Divine Divinity First Impressions

Rendelius, 2002-08-05

Now that was a pretty nice year for RPG fans so far, wasn't it? For those into heavy RPGs, Morrowind was a dream come true. Arx Fatalis (you poor guys over the big pond will have to wait a couple of weeks for this one) revived the good ole dungeon crawling, and those of us liking a nice hackfest found Dungeon Siege pretty entertaining. Neverwinter Nights embraced those addicted to the 3rd edition rules - enough games so far to keep you happy, wouldn't you agree?

And just when you think you have seen them all, there's Divine Divinity. We covered the game quite a lot before it found a publisher in CDV, after that, we weren't able to deal with the developers any more - the PR department of CDV (I have a hard time calling it one) took over and Divine Divinity faded from the spotlight. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

And now it is released in Germany. I went out and bought a copy a couple of days ago. This article is to give you my first impressions. I have seen a single review in a print magazine so far (Gamestar rated it 73%, compared it with Diablo 2 and thus proved that competence seems to be a matter of luck over in their offices). NEVER compare this game to Diablo 2. It's like comparing Gamestar to Leo Tolstoy's books, because both are printed on paper and can be bought. Yuk.

Divine Divinity is an isometric RPG with lots of action going on. I won't spoil your fun by revealing the plot, but it is well told and interesting. You start out in a small village, enter some catacombs and solve two or three small quests before you go out into the world. You can do that as a magician, a kind of thief or a warrior, but once you develop your character you can combine those skills (and there are LOTS) in about every way you like. So while at the beginning your character is not unique at all, it will become unique within the first 10-15 levels. A warrior with thieving skills? No prob. A battle mage? Make him.

There are two things I tremendously enjoy with Divine Divinity: there are clever quests and there is great humor. Within the time I spent on the game so far I have seen a variety of quests from retrieving an item to blowing up a camp or healing a mad healer. I have seen arguments about a traffic accident between a dwarf and a human, met a guy who tried to sell me a magic carpet and found someone without teeth (he lost them in a boxing competition). I am entertained by the game, and very much so. I live with my character, I care for him - this is a good sign for an RPG.

Another strong point of Divine Divinity is the writing and the voice acting. Both are amazingly well done, and one can only pray that the mood of the game is the same in the English version. Even the books you'll find in the world are fun to read, and some conversations made me laugh out loud.

The inventory system is done cleverly, grouping items in various categories. And when you look at the interface, most things you need are just one or two clicks away.

A special praise goes out for the music. Very nice, very diverse and decent at the same time. Tavern music is a highlight, but even those pieces for fighting and wandering are very enjoyable. I haven't been bored by the music either, so far.

There is a variety of foes and wildlife, all the stuff you want to see in a roleplaying game. Trolls, orcs, skeletons, wild bees, even a dragonrider so far. The amount of items in the game is overwhelming, and so is the freedom of action. You can move chairs, items, you can combine them, food has effects, you can break barrels, unlock doors, manipulate objects to reveal items hidden behind them and much more. An insane amount of detail went into the game, and you will never ever find everything that is in there.

Divine Divinity is a single player based game. You don't have a party, but you have companions from time to time. They are quite clever and don't get you into a mess. Enemy AI is very good, the foes use tactics, group attacks and give you a lot to think about.

The game is well paced so far, character development doesn't make you overly powerful, at least not until now. You happen to die, but not too often, and you get the feeling you accomplish something quite often. As I said: I am entertained. A lot.

However, I have the feeling that once again, a great game has been rushed out due to demands of a publisher. There are some technical issues, and they can be a nuisance in the first dungeon, the catacombs. Even with my system (Athlon 1200, 512MB, GeForce 4 Ti 4400), it becomes a slide show after app. 20 minutes. This only happens in this dungeon, and I haven't encountered the problem thereafter, but I think this is an unnecessary annoyance that could have been avoided. Update: Lynn from Larian Studios posted a file to our forums that fixes the problem (now that's what I call a quick response to newly discovered bugs). You can find the posting here: http://localhost/rpgdot.rpgwatch.com/httpdocs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2769&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Gamestar stated in their review that the graphics are bland. They aren't groundbreaking, granted, but they are nice nevertheless. They pretty well reflect the mood of the game, and most of all they fit together nicely. A lot of brownish tones in it, but you get used to that soon. There's day and night, there's weather (it seems to be scripted for events and regions). Talking about scripting: there are quite a lot of scripted cutscenes in the game, and that's where a lot of the fun comes from. There are some that even change when you enter the scene a second time.

Sometimes it isn't easy to pick up things or to hit the opponent, but these are minor problems, not taking away from my fun with Divine Divinity.

So, how should I sum up my first impressions? Simply put: Divine Divinity is another gem. Maybe it's nothing for the casual roleplayer, since with the 300+ quests and the 20.000+ screens you can roam quite freely it is something that will take away a lot of time from you. If Larian Studios manages to get rid of the remaining occasional bugs, there is little that could stop this game from being remembered for a long time. If you live in Germany or speak German, go and buy this game now. If you are somewhere else, look forward to it. It kept me from playing Morrowind lately, and you know what that means in my case…