Divine Divinity Retrospective Review

It’s been a little less than a decade since the release of Larian Studios’ Divine Divinity, but it’s never too late to read yet another review for the title, courtesy of the Huffington Post, that hosts a downright enthusiastic piece on the action-RPG.

There is SO much to see, do, and explore in this game — I barely scratched the surface and I managed to hit well over 300 hours in a single playthrough! There are tons and tons of side quests, and the game almost requires you to do several of them (since they give you much needed experience points). But do not fear – side quests in Divine Divinity are rarely menial, like the typical fetch quests of other RPGs (gather 10 pieces of wood, kill 20 wolves, etc.). Instead, side quests are like mini storylines with several chapters, and they tell compelling narratives on their own. For example, one side quest involved finding the source of a poison that was infecting a town’s population; another had me investigating political corruption within another town. These side quests are meaningful and important, and increase your stake in the game world and its inhabitants. Also, most side quests also have multiple endings, meaning that your choices actually impact the game world. This is another example of how immersive the game world is.

Adding to this is the game’s “population”; there are hundreds of NPC’s populating the game world, and each one of them has a unique personality to match. They all go about their lives in an organic way, waking up in the morning and going to bed at night (yes, the game has a realistic day/night cycle) Dialogue in the game is more free-form (a la Mass Effect), meaning you can interact with them in many ways.

It’s worth noting that the game is only $5.99 on Good Old Games, which is a steal for such a recommended buy.