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.

Divine Diaries: Part One

It has been a busy second to last week of the 2016-2017 school year and as a result I haven't had quite as much time to play as I normally do.  On a positive note, I've managed to stick with Divinity:  Original Sin and feel good about the progress I am making.  Since I'm writing about it again, I thought I would document my new playthrough a little more thoroughly.  Maybe it will give some newer players some insights?  More likely it will draw attention to my lack of knowledge and/or skill in the magical world of the CRPG.

I have found this playthrough to be considerably easier than my first failed attempt.  Yes, I have experience which is a huge help, and yes, the enhanced edition offers loot that is sooooo much better than anything I ever found in the original game; but I also feel like the decisions I made when designing my characters have paid off.  D:OS gives you the odd ability to be able to create not one, but two characters and to customize them with whatever abilities you want them to have.  One of the big struggles I had in my first go was that I only had one healer--Jahan--and this meant that if his healing spell was on it's long cooldown that any character that was taking a beating was almost certainly doomed.  This time around I decided to go with a priest/knight combo of main characters.  My priest can play the role of tank and can also throw out a heal every once in awhile.  This has turned out to be an excellent decision and I would recommend trying to find a setup where you have multiple characters capable of some sort of healing.

When I'm out adventuring my party usually consists of my priest/knight duo, Wolgraff, and Jahan.  My party is a little on the melee heavy side, but having a character capable of sneaking, disarming, and lockpicking seems like a must.  Thus far, I haven't run into any major roadblocks and this team makeup is working well.

My squad and a pile o' dead demons.

The journey has taken me to Luculla Forest and Hiberheim where I've tracked down the White Witch Icara.  Now, I'm back in Luculla Forest trying to deal with the Immaculate threat.  The Immaculates seem like a bunch of whacko cultists and I am actively resisting the urge to attack all of them.

One of the more disappointing parts of my journey was the whole Bairdottir affair.  I made it to the Immaculate village of Sacred Stone and tracked down Jareth, the wizardy fellow who Bairottir was desperate to find.  Surprisingly she decided that she couldn't leave Jareth and would rather attack my party than leave the nutso cultist on his own.  I don't know if there is some way to avoid killing Bairdottir--some sort of charisma check where you could convince her to stay--but the whole thing didn't end well.

There have been a couple of new areas/quests that I had missed the first time that I have discovered.  One of those areas was Maradino's cave.  Maradino is an eccentric wizard who has hidden clues in different places throughout Luculla Forest.  His cave contains his study which has the solution to entering the Troll King's cave.  I will admit that I had to look up a few things in order to figure out how to fully access the study.  Be prepared for a tough-ish fight against the spirit of Maradino and his posse of undead companions.

After you've defeated Maradino and learn the secret to accessing the Troll King's cave you can finally see what all the fuss is about.  The Troll King has amassed a great fortune from the infamous "troll toll" that all travelers are required to pay when crossing a bridge.  Having a character with decent sneaking ability is key unless you want to fight the Troll King and all his troll lackeys.  I used Wolgraff and had him sneak around looting the various gold piles in the cave.  There is also a veritable goldmine of Tenebrium ore near the back of the cave.  Mining it all was a little challenging as Wolgraff can only carry so much--to effectively loot it all I had to have him sneak back to the group several times and unload any ore he was carrying.  When it was all said and...looted...I managed to net several legendary items, some gold cups and plates to sell, and a few purple and rare items.

I'm still slightly mystified by the crafting system and haven't been able to fully utilize all the ores I have been mining.  It just seems easier to loot items.  It's a little frustrating to have accumulated a small stockpile of tenebrium and not to be able to fully put it to use.  I don't have the right talent points in the right places--I can't decide if it's worth remedying or not.

My adventures in D:OS will continue...hopefully until I can finally tick it off my list of completed games.

Enhanced Sinning

Divinity:  Original Sin has sat proudly atop my pile of unfinished games for well over one year.  Recently I made the decision that it was time to suck it up and finish a game that somehow ended up being played and then not completed.  I am happy to report that I am still merrily commanding my party of heroes and still haven't given up.  Hurrah!  It's probably worth mentioning that my second adventure is taking place in the much better "enhanced edition."

What's so "enhanced" about it?  Well, if you're someone who has an aversion to reading lots of text and dialogue in games you will enjoy the numerous voiceovers.  Everything has a voice!  Cats!  Sheep!  Cows!  There are even voiceovers for the epitaphs on tombstones in graveyards.  It might seem a little excessive, but it's entertaining to hear the dialogue of a sheep acted out.

Probably one of my biggest irritations with my first adventure into D:OS was the lack of tutorials.  I had no idea how anything worked due to the very limited instructions.  I knew there was a crafting system but didn't know how it worked.  I had to spend quite a bit of time Googling, reading, and then trying things in game to get a handle on how to do even simple things.  Now, whenever you read a crafting book you automatically learn the recipes and they are recorded in a crafting book that allows you to find what you're looking for.  The tutorials help a great deal, but I'm still not 100% sold on the crafting system.  Making decent gear seems to require a massive amount of materials--it's just easier to stick with loot.

Speaking of loot--I have noticed that the loot in the enhanced edition is noticeably better than anything I ever had in the original version.  My party is rocking some legendary items and vendors have plenty of uncommon, rare, and epic gear to sell.  Bosses seem to drop rare "unique" items more frequently as well.

This is the loot window for a dead sheep.  It made me laugh.

Even with all these improvements I still find myself making plenty of rookie mistakes.  Probably the biggest of those mistakes is not saving.  Games with frequent autosave have trained me into thinking that I don't need to save my game very often.  There is autosave in D:OS, but it tends to be fairly spaced out and I have found myself replaying things that really didn't need to be replayed.  This is particularly stupid because D:OS has one of the most forgiving save systems--you can quicksave at any time, even in the middle of combat!  Just keep mashing that quicksave button...even if you're not completely sure you need another save.

Another of my rookie mistakes is friendly fire.  CRPG's like D:OS have tried to be less hand-holdy than other RPG's and want players to be mindful of the many aspects of strategy.  I have gotten really horrible about paying attention to the small details--way too frequently I find Jahan unleashing an electrocharged bolt of death at an enemy who is standing in the same puddle as ALL my melee (I have a lot of melee....probably a mistake).  I can only facepalm myself so many times.  There has also been several times where I've accidentally targeted a friendly character while trying to mouse over an enemy.  That is the quintessential dumb mistake.

Fighting a group of fiery Immaculates.
  My cat jumped on the screenshot button.

So far my lack of skill hasn't become a major hurdle.  My party has managed to solve the mystery of councillor Jake's death while simultaneously ending the undead AND orc threat to Cyseal.  Now I am leading them through the wilds of Luculla forest to find out what happened to the White Witch Icara.

The enhanced edition of Divinity:  Original Sin is proving to be a solid improvement over the base game.

A Giant Pile of Failure

Lately I've been bouncing back and forth between some classics and the one game that looms large on the zenith of my pile of shame--Divinity:  Original Sin.  I just can't make up my mind--one minute I want to shoot something and the next I want to strategize.  I'm going to attribute this restlessness to end of the year teacher brain.

I started my journey of failure in the classic Theme Hospital.  It's one of my all time favorites and I am usually content to put it on medium difficulty and glide through.  Since I have played through it about five hundred times I decided it was time to grow up and play it on hard mode.  At first it wasn't so bad, I was able to squeak out some victories and even got a few bonus rat shooting levels.   Once I reached the later levels...well, let's just say it was a bit of a vomit soaked disaster.  A tidal wave of patients constantly slammed my hospital and no matter how many doctors, nurses, or handymen that I hired I just couldn't keep up.  Combine this with the fact that on hard difficulty contagion outbreaks are extremely serious and almost impossible to contain--it spells absolute disaster!  After pounding my head on that brick wall for awhile I decided it was time to throw in the towel.  Someday...someday I will beat you on hard mode Theme Hospital.

My not-so-stunning failure led me to feel the need for a little angry shooting.  It had been several years since I had last booted up the Half-Life 2 series so I decided to give it a go.  As I reacquainted myself with the world of City 17 I was ushered back to 2004 and the thrill of one of the best games being released.  Playing through Half-Life made me realize how much things have changed in the last thirteen years of gaming.  Certain aspects of the game felt really silly and outdated--namely the lack of cover system (it felt extremely weird to be running around shooting a bunch of dumb enemies who weren't taking cover).  I had also forgotten how short the game really is--maybe 6-8 hours of play--that seems so miniscule today.  Despite all that Half-Life 2 is still a completely brilliant game--the quick pace of combat, the strong story that compels you to keep pushing forward, and the cliffhanger ending.  It really is a shame that the series was never completed.

After the brief but enjoyable foray into Half-Life 2, I decided I should try to tackle some of the games on my pile of shame.  A few years ago I had played through about 80% of Divinity:  Original Sin and then had given up for some reason.  It had been so long that I didn't think I could step back into that specific playthrough and feel comfortable with what I vaguely remembered from several years ago.  It was time for a new game!  Plus, there was the new "enhanced edition" which promised to take a fun CRPG and make it even better.  Last night I dedicated myself to creating a new duo of heroes and begin my second round of adventuring.

If you were like me and you played D:OS and found yourself a little frustrated by certain aspects of the game (the lack of tutorials and somewhat complicated mechanics of certain core CRPG features) it would be well worth your while to download the updated version.  There are new tutorials, menus, and voiceovers which take an already good game and make it great.  I had a hard time tearing myself away from it last night.

If you're thinking of spending your holiday weekend enjoying the great indoors--consider booting up a classic game or delving into your pile of shame.  Happy gaming!

Four in February

According to PBS's web series "Game Show" only 10-20% of games are actually played to completion.  Fellow gamers, that is a travesty (and one that I'm guilty of)!  I have seen several articles relating to Joystiq's "Four in February" challenge which pushes gamers to pick four games that they haven't finished and complete them in the month of February (you can read a Kotaku article related to this challenge here).

I would love to commit to this, but think I would fail horribly.  So what games are in your so-called "pile of shame?"  I hate to admit to many of mine but they still aren't finished.  Here's my pile:

1.) Divinity:  Original Sin
I am extremely happy about the resurrection of the CRPG but just haven't been able to finish this awesome game.  The really sad part about it is that I'm pretty sure I'm like 80-90% done with it (I think I've played about 60-70 hours).  I've enjoyed pilfering paintings and gold cups but am really struggling to find the motivation to finish it off.  Every time I enter combat it feels like it takes forever (damn you modern developers who have made combat so much easier--now I expect it to be a faceroll and when it's not I lose interest).  Shame on me for not finishing a game that won a lot of awards and respect.  Someday I will finish you....someday!  (Most likely this summer.  For realsies.)

2.) Gauntlet
My brother bought me this as a gift which was really awesome but I haven't finished off this modern remake of the arcade classic.  It's one game that really needs multiple people and is much more fun with a group.  I've tried to solo through some of it and have found that it's not as engaging with just one person.  I think if I really buckled down I could finish it fairly easily.

3.) The Space Quest Collection
I enjoy classic games.  Especially classic games from my youth that have fond memories attached to them.  As a kid the King's Quest and Space Quest series were two of my favorites.  Sierra really had a great thing going with both of these adventure games.  Sadly, I have not finished all of the games in the series.  I own the full collection of both (Kings Quest I-VII and Space Quest I-V or possibly VI) and still haven't finished all the games in either series.  I would love to finish them..someday.

4.) Spelunky
Ugh.  Just looking at the title makes me depressed.  I know there are a lot of people who absolutely love this game.  It got much critical acclaim and I gleefully bought into it only to discover that I want nothing to do with this game.  It sits in my library and the 45 minutes of playtime stares me right in the face.  I feel much shame over Spelunky...so much shame.

Those are the top four that I can think of.  I know I have many others that lie unfinished....The Elder Scrolls III:  Morrowind, Five Nights at Freddy's (1 and 2--I am a coward), Crypt of the NecroDancer....just to name a few.