Divinity: Original Sin

 PC
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2293 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,929 out of 2293
  2. Mixed: 198 out of 2293
  3. Negative: 166 out of 2293
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  1. Pmstz
    Jan 30, 2023
    7
    Nice RPG game

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  2. JackPlack
    Jan 21, 2022
    6
    Few good ideas but not addictive. Addictive similar games: BaldursG2, X-Com, Xenonauts, (Pillares1 - until castle was upgraded to the max). Quests - emotionless, boring. Sometimes i felt like in Plan Escape Tournament hoping "it would be better next time" - it wasn't. Second map i was so bored, once another "point and click" quest with some barrier, and talking with mushrooms. DontFew good ideas but not addictive. Addictive similar games: BaldursG2, X-Com, Xenonauts, (Pillares1 - until castle was upgraded to the max). Quests - emotionless, boring. Sometimes i felt like in Plan Escape Tournament hoping "it would be better next time" - it wasn't. Second map i was so bored, once another "point and click" quest with some barrier, and talking with mushrooms. Dont remeber much except there was some investigation and fantasy dimension (dont like it). I hope DOS2 or BG3 are much better games with more open world tasks. Here World behind is useless and empty - cleaned from monsters. Realtime with pause was good essence of BG2. But this turn based system is better than X-Com. Moving many characters at once is with each concept little bad. I would like more if i'll control one character and rest would be AI which i could send command or design some situation plan.… Expand
  3. bskierys
    Jan 12, 2020
    7
    6/10 + 1 because of the perfectly executed couch coop.
    Short: The game with great combat system, but generic setting and the plot that you don't really care about. I loved levelling up, and hated music and visual style.
    Longer: What "Divinity: Original Sin" does very well is the combat system. Levelling up is slow and you rarely gain any new skill - and this was a great decision. After a    6/10 + 1 because of the perfectly executed couch coop.
    Short: The game with great combat system, but generic setting and the plot that you don't really care about. I loved levelling up, and hated music and visual style.
    Longer: What "Divinity: Original Sin" does very well is the combat system. Levelling up is slow and you rarely gain any new skill - and this was a great decision. After a while you perfectly understand every action you may take, its pros and cons. I played the whole game with my wife in a couch coop way and it was a great way to experience this game.
    However, I was expecting more from an RPG when it comes to plot and atmosphere. When playing it, I felt like I was playing a hack&slash game with turn-based combat. The atmosphere is dull, generic and the dialogs are poorly written. We either skipped through them or was bored by them. The silly tone both in visuals and in dialogues was more annoying than entertaining.
    We also hated the music that was so much anti-climatic. Especially that you have to listen to it over and over again during many many fights.
    The quests were designed in clever way, presenting many ways of solving them, using the game elemental interactions. But beware the riddles. I usually love riddles in the games, but most of them in this game, are based on finding a correct object that you don't know that you are looking for.
    Overall, it is a good game, but based on reviews I was expecting more. I was constantly comparing it to Pillars of Eternity, which I liked much more. If you want a good gameplay mechanics I encourage you to play "Divinity: Original Sin". But if you are looking for a good RPG, keep away from it.    … Expand
  4. Teleman
    Jul 7, 2016
    5
    I have no idea what is with the high scores. The killer of this game is turn based combat. For a genre that is based on a fantasy setting and rpg style, the story should be told at a pace that is immersive. This is no XCOM, I am not trying to play tactical combat, I am trying to live in a fantasy world that is 100 times more interesting than my life; but if I have to play 10 hours for whatI have no idea what is with the high scores. The killer of this game is turn based combat. For a genre that is based on a fantasy setting and rpg style, the story should be told at a pace that is immersive. This is no XCOM, I am not trying to play tactical combat, I am trying to live in a fantasy world that is 100 times more interesting than my life; but if I have to play 10 hours for what basically a couple of pages of a books content then **** you. My life is faster paced than this. The combat is not that interesting either, hated the loot due to the distinct lack of explorable sites and random useless items, hated the magic system due to having to collect ****ing books to learn one (really, should you be playing a game where you keep alt+tab'ing to see where to find **** that is ESSENTIAL for your characters). Besides the main story line itself is too short but you have to player hours and hours until yours eyes bleed to get a single step on.

    Examples of good RPG in fantasy setting that has very good and immersive story and rightly paced: Neverwinter Nights 2, Witcher 2 and 3 etc.

    Examples of insufferable bad storylined games that are slow paced and relies on annoying side quests instead of their short main quests: This **** Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim etc.    … Expand
  5. jgr94
    Mar 26, 2016
    7
    This game ended up being to slow for me (its turn based)
    But the graphics, lvl design and story is great.
    Not a game for me but if you like "turn based games" give it a try.
  6. lifeofbrian
    Jul 26, 2015
    7
    Too cartoonish. The storyline is really boring and the characters are bland. Overall I can't say I would recommend it at full price. Wait for a big sale on it before purchasing.
  7. Glaciergreen
    May 6, 2015
    6
    I don´t want to go into details about the combat system, the lore and/or the main story of this game.
    For me, the turn based combat is a refreshing change of pace and it takes some (quality fun) time to really understand what your character can do alone, with his companions and with the world itself - speaking of spell combos and things like that.
    I really like this game so far (played    I don´t want to go into details about the combat system, the lore and/or the main story of this game.
    For me, the turn based combat is a refreshing change of pace and it takes some (quality fun) time to really understand what your character can do alone, with his companions and with the world itself - speaking of spell combos and things like that.
    I really like this game so far (played apprx 10 hours), but there are some things that i miss for a really high score:
    - plot/story ... starts good, but loosing pace and difficult to follow since your journal only gives you a general hint where to look for your next objective. Because there are no questmarkers, there should be more detail in your journal, or you´ll spend hours and hours roaming the same part of the map searching for your next clue
    - visuals ... very good looking, but way to bright. I´d prefer a little darker/realistic visuals, not this cartoon like world. I think with the core engine, that should be possible, and there are already mods that lower the saturation etc. Characters look like toons, that´s an immersion breaker for me.
    Infuse D:OS with a little dirt and grim style of Pillars of Eternity, and it would be my Game of the year    … Expand
  8. Maneinarr
    Apr 27, 2015
    7
    The game is good, just not as good as people are saying.
    I see a lot of misplaced nostalgia actually, and the game takes advantage of timing, for it was released before pillars of eternity (aka baldurs gate 3) and got to the gamers before, but in comparison is lacking depth.
    Why I'm mentioning pillars of eternity? they're very similar, yet they have substantial differences, but for the    The game is good, just not as good as people are saying.
    I see a lot of misplaced nostalgia actually, and the game takes advantage of timing, for it was released before pillars of eternity (aka baldurs gate 3) and got to the gamers before, but in comparison is lacking depth.

    Why I'm mentioning pillars of eternity? they're very similar, yet they have substantial differences, but for the purpose of comparison, here it goes:

    Pillars of eternity vs Divinity: OS:

    Graphics: DOS
    PoE: 9/10, DOS 10/10. They're similar and both are isometric looking, and although the art itself is inferior in Divinity, the world seems more interactive than Pillars, hence, this one goes to Divinity.

    Sound: Draw
    You'll feel very inmersed in combat/adventure with both of them which is fricking important for any decent gamer out there!

    Story: PoE
    PoE (8/10), DOS (5/10). This is where Divinity takes a MAYOR hit in the nuts. You get a linear experience through the game, with a couple of boring missions/side quests (with the "do them in perfect order or you will get punished" mechanic), with boring characters and dull storytelling. At least it's not dumb, but it's very "basic", basically :). PoE is totally interesting and storytelling is wonderful, but the only real interactions you'll have will be with your preset partners (more on that later), in the end it also suffers from some characterisation to make it more vivid.

    Rpg elements: PoE
    PoE (10/10), DOS (9/10)
    Very close to each other. The thing is that PoE gets creative in the way you get experience, while DOS gets stingy with exp to make you suffer more every battle, which in the ends slows down gameplay. In terms of character customization both are very deep, but once again PoE takes it further because of how many different characteristics and combinations are posible.

    Combat: DOS
    PoE (7/10) DOS (9/10)
    PoE is good, but magic is way to basic to even count. It all goes down to cutting, blunting and piercing. Magics cost way too much to be enjoyable. DOS not only makes magic users powerful (they actually are overpowered, that's why it get's a 9... balance, people!) but also makes environment critical. From a tactical point, it's refreshing to see your mage not only putting a zombie on fire, but litting 30 mts around it on flames from a poison cloud explosion! talk about special effects! but is not only eye candy, it can seriously turn the battle one side or the other. Definitely a worthy mechanic to keep for the future, game designers!

    Adventure: PoE
    PoE (9/10) , DOS (5/10)
    Interaction, exploring, sneaking, and triggered events are overall better done in PoE. You will feel excited while exploring a new area and also thrilled with excitement, while in DOS you will be desperate to finish it or get in a fight soon to avoid dying of the boring monotony.

    Interfase: PoE
    PoE (7/10), DOS (5/10). More polished basically, also everything is easier to understand. You can check the monsters you have slain in your enciclopedia to develop better strategies next time you face them... you even have your own notepad for personal notes. DOS is very lacky in this department.

    *Items: DOS
    POE (5/10), DOS (7/10), Both are waaay to simple, but POE is just lazy. Fine, exceptional and elite (or somethingl like that) and some elemental properties and another minuscule crap... and that's it?! wtf?!. At least in DOS you have some variety... but just some... not that much to be noteworthy (at least not in comparison to dragon age and full plated dragon armors and that sort of badass gear we ALL want in our team)

    In the end it goes like: awesome fights, and more eye candy effects, plus better loot... go DOS
    very good (not awesome) fights, darker deeper story, adventure thrill, hardcore rpg gaming, ... go POE.

    To me POE wins actually, but it's your call. Hope it helps... phew, that was a lot!    … Expand
  9. Gratson
    Apr 14, 2015
    5
    The game started out well, but the dialogue really turned me off. All of the characters felt like they were written by someone trying too hard to sound witty, I just didn't like any of the characters and that's a huge part of the gameplay. It annoyed me so much that I lost interest after the first act.
  10. Kalador
    Apr 12, 2015
    5
    To play this game, you will need the use of a web browser because figuring out puzzles, what do to next will be utterly impossible to a normal person who has a life. I had to google what to do next so many times, the game should be called: DIVINTY: The Sin of having to Google.

    + graphics + combat (fantastic) + crafting +magic and skill effects -lack of quest indicator -inventory    To play this game, you will need the use of a web browser because figuring out puzzles, what do to next will be utterly impossible to a normal person who has a life. I had to google what to do next so many times, the game should be called: DIVINTY: The Sin of having to Google.

    + graphics
    + combat (fantastic)
    + crafting
    +magic and skill effects

    -lack of quest indicator
    -inventory menus
    -lack of random encounters (baddies just stay in a fixed position)
    -lack of wondering monsters
    -quests are absurd and too spread out. You will probably already have an object on you to proceed through a door yet that same character must be the one opening the door. Too much text to remember
    early on for a later part of the quest.    … Expand
  11. Pinkbeaver
    Mar 30, 2015
    6
    100% Action RPG. Perfect combat system and nice, fresh coop mechanics. And that's all.
    Main plot is boring and bland, i had to force myself to play after first 20 hours.
    RPG mechanics are under-developed, the structure of the game is very linear - it feels more like a successor to Dungeon Siege or Titan's Quest than to Divine Divinity (which had some open-world feeling to it). The world    100% Action RPG. Perfect combat system and nice, fresh coop mechanics. And that's all.
    Main plot is boring and bland, i had to force myself to play after first 20 hours.
    RPG mechanics are under-developed, the structure of the game is very linear - it feels more like a successor to Dungeon Siege or Titan's Quest than to Divine Divinity (which had some open-world feeling to it).
    The world feels very artificial. Very limited dialogue choices. Very simple side-quests, no major quest hubs/cities. Very little lore, besides main theme/plot. Crappy immersion factor.

    I know that making inter-connected quests, with multiple endings, is a lot of work and bug-squashing, but it's what RPGs are about (at least for me) and it's certainly missing in this game.

    If you're looking for combat oriented Co-op dungeon crawler then Divinity:OS is perfect for you. But don't get your hopes up if you are, like me, looking for story/choice/immersion based RPGs.    … Expand
  12. kuehnau
    Mar 29, 2015
    5
    Divinity: Original Sin is a sandbox style RPG, you are allowed to roam around, where you want, doing what you want, how you want. If you've played Fallout or Fallout 2, you will know what Divinity: Original Sin is like.

    The game has wonderful graphics and great music, along with great voice acting, so where's the problem? To begin with, the game is almost completely directionless.    Divinity: Original Sin is a sandbox style RPG, you are allowed to roam around, where you want, doing what you want, how you want. If you've played Fallout or Fallout 2, you will know what Divinity: Original Sin is like.

    The game has wonderful graphics and great music, along with great voice acting, so where's the problem?

    To begin with, the game is almost completely directionless. The first town you encounter, you are going to run into tons of quests, all of them wanting you to do all sorts of other things, help them out, whatever. That might not be such a terrible thing, but Divinity handles their quest systems awfully.

    To begin with, there is almost nothing to be said for it's quest tracking. The only thing the game does do is keep track of dialog you've have with other NPCs, as well as tracking things you've already done in the quest line. Besides that, be prepared to wade through thousands of lines of text, as well as randomly walking around the game world, hoping you run into what you need to complete the next quest.

    As if this weren't bad enough, Divinity has a poor sense of overall direction and this also makes completing the quests in Divinity all the more difficult. While some quests can be completed with ease, others, that are assigned to you at the very beginning of the game are impossible to complete until you've leveled up. I don't see the point in assigning quests to players that they can't reasonably complete until hours or days later into the game. All it does, it clutter up the awful quest tracker they already have and confuses players even more.

    Along with that, it's impossible to know if you should be in a specific zone or not. It's entirely too easy for players to accidentally wander into zones that are double or triple your level. It's almost always a death sentence and can help lead to a massive amount of frustration on the player's part.

    Besides the broken story, awful quest tracking, complete lack of direction in almost all ways and terrible design choices made by the developers, there's another issue I haven't addressed yet. The game is advertised to have co-op game mechanics in the game. I don't consider it a true co-op experience. Instead of allowing players to play their own games and then dropping into a friend's game, with their own character, players are forced to take on the role of someone else's character.

    This way is an awful choice because players are going to find themselves stuck in characters they didn't want, with builds they didn't want, being forced to play the game in a style they may not enjoy or are comfortable with.

    I wanted to like this game, but I can't.    … Expand
  13. Gavitron
    Mar 25, 2015
    5
    It's technically a decent enough game with a great soundtrack, and I love that Baldur's Gate-style games are making a comeback, but I honestly found this game quite boring and tedious. Admittedly, I only played about five hours into it, and it's supposed to get good later on, but throughout my five hours of gameplay I was never given a reason to care about anything in the game world. TheIt's technically a decent enough game with a great soundtrack, and I love that Baldur's Gate-style games are making a comeback, but I honestly found this game quite boring and tedious. Admittedly, I only played about five hours into it, and it's supposed to get good later on, but throughout my five hours of gameplay I was never given a reason to care about anything in the game world. The dialogue was just so hackneyed. I really tried to like this game. Maybe I was comparing it too much to the far superior Baldur's Gate. Either way, I simply can't recommend it.… Expand
  14. whatever523
    Feb 27, 2015
    7
    I loved BG2 and D:OS is a technical improvement in almost every way...

    + nice graphics + good music + great user interface and controls + lots of content ... but while the game is technically great, it's also riddled with poor design decisions: - skill book distribution is random, so it's possible that you will not be able to get the skills you like. some skills are bugged and    I loved BG2 and D:OS is a technical improvement in almost every way...

    + nice graphics
    + good music
    + great user interface and controls
    + lots of content

    ... but while the game is technically great, it's also riddled with poor design decisions:

    - skill book distribution is random, so it's possible that you will not be able to get the skills you like. some skills are bugged and don't drop and are not sold at all. they never bothered to fix this. incredibly lazy job
    - no rest option and no health regeneration. crafting food or teleporting to town breaks the fluidity of the game and drags out the play time unnecessarilly, especially at the start of the game, when you don't have good healing skills
    - the trait system is ridiculous. You get negative traits for not helping slavers and murderers, for example... yeah. Someone didn't really think that through.
    - everything about the crafting system is terrible. I would need more than 5000 characters to describe all the things that are wrong with it
    - the inventory could be better: item stacking, containers (different colors), better sorting. also, the vendor screen has a different sorting than the normal inventory. managing items is a chore
    - quest items don't disappear when quests are done. there are so many quest items that the inventory is a mess
    - weapons break too fast. it's ok when using them to destroy chests, but they should last longer in combat. I've had fully repaired weapons break from one fight. Seriously, what the ****
    - no day/night cycle. i understand the reason for this (it's a lot of work to implement), but it's a very important feature that really adds to the atmosphere and immersion.
    - the game is very linear in that you always have to find the area with monsters you can actually defeat. your level pretty much dictates what to do next, because the penalties when fighting higher level enemies are over the top
    - the riddles in D:OS, if you can even call them that, almost entirely consist of finding an item hidden in a room and clicking on it. very boring and a waste of time
    - characters feel mostly bland with a few exceptions
    - some armor items have stupid colors (light green?) and there are no dyes to fix it

    The fact that I still give 7/10 despite all this criticism shows how great this game could have been. Now there's hoping that there will be good mods.    … Expand
  15. BSim500
    Jan 27, 2015
    6
    Game starts well, but outside Cyseal everything rapidly gets bogged down. Pacing & movement speed are abysmally slow & after 70hrs I still wasn't even 2/3rds of the way through & simply lost interest. Instead of a major plot line kept flowing in a linear fashion with minor sidequests, it follows multiple interlinked paths of a major plotline which must be done in precisely the order theGame starts well, but outside Cyseal everything rapidly gets bogged down. Pacing & movement speed are abysmally slow & after 70hrs I still wasn't even 2/3rds of the way through & simply lost interest. Instead of a major plot line kept flowing in a linear fashion with minor sidequests, it follows multiple interlinked paths of a major plotline which must be done in precisely the order the devs wanted (which you have no idea in advance).

    Eg 1 : To enter a wizard's house guarded by a barrier, you need object A to active portal (which you don't know you need). You get it from person X (which you don't know they have unless you kill & loot their body breaking the plot) as person X merely says "you need to provide proof you're friendly with person Y" without telling you they will give object A in return for the unspecified item of proof you need, which you don't have anyway & don't know you need because you've played areas in the "wrong" order even though they were the "right" order in how you traveled across maps.

    Eg 2 : You have to talk to animal X (who only appears once) to get a quest but you accidentally initiate conversation with character who doesn't have Pet Pal talent, so you exit conversation and try to reinitiate with char who does have it, but animal X has now disappeared for good.

    This isn't an "old school" intellectual challenge, it's simply "fake open world" linearity & quest bugs dressed as something else. It's actually far better to have a Neverwinter Nights style progression where the main plot is split into linear chapters and kept flowing at a pace that maintains interest across 60hrs whilst simultaneously giving the player full freedom of travel & sidequests within each chapter than this confusing frustration-fest of endless main plot dead-ends & illusory "open-ness". The journal / quest NPC's are sorely lacking in any meaningful quest data so you end up first losing track & later on losing interest out of "slow boredom". I've been gaming for 25 years and a lot of what gets called "hardcore old-school" out of confused nostalgia actually isn't. In DOS, you can easily play 4-days of 3x hours a day sessions & feel like you haven't made any progress at all which wasn't the case with "PC golden era" RPG's.

    It's sad because the GFX, soundtrack are fine, the turn based combat works mostly well, the difficulty is refreshing, etc. But there are so many annoyances that spoil it. Some sidequests are area limited & fail without warning if you stray too far. The game is riddled with "progression bugs", ie, you'll regularly get a "mid-quest" comment about a plot you haven't even started yet that makes absolutely no sense (which is precisely why some "protection" for quest items / locations makes sense & isn't considered "dumbing down"). The puzzles are nonsensical and often involve either tedious pixel hunting for tiny 5-pixel size switches, sticking barrels over poison vents or "rock-paper-scissors".

    Other problems : ambient NPC dialogue is repeated every 20s, crashes 4-6 times per day, enemies dance about during your combat turn which combined with a small "hitbox" means you'll often inadvertently order your ranged character to waste their AP's running behind the enemy instead of attacking them. You can't even pause the game short of ALT-TABbing and using Process Explorer to force suspend the game (hitting ESC and bringing up the main menu keeps the game running). I've no idea why any dev would leave out a pause option as people get interrupted all the time. Camera only rotates 90 degrees, after a quest is completed related dialogue options still show up, poor inventory management (everything uses the same size reused icons with no visible text unless you manually mouseover your 150 similar looking inventory items...) Trading is equally tedious and can only be done one at a time (ie, if your fighter char sees a magic staff, you can't just click on your mage to compare equipped items), tedious rapid weapon degradation, etc. This stuff falls into the "fun vs realism" thing - it may be "hardcore" to some but it simply isn't fun - and isn't that the bottom line of playing games - to have fun?...

    Overall, I liked the early game but once you leave Cyseal and it starts to "branch out" across multiple forests, the whole thing gets bogged down in a convoluted mess of main quest dead ends, pixel hunting / RPS puzzles, "over-loot" and cumbersome trading & inventory management. It's like the devs looked at what's wrong with "dumbing down" in modern games, but then wildly over-compensated in all the wrong areas by creating a game with such an unhelpful main plot progression / journal system / nitpickity micro-management centric mechanics, it actually ends up more frustrating than challenging.

    Score : 6 (8 for inside Cyseal during the first 10hrs and 4 for the rest where the game virtually grinds to a halt for days on end under one main quest dead-end after another and tedious pixel hunting "puzzles").    … Expand
  16. Hicks
    Dec 11, 2014
    5
    I am writing a mixed review cause with such high score comes high expectation that do not really delivers in this game.

    I can agree with the score for a classic RPG however this game without google would be a nightmare. You can miss an important item in a messy room and struggle for hours, really! You have barely a clue where a quest begins where it ends. For Hardcore RPG player    I am writing a mixed review cause with such high score comes high expectation that do not really delivers in this game.

    I can agree with the score for a classic RPG however this game without google would be a nightmare. You can miss an important item in a messy room and struggle for hours, really! You have barely a clue where a quest begins where it ends.

    For Hardcore RPG player maybe who are still nostalgic of You are the hero Books. Need better system to keep your track of your main quest at least. Another thought character customization could be improved. For a design fan of the latest games, I can’t understand why your character still have to walk with banana yellow boots and electric blue full plate.    … Expand
  17. TheJudgernaught
    Dec 6, 2014
    7
    Divinity: Original Sin is definitely a breath of fresh air for old school RPG lovers! So, let's get down with it

    - Combat (Strong Points). It makes you take into consideration your party's strengths and the environment around you. The fact that it is also turn-based makes you think each and every action. Everything you do is meaningful, even positioning yourself better! It's also not a    Divinity: Original Sin is definitely a breath of fresh air for old school RPG lovers! So, let's get down with it

    - Combat (Strong Points). It makes you take into consideration your party's strengths and the environment around you. The fact that it is also turn-based makes you think each and every action. Everything you do is meaningful, even positioning yourself better! It's also not a walk in the park, especially on hard and forces you to choose your party accordingly (I had to re-start at some point because my party set-up wasn't any good).

    - Combat (Weak Points): The fights were there are too many NPC's involved feel slow, but that's like 2 or three cases, as far as I remember, in the whole game.

    - Crafting (Strong Points): Time to get creative here! I think crafting is one of the most important factors giving you the feeling of RPG-ness. The things you can craft are many and you can get really creative in this process (oh the joy when you discover some recipe/reagent by yourself!). And it does feel like proper crafting; you need the proper tool/place to make the item you want.

    - Crafting (Weak Points): Some materials are limited and you might accidentally waste them in the start of the game. Also, you can't craft helmets nor bracers.

    - Story/Plot (Strong Points): It is as it should be; it starts from something small and escalates to grand proportions. It begins slowly at first, but soon you're hooked up and eager to find out what happens next.

    - Story/Plot (Weak Points): The plot has been based on... a very popular story(ies) of our time. It's unoriginal and I feel they could have made a better job at transforming these stories into their own, giving off only the slightest hints to where they had based their own creation.

    - Puzzles/Riddles - Secrets (Strong Points): There are many of them lying around on the map and it makes the game ever more so engaging. They drive the player to explore more, be more observant of his surroundings and be creative on his solutions!

    - Puzzles - Secrets (Weak Points): Two switches in particular were too hard to see and they were needed to advance the story (their search was tedious due to the vastness of the room they were contained).

    The writing and the dialogues are good, even if cliched at some points. There choices for the outcomes that, even though they exist, most times (if not always) are restricted to two and don't seem to have a great impact on the story, apart from your protagonist's traits. There are too few memorable characters and they come out a bit one-dimensional in their personalities. Although it seems they had attempted to created some sort of relationship between the protagonists (and the companions), it isn't really fleshed out.

    Praise the Lord for it's 4 quicksave slots and the quick moving around with waypoints! The graphics are also quite good. If I could change something, I'd change the camera and the inventory system.

    I could elaborate more, but I'll leave the matter at that. I give the game a 7. It's quite enjoyable indeed, replayable at least once. It's nowhere near perfection though; some things are missing (e.g. day/night cycle, alternative endings/more options for your story) or could be improved (e.g. story and character depth, complexity and number, npc interaction, npc voice acting, inventory, UI, more character creation options etc.).

    I can only hope that Original Sin: Divinity might whack a bit of sense to RPG making studios (I am looking at you Bioware) and show that old-school >>>C    … Expand
  18. conradtj
    Dec 4, 2014
    7
    The story starts off strong only to gradually taper towards the end. Truly, the entire game, from the atmosphere to the quality of the combat, unwinds like a split thread as you progress. Divinity's content was designed to be played in a specific order, but it doesn't compel the player to play it in any particular order. This would be fine if not for the fact that if you play sections ofThe story starts off strong only to gradually taper towards the end. Truly, the entire game, from the atmosphere to the quality of the combat, unwinds like a split thread as you progress. Divinity's content was designed to be played in a specific order, but it doesn't compel the player to play it in any particular order. This would be fine if not for the fact that if you play sections of the game out of their intended order, you'll be either over or under leveled for a section of the story - both of which spoil the fun of combat.

    The combat and character progression are genuinely fun. The story is alright. It's a generic doomsday tale with generic twists and generally generic attempts to make itself original. The quality of the game is utterly belied by conflicts in design - the game was designed to played in a certain way but does not have any inbuilt mechanism of directing you.    … Expand
  19. demondred79
    Nov 28, 2014
    5
    Let me sum this up in one word: CUMBERSOME!

    After 35 hours of single and co-op play with a friend (both of us old school RPG players) we just couldn't take it anymore. It's a very polarizing game which explains why there are so many 0/10 and 10/10 scores on this one. Ambitious? Yes. Deep? Yes. Overwhelming amount of loot (and NOT in a good way), poor crafting, bugs, poor camera    Let me sum this up in one word: CUMBERSOME!

    After 35 hours of single and co-op play with a friend (both of us old school RPG players) we just couldn't take it anymore. It's a very polarizing game which explains why there are so many 0/10 and 10/10 scores on this one. Ambitious? Yes. Deep? Yes. Overwhelming amount of loot (and NOT in a good way), poor crafting, bugs, poor camera angles, UI issues in co-op mode, frequently getting lost in quest dead ends....yes.

    The bottomline is this one hell of a frankenstein's monster of a game. We wanted SOOO badly to love this game and the first 15 to 20 hours we were addicted after a steep learning curve. But ultimately it's the overwhelming amount of moving parts that sum to a bogged down adventure that forces you to overthink and slog rather than enjoy.    … Expand
  20. matt79
    Nov 20, 2014
    7
    Game is nice overall, but too linear for me to call it a RPG. You make some decisions but they barely change anything in the plot. Yeah, I can get things done in various ways, but it just doesn't make much of difference. After playing Witcher 2, I'm expecting my choices to really matter in RPG's and I'm not getting it here. Other then that I had a lovely time with it, combat system isGame is nice overall, but too linear for me to call it a RPG. You make some decisions but they barely change anything in the plot. Yeah, I can get things done in various ways, but it just doesn't make much of difference. After playing Witcher 2, I'm expecting my choices to really matter in RPG's and I'm not getting it here. Other then that I had a lovely time with it, combat system is good, game design is good.… Expand
  21. djball
    Nov 19, 2014
    7
    Great old school RPG, with a lot of old school fail.

    In particular "what do I do next"? This game is loaded with massive time sinks, the map shows no information which is ok, but your journal is also practically useless... clues are very subtle you have to read carefully. Most often you will set out in the wrong direction breaking many of the quests. Player punishment was the    Great old school RPG, with a lot of old school fail.

    In particular "what do I do next"? This game is loaded with massive time sinks, the map shows no information which is ok, but your journal is also practically useless... clues are very subtle you have to read carefully. Most often you will set out in the wrong direction breaking many of the quests.

    Player punishment was the developers soul directive in this title and they pass with flying colors. In other words Google is your friend, unless you have 8 hours to find an important item this totally kills a game. And save save save save save save save save or you're f'd, it becomes rather tiresome.

    Aside from all the serious negatives, it's still fun, well written, and a good score(music). The second play through is proving to be much better because I know where to go.    … Expand
  22. LibertyPrime
    Nov 18, 2014
    5
    Overrated and overhyped - Divinity: Original Sin in a nutshell.

    Like many others here im a huge fan of old Bioware rpg's and generally everything on Infinity engine. D:OS was supposed to be Bladur's Gate second coming. The game was massively hyped and showered with great reviews, many people called it a "masterpiece". But is it truly a masterpiece? Not even close. I'll start with imo    Overrated and overhyped - Divinity: Original Sin in a nutshell.

    Like many others here im a huge fan of old Bioware rpg's and generally everything on Infinity engine. D:OS was supposed to be Bladur's Gate second coming. The game was massively hyped and showered with great reviews, many people called it a "masterpiece". But is it truly a masterpiece? Not even close.

    I'll start with imo the most important thing in rpg's: the story. Its so cliche that you stop caring about it right from the beginning. Someone, somewhere is raising dead and you have to find out whats going on. Seriously? Any elementary school kid could come up with something better over the weekend. You just don't care about the story at all. They could remove main plot and no one would even notice.

    While we are at the story let's talk about a related thing: playable npc's. I don't know how is it possible but they managed to create the worst npc's in history of rpg's. There only two of them and both are completely uninteresting (and that's a huge understatement). One is a chick who wants to kill everything that is evil without giving any thought. Second one is some run-of-the-mill, ordinary, boring dude, like a cook or a taxi driver or something. I didn't care enough to ask him wtf is he anyway. Remember those awesome npc's from Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect or first Dragon Age? Good, because you're not gonna find them here.

    The game is plagued with a plethora of terrible design choices. It's like they tried to be too hardcore for their own good. Quest log is completely useless, don't get me wrong, i don't need quest markers, but it doesn't tell you anything. Even if a quest giver told you where to find something its not noted in your journal for some reason. You can't highlight items on the screen wich will make you to look for things with your mouse cursor, scrolling up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down... It's especially annoying when you have to look for some tiny lever or button which are completely invisible and most of the time you don't even know that you should look for them. Inventory management is a mess too.

    Bugs are omnipresent from broken quests, spells to npc's. You can even break the game by doing quests that you were supposed to do later. Its "fine" if you have recent saves, but if you don't you are in deep sh....

    Puzzles, don't get me started on them. There are more useless, annoying puzzles here than in all games i played before altogether. They don't test your intelligence, its just the usual "here are 6 levers, pull them in right orded" sometimes with annoying twist, just a completely brainless waste of time. At one point i came across a dungeon with 4 buttons and a door locked behind a magic barrier. I was pushing buttons by putting items on them, tried every goddamn combination, different order, i looked through dungeon multiple times for the clues, i looked for some invisible buttons, casted different spells, tried destroying them, I even went back to the quest giver and nothing... I had to check out a walkthrough which completely destroyed any immersion i had left. It turns out I had to put itemes of different weight on those buttons. Like 1 pound on first one, 7.5 pounds on second, 5.3 on third etc. But the worst thing is that those buttons were working before, when i put stuff on them the animation went off and they were pushed down. How in hell was i supposed to know that i need to put 2.3 more pounds on first one and 9.1 more pounds on third one? THEY WERE WORKING BEFORE!!! Its just a completely idiotic design.

    The game does some things properly. The music is awesome, i would sit in main menu just to listen to it. Graphics are nice too. Combat system is interesting at the beginning but deep inside its just your standard action point/turn based combat. You'll find combos that work for you and faceroll 90% of fights with them.

    Overall there are so many huge problems with this game that its not worth you time/money until you can find it for like 3$ on steam. And even then i would recommend getting something like first Dragon Age, Skyrim, any Mass Effect, Fallout 3 or NV if you haven't completed them yet. If you played all those games, you can try this one out, WITH CAUTION.    … Expand
  23. steevm
    Oct 25, 2014
    7
    Despite all the gushing praise being heaped upon Divinity: Original Sin, it's not actually the second coming of Baldur's Gate (or whatever your favorite old-school RPG is). It IS a decent game, but it's marred by some serious flaws resulting from some poor design choices. Given the fact that there were apparently 20,000 kickstarter backers, it's strange that these obvious issues are stillDespite all the gushing praise being heaped upon Divinity: Original Sin, it's not actually the second coming of Baldur's Gate (or whatever your favorite old-school RPG is). It IS a decent game, but it's marred by some serious flaws resulting from some poor design choices. Given the fact that there were apparently 20,000 kickstarter backers, it's strange that these obvious issues are still in the final release.

    The good:
    - It's a party-based CRPG with turn-based combat.
    - Nice twist on the genre, with an interesting mix of elemental effects that complement each other. Oil burns; water puts out fires but creates steam; water conducts electricity etc. This adds a whole new element to combat, elevating it beyond the more traditional "ice monster = fire attack".
    - There's various moments that require role-playing, where your two (main) characters can express their opinion and influence their character traits. Different traits can give you distinctive perks when high enough.
    - Overall it's great fun to play whenever you forget about the flaws (see below).

    The bad:
    - The game is actually very linear. Sure, you can explore areas outside the city that aren't part of the main storyline at the beginning, but only if you don't mind instadeath whenever you meet enemies.
    - The camera can only be rotated 90 degrees, which makes it really hard to see things obscured by the scenery or to target enemies. You can toggle between top-down and pseudo-isometric view, but that doesn't really solve the problem.
    - Targeting is extremely finicky and requires pixel-perfect precision. Move your mouse one pixel between targeting and clicking and your warrior will waste half their action points walking all the way around an enemy, while giving the enemy a free attack of opportunity in the process. Combine this with the limited camera and given how tough some of the combat is, this is EXTREMELY frustrating and can turn the tide of the battle.
    - Inventory management is poor, and the trade interface is a shining example of how not to design a game. Only ONE member of your party can trade at once. That nice new spell you wanted to buy for your mage? Turns out your mage is 4 gold short after adding all his loot to the barter screen. Want to add 4 gold from another character? No problem. All you need to do is leave the trade screen. Transfer the 4 gold to your mage, and the reinitiate trade and add all the items again. The most bizarrely frustrating and useless change to the tried-and-tested party based trade in every other CRPG ever. It makes the inventory management in the unpatched Jagged Alliance: Back in Action seem almost sane, and that was terrible. At least JA: BIA got a patch, AFAICT this isn't going to happen with D: OS.
    - Speaking of trading, another major annoyance is that trading is further complicated by virtue of the fact that irrespective of which character you have selected to trade with, gear in the shop is always compared to the gear worn by the character that initiated the conversation with the shopkeeper. Start conversation with your fighter, switch to your mage and then mouse over a robe, only to see that, yes, the robe isn't suited to your fighter. Solution: cancel and restart trade again. I can only assume that this is a bug... but it sure is annoying.
    - Lack of quest markers and lack of information on what you need to do next to advance the game. Yes you have a journal, no it isn't helpful. After pointlessly walking around town talking to everyone 192029 times, you'll find yourself reading the walkthroughs rather than wasting your time, which is always a pity.

    In essence, if you like CRPGs and can look past some of the frustrating design flaws, you'll probably get your money's worth, just be aware that the game isn't flawless and isn't the best CRPG ever. The funny thing is that although this game gets called "old school" all the time, in many respects it's taken a step back; rather than adhering to tried-and-tested conventions, the devs seemed to feel it necessary to fix what wasn't broken - the result being that they broke it, which is to the detriment of the game. D:OS is however a good solid game and with a little more polish and care could even rub shoulders with some of the classics.    … Expand
  24. Lanky14
    Oct 15, 2014
    7
    This game can get tedious but if you play with a friend, it has endless possibilities.

    My favorite aspect was the lack of 'classes'. You literally play whatever you want. If you want to be a mage that wears heavy armor and carries a sword and shield, you can do it. If you want to go 100% melee, enjoy smashing things. etc..
  25. suneater
    Oct 5, 2014
    6
    "It's over... It's FINALLY over." After drudging through DOS's heavily padded campaign, unlocking the "real" final, final boss, and beating it after a crash on Turn 30, this was all I could think. Divinity: Original Sin starts out beautifully by dropping you off in a large seaport town called Cyseal, the start of your murder mystery. The first dozen or so hours are gripping; not because"It's over... It's FINALLY over." After drudging through DOS's heavily padded campaign, unlocking the "real" final, final boss, and beating it after a crash on Turn 30, this was all I could think. Divinity: Original Sin starts out beautifully by dropping you off in a large seaport town called Cyseal, the start of your murder mystery. The first dozen or so hours are gripping; not because the plot is particularly good, but because Cyseal feels like a handcrafted cRPG town of old, a gigantic playground for your heroes to explore. However, even within this first area, the game's problems start to rear their ugly heads.

    The Journal system is almost useless. Quests are just dumped into your book with no filtering or sorting options besides being able to toggle visibility of completed quests. Two very important quests (one was required to continue the story and and another to unlock the "real" final boss fight) were lost in the list of tedious & ambiguous side quests that I picked up along the way. The Journal is also wildly inconsistent with how quests are followed and marked: some quests will drop markers for each part on your map, while others are so vague they will have one line of text saying "congrats! you did it!" with no indication of how to continue the quest. Too many times I had to go to Google just to figure out where I was supposed to go for a quest because the journal, local NPCs, and pocket portal friends were clueless or just too vague.

    The plot, its pacing, and the gameplay's pacing are all terrible. Many parts of the game involve listening to long-winded NPCs tell you their life story so you can pick up a side quest from them that will simply unlock their store front (or something similarly unimportant). D:OS is overly compartmentalized; you can feel the devs saying "Okay, combat NOW! Okay, 5 hours of NPC chat NOW!" I don't have a problem with reading text in a RPG but D:OS often feels like NPCs are chatting just for the sake of chatting. The story is heavily padded with long, boring sequences that stray from any semblance of plot that the game tries to carry. Too many times I loaded up my saved game and thought "What am I even doing here? Where am I supposed to go? What does this have to do with the story?" The main story itself is godawful too, shoveling in every trope the devs can think of (ancient evils awakening, chosen heroes with amnesia, pandora's box, an evil church, an evil twin sister, etc.) that attempts to twist and turn through a series of often predictable events that your characters have little effect on. Despite having little voice acting, there are few real dialogue options; most of the time during important NPC conversations, you're sitting there reading page after page of text, pressing 1 repeatedly until you get the chance to press 2 because you have a key item in your inventory from a side quest.

    Even though the combat system is enjoyable and has plenty of room for character customization, I often found it an exercise in frustration. D:OS's combat isn't hard or even particularaly challenging, the game just plays itself better than you do. Enemies often "cheat" by teleporting in more foes after you engage them, a la Dragon Age 2, along with summoning pets of their own. While the Magicka-style elemental combos are a unique touch to a cRPG, enemies often utilize them in unexpected ways, like shooting lightning at a pool of blood (that came out of an enemy you killed) to stun your hero for at least 2-3 rounds (not counting additional stun checks while the field is active). Combat often comes down to who can CC who harder, turning fights into a knockdown/blind/stun-fest while you beat the punching bag enemies before they can summon pets or kill your mages in one enemy's turn. At least a third of the spells in the game have direct upgrades making many early spells obsolete in 20 or so hours (why use a single target version of a spell when the AoE has the same AP cost?). This would be reasonable in a MMO but in a single player cRPG where the highest spell req is level 20, it just looks like lazy design. Like the plot, combat is too compartmentalized; many areas have large swaths of nothing, while the last map in the game has a party of 4-8 mobs every screen width.

    Tons of smaller issues plague this game. A clunky inventory system where important quest items gets easily lost in a sea of crafting materials. A frustrating crafting system that rewards guesswork and wiki-reading more than ingame exploration. A tedious Rock-Paper-Scissors minigame system for winning dialogue checks. A painfully long mandatory stealth sequence against invincible enemies that will kill your heroes in 2-3 hits. Although I think Divinity: Original Sin is a decent cRPG and I recommend it to fans of the genre, I feel no desire to ever play it again. Too much of D:OS is just tedious busywork in a predictable story that is stretched too thin to be consistently enjoyable.    … Expand
  26. kucyk
    Sep 28, 2014
    7
    This game is good, optimization is good too but loading time is totally damn long. After xx hours the game is a little boring, similar, boring enemies. But overall the game is good
  27. kwerle
    Sep 17, 2014
    7
    Graphic performance disappointing on my system that runs D3 just fine.
    I found the game tedious after a while (18th). Quests failed to clear when goals became obsolete or impossible. Dealing with inventory is a drag. Crafting is a little random and not logged - making it a pain to do it again. Combat feels poorly balanced.
  28. SethEvandor
    Sep 6, 2014
    6
    I wanted to enjoy this more as a big fan of Larian because I know they have good ideas. I think this got a high score because the co-op thing was fairly good although I wish you could be given the choice to argue a bit longer in the text. The second in turn in the argument has no option to give a choice and then change decide to agree. Also, when the options are rarely what I want to sayI wanted to enjoy this more as a big fan of Larian because I know they have good ideas. I think this got a high score because the co-op thing was fairly good although I wish you could be given the choice to argue a bit longer in the text. The second in turn in the argument has no option to give a choice and then change decide to agree. Also, when the options are rarely what I want to say and rarely give you the option would choose, it really ruins the immersion.

    NPCs will repeat the same lines which are randomly selected are the same for every similar NPC around it. NPCs with routines will keep doing routines, which is annoying when they keep shouting the same lines every time, it's very peculiar. I noticed one or two NPCs said Cyseal had fallen, so I thought Cyseal was basically burned to the ground, but it wasn't (it seems like the orcs just assumed it was?).

    I'd actually of preferred the game without the voice acting in its state. I think more voices were necessary. It was quite apparent that the male rogue voice and male warrior voice were done by the same person, so playing with two male characters didn't leave me with much options.

    I'm not really going to get into stereotypes. I noticed at one point, an NPC in Cyseal expects one of your characters to be male. Also, a female character is called Lord by another NPC.

    I have a big list of issues but those were my main qualms. I could nitpick all day since the game isn't that polished, but at least you can alter the storyline and use UGC with it. I felt the game was rather demanding considering the graphics, I hope next time everything improves TBH.    … Expand
  29. JERupp
    Sep 6, 2014
    6
    + + Awesome graphics for an isometric game
    + Great fight mechanics
    + Surprisingly lengthy story - Truly awful inventory control - Equally awful crafting mechanics - Inconsistent crafting mechanics - ...and boring crafting results - Terrible vendor/merchant concept (this sounds tiny, but it *really* affects game play) - - Adding a new skill mid-way through the game? And with    + + Awesome graphics for an isometric game
    + Great fight mechanics
    + Surprisingly lengthy story

    - Truly awful inventory control
    - Equally awful crafting mechanics
    - Inconsistent crafting mechanics
    - ...and boring crafting results
    - Terrible vendor/merchant concept (this sounds tiny, but it *really* affects game play)
    - - Adding a new skill mid-way through the game? And with limited skillbooks for respecs? Who allowed this?    … Expand
  30. PowerGamer
    Aug 31, 2014
    5
    I make my reviews as an independent thinker, that being said I don't see why this game is rated so high.
    To me as in the old tale the Emperor is truly naked here.
    Furthermore I've been playing RPGs and more since 1981 starting on an Apple2+ with Ultima, etc., and I've even worked (as a programmer) on an RPG of what people consider one of the top ten of all time..which might mean nothing    I make my reviews as an independent thinker, that being said I don't see why this game is rated so high.
    To me as in the old tale the Emperor is truly naked here.
    Furthermore I've been playing RPGs and more since 1981 starting on an Apple2+ with Ultima, etc.,
    and I've even worked (as a programmer) on an RPG of what people consider one of the top ten of all time..which might mean nothing other then to say I've played a lot of RPGs and have considered design in some detail.

    I had to read some guides and other views to see why people really like this game.
    My problems with it should be obvious.
    Apparently you have to really work at this game to understand it enough to even start.
    The whole experience seems very unpolished, unbalanced, and very unintuitive in a lot of places.
    Mind you I didn't play the original one, maybe it's a prerequisite.

    My first experience:
    I create a character, then I see okay I start with actually two characters. There is very little explanation or little telling you the significance of each.
    Now in game it's kind of fun. I do my first battle, etc., then I wander into a place where monsters are level 3 and they quickly wipe out my party. I reason, humm, okay I guess I need to get level 3 or higher to be on even ground. Then I reach level 3 go back and maybe I can beat them this time, and then hit another level 3 group but this time the boss dude has some kind of AOE that wipes out my whole party in one shot? WTF is going on here?
    And then there are quests with little indication where to go next to solve them.

    Yea all those classics (like the one I worked on) were fun, but the reason they just didn't have any of the advancements we have today are:
    A) They weren't invented/thought/tried yet.
    B) Were just not technically feasible yet.
    C) The costs/dev time was prohibiting.

    "Tough-S" is not the solution.
    There is a reason why more modern games have those helpful features, because they can.
    Proper gradient (in skills, advancement, etc.), arrows that show the way, etc., IMHO make things more fun.
    No one says you have to do everything for the player, but then doing little to nothing for them either?
    And sure they are a lot more work and resources for a developer to do.

    This game only made more sense to me as I read guides and or walk-throughs for it, okay I get that now. To me having to do all that sort of cases to make it a "game", it becomes more of a "job".. even from the get-go.

    Furthermore the skills and their interactions with MOBs are out of balance; the game lacks polish.
    Beta is not an excuse to release something before it's ready, and this game feels more like a barely playable alpha to me.

    In the end the game was fun for the several hours I played, don't mean to sound entitled at all, but because the game's imbalances,bugs, and incompleteness made me move on to other games..    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best PC Game of 2014
12
#12 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
16
#16 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 59 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 59
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 59
  3. Negative: 0 out of 59
  1. Worth Playing
    Dec 31, 2014
    91
    It's a conscious decision on Larian's part to resurrect tried-and-true threads that run deep into the bones of the CRPG genre. It's a culmination of those efforts and an unapologetic celebration of battle-tested concepts backed by solid co-op. Most of all, it comes together as a grand adventure that hearkens back to sleepless nights buoyed by the roll of a die and a pad of grid paper shared between fellow dungeon crawlers.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Oct 22, 2014
    80
    Relatively small Larian Studios finally managed to deliver a really significant game. Original Sin is brimming with ideas on how to bring back old school RPG vibe and make it fit modern times. [Sept 2014, p.50]
  3. GameCritics
    Sep 12, 2014
    75
    As much as I loved the bulk of the game, by the end I was burning out, and burning out fast. Despite that, I'm glad that some studios are still willing to show an almost insane level of ambition in realizing the games they want to make without compromise, even if it does lead to a few dire moments here and there.
    Read full review
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