After a year of early access, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is finally out! DOS: 2 is a role-playing game developed and published by Larian Studio released on September 14, 2017.
History
In DOS: 2, we play as a sorcerer who is deported to Fort Joy, a penal colony where all the users of the Source are sent, managed, guarded and watched by the Magisters of the Divine Order.
The divinities have disappeared, the last Divine has been dead for several decades and the world is plagued by chaos and attacks from formidable monsters, called "Destroyers". The latter, attracted by the Source, appear as soon as the latter is used, hence the “hunt for sorcerers”.
DOS: 2 being an RPG, it's hard to say more without revealing the story.
Be aware, however, that if you have not played Divinity: Original Sin, the first name, it does not bother! The game is set approximately 1 years after the events of the first Original Sin. Apart from missing a few small light references, you will not miss anything and you will have no problem understanding!
In addition to the story of the game itself, you will also have to discover and follow the story of your character and that of your fellow travelers.
If you choose one of the pre-created characters, you will therefore have access to a new part of the story, linked to it. There are a total of 6.
The Origins integrate perfectly with the universe and the story of the game, adding many possibilities and evolution of the story, linked to your origins.
Character creation
As in any self-respecting RPG, there is of course a creation of characters. In the latter, you can select the origin of your characters, either among one of the six existing ones, or by creating one yourself.
If you choose one of the pre-existing origins, you will be able to customize the character's appearance, but neither his gender nor his race. You will be able to choose a starting class of your choice.
There is a total of 5 races, namely: dwarf, human, lizard, elf and undead. The living dead are a little different from each other. The latter have, as a "basic" appearance, that of one of the other races, except that they are in "skeleton" version.
Each race has specific racial spells and talents. Lizards can, for example, dig without the need for a shovel and have a fire spell that cannot be obtained otherwise. Undead are healed by poison, can feign death, and even take on the appearance of any race (allowing them to gain their abilities in the process!). Elves have the power to eat corpses in order to heal themselves and relive memories. Dwarves have a stealth bonus and can petrify enemies, etc.
Then come the classes. It is important to note that the classes are just used to have "bases" and that it is possible to develop our character as we see fit.
You can very well start as a knight and orient yourself as enchanting once in play for example. There are a total of 14 classes, including 2 new ones that were not present in the first game, to have:
- Fighter
- Inquisitor
- Knight
- Shapeshifter (new class)
- Cleaning
- Gredin
- Blade of Shadows
- Traveler
- Wizard
- Mage
- Combat mage
- Ecclesiatic
- Conjurer (new class)
- Enchanting
One of the big novelties is the adaptability of the equipment according to the races. Indeed, each race will have equipment with a specific appearance. This is only visual of course, there is no equipment system linked to a race.
And finally, one of the last novelties directly linked to the origins, these are keywords. As said above, there will be the “default” origins, linked to characters who have their own quests, and therefore, who have their own keywords, etc., but it will also be possible to create your own character with its own keywords.
These define the story and character of your character. There are those that are basically related to your character's race and gender, but also others that you can choose as you see fit.
So you can define as keywords that your character is a Lizard, Man, Outlaw, and Jester. The keywords will allow unlock dialogues or actions possible throughout your adventure.
In addition, depending on your actions in the game, it will be quite possible to unlock new ones!
It is interesting to note that, although the basic story remains the same, the course and evolution of the latter will be different depending on your character, their origins, their race and even their class.
The same goes for the whole adventure, whether it's side quests, dialogues with NPCs, your relationships with them, etc.
The game and its gameplay
If you've played the first of the name, you won't get lost in the gameplay of the game. The basics are the same, although a lot of little new features have emerged.
One of the most important is to take into account verticality. Indeed, if you are high in relation to your enemies, you will have a damage bonus, on the contrary, if you are below in relation to your enemies, you will do less damage.
This addition concerns both physical and magical ranged attacks, so it is a very important parameter to take into account!
Another novelty is magic and physical armor which is added to the life bar. Now, to do damage to the health bar, you must first remove the armor of your enemies (and vice versa, when the enemies attack).
These two armors also make it possible to protect against state alterations. If, for example, you want to charm an opponent with a spell and they still have magic armor, the spell will fail.
The fights thus become a little more technical and tactical, preventing to make some abuses which were possible in the first opus, of the style to bewitch several adversaries from the first round.
Enemies will not have the same physical and magic armor points. Some will have a very large magic armor, but, in return, a very weak physical armor, or vice versa. It also pushes to have a complementary team, which can do damage of any type.
The interactions with the world are very extensive. Gone are the days of sending one of your characters to talk to an NPC to distract attention while you send another of your characters to empty their house or sell them back what you just stole from them. D
years DOS: 2, NPCs will find out if items have been stolen, if chests / doors have been hooked, etc. They will be able to stop you, search you, attack you directly or even leave to call the guard.
Likewise, due to your status as a sorcerer, it is not recommended to use the powers of the Source in front of a witness. Some will have nothing to worry about, but others will be afraid and alert the guard!
Riddles are of course still present!
On the side of lifetime, I haven't finished the game yet. I am currently at 70h (78h actually, but I had already played during Early Access) of the game in my game and I am still at act 2 on the three available.
Larian gave some information by specifying that, overall in terms of content, act 1 represents 25% of the game, act 2 represents 50% of the game and act 3, 25% as well. Knowing that I only discovered half of the map of Act 2, I think I still have easily about XNUMX hours of play before I get to the end, if not more.
Of course, it will depend on how you play. Personally, I'm a perfectionist and dig into every inch of the game. But someone who doesn't explore every corner will finish the game faster. The service life is nevertheless at least about fifty hours.
In addition, the game has immense replayability, by the origins, the keywords, the many possibilities to complete the quests, etc.
Graphics, sound and optimization
Let's start with the graphics. The game is very beautiful. The visual effects, whether spells or sets (light, reflections, etc.) look really good. The characters and settings are also extremely detailed, even when zooming in to the maximum you will see details of the equipment or the settings, such as rags, hair, etc.
The world is teeming with different settings. There are "normal" cities, mines, caves, etc., but also desert regions, cursed, bloody, etc.
With regard to the soundtrack, she is magnificent. The music perfectly matches the atmosphere. The themes will stay in your mind for a long time. The sound effects (noise of spells, damage, etc.) are also very well transcribed.
Let's end with optimization. I have an “average” computer (I5 3,2 Gz - 8 GB of ram - GTX960 2 GB) and the game is running in “ultra” preset, in 1920 * 1080 at 60IPS without problem. I had no crashes or concerns about slowing down.
However, from a moment, the game starts to take a little time to save, whereas at the beginning of the adventure, it is instantaneous. Fortunately, this does not interfere with the game session. backups are heavy, if you have cloud saves enabled and you have a connection with a low upload rate, you may spend some time waiting for the synchronization to take place when you quit the game (A manual save, 5 auto backups and 5 quick backups total approximately 100MB).
Conclusion
For me, like its predecessor, DOS: 2 is the role-playing game of the year! The lifespan and replayability are simply immense. Add to that the ability to create your own stories and even your own in-game RPG parts and you've got a game you can easily spend hundreds of hours on.
The fact that the adventure is different depending on your origins adds even more replayability.
If you are a fan of Neverwinter Night & co-style role-playing games, DOS: 2 is their perfect successor and I highly recommend it!
