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. slumpy
    Jul 5, 2014
    7
    As is typical of Metacritic, most reviews are excessively negative or positive. This game does not deserve a 0/10 and it certainly does not deserve a 10/10 either. Divinity: Original Sin is an homage to the top-down RPG's of old, taking major hints from the Bioware hits Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. But does it really measure up? If you ask me, it comes damn close but misses by aAs is typical of Metacritic, most reviews are excessively negative or positive. This game does not deserve a 0/10 and it certainly does not deserve a 10/10 either. Divinity: Original Sin is an homage to the top-down RPG's of old, taking major hints from the Bioware hits Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. But does it really measure up? If you ask me, it comes damn close but misses by a thread's hair.

    Let's break it down:

    Maps. The maps are huge and there is no loading in between interior and exterior environs. The graphics, for this type of game, are great. Probably the best I have personally seen in this genre. They don't just look good, but they're really well designed as well. The terrain has a natural flow to it, it's up and down, not just flat surfaces like you would find in the previously mentioned RPG's.

    Music. Is great. It's thematic, it of high quality and all around just works. The sound effects are likewise done well. That's all I really have to say about that.

    Story? Well, let's just say the story isn't winning any points in originality, the setting itself is your standard high fantasy fair. It actually sort of reminds me of the "rift" universe. In aesthetics, design and theme. As suggested by the title of the game there are underlying religious tones (it's got the typical Tolkien inspired "good vs ultimate evil" story) though I am not far enough in the game yet to make a real judgement.

    The writing is good, GOOD. But the game is not winning a Pulitzer (or even a Hugo). Dialogue is generally well written, if a little clichéd. It's more or less what you'd expect to find in a fantasy themed MMO (yes I realize this game is not an MMO, I'm just comparing the dialogue). There are only voice-effects for ambient dialogue, entering into a conversation is text only, so I hope you like reading (luckily, I do!) or mashing "1" to get through the dialogue options as quickly as possible. Exploration is highly encouraged and rewarded, in both items and experience. Seeking out every lonely corner of the map to search for treasure and baddies to kill is a must if you want to find the gear to outfit your party.

    Gameplay - Generally, aside from a few nit picks, the game play is decent. It doesn't really contain anything I haven't seen done (better, in some cases) in other games but it's solid and pretty fun. The only real downside is the excessive "difficulty" and I put difficulty in quotations for a reason. It's difficulty stems largely from the fact that you are always at a disadvantage, and usually, it's an artificial disadvantage. Certainly the AI does not seem to have the same limits on action points and thus each "unit" tends to be capable of doing more / turn than your party. But generally the fights are exciting and you never really know which way they will go. There were many times I thought I had a fight in the bag only to be thwarted by having my healer focus fired and decimated. The AI doesn't seem fabulous, but it's not riding the short bus either (*cough* Rome2 *cough*).

    The game tries to develop relations between characters (a la Dragon Age), however, none of the characters - That I have found - really have much of a character and those that do are stunningly simplistic. The only real PC I have come across that seems to have much in the way of a personality is the Warrior Madora.... Who only stands out because of the illogical and excessive bigotry this character seems to have towards anything and everything for reasons that are so far completely unexplained. The party social interactions sort of miss the mark, in my opinion. Dragon Age was such that the characters were fully developed, each had their own idiosyncrasies and background you could delve into through conversation. Personally, I grew attached to certain characters in Dragon Age and hate others. Dragon Age, in my opinion, was a break through in player immersion. The social/romance options and the fallout that came from them were, in a way, revolutionary. This was definitely helped by the fact that, true to Bioware standard, every line was voiced. You could hear the passion (or lackthereof), the cynicism and positivity of the characters according to their personalities. Divinity tries to accomplish this in various ways but falls disappointingly short. Anyone like me, who will take immersion over gameplay will feel this aspect of Divinity is a little lacking.

    Given that this is by an indie studio, however, this is perfectly understandable. They obviously don't have the resources of Bioware.

    Overall?

    I'd recommend this game to any fans of NWN / BG. It's good, it's fun, it has a lot going for it... But it's not the epic perfection that the Metacritic reviews make it out to be.    … Expand
  2. cattlehunter
    Jul 8, 2014
    6
    Mostly very good turn-based combat. Breaks down late-game if you min/max at all, and can also break down early-game if you min/max competently, but if you avoid doing that then the combat is the best part of the game. Environmental interactions: Best I've ever seen. Water+lightning, fire+poison, water+ice, water+fire, lightning+blood, etc.; the way they interact is very fun, and makes theMostly very good turn-based combat. Breaks down late-game if you min/max at all, and can also break down early-game if you min/max competently, but if you avoid doing that then the combat is the best part of the game. Environmental interactions: Best I've ever seen. Water+lightning, fire+poison, water+ice, water+fire, lightning+blood, etc.; the way they interact is very fun, and makes the battles interesting, though cluttered at times (especially as the smoke created by your fire magic obstructs line of sight to your targets).

    Character customization is alright, but between 2-4 characters you can experience everything the game has to offer. Not very deep. Some talents are very fun, but most are extremely boring. Also no appearence customization.

    RPG elements are honestly very poor. The dialogue is weak; quirky, but the humor falls flat a lot of the time. Never sure if I'm supposed to take what's happening seriously or as a joke; it's played straight and not over-the-top enough that it could go either way. In either case, I didn't find it especially funny or interesting, but that may be because of my personality.

    Game reacts very poorly to player actions. For example: Two guards attack you at the start: You can murder them and nobody cares. You can't tell the guard captain about what happened. Another example: You can find physical evidence as to the identify and actions of the early-game antagonist is by exploring, but you can't tell anybody about what you know (despite even having his journal in hand) because that's not a part of the quest. Another example: After you complete the first zone, nobody cares. Guard captain still calls you an obnoxious **** who's only there to get in his way, people of the city act if it's still in danger, etc. Many more examples, too many to list.

    Quest system is very bad. After the first zone, you get no clues about where to go. "Find the white witch"; white witch's cabin is protected by a force field. Remove it. How? Never explained, nobody knows. Hope you like exploring and have a character with high perception to detect the hidden main story quest items, or are happy with googling the solution. Not only example of this problem, but I'm trying to be succinct.

    Puzzles: Very annoying. One puzzle, looks like you can throw your teleporting pyramid over a chasm, but you can't because there's an invisible wall there. Next room: the solution to the puzzle is to throw your teleporter pyramid across a chasm identical to the situation that was impossible just a few minutes ago. Many other examples of this: The rules of what's possible and what isn't change arbitrarily; are inconsistent. You cannot deduce the solution to a puzzle a lot of the time, it's just trial and failure, or pixelhunting. More frustrating than satisfying.

    Companion NPCs are nonexistant. Only two in game, other are voiceless henchmen.

    Other things... no day/night cycle. Camera is not very good. Can't zoom out far enough, gets stuck at strange zoom levels, foreground elements (like trees, big rocks, foliage, etc.) constantly obstruct vision. Dents in the terrain often impact camera strangely.

    Interface is overall poor. Many important features hidden with tiny icons; not designed for big monitors and high resolutions. Did not even know about "delay turn" button until someone told me.

    Skill bar: Too small. 10 skills, 3 bars, must be cycled through (with no hotkey) by clicking tiny arrows next to the bar. Very irritating; you will end up with 50+ skills on your mages, making you constantly click the tiny buttons or just opening your spellbook to cast them from there.

    Combat complaint: You need to click models to target them. Models continue playing idle animations in combat. Sometimes they will be obstructed by aforementioned doodads. Situation: You mouse-over your target. You wait 2 seconds to be 100% sure you can click it. You click. The model played its idle animation, which (somehow...) made its center of mass no longer act as a point it could be selected at. Your character spends action points walking up to the enemy instead of attacking it. Extremely irritating.

    Inventory management is cluttered; too much crap to pick up, which can't be ignore because some of the crap you pick up will be vital to have on-hand to solve puzzles - you can end up with 100 items in your inventory, often making it a nightmare to navigate until you can go through every single item and rule them out as important then get rid of them.

    ARPG/Diablo-style, but with no "smart loot". You will probably not remember a single item in this game. You will not care. 99.9% of it is vendor trash. Vendors sell random loot, including random skill books required to learn skills, and only reset their inventory when your main character levels up. If unlucky, you may never get access to many of the skills in the game.

    TLDR: Combat is very good, most other aspects are alright but need a lot of polish, RPG aspects are very poor.    … Expand
  3. Davaek
    Jul 7, 2014
    5
    I am extremely disappointed in this game. Even if this game is in early access it has in no way earned the status of being able to stand next to games such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and PS:T. People are saying that this is the best RPG to be released in the last 10 years. If that were the case then I probably would have given up gaming for good. Even extremely average RPG's such asI am extremely disappointed in this game. Even if this game is in early access it has in no way earned the status of being able to stand next to games such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and PS:T. People are saying that this is the best RPG to be released in the last 10 years. If that were the case then I probably would have given up gaming for good. Even extremely average RPG's such as DA:O were more to my taste. I regret buying this game and should have waited for Torment and Pillars of Eternity to be released. The character creation is completely lack luster with a one size fits all body type for each of the character, I hope to hell that this is just because it is in early access, the skills are also lacking not including basic skill choices such as dual wielding. The story is average at best although it is one of the stronger points of the game. There are some innovative features for this genre such as combining different elements much like in games like Magika. All in all I wouldn't buy this game yet.… Expand
  4. Cyliann
    Jul 4, 2014
    6
    Camera is absolutely rubbish, it even flying out the sky If you do simple things like walking up or down, combat has absolutely absurd miss chances in melee (I specced 100% Into hitting my blows and I still had the issue of only having about 50%~ hitchance against huge lumping orcs), Spells are either completely absent without spending thousands of golds in vendors, do no damage or simplyCamera is absolutely rubbish, it even flying out the sky If you do simple things like walking up or down, combat has absolutely absurd miss chances in melee (I specced 100% Into hitting my blows and I still had the issue of only having about 50%~ hitchance against huge lumping orcs), Spells are either completely absent without spending thousands of golds in vendors, do no damage or simply never feel like applying their effects when you need it the most as casters are the most fragile classes and don't even get me started on the dialog system. Rock paper scissors. Really?

    My biggest disappointment and at the same time, great laughter though, was that how my 2 hulking warriors could not take down a thin, wooden glass door with 3 greatswords and 2 halberd axes. Initially planning to break in and steal some stuff in a deserted house, the door got down to 40% before all of my weapons broke, leaving me with a slightly damaged nigh invulnerable door and huge expenses in weapon repairs and that's just pathetic for any RPG standard.

    Yes, I am well aware that you can pick locks but unfortunately, my character specialized in lockpicking did not deem it necessary to bring any lockpicks on his grand journey and nor did any of the 52 NPC's I've traded with or the dozens of houses I robbed have any. These may seem like small complaints, and from some aspects of view, they are. But really, the biggest offense here was how I tried to derail from the generic path at the first city and was met with only opponents more than 3 times my level, which I either had to abuse-win by packing oil barrels and letting them explode in their faces or get instantly wiped out even with the best gear humanly possible.

    Long story short, this game has a long way to go and It's really quite the embarassment to be called a release with patch after patch after patch confirming this.    … Expand
  5. Zhael
    Aug 9, 2014
    7
    This game has so much potential to be a 10/10 classic of all time game, but it just loses the opportunity. Graphics are great, controls are ok, audio is great and the game design is fresh and gripping. For whatever reason the game designers built in serious fun-killing experiences. So here is how it goes: you discover a new location (great!) and you have a challenging battle with aThis game has so much potential to be a 10/10 classic of all time game, but it just loses the opportunity. Graphics are great, controls are ok, audio is great and the game design is fresh and gripping. For whatever reason the game designers built in serious fun-killing experiences. So here is how it goes: you discover a new location (great!) and you have a challenging battle with a large group of enemies (great!). Now you're having a nice time in the game and thinking you're glad to be playing it. BUT now comes the hour you spend looking for a switch that is 2-pixles square, or the lever that's no where to be seen but you know it's there. The pace stops the fun stops and the frustration begins. The cycle continues throughout the whole experience.… Expand
  6. msk1970
    Jul 16, 2014
    6
    I gave this game an 8 or 9 after a few hours of playing, but 20 plus hours into it and lots of running in circles and not knowing what to do to craft/smith, having to run around vendors because there are no signs indicating who sells what, and lots of 'grinding' by stealing everything that is not nailed down - it has me getting bored and fed up with this game. good game, but questI gave this game an 8 or 9 after a few hours of playing, but 20 plus hours into it and lots of running in circles and not knowing what to do to craft/smith, having to run around vendors because there are no signs indicating who sells what, and lots of 'grinding' by stealing everything that is not nailed down - it has me getting bored and fed up with this game. good game, but quest directives could be clearer, there are no cool guilds, and the wave high ratings will subside once people have spent enough time playing this to get fed up with its shortcomings.… Expand
  7. lonelorn
    Jul 19, 2014
    6
    I wanted to love this game so much, sadly i can't. The worst about it, is Larian actually made a wonderful job and D:OS could have been a great game but all the little things i dont like in this game are a deal breaker for me.

    So what do i not like in this game : 1. It's extremly linear, despite the (kind of) open world. Sure there are a few side quests, some of them hidden, some of    I wanted to love this game so much, sadly i can't. The worst about it, is Larian actually made a wonderful job and D:OS could have been a great game but all the little things i dont like in this game are a deal breaker for me.

    So what do i not like in this game :

    1. It's extremly linear, despite the (kind of) open world. Sure there are a few side quests, some of them hidden, some of them really cool, but apart from those, you have to stay on the intended path or the game will punish you. Brutally. As soon as you try fighting ennemies more than one level higher than you, you get your sorry ass handed to you.

    2. Even the way you should fight have been laid out for you : always use the environemental stuff around or die (or turn the game to easy mode). What i love about CRPGs is to create original parties, with non conventionnal ways to fight. You can't really do that in D:OS, especially given how dull the spells are (oh look i can give you a ONE strenght bonus ! for a whole TWO rounds ! aint THAT sexy ?!)

    3. Most of the time, you're at a loss about what to do. I'm not asking for quest markers, but i'm pretty sure the game could have made what you're supposed to do a bit more intuitive. And dont even get me started about crafting, it's the worst crafting system i've ever laid my eyes on.

    4. The game is still pretty bugged as of now. Larian seems to be doing a fine job of correcting this, so this might not be an issue for a long.

    5. Only 2 companions ? Are you kidding me ? Yes i know you can recruit some generic companions later in the game, but that seemed bugged in my game, they did not level up the level of my main characters when i hired them. Fighting level 10 mobs with lv1 companions seemed like a bad idea so i passed.

    6. Did i mention how dull the spells are ? That and the fact that you have no idea why a spell worked or didnt. For instance my warrior has a 1h weapon that has a 30% chance of crippling target. After around 2 hours of using it, i have yet to see it work. Just Once.

    All in all, i'm not regretting having bought this game, i had a pretty good time playing it. But to me it just can't compare with the genre classics such as BG2 or NWN.    … Expand
  8. Sidian
    Jul 16, 2014
    6
    Competent effort, but quite mediocre overall. Poor writing, poor characterisation (only 2 companions, and even they are dull and given very little dialogue!), boring and generic fantasy world that you've seen a million times -- oh, elves and goblins and a dark mysterious evil that you, the chosen one, have to defeat. Yawn.

    The question design is pretty bad. In Fallout, you'll encounter    Competent effort, but quite mediocre overall. Poor writing, poor characterisation (only 2 companions, and even they are dull and given very little dialogue!), boring and generic fantasy world that you've seen a million times -- oh, elves and goblins and a dark mysterious evil that you, the chosen one, have to defeat. Yawn.

    The question design is pretty bad. In Fallout, you'll encounter a cave full of scorpions that have been causing problems for the nearby town. You can choose to simply go in and kill all the scorpions, of course, but you can also choose to blow up the cave with dynamite if you have the right skills to detect the ideal weak point in the cave wall to place dynamite. There are constant skill checks in dialogue and in the world, you really feel like the character you created is YOUR character. In Divinity Original Sin, that is not the case. The scarce skill checks are all related to one skill: charisma. Worse yet, even if you have very low (or possibly non-existent) charisma skill, you can win anyway via the tedious Rock Paper Scissors minigame. All this might be acceptable if the quests themselves were interesting, but they never are; go here, kill that, retrieve this, return. Maybe you'll be 'lucky' enough to spend time searching for a small hidden switch behind some barrels or something as you encounter the ever familiar traps such as lava that will kill you instantly if you walk on it, or ice which will trip your characters up for a good 5 seconds which is just amazing fun let me assure you. The developers expect you to clear the ice with fire area of effect spells, so I oblige and sit through the insanely long animations and cooldown times over and over again to clear a path to my goal.

    Despite being 'open world' it's really very linear with a clear path to follow once you get past the initial city area.

    The item system is awful. I have yet to find a good staff and I'm nearly done with the game. Oh, scratch that - I did find one among the piles and piles of one handed swords I found a staff after killing a certain boss. Finally, I thought. Too bad that staff needs to be destroyed for story purposes, so despite being a great staff with good stat points and granting you a spell ability, it will quickly need to be destroyed with no replacement offered. Brilliant. Crafting is abysmal, unclear and always provides terrible items that aren't worth using. Perhaps I needed a very high crafting skill to make it worthwhile?

    The one saving grace of the game is the combat, which is above average to be sure but nothing great. The amount of times my characters walked to a certain location instead of attacking due to the ridiculously finicky and inaccurate cursor is beyond count. The spell animations are far too long. The balance is off, with pyrokinetic spells being by far the worst -- I came across a huge amount of enemies where fire spells were not only ineffective but HEALED the enemy. Lightning spells meanwhile were pretty much always great, with only 1 or 2 enemies resisting it. The secondary effect is also clearly superior - would you rather deal a bit of damage, or prevent your enemy from doing anything at all for several turns?

    Overall, I have enjoyed this game despite how critical I've been. A mediocre CRPG beats a good shooter any day of the week for me. And it's a hell of a lot better than "RPGs" like Skyrim, that's for damn sure.    … Expand
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. Goatsecks
    Jul 23, 2014
    6
    1. crafting system is absurd.
    2. story-line is really boring.
    3. ranged is favored.
    4. some abilities and attributes aren't worth the levels.

    The rest of the game is good. Lots of replayability but I can't seem to do it a 2nd time considering how boring the story was.
  12. Skellimancer
    Jul 23, 2014
    6
    The combat is a cut down version of ToEE. The game delights in one shotting your party for clicking on inanimate objects. The hirelings consist of a redneck mage hater and an edgy as **** demon hunter. The game forces you to go level up before even leaving the first town which is filled with the most irritating NPCS I have seen for generations. glitches can occur that force you to reload,The combat is a cut down version of ToEE. The game delights in one shotting your party for clicking on inanimate objects. The hirelings consist of a redneck mage hater and an edgy as **** demon hunter. The game forces you to go level up before even leaving the first town which is filled with the most irritating NPCS I have seen for generations. glitches can occur that force you to reload, example: tutorial dungeon. I unlocked a large stone door and opened it, misclicked the door again and it slammed shut and could not be reopened. This is not an awful game but it is mediocre at best.… Expand
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. ChunkySaurus
    Jul 26, 2014
    7
    I would say that all the 10/10 reviews out there are Kickstarter backers who want to help promote the game. The game is decent but no 10/10. If you liked Baldur's Gate, then you will probably enjoy this game too.

    The elemental area of effect mechanic adds a lot of fun to the game. Cover an area with flammable poison ooze and then set it on fire to create an explosion. Then use a    I would say that all the 10/10 reviews out there are Kickstarter backers who want to help promote the game. The game is decent but no 10/10. If you liked Baldur's Gate, then you will probably enjoy this game too.

    The elemental area of effect mechanic adds a lot of fun to the game. Cover an area with flammable poison ooze and then set it on fire to create an explosion. Then use a hostile teleport spell to throw enemies into the conflagration for good measure. Make sure you pick up a good spread of elemental abilities. Not only is it fun, the game assumes you have them at certain points.

    The Rock, Paper, Scissors method of winning arguments with NPCs is stupid. It detracts from immersion in a big way. At one point I accused someone of doing something(no spoilers!). When I presented evidence to back up my case, we played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide the argument. I'm not kidding or exaggerating, you actually do this several times in the game. If they wanted to randomize success when using Intimidate, Reason or Charm a hidden dice roll would have been less annoying.

    The writing and dialog are pretty good, when the game has a chance to "warm-up". It is a little iffy early on; they dump a lot of weird useless story on you early in the game. At times your two main characters will have "discussions" where you role-play both sides. This is good if you want to role-play but silly if you just want to have an experience.

    You will be frustrated by the interface, unless you are a sniper. There is no assistance to click on very small or moving objects. If your mouse is one pixel off, you don't select the monster/item. It is very frustrating when a monster shrugs so your attack command turns into a move.

    Crafting exists but it is not explained very well. I haven't done any the whole game. You probably won't either.

    All-in-all, this is not a bad game. Good for some nostalgia if you liked BG. Some bad design choices hold it back though. Worthwhile on a sale.    … Expand
  16. kafkaz
    Jul 25, 2014
    6
    I expected this game as new revelation, I backed it up on Kickstarter, I was avidly watching developer diaries. Today, I finished the game.

    My thoughts? First off, this game is something me and a lot of old school players were waiting for. We´ve finished Baldurs Gate many times, and we´re starved to death. No suprise we are ready to overlook caveats, and focus only whats good. We    I expected this game as new revelation, I backed it up on Kickstarter, I was avidly watching developer diaries. Today, I finished the game.

    My thoughts?

    First off, this game is something me and a lot of old school players were waiting for. We´ve finished Baldurs Gate many times, and we´re starved to death. No suprise we are ready to overlook caveats, and focus only whats good.

    We praise:

    1) Combat: it is complex, fun, turn-based. Working with elements and combining them is refreshing technique and is very well implemented. It is great fun and the main highlight of the game. But - continuous turn-based/realtime system in Baldurs Gate IS FAR SUPERIOR.

    2) Graphics, atmosphere. This depends on your taste, but the game is meticulously crafted, there is no deny. But, why do have to male protagonists look like STEROID BUFFED ANIMALS? They are literally looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best years, even fragile wizards types! But, you can design your underwear. This game can be weird. Some call it humour, not me. The progression of your character´s visuals doesn´t work also. Remember how in BG you were looking like truly menacing wizard, after you´ve finally found that great robe? There is nothing like that in here, you look insignificant at the end same way as you were at the start (this applies mainly for wizards). A robe is robe, it has one look and that´s it.

    3) Music. Again, your taste. For me, its nowhere near Baldurs Gate 1 brilliance, but good enough to not be distractive.

    Blunders we overlook:

    1) Story: nothing to write home about. It is uninteresting at the start, it gets somewhat intriguing in the middle, only to finally become big letdown in the finale. Bottom line: if you want to make Baldurs Gate successor, you don´t have to make 2 of 4 protagonists ex-demigods. It´s worn idea of long gone novelty. As if this wasn´t enough, one of the companions just happens to be ex-king. Do writers thing that great story can come only through gods and kings? Come on.

    2) Useless features:
    - crafting is absolutely useless, it only makes your inventory clutter in epic way. Finding out what ingredients you need to combine is quite tiresome. You need to find books, get through blocks of irrelevant texts to realize you need to mix mushroom with stick to get something. It is so cumbersome that after I tried to make few things, I ditched it forever. It just is not worth the trouble. You find tons of items on the way, which are the same meh quality as the one you make, so why bother.

    - blacksmithing: see above, apart from making more junk, you must repair your weapons and armor. Is it fun? No. Is it tedious and superfluous? Yes.

    - lockpicking: this buffles me the most - lockpicking in Baldurs Gate was blast, you´ve found dozens of mysterious chest with great loot, you could burglar random people´s houses, so it was VERY WORTHWILE feature. Here? It is ABSOLUTELY useless, not even kidding. Every chest in this game can be opened with a key lying around. There are like 4 chests in THE WHOLE game, which actually require lockpicking.

    3) Loot
    This game has really bad loot system, even worse than vanilla Diablo 3. The items are randomly generated, very often giving you heavy armor with intelligence bonus, wizards staff with strength bonus etc. It is annonying to kill bad ass boss only to be rewarded with this junk. Very often you will find yourself playing with lvl 15 characters, which wear 5 lvl items, because nothing better dropped for the last 15 hours of gameplay.

    4) Inventory and management
    Do you remember how many inventory slots did we have in Baldurs Gate? 20? At max. It was great. You weren´t feeling like travelling gipsy wagon, you carried items that mattered. Here, you´ve got LIMITLESS inventory space, and believe me, there are moments when it almost feels it is not enough. So, be prepared to spare much of your time tidying up your inventory, rearranging hundreds of items which you won´t ever use. It really is not right when you feel like a clerk while playing a game.

    5) Puzzles
    Most of the puzzles are unfair and uninspired. Either it is about pixel hunting small switches, or trying to follow instruction of some obscure guide you´ve found hours ago, granted that if you´ve kept it at the first place. You WILL be searching on the internet A LOT to get through. The teleport pyramid technique, although interesting at first, grows VERY INCONSISTENT later. In some situations it work, in some it doesn´t, you never know when, so you just try it all the time.....

    6) Dialogues and co-op
    Co-op dialogues turns to save/load fest thanks to the stats you get if you answer "correctly". You will find yourself answering not how YOU would like to answer, but the way so your character gets some special bonus. Depending on what you choose, you become e.g. Romantic, which will get you +1 charisma, or Pragmatic +1 to intelligence, etc. Your decision are commanded by which class you play, not by your conscience.    … Expand
  17. 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.
  18. 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..
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. changrot
    Jul 14, 2014
    5
    Some reviews are comparing this game to a new Baldur's Gates, wich lead me to buying this game and regret it. I'm not saying this is a bad game, but be advised that you'll like this game alot more if you're into WoW or ElderScroll online than classic RPG like BG.

    Let me explain myself. Right from the start the mechanics of the game gives you that feeling that it's been designed to    Some reviews are comparing this game to a new Baldur's Gates, wich lead me to buying this game and regret it. I'm not saying this is a bad game, but be advised that you'll like this game alot more if you're into WoW or ElderScroll online than classic RPG like BG.

    Let me explain myself. Right from the start the mechanics of the game gives you that feeling that it's been designed to target the young MMORPG players more than the old timers (like myself) who played AD&D as a teenager. The way you use your skills and spells is typically derived from game systems like WoW. You do not have to sleep, learn spells, plan a strategy once in combat the way you do if you've played BG before for example. You only click (or press mice/keyboard hot keys) on what you want to do based on a turn-based combat system. For my part, this is not exactly my definition of what fun mean...
    I've not played the game to the end, but the story doesn't seems to me really engaging. Right from the start, you got this feeling that you just don't care about what's happening. You just hang around in search of something to do and end up opening alot of "Level 1 broken vases..." more than wondering what's the best course of action to take.

    Some others game mechanics are not really well done. Sneaking and pickpocketting are not really fun and i couldn't just believed it when i had to play "rock, paper, scisor" to win an argument with one of my party member... The level of immersiveness is just plain low.

    Graphically, the game is not bad, but i can't say i was impressed by the look of it. Diablo 3 looks way better for a comparison.

    Believe me! It's not the "best RPG of the last decade" like somes says, far from that.    … Expand
  23. spajn
    Jul 19, 2014
    5
    First of all i want to say im a hardcore Infinity Engine RPG fan so when i heard about Divinity: Original Sin i was so excited. It seemed to be the best parts of Baldurs Gate with a Modern yet 2d:ish graphic engine, Perfect!

    Well it didnt take long before the game started to piss me off. Its like the game was playtested by nothing else than Ultra-Hardcore Oldschool RPG fans or by people    First of all i want to say im a hardcore Infinity Engine RPG fan so when i heard about Divinity: Original Sin i was so excited. It seemed to be the best parts of Baldurs Gate with a Modern yet 2d:ish graphic engine, Perfect!

    Well it didnt take long before the game started to piss me off. Its like the game was playtested by nothing else than Ultra-Hardcore Oldschool RPG fans or by people who made the game and knows the ins and outs of every single thing in the game.

    You Almost at the start of the game arrive at a Major city which is a major mistake of a RPG.... you should never start at a major city and confuse the player who is already confused by learning all the new game systems of a game they just started playing. Only RPG who has pulled this off is BG2 but that game was so much alike BG1 they got away with it.

    Then you want to go on your first quest, NOPE! You get like 10 quests at the city and MAYBE you can complete two of them because the rest if way too high level for you. The game never tells you the quests are out of your reach. Im all for the game not holding your hand but if they playtested their game a little more they would figure out its not a good play experience to get access to content you have no chance in completing. Some quests begins as a quest made for low levels, only with the boss fight being against a level 7 boss mob...The game howeever never bothered to tell you that you aint got no business with 90% of the quets the game gives you AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME. Baldurs Gate never had this problem, there was challenging fights there yes, but nowhere like this **** where you get insta killed in 1 hit by random mobs. Why the **** give me quests that i got almost zero chance in completing?

    They Ofcourse you want to go level up somewhere. BUT THERE ARENT ENOUGH TO DO TO LEVEL UP! First Quest area is mobs of level 3-5.. i was level 2 when i got there... sure with lots of blood sweat and tears i cleared it... now im level 4, almost level 5. The Next area is level 5-7 monsters. FIghts can often be your 4 party members vs 8 enemy mobs. When you are lower level than the monsters AND outnumbered the game just starting to be torture on your ****ing brain. There is not enough quests and monsters to level up unless you refuse to give up before you have found every ****ing little xp hidden away.

    WAY TO GO TO **** UP A GAME. Thank god for pillars of eternity.

    I give this game 5 Just because i love old school RPGs but this game is a huge fail.    … Expand
  24. supercow51
    Jul 4, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I think this has a potential to be a great game. At release, however, it needs a bit of work. There are only two NPC companions, and no AI personality for the starting companion character. This makes comparisons to Baldur's Gate 2 a bit hollow, since the best thing about that game was the personalities and interactions of the NPC characters in your party.… Expand
  25. 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
  26. AlexSeven
    Jul 4, 2014
    7
    This game reminds me of Baldurs gate, and thats a good thing. the turn based combat is fun and challenging. The graphics is nice and lush, and sounds are well made. The story and details in it is engaging. Excellent fantasy RPG if you want something more meaty to dig into.

    However, this game needs more work. I would wait with buying this if i was you because a lot of what makes an RPG    This game reminds me of Baldurs gate, and thats a good thing. the turn based combat is fun and challenging. The graphics is nice and lush, and sounds are well made. The story and details in it is engaging. Excellent fantasy RPG if you want something more meaty to dig into.

    However, this game needs more work. I would wait with buying this if i was you because a lot of what makes an RPG fun and exciting is missing here and there. Voice acting on a lot of the important characters you meet is not there and you have to read a lot of text instead. Its not catastrophic to have to read, but it takes away immersion. The music, although well done, i feel is not fitting in many places as well. Meeting with the woman of time for example the music was a combo between lounge piano and spanish guitar music which felt weird. I expected something more fantasy/epic and a voice to listen to. That would have drawn me into the story and moment much more (immersion).

    Another thing is the rush of gear looking the same.I found a lot of rare weapons and armor and a lot of them look like the armor and weapon you find in barrels or buy from people. The stats are there and they are what counts of course, but in RPGs you want to feel progression both through story and gear. You want to see that you get stronger and stronger. At least i feel the rare gear could have had a special look from common gear. So far a lot of the magical gear have had at least an effect to them even though they also looked the same as common gear. Hopefully they improve on this through updates. For me its too late though.

    The three negative points above is what stops me from playing it constantly since if they were all ok i wouldnt stop until i finished it because it is a very good game. You can see the amount of work that is in the details, i just wish they took more time before release

    Still i give this a 7/10 which means very good. There arent many (or any) RPG atm with this much awesome in it, and you should definitely buy it, but maybe wait a little bit (if you can).    … Expand
  27. sisho
    Jul 14, 2014
    6
    Divinity: Original Sin is a good game indeed but it won't go further as the groundbreaking title everyone is claiming it to be. The developers put a great deal of effort in making it look and play like the old school rpg titles and the game really shines when it comes to it's re-inventive gameplay, but sadly it is not strong enough to cover the cliché story and foolish dialogs.
  28. Dracolich6z
    Jul 14, 2014
    7
    I have reviewed this game before but I change my score to a 7 from a 10 due to not being able to continue the game past the last boss, thus ending the hope for more content or mods that allow end game content.
  29. 731
    Jul 11, 2014
    7
    It is definitely a fun game in co-op and a step in the right direction in a genre that has been very underwhelming for the last few years. But I don't really consider this a masterpiece, as it has its fair share for problems like a very forgettable story, lots of bugs, terrible charisma system and shallow characters. It is not meant to be taken seriously but I can't say I am a big fan.It is definitely a fun game in co-op and a step in the right direction in a genre that has been very underwhelming for the last few years. But I don't really consider this a masterpiece, as it has its fair share for problems like a very forgettable story, lots of bugs, terrible charisma system and shallow characters. It is not meant to be taken seriously but I can't say I am a big fan.

    But combat is really where this game shines, it is really fun with a friend and provides some good encounter design and neat challenge. Exploration was alright, I was expecting more but the scope is quite large for a 40$ game. Visuals were pretty good and varied. Soundtrack was alright but nothing to write home about.

    I had good fun for about 60 hours, time will tell if I ever replay it. But as of now, I am more interested in Pillars of Eternity by Obsidian, as I expect it to be more story-driven and bring some of that Black Isle magic back.    … Expand
  30. Ivan665
    Jul 27, 2014
    7
    Except for combat, there is not much going on for Divinity: Original Sin. Environments are decent, crafting is decent, yes there are many, many recipes but nothing that stands out. Most dialogue is fun. Quest navigation is all right, the player is given enough clues to get going, and the journal logs all the dialogue from the first line in the game.Now for the bad part: No races. This isExcept for combat, there is not much going on for Divinity: Original Sin. Environments are decent, crafting is decent, yes there are many, many recipes but nothing that stands out. Most dialogue is fun. Quest navigation is all right, the player is given enough clues to get going, and the journal logs all the dialogue from the first line in the game.Now for the bad part: No races. This is the most striking thing for me, the dialogue is not voiced, the Bio would be the same, so I see no reason why the developers could not add a couple more player models. More bad: The Rogue class in this game is utterly useless piece of effing dead weight. In calssics like BG II: SoA for example such a character was a valuable addition. But here his dmg is way, way (I cant stress this enough) subpar to the Ranger, Rogues cant dual-wield (huh?!), Rangers with high Awareness (which is a decent stat for them) can just see traps and ground shoot them. Rogues are my second favorite RPG class after Wizards, so this is a big downside for me. Speaking of magic users, Wizards are completely imbalanced. Air magic dominates all school trees, the first support character will cover most other magic needs with Rain, Heal, Teleport (playing with 2 Teleports is too OP) and any other points put in a different magic tree of your main Wizard other than Air magic significantly decrease dmg output. Next: money. Gold is really scarce in the start, so the player cant afford anything other than a few healing pots. Spellbooks look like something from the Vatican Archives, items look like the new limited edition Channel collection. The way around that is to steal from houses which is so easy in this game, its stupid. Another stupid thing is that Secret Agents working for the government are forced to petty theft for chump change. The devs should have thought of some way to get gold in the start, after that gold is not an issue any more, and if the second main character has Barter high enough, the player can hoard on pretty much anything. Which is another imbalance - no gold in the start, gold is irrelevant afterwards. And lastly its not open-world, the game is almost entirely linear and its not very long, its rather short compared to classics and TES games. If you see bad scores, know they are given by children who are lied that they have played real RPGs and are usually fans of ME, WoW and consider Dragon Age to be hardcore (it was the only good one after KotoR but still a far cry). On the other hand the perfect scores are given by Kikcstarters to self justify and suppress buyers remorse. So take everything with a grain of salt. My best tip: skip this one and wait for Pillars of Eternity.
    7/10    … 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

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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.
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  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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