Divinity 2 Definitive Edition

Is or has anyone played this? I'm thinking of purchasing it from the reviews (which may just be hype). What do (did) you think of it? Is it worth the price? Did it work well? Was it too tactical for the combat to be enjoyed?
Thanks for your opinions!

Hi Debra, I hope some of our members here will be able to offer their opinions.

We had a thread going when it was released here: Divinity 2: Original Sin that might give you some insight.

I found it very challenging at times. Yes, it does require tactical thinking, and pretty early in the game as well. How tactical is kind of subjective, sort of depends on your tolerance. Like I mention in the thread I got killed quite often, early on until I figured out that you can grind a bit and level up to make certain encounters a bit easier. The controls are a little different than I like, so I ended up changing some of the keybindings. Unfortunately, real life got in the way so I didn't finish it, but I think Hagatha gave it a good thrashing and will have some input.

All in all, it is a well constructed game that had a couple nasty bugs, but they've released a ton of patches, so I'd think it's running quite smoothly now. Great story and good dialogue, old school RPG style with no lack of challenges.

TM

Not Original Sin - BUT :

Ages ago, I bought "Divinity 11 Developer’s Cut" which allows you to use some of the developer's tools to "cheat" as and when you like

But I haven't got around to trying it yet ....

I loved the first half of the "normal" release but once I got dragon powers in the second half I just couldn't cope. The controls totally defeated me

I have the Developer's Cut and starting playing it, but quit for some reason. Maybe I should start there again. I will check the thread you mentioned Trail_Mystic. Thanks for the insights.

Is this thread about "Divinity 2: Developer's Cut"?

or about "Divinity: Original Sin 2: Definitive Edition"?

Sorry, Jenny100 !! I am certainly guilty of going off topic

I'm not complaining, Mad, just confused.

It's my understanding that the following are the games in the Divinity series :

Divine Divinity (2002)
Beyond Divinity (2004)
Divinity II (2009)
Divinity: Dragon Commander (2013)
Divinity: Original Sin (2015)
Divinity: Original Sin II (2017)

Which of these is classed as Divinity 2 Definitive Edition ??

Mad, Debra was just "shorthanding" the name. The Definitive Edition is associated with Divinity: Original Sin II.

Reference: Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition on Steam or The Definitive Edition on GOG

It's called the Definitive Edition because it has all the add-ons. Sort of like the Game of the Year (GOY) editions that are issued for other popular games.

TM

Thanks, Trail.
And thanks for the list, Mad.
Do you know if these are meant to be played in order?
Or are they separate stories.

In general, the games are separate stories and the continuity is somewhat loose. Playing the first two games in order does give you a sense of continuity. They start to move away from the RPG genre and a more isolated story line in Divinity 2. Dragon Commander is significantly different, being more of an RTS than RPG. Original Sin and Original Sin 2 are back to the RPG genre, but more of an Action RPG. There is some tactical thinking required in D:OS2, but it's closer to the party based RPG's that required you to think how you're going to approach a battle without getting killed; so tactical from that sense.

TM

Thank you.
Solved.
Much appreciated

Thanks again, Trail.

Would you say Divinity 2 is not an RPG then?
Is it more action/adventure or RTS?

It definitely has RPG elements: a character development tree, skill upgrades and so on. At the same time though, It has aspects of a combat heavy action/adventure game and requires equipment upgrades throughout. So, I guess calling it an Action/RPG would be more accurate, rather than saying it moved away from the RPG genre. Dragon Commander is definitely an RTS though.

So, something else that might help differentiate this game from D:OS 2 is that the name of the original release was Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, which hints at an aspect of the game where the player can transform into a dragon. It gets a little confusing, because a few years later they re-released it with an expansion and additional content calling it the Dragon Knight Saga. Some say that the second release was better than the first, fixing some story issues. Also, it's worth mentioning that people lost their minds on the original ending in the first release. Personally, I thought it was a great twist on what everyone has come to expect from fantasy games, but the Developers bowed to the pressure and released an optional patch that gave the game a different ending.

I thought the original Divine Divinity was an action RPG.
So you're saying Divinity II has more action than that?

I've been wondering if I should skip Divinity II and go straight to Divinity: Original Sin.

My opinion of Divinity II was that it was definitely "RPG" material. And really good as far as I was concerned. I wouldn't say it was a lot more "action heavy" than the original .... the first half of it, anyway
[I can't vouch for the second half, having had to give up on it because of the awful "dragon" controls.]


However, I also felt the original Divine Divinity was definitely RPG. But what do I know ??

Is there no way to remap the controls?
Or is not remapping the controls not the problem?


I think of "Action RPG" as being similar to Diablo.
"Action RPG" as opposed to turn-based RPG.

Of course there are degrees of difficulty of "action."

I guess I'm not expressing myself effectively - Sorry, trying not to give too much away, but not communicating well in the process. First off, I enjoyed all the games.

The revamp of Divinity 2: Ego Draconis as "The Dragon Knight Saga" made the game feel much more like a classic RPG. Also, it is real-time combat, not turn based.

When you morph into a dragon, the "feel" of the controls do change. It's been a long time since I played, so I don't recall if you can tweak the response speed, and I'm not sure if remapping would really change the gameplay. You are navigating as a dragon, so you present a bigger target than a person and aren't as nimble. The movements of a flying dragon obviously differ from a running or strafing human on a 2 dimensional surface, so you need to take that into account during combat.

Here's an example of the dragon based combat: Divinity 2: Dragon transformation and combat

As opposed to the first games and the aforementioned, Divinity 2: Original Sin uses turn based combat.

I suppose when I see games such as Divine Divinity (which don't have turn based combat) advertised as RPG's, that's what I assume they are. And I have been happy to buy and play several of them.

But, as I said previously .... "what do I know" !!

So I do apologise if I'm altogether wrong in my classifications and maybe I should bow out of this thread

Not sure what you mean, Mad.
No one said Divine Divinity wasn't an RPG.
"Action RPG" is a subgenre of RPG.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_RPG


By "Action/RPG" do you mean something different from "Action RPG" without the slash?

Yes

Well that explains things.
Sorry for the confusion.
I suppose I should just play Divinity II and see what it's like,
but I'd really rather start up Divinity: Original Sin instead.

Mad, no need to bow out of a thread, silly

Game classifications have changed some over the years and can definitely get confusing sometimes. Plus, my drummer is playing a different beat than most anyway.

I should probably work up a listing of the traditional definitions of game types, how they've changed through the years and post it as a perpetual sticky for reference. Just need to make a little time for it.

My RPG roots go all the way back to the original Dungeons and Dragons pencil and paper games. You know, when we just threw rocks at each other instead of sending email. The more important the message the bigger the rock

Anyway, as a result of that my definition of a pure RPG is different than what's related in some online definitions.

For me, it needs huge character development - Not only the standard attributes like strength and intelligence, but also stuff like base skills and alignment (i.e. Good, Neutral, Evil, Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil and so on). Also, the race (elf, dwarf, celestial or whatever) of a character should have a fairly significant bearing on the character's attributes and skills. There should be more than three classes. Seems like so many games are dumbing down that selection to Warrior, Mage, Rogue or a minor variation there of. Mages should have a ton of potential spells from various schools and warriors should have powers that align with their martial skills all of which should trace back to their base attributes in some way. There should even be, dare I say it, the ability for a character to follow a deity, which should also impact their skills, powers or attributes. Combat should be turn-based, attacks, damage, criticals and so on should be based on calculations that have variables pulled from the character's development. Party interaction should also be available, and there should be impacts to the party overall based on the combination of characters in it - But wait, there's more!

I feel that Role Playing is centered around the Role your playing So, development of your character should be at least as complex as the story itself. With classic D&D based RPG's once again gaining in popularity, I do get the feeling that game makers are slowly turning back around to that style.

I'll stop here, I'm getting way too wordy for my own good. Costing GB bandwidth LOL!

Thank you for that very comprehensive reply, Trail_Mystic. Appreciated

If you do that, I'll certainly be interested in reading it.

Yes. Me too. And probably millions of others !!!!

I'd be interested in it also even though I'm not much into darkside games. I know what RPG stands for and have an idea what it means but there is a mention above of RTS. Lost me! So, it would be a nice reference to have.

RTS = Real Time Strategy

Ah, thanks Marian.

You know, I was loving this game and then life intervened again - my Alienware is starting to show its age and has been out of commission for a while. In the meantime I've sort of been bouncing from one older game to another on my new, no -gaming laptop because my head just isn't into challenging.

Lately I seem to have fallen down The Dark Mod rabbit hole....very impressive missions. Better than the actual game, in my opinion.

I do plan on getting back to this game, because it's very good. I might even start again -- I was a long way in when I quit.