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modboy
Village Dweller
Joined: 24 Sep 2002
Posts: 9
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| Divine Divinity Mini-Review |
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Here's a mini-review I posted on another board:
Hey guys, this is off-topic (maybe) but I've been completely owned all weekend by Divine Divinity... this game is AMAZING!!
If you appreciated games like Fallout, Planescape, Arcanum, Baldurs Gate, Ultima 4-7, then you will LOVE Divinity.
The interface is like Diablo 2 BUT the gameplay is more like Baldurs Gate + Ultima 7. You can pause at any time and give a command.. which will imediately unpause and perform that action.
The NPCs and subquests are great, not too many fedex types... even then, they usually have a twist. NPCs that say they are going somewhere will show up at their destination later in the game... pretty cool. There's a reputation system and a reaction system based on your actions in general and your actions against that NPC.
The character development is like Diablo 2 except you can access ANY skilltree regardless of the class you chooose. There's LOTS of skills...
The graphics are really, really nice.. better than the BG and Diablo series..
Most objects are movable and/or destructable. I was able to take over an abandoned house and moved some chests and barrels inside for my loot storage, along with some choice decorations stolen from my neighbors  . They give you teleporter stones so I was able use that house as my haven which I can get back to from anywhere in the game world.
The world map sooo huge, I walked from the starter town, explored all the surrounding woodlands, crossed a bridge, across farmlands, another town, to an army barracks, several inns, south to an army encampment, back up north to a castle... ALL on the SAME MAP!! The only time a load screen occurred was when I went underground into caves.. otherwise, it's seamless.
I can't rave enough about this game, I think I clocked in about 40+ hours since Friday night and I'm only about 1/5 through... half of the first area (giant area!) is still 50% unexplored!
Last edited by modboy on Tue Sep 24, 2002 8:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
Tue Sep 24, 2002 6:01 pm |
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modboy
Village Dweller
Joined: 24 Sep 2002
Posts: 9
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Why was my post MOVED from the General CRPG forum?
I wanted the OTHER people to read about Divinity... the people in the Divinity Forum ALREADY know it's great! 
Please move this BACK to the General CRPG forum .. please! 
**EDIT**
GAH! Nevermind, I just noticed that it is still visible from the other forum ...  |
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Tue Sep 24, 2002 6:13 pm |
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Remus
Overgrown Cat
Joined: 03 Jul 2002
Posts: 1657
Location: Fish bowl |
| Re: Divine Divinity Mini-Review: RUN to the store and BUY NO |
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I agree most of your views; Divinity is very entertaining game, better than Dungeon Siege and even IWD 1. Since Divinity is a single player CRPGs, IMHO it's also better than NWN single player campaign (Bioware focused/does better on multiplayer/Dungeon master aspects).
quote:
Originally posted by modboy
...Most objects are movable and/or destructable. I was able to take over an abandoned house and moved some chests and barrels inside for my loot storage, along with some choice decorations stolen from my neighbors . They give you teleporter stones so I was able use that house as my haven which I can get back to from anywhere in the game world.
Yep, that mean Larian Studios also put alot of details and stressed on objects interation in the game world although at the same time got a lot of action/ hack n slash.
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Tue Sep 24, 2002 6:53 pm |
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modboy
Village Dweller
Joined: 24 Sep 2002
Posts: 9
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I've been told on another board that my review sounded a bit too marketing blurb-ish so please excuse my rather enthusiastic but shallow review.. here's some good and bad about the game:
For any future reviews, I'm gonna try to keep the hype down and get to the nitty gritty details instead...
Specific cool things about the game:
a) after the first patch, you can configure how many rotating quick saves you get... that's nice.
b) you get teleport stones so you can retreat back to your homebase (wherever that is) to stuff gear or to heal up before jumping back into the fray
c) the main story is suitably vague but intriguing as you start to hear lots of neat conspiracy theories regarding the Duke and potential racial wars...
d) it's got item enchantment similar to Diablo 2 except even the minor enchantments are really handy..
e) you can play it like hack/slash but i like being able to -pause- in combat to switch skills/spells/potions
The only things I don't like about the game are the following:
a) it's tough to play a pure survivor (thief) at the beginning.. the first dungeon is quite large and the boss creatures are about 5X as tough as the minions. I was forced to take the Mage skill Meteorstrike in order to survive those fights... (although later in the game, the survivor seems quite viable.. the poison skill rocks)
b) the boss monsters are stupidly tough compared to lower forms.. you can be slicing your way through a cave thinking you are the man... then find the last guy can chew you up in 3 hits. (but it's easy to mark the map so you can come back and whoop him later)
c) it's actually hard to find a lot of negative stuff to say.. i've only play 40 hrs or so... and either I'm too stoked or it's just so much better than the last few CRPGs that I can't see the bad stuf.. <shrug> |
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Tue Sep 24, 2002 8:34 pm |
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irritantnumber6
Village Leader
Joined: 07 May 2002
Posts: 93
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Modboy, come on man, stop pussyfooting around! Do you like the game or not?!?
Just kidding -- I bought it today and am struggling with the realization that I'm only at the beginning of Chapter 3 in Icewind Dale II. Do I have the strength of character to wait?
Honestly, what an unbelievable year for us RPG hounds. Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, M&MIX, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale II, now DD and soon Arx Fatalis.
I'm quite tempted to just set DD and Morrowind aside for next year when the bounty of new RPGs has slowed down and I need a fix!
Anyway, thanks for your enthusiasm and information. I have a couple of questions --
Do you get no experience for things like lockpick?
Does the Wisdom skill actually let you accumulate XP quicker?
Is there an XP cap?
Does it pay to play a thief who tries to avoid combat, if you only get XP from killing things and finishing quests? I'm drawn to trying the game as a Survivor, having had so much fun as a Rogue in NWN. |
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Thu Sep 26, 2002 2:41 am |
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modboy
Village Dweller
Joined: 24 Sep 2002
Posts: 9
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Hi Irritant#6, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can:
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>>Do you get no experience for things like lockpick?
No, which is too bad... it'd be nice thing for the next patch <hint>
>>Does the Wisdom skill actually let you accumulate XP quicker?
Yes, each level of Wisdom gives you 2% increase in XP gain
>>Is there an XP cap?
Nope, no level or XP cap at all.... most people finish at around 50-60 I hear
>>Does it pay to play a thief who tries to avoid combat, if you only get XP
>>from killing things and finishing quests? I'm drawn to trying the game
>>as a Survivor, having had so much fun as a Rogue in NWN.
Hmm tough one... you get lots of XP from quests and some fights can be side-stepped through dialogue (and you get XP for avoiding the fight)
BUT... you will need to kill creatures... you can use POISON (which is REALLY effective so far) or TRAPS (i heard this is actually overpowered) to help in the fighting... there's lots of monsters in the wilderness and lots of XP to be gained so why avoid fighting?
In NWN, there was tons of fighitng too so it shouldn't really bother you if you enjoyed NWN. I think this game was far superior to NWN... NWN always felt so canned... Divinity feels like a 'world'.
I haven't progress very far as a survivor (my main char is a Warrior w/ a mix of both survivor and mage skills) so maybe someone who has can give you better tips. |
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Thu Sep 26, 2002 6:04 am |
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