Divinity: Dragon Commander Reviews

We’ve rounded up a couple more reviews for Divinity: Dragon Commander, Larian’s latest title, which so far has been getting slightly mixed reviews, with the RTS combat in particular receiving some pointed criticism.

We kick off things with RPGWatch’s piece, 4/5.

Technically, Dragon Commander punches above the weight expected of an independent studio. It’s not fair to talk about bugs in a non-retail version, but art style and graphical detail is excellent throughout the game, especially on board the Raven. The audio is also of high quality, especially the music score and voice acting. The battle parts of the game aren’t quite as graphically rich as the rest of the game, but the dragon form is particularly well designed and animated, and some of the backgrounds/area designs are very artistic. My i7 950 and HD7870 was able to run the game with every option enabled, including v-sync, at 1080p resolution and it was completely smooth throughout.

In conclusion it’s a shame about the flaws, because Larian have made a game with a lot of charm here. Despite being seemingly made up of completely disparate elements, they have skilfully made sure that actions in each part of the game have some bearing on the others, and most of the game feels lovingly crafted and is so fun as to almost forgive the negatives. It doesn’t quite hit the mark in all aspects of the gameplay, and it also doesn’t seem quite sure of where it lies on the comic-serious scale (the background story cutscenes are narrated in a comedic style worthy of Cary Elwes, together with a Chaplin-esque honky-tonk accompaniment, yet some of the political themes are anything but comic), nonetheless, it remains a decent homage to older games that experimented with new forms of gameplay without being confined to one specific, defined, genre.

GamesBeat, 80/100.

Divinity: Dragon Commander came out of nowhere to become one of my favorite games of the year. Swift, brutal dragon combat paired with large RTS battles works way better than I ever expected it to. And though the plot never deviated from its main arc unifying the world as the new emperor I spent a lot of time thinking about the many decisions it presents you with. My choices gave me a personal stake in the matter and made the repercussions feel meaningful, even if they were just a handful of opinions and some numbers on a board.

Finally, Angry Joe Show awards the title a 7.0/10 in their video review, and Reclaim Your Game awards it a 79% in their consumer-friendliness review (not an assessment of the quality of the game).