Divinity: Original Sin Preview

Those of you looking for some hands-on impressions of Larian’s promising RPG Divinity: Original Sin need only look over at this extensive piece on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. A few paragraphs to get things moving:

Just outside the town, along a beach, there’s a single orc crying, mourning his brother who died in a large battle against a gang of humans. He doesn’t want to fight anymore, just to grieve in peace, and when he mentions that his brother was buried close by, along with some fancy equipment, there’s a sidequest to follow up on. That could be the end of the story. He’s just a big lonely blubbering survivor of war and he doesn’t need to be dealt with in any way whatsoever. I had no desire to desecrate his brother’s grave so I carried on down the road.

It wasn’t long before I ran into an altogether nastier group of orcs. They were level 8, on average, and counted shaman and a giant crossbow-wielding bastard among their number. Me and my companion were level 2. No area of the game is off-limits and creatures don’t level up when the player does, so it’s entirely possible to wander into trouble. This area was only a few screens from the town and yet we found ourselves outnumbered and outclassed. We should have just fled, using a combination of our magical teleporting triangles and good old-fashioned sprinting, but I had other ideas.

(Why don’t we lead them back to town? Let the guards kill them. We might get loads of experience if we join in the fight.) Later, as it turns out, I realised that the players only receive experience if they strike the killing blow. I suggested letting the guards whittle the orcs down and then killing orc and guard alike, but my partner wasn’t too pleased by that plan. I suppose one of us had to make sure the other behaved.

But the initial plan? It was a great idea. We agreed to lure the orcs, using most of our action points each turn to flee far enough that we couldn’t be struck, and then using our various powers to create hazards between ourselves and the enemy. Elements play an important role in combat, far more interesting than the WATER COUNTERS FIRE kind of system you’re probably imagining. That comes into play as well, but spells also change scenery.

Rivers can be frozen, creating new paths. Rainstorms can be summoned to soak enemies, making them more vulnerable to electric bolts and lightning strikes. A cloud of poisonous gas might explode if a fireball passes through it and even pools of blood, created as enemies and allies fall, will freeze and become slippery hazards. And it’s slippery-slidey ice that turned the first part of the battle into farce.