is walking, solving boring puzzles of all forms and shapes - which requires more walking, waiting for some NPC to say his part, or waiting for enemies to finish their turns. How's that any different from any other top-down RPG, you ask? Only in that all of it is done agonizingly slow. This about 60-hour game could be easily finished in half that time if the game had a75% of this game is walking, solving boring puzzles of all forms and shapes - which requires more walking, waiting for some NPC to say his part, or waiting for enemies to finish their turns. How's that any different from any other top-down RPG, you ask? Only in that all of it is done agonizingly slow. This about 60-hour game could be easily finished in half that time if the game had a reasonable pace. But the game sadly is so slow that I take it as an attempt to artificially prolong the experience which is just disrespectful towards the player.

    The plot and writing are so boring, unsurprising and simply uninteresting that I have no choice but to call them a basic **** - there are hardly ever entertaining, most of the time they are just there.

    The game has a beautiful, vibrant graphics and pretty damn good combat, but decent mechanics barely make up for its very slow pace. The character development is pretty cool and allows for some meaningful choices - like a perk that allows you to talk to animals, which, I admit, is pretty awesome;)

    It is rare for me to uninstall a game immediately upon completion, but I certainly do not intend to play this atrocity ever again - easily the weakest RPG I played in years, definitely the worst I ever finished. Only pick it up if you are bored or starved for an RPG experience, otherwise, stay away.    … Expand
  3. rpm
    May 5, 2017
    6
    I've been playing CRPGs since Baldur's Gate...and I even occasionally go back and replay some of the old classics (Plainscape, Icewind dale, Neverwinter Nights, the previous Divinity games, etc.). One thing I have noticed is that current CRPGs tend to be much easier than the older ones. There is much more hand-holding and it is usually never much of a problem knowing what to do and whereI've been playing CRPGs since Baldur's Gate...and I even occasionally go back and replay some of the old classics (Plainscape, Icewind dale, Neverwinter Nights, the previous Divinity games, etc.). One thing I have noticed is that current CRPGs tend to be much easier than the older ones. There is much more hand-holding and it is usually never much of a problem knowing what to do and where to go next.

    I'd guess I am about 1/4 of the way into D:OS at the present. While the interface and graphics are unquestionably on par with any other current RPG, the gameplay hearkens back to the old days. The quest log is minimalist, there is very little hand-holding, and I have basically been confused as to where to go and what to do next the entire time. For example, I got a key in one area that did not seem to unlock anything. Now I read online that it actually unlocks a door in a completely different area. Another example is that enemy difficulty is static so you may just wander into an area where the enemies are much higher level than your party. Another example is that quests are frequently spread over several acts and areas and cannot be solved in the area you received the quest.

    Even with these difficulties I am enjoying the game. My main criticism would be that I still have no idea what the main storyline is! I get missions to accomplish and they are fun, but so far I see no overarching main questline. I guess modern games have made it so easy to know what to do and when to do it I have become spoiled and so find it a bit frustrating when I have to figure things out for myself.

    5/5/17 Update:
    Ok, I'm up to level 14 now and I'm guessing at least half done with the game. I want to reiterate my frustration about how I never know where to go (or even why) most of the time. I have repeatedly checked IGN and other sites for clues as to what to do and what order to do it in or I manage to continue to walk into areas my group is not a high enough level for. I am lowering my rating from 8 to 6 because of this. I do not like linear games but there are other ways to let the player know where to go and what to do that don't exactly take them by the hand in a simplistic way. This game's design is just too frustrating in that many (maybe even a majority) of the quests are not meant to be solved within the area (or at the level) in which you receive the quest.

    I don't like to continually check walkthroughs to figure out how to proceed in games but this game seems to require it. Even when you read walkthroughs you will notice many times where it will read "ignore this quest for now as you will solve it later on in another area". This got pretty frustrating quickly. I'm the type of gamer who likes to accomplish quests, level up, accomplish more stuff, etc.

    Skyrim is a huge open gameworld but the interface almost always let you know where quests begin, develop, and end. D:OS gives you quests and rarely even lets you know how, where, or when to solve it. This, to me, is the one major negative about this game.    … Expand
  4. ThaMoor88
    Jun 7, 2022
    7
    This would have been a 10. But because they screwed us over at the final boss. While playing in honour mode (new game if you die) The NPC died (normally NPC's can be revived) and we were game over. Did do a new playthrough tho, and still got the achievement "Never say die". But that's why I'm giving it a 7
  5. MR67
    Dec 30, 2016
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A good (but not great) game that has a lovely turn-based combat system which encourages strategic thinking as opposed to the itchy trigger finger free-for-all fest we've seen too often in so-called CRPG games of late. I would have happily given this game an 8 but I feel the following issues reduce the overall score by 1 point.

    - The recycling NPC dialogue. Dear lord, do I really have to listen to 2 townsfolk in the marketplace repeating the same couple of lines every few seconds while I consider what to do next? It really makes it hard to think sometimes. There is thankfully a mod available to fix this but some areas are still a problem.
    - Railroading. The game tends to force you to follow a certain route and visit areas in a specific order as enemies who are above the general level of the party will wipe the floor with you owing to the combat system favouring them exponentially for each level they are above you. This slows the gameplay down a lot as you dither and dally over trying to find areas where enemies are around the same level as you.
    - Instant death. I'm one of those CRPG gamers who likes to try and play through a game without getting my characters killed so I don't have to save-scum, as this feels like cheating. Unfortunately this game tends to occasionally throw enemies or traps at you that (a) can one-shot a typical party member or (b) are invulnerable to your attacks, with no advance warning. One example from my last game - my 15th level party gets into an underground tomb. There's a large semicircular room with what looks like an animated humanoid statue (an eternal guardian) at the far end, and when I hover the mouse pointer over him, the blurb tells me he's 16th level. I move my party forward (anticipating a battle against him which I figure I can win), and suddenly 4 gigantic eternal guardians appear and attack, 2 from each side of the room. I throw a summoned zombie at them as a meat shield, and when I see it getting one-shotted, I figure it's time to flee. Unfortunately the game doesn't let me flee, as it keeps telling me one of my characters is still in combat, despite my entire party standing near the exit stairs. I then manage to get my stealthed ranger to the far side of the room, up some other stairs, and then I teleport the rest of the party to her using a magical device. I figure then combat should end as I'll be out of sight of the guardians but voila - the whole party instantly dies as they teleport to her area, as apparently there was some deadly trap there which was triggered by one of the teleporting characters (which the ranger failed to spot earlier). GAME OVER. It's moments like this that make this game incredibly frustrating at times.
    - Other poor game design elements - dialogue options that keep showing up, despite them having been used in the past (eg. option "1. Who are you?" still showing up despite talking to a specific NPC for the nth time), characters repeating dialogue for events that have already happened (eg. finding a buried treasure chest and later coming across a book that mentions the treasure, then making a comment like "this treasure should be buried somewhere around here....."), characters repeating lines like "What a lucky find!" every time they pick up one of the magical teleporting pyramids they've just used for the 20th or 30th time.
    - Too many useless loot drops - I'm not into crafting in CRPGs so it gets really irritating when you constantly find things like rat's tails, arrowheads, sheep's wool, bomb fuses, wood chips, etc, etc. Also the other loot you find on slain enemies is usually inferior to what you can buy from merchants, so you find yourself constantly running back and forth in search of better gear like headless chickens between the various weapon, armour and magic merchants in the game as their stock changes each time you level up and after every hour of real time.
    - Environmental effects in combat - a bit overdone as often the central area of the battleground becomes a veritable morass of lightning/fire/poison, which can limit the usefulness of melee-orientated characters without ranged attacks/teleporting ability, as they get stuck waiting for the elemental effects to clear so that they can close with any remaining enemies.

    I've backed Divinity Original Sin 2 via Kickstarter so hopefully Larian Studios will make it a bit more polished than the first one.    … Expand
  6. Chomag7
    Nov 4, 2015
    7
    Like all of Larian's games, it has a lot of attention to detail and a lot of work placed into into. However, like all Larian games it starts out super fun and interesting but...it becomes rather dull and tedious pretty soon.

    I'd like to mention the combat here. Very nice. Turn based like Fallout is excellent but...there are no easy fights. Even in Fallout the enemies early on weren't    Like all of Larian's games, it has a lot of attention to detail and a lot of work placed into into. However, like all Larian games it starts out super fun and interesting but...it becomes rather dull and tedious pretty soon.

    I'd like to mention the combat here. Very nice. Turn based like Fallout is excellent but...there are no easy fights. Even in Fallout the enemies early on weren't exactly challenging. Problem with OS is that the fights tend to last way too long and it becomes tedious after a point on, tbh. I mean when you're actively trying to avoid combat it means you don't really like it, and combat is a very important part in this game. You can't one shot enemies, nor two shot or even 3 shot, like you would in Fallout with a heavy machine gun.

    You have to play out the entire fight while cc-ing and using enviromental triggers, and, once again, this becomes rather tedious after a while.

    The game isn't exactly friendly with your choice of party members. Choosing poorly means a restart because you just can't handle the combat with your current selection. Magic is extremely important and the game is simply unplayable without a heavy focus on magic characters, you just HAVE to be able to use spells from all schools because some mobs are very resistant or simply immune to some schools, or they use the environment to dump a lot of crap on you and if you don't have a caster than can clear it, well...you're screwed.

    The ideal team composition is 4 wizards. Ridiculous, but that's the way it is. The game becomes easy mode if you have 4 mages, each with one summon. Triple mage is easy too and allows you to play your main character of any class you want because the triple mage is a huge safety net.

    Anyway, these are my issues, the game is pretty damn good otherwise.    … Expand
  7. Gamed2long
    Feb 19, 2018
    6
    I had a love hate relationship with this game. It had some really excellent moments. But it also had some stupid and terrible moments. More than once I ended up looking up what to do next on walkthroughs. There is handholding. And I appreciate the lack of handholding in this game. But too often the puzzles were kind of random. Or extremely vague. Just a not fun waste of time to figure itI had a love hate relationship with this game. It had some really excellent moments. But it also had some stupid and terrible moments. More than once I ended up looking up what to do next on walkthroughs. There is handholding. And I appreciate the lack of handholding in this game. But too often the puzzles were kind of random. Or extremely vague. Just a not fun waste of time to figure it out. There was an over-reliance on hidden switches. And with the asthetic those switches were tiny, hard to see and oddly placed. Other little stupid things that could make for a bad time.
    I was really impressed with the skill tree at the beginning. But once I maxed out one skill on the tree I got much less impressed with things after that. Also I had the difficulty cranked high. So I'd often end up replaying battles until I won. A hard earned victory felt great. Too often I miss clicked and my character suicidally ran into danger messing things up for that attempt. One fight in particular the enemy did that (still not sure why) and it was a very simplified win. At the end the game leaned on mechanics that were sort of cheating. I also feel like the narrative came apart and there wasn't enough at the end to put it back together. My characters are basically gods (little g) why do they care about resolving that murder from act 1 that they figured out by the end of act 1? Bizarre.
    There were some silly elements. Depending your mood you may find those fun or you may find them hardcore imersion breaking. Talking comedic lobster in a game with a large number of blood sacrifices, why not? Its a decent old style RPG. I played it after Pillars of Eternity. And years after Neverwinter nights. Both of which I liked much much more. But if old school RPGs are your thing, you might have fun.    … Expand
  8. Dokkodo
    Jan 22, 2016
    7
    So the game is a nice spin on an old genre, it feels a lot like the heavily D&D based games of old like Icewind Dale. It does however have more versatility in the characters and some cool combat mechanics that makes it stand out from others in the genre.

    Storyline is nothing special, but it can be forgiven for the quality of the combat. What cannot be forgiven however is the    So the game is a nice spin on an old genre, it feels a lot like the heavily D&D based games of old like Icewind Dale. It does however have more versatility in the characters and some cool combat mechanics that makes it stand out from others in the genre.

    Storyline is nothing special, but it can be forgiven for the quality of the combat.

    What cannot be forgiven however is the aggravating hit boxes. Missing your target in a turn-based game because the target ever so slightly moved in his idle animation is ridiculous. It is something that should have been hashed out long before making an "enhanced edition". There's other bugs that can sometimes end up deadly as well, so if you're playing on Iron Man mode you can easily have a bad time.

    You also shouldn't play one-death mode your first time through the game because there are things that can insta-kill you throughout the game. They're kind of funny when you just saved right before encountering them, but they're no laughing matter if you only have one life or haven't recently saved.    … Expand
  9. AndreRLZ
    Mar 6, 2016
    6
    Questo è un RPG che si può sostanzialmente descrivere con la parola LENTO. Quasi ogni aspetto del gioco, dal progresso dei personaggi, ai dialoghi, alle battaglie.. persino i movimenti sono lentissimi. E' un gioco che richiede moltissime ore di gioco, tanta dedizione. Non è facile per niente, e livellare non è scontato. Il gioco in qualche modo ti costringe a fare le missioni secondarieQuesto è un RPG che si può sostanzialmente descrivere con la parola LENTO. Quasi ogni aspetto del gioco, dal progresso dei personaggi, ai dialoghi, alle battaglie.. persino i movimenti sono lentissimi. E' un gioco che richiede moltissime ore di gioco, tanta dedizione. Non è facile per niente, e livellare non è scontato. Il gioco in qualche modo ti costringe a fare le missioni secondarie (e ce ne sono veramente tantissime), per poter livellare, poichè i mostri una volta morti non respawnano. I dialoghi sono in stile "arcaico" e quindi sono lunghissimi, lenti, pieni di virtuosismi inutili. Detto ciò, la versione PC , (finalmente, dopo anni di sviluppo praticamente) è veramente ottima, in ogni suo aspetto. L'aspetto tecnico è eccellente, anche le musiche sono azzeccatissime.… Expand
  10. TsukasaHiiragi
    Dec 3, 2018
    6
    After dumping about 15 hours so far into the game, I've started to clearly see all the shortcomings and glaring frustrating issues which really hold this game back. Sure you have a rich and detailed mechanics which you can play around with, build some really interesting character builds you could come up with but several major issues really just hold the game back from being aAfter dumping about 15 hours so far into the game, I've started to clearly see all the shortcomings and glaring frustrating issues which really hold this game back. Sure you have a rich and detailed mechanics which you can play around with, build some really interesting character builds you could come up with but several major issues really just hold the game back from being a masterpiece crpg.

    Combat is can be very frustrating, you have to be extremely careful when clicking to attack, if your target has an animation and your cursor isn't accurate on the target, you character could run over instead of range attacking as an example of frustration. Combat is also super cheesy with several cheap tactics which can make some encounters really easy, and then - some encounters the enemy AI has cheesy tactics it can employ against you often making what appears to be an easy encounter, into a tactical nightmare forcing you to reload constantly until you find an opening.

    Plenty of gear to find, almost like the diablo series in terms of varied gear granted many of it really isn't that useful at all but for the most part satisfies item hunting for better and better gear, although monsters do not respawn without mods so gold and exp are completely finite so being careful with your expenses is important unless you want to restart the game with mods to fix this issue.

    Questing, this is one of the biggest flaws in the game - needless to say, you have no help period - you are more or less playing blind, some people like this method of zero help but it can get extremely tedious when you have half a dozen side quests and absolutely minimal information on how to complete any of them, half the time you'll probably just bumble around and trip over a quest item that some NPC wanted several days ago during a previous play session - the quest log, everything related to quests just isn't good I'm afraid and does hold the game back in my opinion.

    Thinking outside the box is sometimes the best way forward, and sometimes the only way forward in this game and that can cause the player to hit multiple hard roadblocks in terms of story progression or progression in general, often requiring hunting online for solutions.

    The soundtrack and music, is nice although the constantly looping villager speech can get very grating after hearing it a thousand times over.

    Overall, this isn't a bad game and considering I got this on sale for $10 I think its very reasonable considering the issues the game has which for me, lower my opinion of the game due to several frustrating issues, this has peaked my interest for the sequel and hopefully some of the issues are not present in the sequel.    … Expand
  11. PrincessRose
    Feb 23, 2019
    6
    I enjoyed this game mostly, exploring with silly humour and a immersive interesting story. When I play it, it's hard to stop, I want to keep going to see what else awaits me and what interesting things I can find. I never feel bored.

    I like how the environment has elements that can affect you in battle. I like how you can shape your characters stats and skills how you want and    I enjoyed this game mostly, exploring with silly humour and a immersive interesting story. When I play it, it's hard to stop, I want to keep going to see what else awaits me and what interesting things I can find. I never feel bored.

    I like how the environment has elements that can affect you in battle.

    I like how you can shape your characters stats and skills how you want and starting class doesn't really matter. And even if you make a mistake you can reset it at the End of Time, but it's pretty severe, it totally resets all points your character has, stats, skills and talents and you will need to rebuy all skill books.

    The game while mostly good is not without flaws.

    Combat can be clumsy with miss clicks causing a ranged character to move instead of attack, wasting your AP.

    At times I found the puzzles annoying and more than once had to google things.

    As some solutions to things are ridiculous, you have to be psychic to be able to figure some things out. At least make a game be more practical that the average person can figure out and not have to be a super being to figure it out, have solutions you can figure out on your own and not have to look up. I always try to figure things out on my own and only look it up if I get stuck.

    The game is confusing at times, not sure where Iam meant to go so ended up at the mines last and sacred stone first. And it can also be very hard to find important items and switches.

    And even though it's open world and you can go where ever you want, often things have to happen in the correct order and you are given no guidance and have to figure it out or look at guides, or reload a previous save.

    And a quest Slave and Masters became broken and incompletable, as things needed to happen in a certain order and since it didn't the quest broke.

    At times the sound would cut out.

    Dislike crafting, it is very convoluted. When experimenting trying to figure out what you can craft on your own, you think something would be a possible combination only to have it not be. Definitely need to use a guide for it.

    When you want to reason, charm or intimidate it has a very annoying rock, scissors paper game which happens quite a lot.

    Character creation is very limited, can't choose eye colour or fine tweak, can only choose head, skin colour, hair colour and style and there aren't enough portraits to match all the heads.

    And there are only 4 characters you can find to join your party.

    Even though there were things I disliked I still would rather have played it than not have played it.

    Think the game is over rated. Mostly fun to play through at first than gets boring and tedious towards the end. Ok to play the game once but wouldn't play it more than that, even to try and get all achievements, as by the last area of the game I was feeling sick of it and could not stand the thought of playing more to get achievements I missed.

    I really hated the last bit, the puzzles for the source temple were an absolute chore and because of those last puzzles I'd lower the rating down from 7 to 6.    … Expand
  12. ShawnD
    Oct 25, 2016
    7
    I originally gave this a horrendous rating because I had the problem of misclicking enemies. This problem is solved by holding the ctrl key during combat.

    It's a pretty good game overall, but large parts of the game seem like a complete waste of time. It has many of the same let's-do-everything problems Neverwinter Nights had. - Blacksmithing seems like a waste of time. - Crafting    I originally gave this a horrendous rating because I had the problem of misclicking enemies. This problem is solved by holding the ctrl key during combat.

    It's a pretty good game overall, but large parts of the game seem like a complete waste of time. It has many of the same let's-do-everything problems Neverwinter Nights had.
    - Blacksmithing seems like a waste of time.
    - Crafting seems like a waste of time.
    - Weight limits are always stupid, but it's never really a problem in this game because most items have very low carry weights.
    - Since crafting is useless, that means most items in the game are useless. Bones, feathers, teeth, mushrooms, etc. It's all vendor trash.
    - Giving NPCs a money limit is just stupid. I should be able to sell my garbage in one shot. Going through my stuff 20 times for 20 different NPCs breaks the immersion of the game and makes it boring.
    - The story and side plots are not interesting at all. it's exactly like Neverwinter Nights. Everyone has some long, drawn-out story, and I can't get into it because I don't care about any of these characters.
    - The combat is extremely unbalanced and wonky. Due to long cooldown times, one cannot make a party that has a dedicated healer. You get 1 healing cast every 4 turns or so, but half of your party can be killed in 1-2 turns, so the healing spells are completely useless during combat. Potions are useless as well because they don't heal very much. A potion heals 20%, but 1 shot from a boss does 40%, and he hits twice per turn.
    - Melee characters are completely useless. It seems like they take the same damage per hit, and they do the same damage per hit, but they get hit 10x as often.My first party had a cleric with a shield, and the cleric would get destroyed all the time. I made another party that was just 2 mages, and they steamrolled everything; most fights would take no damage at all.

    It just seems like the game is trying to do too many things at once, but none of them are done particularly well. It needs to be a bit more structured and simplified.    … Expand
  13. DerBomber
    Mar 6, 2017
    6
    This is a likable game, with nice graphics and atmosphere. The combat system itself is great, the advertised use of combinations of items and spells really works. The graphics are nice.
    There are a lot of problems though: it is poorly balanced, if you take a wrong turn you get killed by enemies you cannot defeat before you level up some more, so you must do everything in the    This is a likable game, with nice graphics and atmosphere. The combat system itself is great, the advertised use of combinations of items and spells really works. The graphics are nice.
    There are a lot of problems though: it is poorly balanced, if you take a wrong turn you get killed by enemies you cannot defeat before you level up some more, so you must do everything in the pre-determined order. The rock-paper-scissors minigame used to solve some challenges is ridiculous and takes you right out of the atmosphere. And then there's the NPCs who all went to the same Scottish school of funny accents....oh and the inventory system is really annoying.
    Finally, the game world is very small and still progression is very, very slow. Because you use trial and error to find the proper order of fights and quests, your extremely slow characters walk through the same areas over and over again.    … Expand
  14. HumanPerson
    May 27, 2018
    6
    This isn't neccesarily a bad game but I wouldn't say it's a good one either. It has a lot of concepts and ideas that I absolutely loved but that I feel were overall implemented rather poorly. We'll begin with a review of the early game and some of my issues with it. Now, if your a newcomer to this game and especially this genre, this game will require an abhorrent amount of onlineThis isn't neccesarily a bad game but I wouldn't say it's a good one either. It has a lot of concepts and ideas that I absolutely loved but that I feel were overall implemented rather poorly. We'll begin with a review of the early game and some of my issues with it. Now, if your a newcomer to this game and especially this genre, this game will require an abhorrent amount of online research. I had to spend hours researching character builds, environmental effects, crafting as well as the order in which to take on in encounters. The game overall does a very poor job explaining any of this and REQUIRES you to spend time prepping for it like you would an exam. This is not a good thing, and this is coming from someone who normally enjoys min maxing their characters in RPGs. Much like the research required if your new, the first sections of the game tend to be slow and a bit boring, worse is that they tend to involve drastic and odd changes in tone. The game begins with a murder mystery type quest which involves a lot of dialogue and a lot of backtracking which in itself wouldn't be such a problem if your movement speed wasn't so slow. I could cope with this but it is really the odd and dramatic shifts in tone which kill the immersion for me. Everyone talks in strange sort of hokey british accents and is pleasant as punch, this despite the fact that a zombie apocalypse is occuring just metres from their city gates. Also an orc invasion. The game has a weirdly comical tone to the dialogue which neither fits the topic characters are often speaking of or the greater context of the game. Furthermore, you are at times forced to make hilariously nonsensical choices. Early on in the game you come across two guards standing by a bridge. They are drunk, irritating and also illiterate. You have two options here, you can choose to forlornly follow them while your characters are weirdly chipper considering their quest, or you can outright murder them. There is no inbetween. You cannot sneak buy, even if your invisible- they know your there because alcohol apparently increases perception. There is no middle ground, having a high charisma means nothing, you can not influence them in any way. Better yet, killing them is actually the best choice. You get a +1 to independent and depending on how you respond to your other main character- a +1 to compassionate which are both good traits. This versus only getting a +1 to obedient which is a strictly inferior version of independent. The game is filled with weird connundrums like this. Environmental effects are also far too frequent and serve to slow down game play at times. Poison is everywhere and most zombies for some absurd reason BLEED it, and then heal from the poison that they just bled out of their bodies. Also it's flammable. I'll digress that some people might actually enjoy this system but I found it to be strangely illogical and restrictive. For example, if you want to play a death and fire geo/pyro mage- the early game will absolutely suck for you. There is a huge contingent of enemies that are simply immune to fire or which can cast Rain to put out the flames you start. Some earth spells are also poison based, so these will actually HEAL some enemies and by some I mean lots. Points for effort though, this is a unique system and if you figure out the strange elemental interactions- you might actually grow to like it.

    Now, delving deeper into the combat, one of my biggest problems with this game is it's illusion of freedom. The game says you can go just about anywhere at anytime- and it means it! It's just if you do, you'll probably die. Now, some games have areas that are tougher than others- they are meant for high level characters- but this game takes it a step further. You have to find the optimal layout of fights and progress through them in the weirdest amalgamation of progression I have ever seen. You have to quite literally go around and pick the easiest fights and do the more boring in town quests- just so you can gain enough exp to complete the next super specific fight. By this I mean, you can't just fight anything, you have to fight very specific encounters and progress through them in an illogical way. Fight the enemies outside the north gate, then kill a small group of orcs on the beach- not not the bigger group as they will massacre you. Go back to the north and kill a larger group of zombies, kill the lighthouse boss, etc... This is far from a fun or even logical way to progress through the game. If you want to get good at combat, this game encourages you to spend hours looking up builds, feat combos, crafting recipes and etc... This game - in my opinion- is not nearly as free form as it would like you to think, it presents you with an illusion of non-linearity. In essence- I like the concepts and ideas this game had, I absolutely hate the implementation though.    … Expand
  15. Daermon
    Jun 20, 2019
    7
    The story is good, the charachters so-so, but the combatsystem is meh and boring.
  16. Hochbichler
    Mar 16, 2020
    7
    Divinity: Original Sin is a true RPG for old school gamers with somewhat unfortunate title. The turn based combat suits me well, although the combination of reliance on RNG and unlimited combat/dialogue saves does not make much sense to me. In the first half, this game can be pretty challenging even on normal difficulty, but as with almost every RPG, there is a gradual decrease inDivinity: Original Sin is a true RPG for old school gamers with somewhat unfortunate title. The turn based combat suits me well, although the combination of reliance on RNG and unlimited combat/dialogue saves does not make much sense to me. In the first half, this game can be pretty challenging even on normal difficulty, but as with almost every RPG, there is a gradual decrease in difficulty as you play along. In a game with a lot of reading, the font matters to me quite a lot and it is not that pleasant in this game. Otherwise the graphics look nice and atmospheric. Every single dialogue is voice acted, which is very nice. The ambiance NPC banter (vendors, imps) can get very annoying though. The music is very immersive. I was not really impressed by the story, in my opinion it is overly complicated at times and because the game is non-linear, certain quests and aspects of the story can appear as if out of context. Plus the companions kinda suck, both story-wise and because of the pre-selected attributes and abilities. No microtransactions and no SJW politics, which is a plus.

    Overall a very decent RPG with some minor flaws here and there. Final verdict: 73 % ( which I do not consider to be mixed).    … Expand
  17. awdrifter
    Dec 27, 2021
    7
    This game has a great turn based combat system, the graphics looks great for an isometric game and the story (that I've seen so far) is interesting. But there are two detrimental flaws that prevented me from finishing it. This game's enemies do not respawn, that means you have a finite amount of money and exp. If you did the wrong build, you're done, you have to start over. I dumped nearlyThis game has a great turn based combat system, the graphics looks great for an isometric game and the story (that I've seen so far) is interesting. But there are two detrimental flaws that prevented me from finishing it. This game's enemies do not respawn, that means you have a finite amount of money and exp. If you did the wrong build, you're done, you have to start over. I dumped nearly 40 hours into the game, and I'm finally stuck and can not continue, the only option is to start over. The second thing is the inventory management aspect, if you're playing with a controller, inventory management is really bad. The good news Is that there's a respawning enemy mod for this game, so if anyone is reading this review, install this mod before you play, because it requires you to start a new save for the mod to work.… Expand
  18. Sanastusa
    Jan 5, 2022
    5
    Taking a step back from the fast paced games of modern day, Divinity is a slow paced role playing game with the feel of a table-top adventure.
    A long character customization to start the game with handcrafting your two main characters, you pick up with two Source Hunters whose main job is to find evil magic in the land and snuff it out. First quest starts with trying to solve the murder    Taking a step back from the fast paced games of modern day, Divinity is a slow paced role playing game with the feel of a table-top adventure.
    A long character customization to start the game with handcrafting your two main characters, you pick up with two Source Hunters whose main job is to find evil magic in the land and snuff it out. First quest starts with trying to solve the murder of a town official that is believed to be linked to magic and the game spirals from there.
    This game is not designed for short play throughs. Walking into the first town and after 5 hours of conversations and picking up a plethora of quest chains….you might find yourself bored and confused as to which direction to start. Oddly part of the charm of the game is the world building and characters but the combat is what brings the entertainment.
    The Combat is turn based with each character getting a certain amount of action points each turn to move/cast skills. Elemental effects through spells can shape the battlefield and affect allies and enemies so be careful.
    This game was designed more for a couch Co-Op where two people can sit and try to solve a huge world roleplaying game over the course of many plays. I had started plays with friends a couple times but unfortunately life just happened to get in the way. I sat down recently and started a solo play through and made it to a point where I felt bored playing the game.
    My solo game was over 40 hours long, I reached level 15 and the story got to a point where I was kinda just stuck with little direction. Left me to look into the internet for answers and at that point I decided to just put the game down and be done with it.
    I wouldn't say this game is bad by any means. Just crunchy and heavy to get through. For people who really like old school style role playing games, this game is for you.
    Scoring:
    Story: 6 / 10
    Gameplay: 5 / 10
    Visual/Audio: 4 / 10
    Entertainment: 4 / 10
    Controls: 5 / 10
    Final Grade: D    … Expand
  19. 4ya5h1
    Sep 25, 2022
    7
    gameplay is good, fight system in this game is great i really liked it, ost is great too but plot is bad imo. there a few very interesting or funny side quests but its minor. i was in love with this game at the begining but with time it became more and more uninteresting
  20. Travok94
    Nov 16, 2020
    5
    Good combat system and interesting exploration; the rest is absolutely trash. Goofy factor over 9000 and ridcolous main story.
    I play only rpg games but this really disappointed me.
  21. seriousboris
    Aug 14, 2021
    7
    Прошел уже после того, как прошел и даже перепрошел вторую часть. Должен отметить, что первая дивинити куда более душная часть, чем вторая, и по ней очень четко видно насколько большая работа над ошибками была проведена во второй части. Огромному количеству игроков игра может показаться скучной и неинтересной, ну а если оценивать объективно, то это 7 баллов из 10.Прошел уже после того, как прошел и даже перепрошел вторую часть. Должен отметить, что первая дивинити куда более душная часть, чем вторая, и по ней очень четко видно насколько большая работа над ошибками была проведена во второй части. Огромному количеству игроков игра может показаться скучной и неинтересной, ну а если оценивать объективно, то это 7 баллов из 10.
  22. JackPlack
    Mar 11, 2022
    5
    If somebody likes Baldur's Gate, Wasteland, Ufo series, this title could be too much like detective book or closer to Broken Sword, Monkey Island series (Both had more interesting story). Its not too complicated as Plan Escape Tournament. Detective like + Wizardy 8 map/enemies placement.

    Best thing is: art style, and nice game engine, lot of customization, other kind of battles. Worst:    If somebody likes Baldur's Gate, Wasteland, Ufo series, this title could be too much like detective book or closer to Broken Sword, Monkey Island series (Both had more interesting story). Its not too complicated as Plan Escape Tournament. Detective like + Wizardy 8 map/enemies placement.

    Best thing is: art style, and nice game engine, lot of customization, other kind of battles.
    Worst: often stucking, too much barriers, reading, asking pointless walking, little too boring story (predictable unoriginal or too abstract/some way illogic). Linear progression, board game rpg rules could be too abstract, strange a specially oily rocks, physical armor maths, little wrong location of enemies. Little too random or world is too small, should been some world map like in Wasteland/Fallout/Ufo.    … Expand
  23. cheerful_dirge
    Nov 1, 2022
    5
    In this game everything possible is done so that the player does not go through it to the end. Stupid puzzles, a bunch of meaningless text and other garbage. I put 5 only for the visual style.
  24. Avey123Avey
    Mar 19, 2023
    6
    One of the greatest CRPG combat systems every created and very entertaining multiplayer implementation. That being said the game has some truly infuriating voice work and writing that makes the story incredibly annoying. The attempt at creating a charming comedic tone is admirable but the execution leaves so much to be desired. Also there is some truly bad sections that feel horribly halfOne of the greatest CRPG combat systems every created and very entertaining multiplayer implementation. That being said the game has some truly infuriating voice work and writing that makes the story incredibly annoying. The attempt at creating a charming comedic tone is admirable but the execution leaves so much to be desired. Also there is some truly bad sections that feel horribly half baked. Progression also can be disjointed with weird sequencing issues. Generally a good game with a stellar combat system hampered by nearly every element that surrounds it.… Expand
  25. Magical_Viktor
    Apr 30, 2023
    7
    Существуют просто Зло и Большое Зло, а за ними обоими в тени прячется Очень Большое Зло. Очень Большое Зло, Геральт, это такое, которого ты и представить себе не можешь, даже если думаешь, будто уже ничто не в состоянии тебя удивить. И знаешь, Геральт, порой бывает так, что Очень Большое Зло схватит тебя за горло и скажет: «Выбирай, братец, либо я, либо то, которое чуточку поменьше»Существуют просто Зло и Большое Зло, а за ними обоими в тени прячется Очень Большое Зло. Очень Большое Зло, Геральт, это такое, которого ты и представить себе не можешь, даже если думаешь, будто уже ничто не в состоянии тебя удивить. И знаешь, Геральт, порой бывает так, что Очень Большое Зло схватит тебя за горло и скажет: «Выбирай, братец, либо я, либо то, которое чуточку поменьше»

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. GameOver.gr
    Jan 20, 2016
    100
    Already one of the greatest RPG games of all time, the new enhanced edition of Divinity: Original Sin improves the game on so many levels that it touches a level of almost absolute perfection.
    Read full review
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Dec 3, 2015
    100
    Larian Studios has taken an already brilliant game and made it better. Original Sin Enhanced Edition is borderline perfect. [Dec 2015, p.59]
  3. CGMagazine
    Nov 13, 2015
    80
    Enhanced Edition brings a breath of fresh air into the Original Sin experience in a great way.
    Read full review
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