Divinity: Original Sin 2

[radiofloyd]

I’ll check it out for sure. A friend of mine who almost never plays games pumped like 80 hours into that Pathfinder game.

[radiofloyd]

The quest to sneak Higba out of Driftwood without being seen by the magisters is brutal, just brutal. But in the course of trying it I’ve tried some cool stuff to mess with the patrolling magisters. You can place objects in their way like barrels to stop them moving. You can also block them with party members. Actually, I think I’ve figured out as I’m typing this how I’m going to do it…

[radiofloyd]

Unlocked my second source ability now and I’ve received what is probably going to be my main over-arching quest for the remainder of the game. Also wrapped up most of the exploring and talking in Driftwood so I’m ready to set out on some adventures.

[radiofloyd]

Closing in on 60 hours now. The landmass I’m on now is large, without being overwhelming. I haven’t done too much combat, I’ve mostly been exploring the map, unlocking waypoints and opening a lot of quests. My team is currently level 11. 
 

If anything, I’ve been battling with the constant crashes. It seems to be some kind of Direct X issue, I don’t know. It’s certainly dampening my enjoyment of the game.

 

But I have the whole week off because it’s Golden Week, so I can hammer the game quite hard for the next seven days. Either way, two weeks to go until Tears of the Kingdom so I’ll be sticking with this until then. Right now, it’s probably sitting on an 8/10.

[radiofloyd]

Unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to have to park this indefinitely. I can’t keep playing it with the game crashing so frequently. Considering I played a string of PC games without problem before Divinity, I’m guessing the problem is connected to the game, although I’m not exactly sure. It seems like it might be connected to my graphics card. Either way, I have a huge chunk of the game left and I’d rather enjoy it without crashes, whenever I have the chance.

 

So that means I’ll have to play something else during my week off.

[shinymcshine]

Wow that sucks 😞

[Craymen Edge]

I started this early January and it instantly had me hooked.

 

I finished yesterday after more that 80 hours, never feeling like it dragged. I did as much as I could of all the side content and stuff you discover around the map, but didn't try to do everything - Moving on with the main storyline when I was satisfied.

 

I chose one of the origin characters: Lohse - the woman with the demon in her head, and went with wayfarer class because it had the talent that let you talk to animals. Her storyline did seem more interesting that the ones my other party members had.

[retroed]

 

 

Switch 2 upgrade out now, and it's free. 

 

 

[Maryokutai]

Just a heads up if anyone is interested, the Switch 1 version is currently on sale while the Switch 2 port isn't, despite the upgrade being free.

 

I don't think there's a regular physical version, so that's probably the best way to go.

[shinymcshine]

Looks like it's got a 'next gen' upgrade on Xbox too, and is on sale also:

 

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/12/divinity-original-sin-2-receives-surprise-free-upgrade-for-xbox-series-xs

[Maf]

Another game that has peaked my interest. I bought both of them on Xbox years ago but never played them. Think they’re on PC Gamepass so might download and try. At some point. 

 

EDIT: My bad. Pillars of Eternity are on GP, I have both Divinity games on Steam 

[shinymcshine]

I'd recommend trying PoE 2 Deadfire, over the DoS games (or even the first PoE).

[one-armed dwarf]

Pretty big differences between these two battle systems, PoE is real time with pause, where you have to keep manually pausing to take control over character actions, and Divinity is fully turn based. So worth keeping in mind

 

Although from what I've seen of PoE, it has some of the cleanest looking RTWP combat out there. But I might be too used to older Bioware stuff at this point. 

[shinymcshine]

95% sure that PoE 2 Deadfire you could use either Turn Based or RTWP - where PoE only had RTWP but I think they added Turn Based in a later patch.

 

Oh yes !

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Oh, that's interesting, I didn't know. Wonder how it works cause there's massive differences between them

 

Anyway being more on topic, I tried Divinity II a good while before BG3 came out and it's kind of a hard one to get into I think, its opening didn't really grab me. I was on some sort of beginner island but trailed off. It took the BG IP to really get me on board with Larian maybe, I'm not sure. 

 

If I ever beat BG3 I should try again cause I really like the systemic-ness/Deus-Ex-eyness of Larian's game, versus the more meat and potatoes style of the classic BG games. 

[shinymcshine]

From distant memory I think the D:OS games have a much better intro / tutorial than BG3 did - but overall I did find the D:OS games a bit of a grind - and loads of time wandering around a constrained area not actually knowing what to do to progress, or getting stuck on high level fights because you've wandered off track etc - oh and the necrofire.

 

The Pathfinder games are a much better, more accessible, alternative - or even something like Solasta (if you don't mind ropey cut scenes) or Rogue Trader if you want turn based SciFi.

[Maryokutai]

Maybe I should just skip this after all and finally try The Dragon Knight Saga which was specifically made for console plebs like myself.

[one-armed dwarf]

Well, making the opposite case to Shiny, I've found the Pathfinder games are up front much more intimidating and they have a hugely detailed (not a criticism) character creator with lots of classes and specialties to consider, which make it sound really interesting but I'm not up for it yet. I think the appeal with Larian's games is that they can be playful sandboxes of role playing possibility, where the slow pace isn't necessarily a huge issue if you enjoy working things out in your own way, they're very permissive in a way that CRPG games often might not seem to be (although I stress on this point that I'm sort of backporting my impressions of BG3 onto the small bit I played of D:OS2, so I might be not entirely correct in what I'm saying, steam says I've 4.1 hours on it which is nothing really)

 

Specifically what kept me from getting really engaged with Divinity is I didn't find the world interesting up front, whereas BG3 you get abducted in a spaceship by mindflayers and the urgency is felt right away, even if it's a bit of a fake urgency. I wasn't criticising the mechanics or trying to make that side sound offputting

[shinymcshine]

I suppose my conclusion - in so much that I've never replayed either D:OS game or BG3 - whilst I've given other CRPGs repeated runs - is that I just don't gel with the Larian approach.

[radiofloyd]

We should have a forum playthrough of Divine Divinity and Divinity 2 sometime.

 

Personally, I think BG3 is the weakest of Larian’s three big rpgs so far. I need to go back and finish Pillars and play Deadfire.

 

Apparently the upcoming Solasta 2 is very good so that could be the next surprise hit.