A Slightly Smaller Pile of Shame

Last night I managed to finally finish Divinity:  Original Sin.  It feels good to make a dent in the ol' pile of shame and, to top it all off, D: OS was an enjoyable adventure.  This rarely happens--all too frequently I make unfortunate decisions and end up buying something simply because it's on sale and it's a genre that I don't enjoy at all (4X strategies....I still don't really understand them but that doesn't stop me from buying them).  Now I'm pondering the possibilities for Divinity:   Original Sin 2, which is currently in early access on Steam (I'm planning on waiting until it's officially released in September before I buy it).  If you're like me and have had D: OS sitting atop your pile...now is the time to re-discover an enjoyable CRPG.

CRPG's seemed to be going through a bit of a renaissance period...oh, about 2-ish years ago.  There was a whole rash of them released--Wasteland 2, Divinity, and Pillars of Eternity are a few that pop into my head.  Unlike Wasteland or Pillars of Eternity, Divinity has some unique mechanics that seemed quirky at first, but ended up making the game all that much more interesting.

The enhanced edition is the way to go.  Better loot, voiceovers,
and a host of other features.

I genuinely enjoyed the  ability to create not one, but two unique hero characters AND to be able to play them in co-op mode.  I have not experimented with the co-op mode, but this mechanic seems like something that is very novel and that would be fun.  The fact that you could play with a friend and have different interpretations of an event or issue and then argue it out in the form of winning a game of rock, paper, scissors...who would've thought that something this silly would work?  It does though!  I played singleplayer but would intentionally get into disagreements just to play the rock, paper, scissors minigame (I am betting that I lost way more than I won).

Another thing that I enjoyed was something that I believe was added in the enhanced edition--the short, animated cutscenes that play as you slowly piece together the tattered tapestry of time.  I felt like they told the story well and that you don't necessarily need some uber-graphics to make your point.

A short list of some other things I enjoyed:

1.) A variety of different environments to visit.
2.) The story isn't completely novel, but it kept me invested enough to finally see it out.
3.) There are some moral choices that require you to think about what is best.
4.) The voice acting in the enhanced edition is good.
5.) The music is pleasant.


There were a few things that I didn't enjoy.  Sometimes combat can seem a little draggy and some fights can take quite a long time--I think CRPG's are much more mired in the details than many modern games.  This was mostly true of fights with large groups of enemies.  I also noticed a tendency for some enemies to bug out--this made fights easier but it is a little unfair.

Another thing that I don't like is when there are puzzles that require you to find a bunch of really hidden things--like tiny switches.  I will admit that there were several times when I got frustrated and looked up solutions to some of them.  This is probably a very nitpicky complaint...but I hate wasting a bunch of time searching and searching.

Gamers who enjoy old-school CRPG's will definitely want to check out Divinity:  Original Sin.   I am proud to have finally finished it (unlike Pillars of Eternity which I quit because a bug impeded my progress on the challenge dungeon--the item to unlock it disappeared from my bags...still kind of bitter about it).  My pile of shame is now one game smaller!  Minor victory.