Divinity Original Sin

[Bison]

What I've read is that if you join the game at character creation, both players get to make their characters individually.  Additionally one cool feature that I was reading about is that the two players are not tied to each other, so one can mill around experimenting with crafting while the other is out exploring.  Pretty cool.  You definitely are going to have to like the person you coop with because you'll be spending a good amount of time wandering around and figuring things out.  This isn't fast paced action like Diablo 3 or Torchlight 2.

I've spent a good 2 hours just wandering around the city talking to folks and searching barrels/crates/bags...my bags are starting to get the pack rat clutter I love so much in RPGs.  I have no idea what to do with 99.9% of it.

There is a significantly steep learning curve with certain aspects of the game.  Crafting comes to mind.  All you get is hints in the books you find.  That's the same with the quests.  Hints and suggestions.  Nothing more.  So there is a good deal of thinking and problem solving that goes along with the game.  It definitely harkens back to the old school isometric games of the 90's and early 2000s.

I will give one piece of advice.  Save your game...a lot.  Death comes quickly and unexpectedly.  Not to spoil the game but let's just say I used my shovel on a pile of dirt and hit a massive mine.  Both of my characters died immediately.  I had to go back to my last save, which was a good 15 minutes prior to that point.  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway it's not a game for everyone.  The pace is slow.  Lot's of reading and wandering around.  The story is fairly typical fantasy.  Marauding orcs and an undead problem at the start of the game.  It's right up my alley.  Also the camera can be a little wonky, by using the overhead view gives you 360 turning view other wise the "over the shoulder" view is about 90 degree turning limit.  I don't get the design choice but there it is.  It can be annoying, but isn't game breaking.

[Nefaro]

There is an option to turn off the camera rotation limits, IIRC.

[Toonces]

If Kushan likes it I might have to take a closer look at this...   >:D

[Yskonyn]

I locked it up for a friend and myself. I have about 2 hours into it now andI am really liking it. It looks very nice; a great mix between realistic Shadows and lighting and cartoony objects and textures. Not something everyone will like, but I do.

And humour! The game shows a witty sense of humour throughout! From animations to dialog. Its sometimes even Monty Python - esque in its dry, brilliant humour.
For example I had let a conversation run out of hand between my heroes and two drunks which resulted in the death of those two.
While the conversation at first was firm and got darker, after the fight it suddenly became very pragmatic: "well, there you have it. Two dead.". Where my other character responded in an "oh well" fashion. Funny !

Sound is very well done too. Positional audio works well and the ambient sounds work well to set the mood of a scène.

I havent seen much of character development yet, but when gaining a level you get to spend a point on attributes and a skill.
The skills seem to funnel you a bit as I couldn't assign aa point to a skill with already one point in it.

Combat is truely fun and nicely animated! The environment is Dynamic as well; you van bash oil barrels to make an oil pool and light that on Fire by throwing in a candle or a Fire spell, etc.
Fire can be removed with water.
Poison with fire. Puzzles involve moving objects. It's fun.

And the First ability of the Battlemage never gets old! Literally there appears a Giant fist above the head of the target and stomps it into the ground, leaving it knocked down for a few rounds, haha!

Tpek wished the system would continue after having done a move in combat? It does switch to the next character but only if you spent ALL your action points.
Often 1 or 2 remain (check the bar with the dots above the hotbar) where you have insufficiënt AP for a move and therefore need to end turn yourself.
The unspent AP is added to your next move which is nice.

[tgb]

I started my first game with a Fighter and a Cleric and played a little past the tutorial dungeon just to get the lay of the land.  Now I want to restart with a more interesting character combination.  Suggestions?

[Grim.Reaper]

What I've read is that if you join the game at character creation, both players get to make their characters individually.  Additionally one cool feature that I was reading about is that the two players are not tied to each other, so one can mill around experimenting with crafting while the other is out exploring.  Pretty cool.  You definitely are going to have to like the person you coop with because you'll be spending a good amount of time wandering around and figuring things out.  This isn't fast paced action like Diablo 3 or Torchlight 2.

I've spent a good 2 hours just wandering around the city talking to folks and searching barrels/crates/bags...my bags are starting to get the pack rat clutter I love so much in RPGs.  I have no idea what to do with 99.9% of it.

There is a significantly steep learning curve with certain aspects of the game.  Crafting comes to mind.  All you get is hints in the books you find.  That's the same with the quests.  Hints and suggestions.  Nothing more.  So there is a good deal of thinking and problem solving that goes along with the game.  It definitely harkens back to the old school isometric games of the 90's and early 2000s.

I will give one piece of advice.  Save your game...a lot.  Death comes quickly and unexpectedly.  Not to spoil the game but let's just say I used my shovel on a pile of dirt and hit a massive mine.  Both of my characters died immediately.  I had to go back to my last save, which was a good 15 minutes prior to that point.  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway it's not a game for everyone.  The pace is slow.  Lot's of reading and wandering around.  The story is fairly typical fantasy.  Marauding orcs and an undead problem at the start of the game.  It's right up my alley.  Also the camera can be a little wonky, by using the overhead view gives you 360 turning view other wise the "over the shoulder" view is about 90 degree turning limit.  I don't get the design choice but there it is.  It can be annoying, but isn't game breaking.

Sounds interesting.....looks like you have to look and search through everything so you don't miss anything....just curious about the pile of dirt and mine.   Was there any clue that you missed there was a mine under there or is it just random bad luck and nothing you can do about it?  That would frustrate me if I just died for that reason without possibly having the ability to notice it or defuse it first.

Also, is the game fairly scripted on dialogs and location of items?  Or is it random during each play through?  Just trying to understand replayability.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[undercovergeek]

you know what?

youre a bunch of gits thats what you are?

when undercoverjunior asks why we're not going to disneyland and only going to peppa pig world im sending her here, and you can explain

and above all that the last 3 purchases ive made add up to the beta access to elite and i convinced myself it was too expensive  >:(

[Gusington]

Are cities done well here? Do they feel like real cities? The lack of true urban areas in Skyrim is probably ny only issue with that game.

[Grim.Reaper]

you know what?

youre a bunch of gits thats what you are?

when undercoverjunior asks why we're not going to disneyland and only going to peppa pig world im sending her here, and you can explain

and above all that the last 3 purchases ive made add up to the beta access to elite and i convinced myself it was too expensive  >:(

I joined the club.....ended up buying today but I happened to stumble across someone that bought the collector's edition and was trying to offload the second copy cheap....ended up getting for $23 (also includes the games Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity) so I figure worth the risk at that cost:)  I don't think you end up getting the DLC since I don't see that anywhere, but not a huge deal for me...if I like the game, can pick that up later.

[TheCommandTent]

You guys are not making this easy to wait to buy.......

[Grim.Reaper]

You guys are not making this easy to wait to buy.......

Come on in, the water is fine:)

[Grim.Reaper]

For those that did not see...manual now published.....can only help me to understand this better:)

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/230230/manuals/DOS_manual_05_web.pdf?t=1404216619

[Grim.Reaper]

Also some kind of update released this morning....for people that bought the DLC, that was actually made available this morning as well with a 1.2 GB update.

[Bison]

Are cities done well here? Do they feel like real cities? The lack of true urban areas in Skyrim is probably ny only issue with that game.

The starting town is very similarly populated to games like Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate (and I'm sure it's also like Skyrim).  There are not hundreds of towns folk running around, so in that regard it may seem empty.  This isn't something that ever really bothered me, but it's always been a feature of this style game.  On the positive side you can have a dialogue with (so far) any of the towns folk.  Some of the dialogues are repetitive but that too is par for the course.  There is a nice set of ambient sounds and voices, so it helps create the feel of a more populated town.  I wonder if developers don't eliminate the idea of needless (in terms of quest advancement) NPCs in order to improve game performance.

[Bison]

There is an option to turn off the camera rotation limits, IIRC.

You are correct, sir.