Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Easy Allies Review

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an incredibly rich RPG that not only builds a world filled with choice, but makes you care deeply about those decisions.

Written by Ben Moore
Video Edited by Ian Hinck
Reviewed on PC
Available on PC

[fastmovingvolcanomatter]

Great review, I agree wholeheartedly, I really can't recommend this game enough if you're an RPG fan, this thing is absolutely insane. The fact that it's only $45USD is likely the single greatest absurdity ever documented by mankind. I'm a person who plays games exhaustively, getting everything I can out of everything I play, and I left the first area after 34 hours of engaging, memorable gameplay. Every item in my inventory has a story attached to it, and I could tell war stories about every member of my party. There was something to do or loot to collect in just about every nook and cranny I came across, and I loved every second of my experience there. Couple that with the staggering freedom the game offers (both in how you build out your characters and in how you approach completing objectives), and you've got a world and game that feels more "real" and alive than just about anything else before it.

That all being said, this game is not necessarily for everyone. If you're a person who prefers a game with a clear through-line, a game that's gonna tell you very clearly and concisely what you need to be doing, when you need to be doing it, and how you should probably do it, this might be a bad time for you. If you're a person who doesn't like the idea of "builds", or who doesn't enjoy making decisions about every aspect of their characters, character management is probably going to be kinda tedious for you. If you're a person who hates the idea of missing out on content just because you didn't spend a ton of time combing a single area top to bottom looking for secrets, you're probably gonna have some issues. But if you're a person itching for a more-than-grand quest with a sense of adventure so palpable you can nearly taste it, where just about every decision you'll ever make will matter and have consequences, where combat is complex and challenging to the point of near unfathomability, and where freedom is so abundant that just about any crazy solution to an issue you can possibly think of will (probably, like 8 times out of 10) work, ***this game is for you***.

And if I may, here's an example of some of the freedom I enjoyed early on in the game that totally blew me away. There's a certain gate in Fort Joy that's guarded by four or five enemy soldiers. There are several quests that involve you getting through that gate, so you'll probably need to go through it at some point. Honestly, I'm not quite sure how you're meant to get inside without fighting the soldiers. Didn't know then, don't know now. When you first get there they'll out level you by quite a bit, so you'll probably decide to put off fighting them until later. That is until you hear that there's a pair of "Teleportation Gloves" elsewhere on the island. Upon acquiring those gloves, you may come back to the gate and find that you can actually teleport the melee-focused guards over the gate where they can't harm you. You may also find that there are two raised platforms at just the right height for your own ranged character(s) to be able to slowly chip away at them from near-complete safety, allowing you to kill the guards and open the gate despite being considerably out-leveled by your opponents, having used your own sense of ingenuity to re-orient an encounter an make an unwinnable fight trivially easy. Now I won't say that **every** fight can be flipped around like that. What I will say however, is that the freedom this game allows is going to be your greatest ally if you choose to embrace it. Embrace it.

[adityariyer]

I’ve waited for this review for 5 months! Anyways great one Ben!

[taseenmalik]

This game getting a 9.5 just feels so much better than getting 4.5 stars. Love the new scoring system

[zodiac]

8:14
Assume Potbelly is Moof and Kill him.
Immediately recruit Potbelly into the party.
Cast Eldritch Blast and go about your way.

[HueyTheDoctor]

I'll take a late and insight review over a punctual and ineffectual one any day. Feel free to take your time with reviews; the important thing is that they stay as deep, insightful and reliable as they always have been.

[sheaodland]

Going through the first one with my girlfriend right now. We finally hit the halfway point not too long ago. This game is a beast. I’d guess we’ve probably put about 40 hours in so far, but 30 of those were spent getting our asses kicked on the normal difficulty. Really enjoying it after bumping the difficulty down. Amazing game.

[JimmyGoodYT]

Well done, Ben! So well written. Great edit too, Ian!

[zKyleful]

Oh man, I can't wait for this game to come to ps4.. The first one is one of my favorite games and this one seems even better.

[Helthurian]

You guys took a really long time with this one, likely because there were other on paper "bigger" titles, but I'm glad you still covered it in the end. Great review. =)

[shino]

Ya finally did it, Ben! Congrats. Well worth it

[BOTCHED]

I'm glad the true GOTY finally got it's review

[Darkholow]

I've been waiting almost half a year for this review, but at the end of the day I'm happy that you got around to finishing the review Ben so thank you for that!

[goose]

Thanks for not rushing it out; well-cooked review! Great job Ben!

[lilyrubyify]

My best RPG experience in recent years.

[bengotagun]

You guys are truly the best in the game in terms of reviews. I usually always go to EZA first, but for some reason I poked around at other reviews for this one at first. When I finally landed on this review, it was clear how far above you guys are in terms of writing, production, VO and efficiency of language. Plus, Ben Moore is a top notch writer. Thank you! Gonna pick this up on Switch.

[drdof]

I have this sitting on my Gog account, ready to play with 3 of my brothers for a COOP adventure.

The only reason we haven't yet started you may ask? Cause still making our way through the fantastic Divinity: Original Sin (Definitive Edition) on PS4. With the amount of fun we're having in 2 player COOP, I'm looking forward to our crazy 4 player COOP adventures.

[michaelhudson]

the new scoring scale has me worried this wont be a 10/10

edit:



:'(

still a great review haha and happy it's finally out honestly among my Favorite games of all time though it has some bugginess and the last act is a bit confusing.

also there are a bunch of mods that tune the difficultly (easy 20% harder, normal 20% easier etc)

[TheLastDaysOfSorrow]

Great review, Ben. Good call on taking your time with this one.

[MaximusLegend]

Good lord, this game is gorgeous. Great review Ben. I don't play RPGs but this review has piqued my interest.

[xbree_]

Great review. Because of Nintendo Direct I may be playing this for the first time .