Jeff Vogel on Divinity: Original Sin II

Spiderweb Software’s founder Jeff Vogel played through Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin II recently and then wrote a lengthy blog post about his experiences with it. And even though he didn’t enjoy the game that much, he still ended up proclaiming Original Sin II “the ideal of the indie aesthetic.” A few snippets:

I recently played indie RPG megahit Divinity: Original Sin 2. I went through it front to back, spending over 90 hours (Normal/Classic difficulty). It’d be a pity to expend so much time if I didn’t get a blog post out of it.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (or DOS2 as I’ll call it) is really the ideal of the indie aesthetic. It feels like it’s a product of actual humans, and it clearly wants to deliver one pure, special, niche experience. It’s a big, weird game that’s made a bajillion dollars. It doesn’t care about any of the rough edges, as long as it follows its vision purely.

And there are rough edges. There are long periods of time where DOS2 feels like a gigantic clump of rough edges awkwardly glued together.

Let’s dive in. It’s a big, weird game that’s made a bajillion dollars. Plenty to say about it.

What Is DOS2?

It’s an enormous, turn-based, story-heavy fantasy RPG with a lot of gameplay and long, very difficult, involved battles. It’s a tough game. It’s got a lot of wild multiplayer options, though I’ll be focusing on single-player stuff. It took me over 90 hours to play, and I skipped a lot of quests.

You don’t need to play the previous game to enjoy it. It takes place in a different era or something. I tried to play the previous game, but I got totally stuck because I didn’t notice a button hidden behind a ham.

What Does DOS2 Do Well?

I have to start out with the best thing about DOS2, the thing that really makes it compelling: It has turn-based fantasy combat that is actually exciting. The battles are long (1-2 hours), unpredictable, and have an epic feel to them. They are very cool.

I really need to emphasize how remarkable this is. I’ve been following the RPG genre since the beginning, and I think it’s really important to acknowledge what an accomplishment the battles are. It’s some next-level stuff.

What Are the Rough Edges?

Every other single thing.

[…]

My Final Takeaway

Again, I must stress, the RPG combat in this game is some of the best I’ve ever seen. The fights are long but really satisfying when they work right. A lot of the writing is really good. The production values are great. Definitely worth a try if you love old-school RPGs.

But honestly? In the end I was tired. Even the shortest battle takes a while, and I was avoiding conflicts just because I was exhausted with the game. The fighting works great, but overall usability needs a lot of attention.

I won’t be getting any DLC or sequels unless things change a lot. I’m glad I had this experience, I really am, but I don’t need more of it.