Enter the Dragon: Divinity 2 Impressions

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis is the sequel to what was apparently a pretty successful game I can only assume was called Divinity (Actually, I read that it’s like the second sequel based off of an RPG known as Divine Divinity and its spin-off  Beyond Divinity). What you have is a surprisingly decent fantasy based RPG that combines some intriguingly diverse elements to create a unique experience in a market filled to the brim with dragons, mages, and glory. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to sink a huge amount of time into the game, but I’ve tried my best to get a feel for the title and present some impressions based on my stint in the gorgeous world of Rivellon coupled with an overall analysis of the different features the game offers players who decide to embark on a more impactful expedition.

The game drops you right into the story of Divinity 2 with little in the way of back-story, so it’s up to the player to piece together Rivellon’s past through quests and interactions with the kingdom’s populace. As a fledgling Dragon Slayer, I found myself embarking on a rite of passage designed to endow me with the wisdom of dragons and the skills to fight the infamous Dragon Knights, who traitorously murdered a great  bringer of peace known as the Divine ages before. These knights have the ability to transform into dragons and take to the skies in battle, and over the course of time the Slayers have whittled down their forces until only one rumored Dragon Knight  remains.  Through a series of surprising events, your Slayer gains the ability to transform into a dragon as well which I am sure leads to much in the way of dramatic conflict and possible morality issues.

The world of Divinity 2 is gorgeous to behold, and the art direction is both familiar and innovative in equal parts. Lush environments abound while water, particle, and magic effects really manage to pop off the screen. Everything is richly detailed and deftly designed, but from some minor clipping issues and frame-rate hiccups it appeared as if the game was really pushing the 360 for all it was worth.  Upon becoming a Dragon Knight, you’ll gain the ability to achieve airborne superiority and really take in the true breadth of Rivellon. The transitions are said to be a breeze as long as you transform in an open enough area, but from what I’ve heard the developers weren’t about to cripple one of the most compelling game play features by boxing in the player.

Speaking of features, this game has a whole host of systems and skill sets for you to sink your experience and gold into. One of the really nifty abilities I found was being able to spend experience points in order to read people’s minds. Folks with tougher minds require more expenditure, but if you play your cards right you can find alternative routes to solving complex quests quicker. Another cool feature is that you can switch your character specialization by visiting specific NPC’s who will let you trade in your current Mage class for the Warrior or Ranger track, or vice versa.  I’m fairly sure all your hard work leveling up along one class will remain in place, but since you’re free to change it up whenever you want you can easily spread your experience and build up a new class accordingly. Also making an appearance are weapons, potion, and enchantment crafting as well as some sort of build your own sidekick in the form of a monster that can be summoned from the hacked up parts of enemies you kill. Like I said, there’s a ton of ways you can spend your time, not to mention your gold.

Combat was a mixed bag, although in the game’s defense I did spend most of my time getting the lay of the land through conversations and fetch quests. I really liked how they shook up the stale hack n slash mechanics of most fantasy games by allowing your character to deal out attacks in a sort of martial arts fashion, with your sword swipes and dodges carried out with mad spins and occasional roundhouse kicks. There was little feedback once you actually connected with an enemy, so I had trouble figuring out if I really hit anything or not while somehow miss-locating  the block command. There was a block command right? Locking onto enemies felt sort of pointless as it differed little from engaging haphazardly and there seemed to be no use in attempting any sort of strategy when engaging numerous enemies at once. More often than not i simply combined magic and melee attacks coupled with large bouts of running away like a little girl.

Divinity 2 hit me as a creative RPG that throws together much of what the genre has to offer at the cost of not providing a truly innovative narrative to drive the experience home. Sure, I’m probably spoiled with Bioware’s recent reptile related opus Dragon Age: Origins, but that’s what you get when two similar games are released so close together. Divinity 2 tries to separate itself from the pack with a unique dialogue/conversation style that got on my nerves at times (you had to lock onto characters before speaking, and they never wanted to cooperate), but the character animations and voice acting really helped me to better engage with this new world. There’s also a lot of humor to be found in this game, from snarky menu text to laugh out loud dialogue and witty characters.

In summary, I definitely plan on revisiting this title again once I have a nice spread of time to really do the experience justice.  The game seems to be firing on all cylinders and while it might not possess one specific quality that elevates it above the competition, there is something to be said for providing a player with solid presentation and a huge amount of compelling features that will encourage a time investment that could pay back in spades.