Day 825 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing
Today’s game is Divinity Original Sin. I’ve had this in my library for a while and decided to try it while I wait for my BG3 Group to get back together. I’ve heard it’s similar so I wanted to try it.
My first thoughts are I don’t really care for the male character design. This is definitely a personal thing, but I’ve never been a fan of the big broad male design. I will say though it gave me the urge to play Darksiders and I have that downloading now.
Besides that though I like it. I know it’s a lot more than this, but it feels like a very “diet” Baldur’s Gate 3. Mechanically I felt like I could easily flow between how the game’s work.
Anyways, When I got to the port city I pissed off this guy who’s boat was on fire by spraying it with water. He got pissed and threatened to call the guards. After though he thanked me. I have to assume the game bugged out. Besides that, I liked the aspect of the world capable of being interacted with like that.
I found this talking Clam too which I thought was funny. That’s kind of all. I think it’s a reference but I’m not sure to what.
I ended off the day by up breaking into a house I found and climbing into the basement. There’s a whole ass dungeon in here. I crawled my way through the floors and found my way in this cave. I saw an enemy down there though and decided that’s a later thing because I’m not sure I’m near the end.
Overall I’m liking it. I’m not sure it’s the “next” game I’m going to pick up though. Especially because I found out it’s like 60 Hours to complete. I might set this down and come back later because that’s not a level of dedication I expected.
15 replies
Original Sin is great but it pales in comparison to its sequel.
Original Sin 2 is one of if not the best CRPG to date.
I had a friend that played through the series after playing BG3 and he says the same thing. How different is it?
Very. They improved a lot of their systems from D:OS to D:OS2.
DOS2 has a revamped armor system (you now have physical armor and magical armor that have a role in damage reduction and status resistance) that makes combat a lot more engaging instead of it being straight damage and saves vs resistance, so strategizing becomes that much more important since you can't just tank everything. Mages also are now limited by their spell "Memory" so they have to plan what spells to prepare. So combat has a lot more strategic elements to it making it a much better, more engaging experience overall.
Character creation is just so much more expansive. It adds the character origin options during creation that allow for intriguing and unique story beats, personal quests, and encounters based on what you choose. Then there are the additional playable races that were added.
Skill progression between combat and utility/social skills are now two separate progress trees. Now you don't have to feel like you're sacrificing one to be good in the other and can have a more well rounded character.
DOS2 also adds enemy visibility cones. Which is such a QoL improvement for those who wish to do stealth.
Then there is the overall tone and story are just so much more polished and has a lot of narrative implications by being from the perspective of a Sourcerer instead of a Source Hunter. It breaks away from being just another generic fantasy story of "good guys fight bad guys".
I hated the DOS2 armor so much. Early game it does what its supposed to, but mid to late game its about as useful as wet tissue paper. It becomes a game of "who can stun the enemy first and win the fight"
Fortunately they already confirmed in an AMA that it's gone for the new Divinity, but that was far from my only gripe with D:OS2. We'll see in that new Divinity how much of the improvement in BG3 was them getting better at their craft and how much of it was the D&D rule set doing the heavy lifting.
That is awesome. I was hoping they'd learn from some mistakes for the new divinity game as both DOS2 and BG3 were overall very well done
Look, I'll admit it wasn't perfect but it did fix the issue it was designed for which was to fix the RNG of CC effects for mages which was a huge issue from the first game. They just did a poor job of scaling the armor with late game damage.
I read from the other comment that they are moving away from the armor system for the new game, so excited to see what they are replacing it with. I trust Larian, especially now they are not limited by Hasbro to adapt the D&D ruleset and have free reign over system design. One thing I missed in BG3 was crafting systems and the extensive environmental effects.
I should probably have added the context that I haven't yet played DOS1, so I can't say how it compares to the CC effects from that. I do agree it was a scaling issue, the damage scaled too quickly relative to the armor and the armor restoring abilities scaled awfully and required taking a lot of points into earth or water magic (there was shields up for shielded characters, but it had something like a 3+ turn cooldown I think).
The environmental effects were cool, but somehow it always ended up being cursed fire and blood clouds, and there was never much use for blessing surfaces given how many enemies could curse it just by walking on it.
The crafting had some neat points, especially early on, but it was often a lot of trouble and I didn't really engage much with it after fort joy except for runes and hybrid skill crafting
All the unplayed games in my libraries just like the unread novels on my nightstand...
The D:OS games rely heavily on surface and cloud mechanics to add combat depth, especially for spellcasters. Fights get really messy by the end, which can be interesting or exhausting depending on who you ask. BG3 stripped most of that out in the conversion to D&D.
If you enjoy word puzzles and exploration, I'd highly recommend Lingo and/or Lingo 2. Either one is a good starting point. First is more open ended, second has a progression system that slowly expands the possibility space. The first game also has some excellent custom maps, such as Duolingo and Liduongo.
liduongo got me cussing the creator out. 10/10 map.
I started playing DOS2 after finishing Baldur's Gate 3 but never got far for what seems like a silly reason - I really missed the conversation voice acting and cinematics. It's wild how much immersion it brings to a game, but with the camera often being so far out, it's an important part for me to care about the game and feel connected to what's going on
I have this on my wishlist for such a long time. Should get around to playing it. Would love to hear how it still holds up.
I haven't gone back to original Darksiders but love the overall series. Can't wait for the next one that's coming out soon. Finally a true sequel. Still have Darksiders Genesis left to play though, should get it out of the way before the next one releases.
It’s definitely a good game. It’s a little aged in a few places but nothing bad. I’d honestly say my mistake was going into it expecting an experience close to Baldur’s gate.
Darksiders I’ve always wanted to play. I did once but I was young so remember like jack shit about it. It was always that one weird game my dad bought at gamestop because an employee said it was like Zelda 16 years ago, to me
I really loved this game! It’s fun and silly but also very tactical. Since it has 2 main characters, it’s great to play it as a coop too!