Divinity: Original Sin Tips & Tricks: How to Craft and Build Your Party
Are you about to start on the magical mystery tour that is Divinity: Original Sin? Larian Studios’ new RPG harkens back to the older days of gaming, when a poorly-chosen build or missed step could lead you into a dead-end. There’s a lot of freedom in Divinity: Original Sin, but half of that freedom is the ability to fail hard. Here’s a few tips to speed you on your way.
Most Important Tip Ever
Quicksave. Quicksave. Quicksave! QUICKSAVE! It’s right there on F5. You’ll need it. This also helps with treasure chest since loot is 100 percent randomized each time you open a chest.
Party Composition
- Make sure your party compliments each other. You start with two characters of your design, make sure they’re polar opposites. You don’t need two pickpockets or two characters with high Perception.
- The first two party members you’ll meet in the first city of Cyseal are Madora, a Knight who uses a two-handed sword and can be a good meatshield, and Jahan, a Wizard with healing and crowd-control.
Madora’s in the King Crab Tavern and Jahan is on the second level of the Town Hall’s library.
- If you’re going to make another mage, it’s good know that Jahan focuses on Air and Water spells.
- Original Sin is rather deep in how things interact. Things can’t explode if they’re wet for example, making Jahan’s rain spell rather useful.
- Crowd control is king in Original Sin, meaning Rangers and mages are great classes to have on hand. Teleport, for example, can be used on enemies to bring them into range.
- You can hire other companions later in the game, so don’t feel like you’re stuck with the story companions.
Stats, Traits, and Abilities
- Focus on two stats per character. One primary and one secondary. Melee uses Strength, rogue types use Dexterity, and mages use Intelligence.
- The same goes for your magic users. Focus on two spell schools instead of making a jack of all trades.
- Leveling abilities costs more ability points at higher levels.
Save ability points to use on the abilities you’re focusing on.
- Make sure you boost Perception on one character. It’s an indispensable stat and good for seeing traps.
- The Pet Pal trait, which lets you talk to animals, is a ton of fun and opens up some cool quests.
- Charming is very useful in Original Sin and can turn the tide of battle in your favor.
- Some crazy spell and ability combos: Midnight Oil + Fire, Midnight Oil + Boulder Bash, or Burning Field + Poison Spore.
- Drop a point in Loremaster. This is good for identifying the items you’ll find.
Crafting
- To craft, you pick up one item and drag it on top of another. You’ll need recipes for some items, but many can be found by just jamming stuff together in your inventory. The community has already figured out a bunch of crafting recipes. They’re all here.
- You need to drag certain items onto furnaces and anvils to create things like weapons. Drag iron ore onto a furnace to create an iron bar.
Drag that iron bar onto an anvil to create an axe. Ta-da!
- Other quick crafting tips: The whetstone can improve your crafted weapons. Using a knife with a branch creates shafts for arrows. Using a needle and thread with cloth scraps can create cloth armor.
- A cooking pot and a campfire will form a mobile kitchen. Useful.
- Hire a level 1 henchman as your crafter. He matches your party’s level when he joins, so you can allocate his stat points.
- Hate ice? Boots and nails can be put together to make slip-resistant boots. Huzzah!
Equipment & General Tips
- I wouldn’t leave Cyseal until level 3 or 4. Fair warning.
- You can pick up locked chests and put them in your inventory if you can’t open them then and there.
- Repair your stuff. It’s annoying, but important.
- Every character you can talk to sells or trades something. Click on the red diamond to figure out what they have. Also, their inventories update when you level, so check back!
- Buy up any pixie dust you find.
It’s useful for crafting magical items. - Certain equipment should always be on hand: Shovel, pickaxe, hammer, repair hammer, pickaxe, and identifying glass.
- Rot sucks. You’ll know when you have it. Want to know what cures Rot? Bloodstones.
- Use fast-travel. No reason to back-track.
- Use spells or unbreakable weapons to smash locks!
- Throwing heavy items out of your inventory can do a lot of damage to enemies.
- Steal paintings in houses for money. You can either sneak, or use another party member to distract your mark.
- You can auto-loot chests with the space bar
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Reviews Editor
M.H. Williams is new to the journalism game, but he’s been a gamer since the NES first graced American shores. Third-person action-adventure games are his personal poison: Uncharted, Infamous, and Assassin’s Creed just to name a few.
If you see him around a convention, he’s not hard to spot: Black guy, glasses, and a tie.
10 Divinity: Original Sin 2 tips to explore Rivellon safely
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(Image credit: Capcom)
Some Divinity: Original Sin 2 tips will help you get to grips with an incredibly huge game, but it’s worth it — there’s so much to discover and do in Divinity that having a basis of understanding will set you off very well in this CRPG, racking up wins, kills and treasure of all kinds. If you want a helping hand, check out our list of the best 10 Divinity: Original Sin 2 tips and tricks to help you beat the game.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 classes | Divinity: Original Sin 2 skills | Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds
1. Find your path by looking at the monsters
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
While there is a critical path to follow in Divinity 2, it doesn’t often make itself clear.
As such, your best bet is to pay close attention to the level of enemies in the quest lines and areas. Generally speaking, you should always be the same level or one below the enemies you’re fighting. If a particular fight keeps beating the hell out of you, then there’s probably a quest or two hidden away somewhere else on the sprawling maps that will help you gain a bit more power before returning.
2. Be a Lone wolf if you don’t like inventory management
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
If you’re not a fan of inventory management then the idea of looking after four characters and keeping their skills, equipment, and inventory in order is probably not one you’re keen on. Well, if you set your character up with the Lone Wolf trait when you’re creating them, then you’ll not have to worry about that. A Lone Wolf gets double the stats as they level up, and get more actions per turn, but you can only have two in your party. Not only does this allow you to build some obscenely broken characters, but it also cuts your inventory management in half, making it a great choice for newer players.
3. Don’t let the black cat go near the gates in fort joy
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Early on in the first chapter, you’ll come across a little black cat. This little guy will follow closely behind you as you explore Fort Joy. If he stays with you, then you can summon him as a surprisingly useful partner in fights or even for traversal. If, however, he dies, then not only will you lose that fluffy friend, but you’ll be a terrible human being. The key to keeping him alive is to avoid the gate in Fort Joy that is surrounded by Magisters. One of them is an abhorrent person and will shoot the cat on sight. Simply give that part of the map a wide berth until you’ve successfully recruited the kitty.
4. Invest in Persuasion for your main character
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
A lot of Divinity is talking — it’s a massive RPG, so of course it is — as a result, you’re going to want your main character to be a smooth talker. While your choices in conversation do matter, things are much easier if you’ve got a high persuasion skill.
This allows you to sweet-talk your way out of something fights, into some quests, and even talk your way into some great loot. Make sure you give your main character a silver tongue as they’re the one who’ll be doing most of the talking.
5. Invest in Thievery for a different character
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
This is another one to invest in, but for a different character. Lockpicking will you get into a wealth of places you’re not meant to be and chests you aren’t meant to open. It’s an incredibly useful skill, and one of your characters should definitely invest in it. As a bonus point, this normally requires lock picks, but if the character in question is undead, then they can just use their bony fingers. You’ll also be able to pickpocket foes, which can be useful if you want a bit of extra cash.
6. Focus on either Strength, Finesse, or Intelligence
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Minmaxing isn’t necessarily essential in Divinity 2, but it definitely makes things easier.
The three attack stats are Strength, Finesse, and Intelligence. Pick the one for the kind of class you want — strength for warriors, finesse for rogues or archers, and magic for mages of all flavours — and stick to it. This will allow you to dole out massive amounts of damage and quickly take out your enemies.
7. Invest a point or two into Necromancy
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
The skill lines you invest in allow you to use higher-level abilities and often give damage boosts, but there’s more to it with some of the abilities. Necromancy allows you to use magic that deals physical damage and even drain your enemies of their life to heal yourself. Most importantly though, it also gives you a passive buff that lets you drain your enemies just by dealing damage to their health instead of their armour. That means that if you’ve got a warrior that can deal huge damage but might be a little squishy, you can offset that by putting a couple of points into Necromancy in order to drain health from your opponents.
It just makes keeping your frontline characters alive much easier, even if they won’t be using the dark arts directly.
8. Sell all your items to Camp Boss Griff, then kill him and take it back
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Camp Boss Griff is a racist piece of trash. He’s also a key player in Fort Joy and a lot of quests involve him as a result. On top of his relevance to quests, you can actually buy and sell things from him and his goons, some of which are incredibly useful. If you like the idea of getting the most out of your time with him then sell any items you aren’t using to him and his crew. Then, when you’re a bit stronger, come back and pick a fight with all of them. Once the dust has settled, you’ll be able to loot them for a lot of those items back. It’s a great way of boosting your cash flow early on. Plus, he deserves it.
9. Don’t be afraid to restart or respec
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
This game is massive, and no matter how much you read before starting it, you’re probably going to make some less than perfect decisions, and that’s okay.
The good news is that there are two things you can do if you’re worried you’ve messed up a character build. The first is to simply restart the game, of course, Divinity 2 can easily last 100 hours for a single playthrough, so that might be a bit extreme. In that case, there are mirrors dotted throughout the chapters which allow you to respec and redesign your character. You’ll need to buy new skills and armour if you decide to take a brand-new class instead of a basic respec, but it saves a lot of time and it’s free to do.
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Enemies are at their best when they can’t hit you back. That’s why it’s important to learn how status effects work and how you can cause them. Stunned and Knocked Down will both take an enemy out for a single turn. Most status effects can only trigger if the corresponding armour type has been depleted, so get rid of that first before using a skill that stuns or otherwise takes out an enemy.Have a read of the skill itself to find out which armour will stop the effect.
It does make sense most of the time though, with things like Stunned being blocked by magic armour, and knocked down being blocked by physical armour. Of course, this applies to you too, so invest in some good armour to keep yourself safe from these effects.
Want to change things up in your game? Then check out the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods to level up your adventure.
Jason Coles is a freelance writer and editor, covering gaming, tech, and fitness. Jason has written guides for GamesRadar+ and PC Gamer, reviews for Play magazine, and a host of other content for the likes of Eurogamer, Dicebreaker, and PCGamesN. Jason also served as the editor of The Indie Game Website and is passionate about helping new writers break into the industry with his Word Count Mentoring initiative.
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The 10 Best Valentine’s Day Couple Games
Valentine’s Day is coming and there’s nothing better than spending time with your loved one playing some of the best Valentine’s Day couple games.
credits: Twitter
We’ve all been through this. As people who play games a lot, we all want to share that passion and fun with someone special in our lives. Games can strengthen bonds by giving you the opportunity to work together and achieve something without any relationship pressure. After all, it’s just a game.
In these times of pandemic, when many people cannot meet in person, games are a great way to relax and spend time with the one you love. Since video games are not always a hobby for both of you, so in this article we are going to recommend some fun co-op or competitive games that you can find on various stores, especially on Steam, to play with your partner.
It won’t be easy for everyone, but take this time to educate those who aren’t game savvy like you and pass on all that knowledge in a few enjoyable hours. The list of games for couples will include various party games, shooting games and story RPGs that you can link and share the journey with your partner and hopefully introduce them to the gaming world.
Let’s break down games by genre and give you a little idea of how they work and how they are rated on Steam these days. The list will solely focus on the best games for couples and may not be limited to party games or even co-op games. Of course, this is just a simpler recommendation, but it is important that you consider your partner’s taste, after all, it is useless if you love the game and your partner finds it boring and does not want to participate in the program.
The best games for couples might include the already pretty obvious choice if you’ve explored the Steam store a few times, but hopefully I can come up with some new ideas for your game library so you can share these moments with the ones you love.
whether in person or online, and together they can take their minds off this pandemic.
1. Divinity: Original Sin
| Publisher: | Larian Studios |
In other words, if you really want an adventure with your partner, this game is highly recommended. | Publisher: | Larian Studios |
|
Divinity 2 does have a lot in common with the first game, as the combat is similar but with a lot more new elements. Plus, once you’ve finished your first game, you’ll always want more. This game basically takes all the elements that made the first game so great and updates them. The graphics are better, the game runs better, and the story is even more ahead of the previous one. If you like good stories, fantasy books, these are games for couples to have fun with their partners, highly recommended. |
Overcooked is a great party game to take a break from the intense RPGs that came before it. The idea is very simple. You can play up to 4 people who manage the little chefs and work together in the kitchen to fulfill the orders that appear on the screen.
The idea may seem simple at first, but with time limits, moving platforms, and even cooking in the back of moving trucks, cooking becomes a little more difficult.
You will cook hamburgers, sushi and french fries together in this fantastic party game. For those who like to complete tasks at the highest level, the game has many levels to explore and you will be given a 1-3 star rating depending on your cooking performance and how quickly they are served. This is one of the best games for couples and have fun for a few hours.
Although in some parts of the game there may be discussions like «What the hell are you doing, you’re on your way, I need to get in here, get out of the way» or «Why aren’t you chopping onions?! » The game is very enjoyable and easy to pick up and play when you have some time and just want to chat. 9Rayman Legends is a 2D platform game. Some gamers may know some of the older Rayman games from the 16-bit or even 64-bit era. As a platform game, it’s great for beginners who don’t play many other games and aren’t used to the many buttons on modern joysticks.
Platform games are a gateway for many non-players as they are often simplistic games, although this is not always the case. Think of playing Super Mario as a good guide. You control a character, walk in one direction across the screen, collecting items and solving rather trivial puzzles along the way. So maybe these are good games for couples before introducing more complex stuff.
There are some great moments in the game where the gameplay differs from the usual running and jumping mechanics, always accompanied by a beautiful unique music track, and playing stages together really feels like a accomplishment knowing you guys made it through. end together. Rayman Legends is a great game for those couples who don’t play many games due to difficulty getting started.
5. Ark: Survival Evolved.
Opinions about Ark seem to be completely opposite. Some love this dinosaur taming simulator and others consider it a mess.
Regardless of your side, everyone agrees that this game is a completely unique experience that it offers among the many other survival sandbox games you can find out there.
You start from scratch, like everyone else in the game. You cut down trees, build wooden houses, sew clothes, and so on. You can tame dinosaurs and use them as hunting creatures, use them to collect resources, collect them and move around the map with them, or just keep them as pets.
The game can be played on 2 separate computers, over a network connection, or over the Internet by creating a private server. There is no local split screen feature in the PC game. To play local co-op, you’ll need one of the console versions, but keep in mind: in local co-op on PlayStation 4, you’re both tied to each other, which means you can’t get far apart or you’ll be pulled in the other direction , or they just teleport to the first player, which can cause some pretty nasty problems and situations.
This is not an easy game as it is a survival game and there are elements to manage like hunger, thirst and damage.
This is a good game to play together if you and your partner are willing to face the survival experience, which can be a bit challenging but will definitely be rewarding if you survive together.
So these are games for couples to test your relationship, after all, if you can tame a dinosaur and survive by building a house out of pieces of wood, maybe you are ready to adopt a dog or a cat together.
6. 7 days to death
| : | Fun PIMPS |
| Developer: | Reviews:
| Reviews: 103,460 estimated |
Other platforms: |
ps4, xbox 1 |
release date: |
early access 4 December 200210027 | |
Another one on our list of games for couples or that special someone is 7 Days to Die.
this is another survival game but it combines elements from several different games. It is described on your Steam page as:
“An open world game that is a unique combination of first person shooter, survival horror, tower defense and RPG. It features battles, creation, looting, mining, exploration and character evolution that have received a huge response from fans around the world.”
7 Days to Die borrows many gameplay elements from Minecraft, such as the toolbar at the bottom and voxel-based terrain displacement. The game also has a procedural map generation mode, but there is also a real game world created for the game. In the 7 days before death, you and your partner can rob zombies together, build a base together, and help each other survive a brutal doomsday scenario.
In the Steam version of the game, you need to have two PCs to play as the game does not have a split screen or local co-op feature. For local co-op you will need one of the console versions of the game.
You can find some information about the game in local co-op and reviews on console sites and see if you and your partner need games for couples.
Let’s start with a disclaimer: this game is not easy. This is a run and shoot platformer game where you and your partner will control two cute little cups in a world full of colorful and fun enemies, but they will go out of their way to get your carcass. Don’t be fooled by the graphics imitating 30s cartoons, it will be cruel to you.
The game is said to be one of the most difficult games released in recent years and although simple, you just have to jump and shoot, the game will give you a lot of work and guide the characters through an open map where you can choose where to go. start and what enemies they want to face. It could be a boss, a platform scene, or even an item defense task. Don’t worry, everything will be difficult.
This is a game where if you and your partner win together, you can brag about it at family parties because the game is not for amateurs. They will need skill and above all patience to challenge the levels. The game can be played in local co-op or online. If you want to test your skills and relationship strength, this is one of the best couple games to see if you can survive and date in the game.
8. Portal 2
| Publisher:
Portal 2 is a great game to play in local co-op and work as a team. It’s one of those fun games where you constantly think your own way and feel truly satisfied when you finally manage to solve the difficult puzzle you’re facing. The game has a witty mood, whether it’s the jokes of two robots or the caustic comments of Glados the robot. This is a great game for couples, friends, or family members, even if they’ve never seen video games before. 9. Man: fall
Human: Fall Flat is a 3D platform game. It uses a very smart physics based engine with which you can manipulate most of the objects in the game and use them for many different purposes. This is a great game that you and your partner can laugh at from time to time. The game has no story, so you don’t really have to focus on dialogue or what actually happens in the game. Just play! The idea is that you and your partner have just been released into the world and you need to find a way to progress through the levels using a set of different physics-based actions. The game has a lot of different game modes and content, which means couples will have to play several mini-games on this day. There are levels where you have to catapult each other over castle walls, use boxes and ladders to navigate the area, and even drive vehicles, including boats and cars, from one place to another. Human: Fall Flat is a great puzzle game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and doesn’t need to. 10. Tools up!
Tools up! this is another party game in the same vein as Overcooked. you manage a couple of workers (or women) doing house renovations. In this fun little party game you’ll be tiling, repairing and painting the walls. This is one of those games that you can play with your partner and relax after a day at work. The game does not have a wide variety of scenarios and you will win the game quickly. Also, it’s pretty cheap on Steam, runs at just under 50 reais bundled with all your DLC, and it’s fairly lightweight, so if you or your partner has a slow computer, this is a good option for you guys to have some fun with. And that’s the point of the list, isn’t it? So go ahead and try. Form a team of five worms, customize them, name them, and go into battle. The team that eliminates the rest of the worms from the opposing team wins. It can be played by up to four players, but you can create a separate room just for yourself and your partner. Teams are easy to pick up and in the blink of an eye you will be shooting at each other and laughing at the comical situations that occur in the game. This is a great game to play with your partner and maybe bet on something, like the loser doing the dishes at a special Valentine’s Day dinner or another more «creative» or even «spicy» (why would and not?) It comes from your imagination! The games have different values and you can choose old or new which won’t be a problem as they are all fun games for couples. So now just choose your game and enjoy Valentine’s Day with anyone, in person or virtually, and enjoy the moment. we are from Family Games, we wish all couples a happy Valentine’s Day and that we all be close to the ones we love very soon. Leave it in the comments if you have played a game from the list with this special person or if you are playing other games to play with your partner. Enjoy and also read our list of movie recommendations to see with your couple. Divine original sin or why «Divinity: Original Sin» is not just a cRPG… but something more! Where the legs grow from At the time, when I was just starting to play tabletop role-playing games, I wondered if it was possible to get a similar experience in a video game format? And assuming that the RPG genre as such came into being with the express purpose of recreating the experience from NRI (tabletop RPG) , the answer would be «No» rather than «Yes». Player interest in cRPGs hasn’t faded over time. The market has become larger, game design has changed, the players themselves have changed, but from about 2014 to this day, an interesting trend can be observed. However, there is one caveat here. The genre has returned, but if earlier such projects were guided, among other things, by NRI, were inspired by them and tried to recreate the desktop experience, today’s ones look only at their digital ancestors, without introducing anything new beyond the decorative stray. Such games, like twenty years ago, did not even come close to the original goal, but only crystallized more in themselves, formed the principles of the genre. Except for Larian Studios games and their Divinity: Original sin. Sven Vincke, lead developer and founder of Larian Studios:
What does Divinity: Original Sin have in common with NRI? The first thing that catches your eye at the beginning of D:OS is the obligatory creation of not one, as is usually customary in such projects, but two characters at once. You can play each of them personally, but the very possibility of starting the game with a friend suggests that the game was created with the expectation of a cooperative mode. This is important to understand, because cRPG is primarily about a single adventure, when, like in RPG, gatherings with friends are an integral part of the gameplay. Players can discuss various events, think together about how to defeat the invincible dragon, think over plans of behavior, react not only to the world built by the master, but also to group mates, and, no less important, fool around. The point is that if a cooperative mode is added to the conditional «Pillars of Eternity» or similar, then nothing will change much, and the gaming experience will not be similar to the one described above. Because at the most basic levels, the game is not sharpened for this, unlike D:OS, in which many mechanics coexist, contributing to a more interesting cooperative, and as a result, single-player passage. Take at least such an almost decorative trifle — the narrator. In Divinity, this is not just text written between dialogues and tells how your interlocutor scratched his head. The local storyteller is a full-fledged facilitator. At the very least, he tries to create the feeling that the player is somewhere at the playing table, in a circle of people who are not alien to self-irony. The same applies to the general, frivolous mood of the game, which is much more suitable for a fun passage with a living comrade, in contrast to the gloomy settings that tell about the cycles of souls in the afterlife in serious soup. But the most important thing that D:OS does to be like NRG is that it completely changes the design of quests, game design and storytelling principles. How do quests work in cRPGs? It doesn’t matter if the markers are marked on the map or not, but often the passage of them does not cause difficulties for the players. One character asked to talk to another, another told a couple of interesting details about the first, and decide which one to support — a thief or a coward. There are many other examples, but in the vast majority of quests in cRPGs, they test the combat skills of the player, and depending on the pumping, they allow you to go through yourself a little differently. No matter how varied such a game is, it is still outrageously linear, especially by NRI standards, and clichés and clichés quickly become boring. The question is, if all this linearity is due to the limitations of the engine, why not expand its capabilities? The industry has not stood still over the past decades. Immersive sim formula in cRPG When it comes to games in the immersive sim genre, it is primarily understood that certain systems are built in them that the player can influence. One of the distinguishing features of this approach to the design of the gameplay is the interactivity of the environment. In Dishonored, for example, bottles scattered throughout the levels can be used to distract or disorient enemies. Divinity has something similar. Books on the shelves can be picked up, read, removed from them a hint, a new skill or recipe. Behind the wall painting, which can also be picked up or moved, and subsequently sold, there may be a lever that opens a secret passage. However, it can be located behind a carpet or barrels, it is not so important. NPCs have their own vision range, which is blocked by the environment or distracting dialogue, which is very often used if you set yourself the task of stealing everything that is not nailed to the floor. Sven Vincke, lead developer and founder of Larian Studios:
Another system that exists in the world of Divinity is the interaction of elements and effects. A puddle can be frozen into ice, ice can be melted into steam, which in turn can be electrified by lightning. This is just one small, simplest example, and there is also fire and poison. Moreover, this is exactly what the system is, because the elements can be used not only in battle, but also when solving various kinds of puzzles. In sum, all this provides a large space for testing the skills and erudition of the player himself, and not just his fighting qualities. This is where Divinity’s gameplay differs from other RPGs. D:OS is immersive and demanding of the player, not only at the level of the combat system. The very principle of narration here is different, much closer to NRI. A classic scene from D&D (Dungeon and Dragons): you and your friends stumble upon a village where something strange is happening. What exactly, of course, is unknown. A little later, it turns out that a necromancer has wound up in the village, and you, in the company of friends, go to different characters, to different places, in order to understand who is to blame and how to solve the problem. The key point is that the player is always on the lookout. A bit of criticism That the first, that the second part of Original sin is really better than others able to convey the NRI gaming experience. But the game-mechanical aspects, no matter how cool they are, do not determine the quality of the whole game. Personally, for me, any project funded on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms, or any other indie causes skepticism. The independence of the developer studio from the publisher can be both good and bad. For example, I am not a fan of Obsidian at all, because in addition to not trying to jump above their heads and bring something new to the genre, they also make projects that go through with all the additional quests in twenty hours. This is bad, because even at the level of the narrative structure, the internal logic of the game, they do not look complete. It doesn’t feel like a big adventure, just untapped potential. And D:OS is impressive in this regard. Questions arose already at the stage of character creation, because even if you play alone, you had to set up without fail two avatars at once, moreover, of the same race, people. In the sequel, this system was changed, allowing the player to choose how many characters to make. Would you like to create one? Please. Do you want co-op for four? Here you are. There are more playable races. Also, the portraits, which are an integral part of the cRPG, were so-so in the first Original sin: unpretentious, small, sketchy. The unique design of quests, when it is often not clear what is required from the player, has its own pitfalls. For example, the question, — «How was I supposed to think of this before?» — pops up in my head more than once. Tips guiding the player are not always and not always laid out, and even if you roughly understand what the game requires of you, you can run into a purely mechanical moment, that is, you don’t fully understand how to implement it within the mechanics. With repeated playthroughs, when you already know what to expect from D:OS and understand its logic, the problem does not feel so acute, but when you first meet, it’s quite possible to catch frustration. Divine? I didn’t write anything about the epic plot, about the orchestral music by Kirill Pokrovsky (03/25/1965 — 06/1/2015) for D:OS and Borislav Slavov for D:OS2, about the characters with whom she appeared in the sequel the opportunity to start a novel about talking animals and other things that distinguish D:OS dilogy among others and form its personality. It is much better to get acquainted with all this magnificence personally. To live this very experience, close to the desktop as far as video games can afford at the moment. A fresh approach to the organization of the gameplay, the quality of execution, the monumentality of work and a number of things not directly related to the game, that is, the context, make Divinity: Original sin and especially its sequel one of the most significant games of the past decade. 
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This is a great example of how physics can be really fun in a game. 
In fact, for me and my partner it was too fast. We saw that we completely finished the game in a few days. However, although briefly, it is interesting to watch and funny situations can arise. 
The reasons lie on the surface — a game engine acting as a master cannot replace a living person at this stage of technological progress. He cannot perceive the desire of the player and give an adequate response to his actions, he cannot generate a unique text that is not provided by the developers. The only thing that remains in the current situation is to try to give the player something similar to RPG, albeit in a heavily cut version. It is noteworthy here that over the past decades the genre has been formed, and not all of its manifestations can be seen as the original task. Action RPGs like «Diablo» are focused entirely on the combat system and pumping, while other projects provide space for playing characters, others rely on variability. Closest in spirit to NRI today are precisely cRPGs — computer role-playing games that are most often inspired by the early parts of Fallout, Baldur’s Gate and other classic projects. 
Retro is back in fashion — a lot of projects, especially in the indie segment, have pixel graphics, remakes and remasters of well-known games are released, and the industry as a whole often looks into the past in search of new ideas and solutions. Fertile ground for cRPG revival. There are not many such games, but enough: Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland, Tyranny, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and, of course, Divinity: Original Sin. 
Do I need to mention that NRIs are just fun? 
Larian did just that. They created D:OS on the principle of Immersive sims, in which the world, by definition, must be interactive, and the freedom of action of the player is at the forefront. 
You can play this system, it quite legally allows you to break the game in your favor or, conversely, deliver an extra headache. For example, in the first part, one of the first minibosses, which is located near the lighthouse, is supposedly quite heavy. Especially if you play two characters. But a simple teleport of one barrel to another solves the issue in just half a turn. The other side of the coin is that the burning terrain affects not only enemies, but also characters controlled by the player. And, for example, a weapon enchanted with poison will not cause damage to the undead, but will only heal it. But the most important difference between D:OS and other cRPGs is the design of the quests. Here, no one and nothing will tell you what to do. If a sheep is lost or instructed to find a plant, explore the locations yourself. Need a murder investigation? Interview witnesses yourself, delve into what is happening, experiment and draw conclusions. In other words, it’s completely impossible to complete quests in a hurry here.
You always need to catch a certain link or be smart, compare the known and find the right solution. Even riddles or puzzles can stall the adventure for another hour, and the clues found differ in varying degrees of vagueness in their wording. However, there are also simple tasks, so you should not be too afraid of complexity. 
And in Divinity this moment is perfectly conveyed. 
This is especially true of the second part, because it does not look or feel like an indie project at all. It has high-quality graphics and animations, absolutely all dialogues are voiced in it, it has a wide arsenal of weapons, armor and spells, it has a lot of non-obvious mechanics, diverse quests, riddles, dungeons and conditions that the player finds himself in. It all applies to the first part, there is also one big complex adventure, but this was the first draft of such a concept, and it turned out not without rough edges. 
Although it is customary to draw such art as full-fledged and beautiful. In the sequel, again, they corrected this moment so that the generated appearance was your portrait. But it’s all petty. In the first part, there were two frankly poorly implemented moments in the plane of the gameplay. Firstly, after the battle, from time to time, I had to teleport to the nearest tavern in order to replenish health and repair uniforms. Weapons and armor broke very often. It didn’t add any hardcore or depth to the gameplay, it just annoyed me. Secondly, the combat system was very dependent on randomness, and you often had to save-scam, that is, constantly load with a specific goal, in order to win. I played two characters on normal difficulty, a mage and an assassin. If everything is clear with the second one, he needed damage in the back, then the magician is good as a way to control the battle — freeze one, enchant another, teleport the third to hell, stun the fourth, etc. The only problem is that if one of the effects does not work, and they have their own probabilities, and not always high, then this meant death, because enemies can also keep the player in control and cause quite significant damage.
All of that was gone in the sequel. You can replenish health with a couch in one click, the weapon rarely breaks, and the effects pass with a 100% probability, provided that the shield is knocked down. That is, you lose the fight not because it is random, but because you did something wrong. This is much more honest and better, although the introduced shield mechanics were criticized at one time. I don’t understand this criticism at all. 
In a nutshell, this concept lacks polish. For example, in one of the moments when a player can lock himself in four walls, and at hand he will have only one device that does not react in any way to interaction with him, there is no other way out than to have a character with the «Scientist» tag in the group. Only in this case, the player will find the desired recess on the device, and the group can continue their adventure. Otherwise, just download. In such cases, workarounds are needed so that any of the characters can find a way out of the current problem. Especially when it’s not about finding loot and optional looting of tombs, but about a banal opportunity to go further. The work of Larian Studios, even with all sorts of rough edges, is still impressive. And as a separate point, I would like to highlight the studio’s policy, when the content is not cut into pieces and is delivered completely free of charge, except for some kind of stuff, like artbooks and soundtracks. Just think about it, Larian ennobled the first part with full voice acting, which didn’t exist at the time of release, shoveled the skill system, tweaked the graphics and made a lot of changes, all for free.
Just to live up to the high standards of Part 2, I guess. It’s hard to explain, especially in our world and in today’s industry. 