I got the sequel for Divinity: Original Sin today, and I was struck by how much it has changed from the original without feeling different (which, given how fantastic the first was, is a good thing in my book).
In particular, I remember noticing that there weren’t many of the hassles I complained about in the first game, so I figured that writing down some of my impressions would be a good place to start.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 simplifies a lot of things, but in doing so it keeps combat flowing more quickly and with a great pace and feel. By reducing the number of mechanics in play, the game goes a lot faster and you can see progress happening; armor now serves as a sort of second health pool, and that ‘s really nice because it still differentiates between physical and magical attacks, but now also prevents status effects.
One consequence of this is that it looks like in most cases status effects always happen when you hit a target with a spell, which I don’t think was the case in the first game.
Likewise, the addition of various fantasy races to the player character options has added a lot to the game. Because it is now possible to play as, say, an elf, a whole new set of possibilities has been opened up with each race’s unique abilities and dialogue options really increasing both the replayability and immersion of the game. I’m already planning my second run, and making decisions about what I would change.
There are also Shadowrun Returns-styled dialogue tags, which open up new options as well.
I think that this is done extremely well; while you don’t always get unique options based on your tags, it comes up often enough that you feel like the world responds to you.
The skill system has been overhauled, the amount of numbers that the player needs to process is fewer. Great environments and talents from the first game have been extended upon and perfected, but not drastically altered.
Playing solo has been an interesting experience. I haven’t tested the co-operative play or the GM mode yet, which both sound like they might be interesting.
I’ll probably write more on this in the near future, because D:OS2 is proving to be quite