Is Divinity: Original Sin 2 the Best RPG of All Time ?

After a year of delay, here comes the long awaited sequel to Divinity: Original Sin by Larian Studios. With a Kickstarter - like the first opus - a huge success and a quadrupling of funding, this Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes to us with, among other things, cooperation with up to four players and one Game Master mode that smells good role paper.

If it were to remain one, it would be that one

"Oh, but he exaggerates! "" Fucking fanboy! " Yes but no. Divinity: Original Sin first of the name had truly seduced me, as it did to the overwhelming majority of those who tried it, but I had finish it in spite of everything - I know , shame on me. Nevertheless, it was brilliant. And his little brother does everything better than him and it is also extremely complete - it is so hard for me to press the "Quit the game" button. 

Let's begin our tour of the horizon by the graphics, refined more than ever for this second opus. The faces are softer than in the first and the effects are to be damned. Of course, take a mage and take him to the heights of high levels to cause him to unleash a panoply of spells that will burn your eyes and will make you ask for it again anyway. Even the heroes using no magic but only physical capabilities are not left behind and offer neat visual effects.

The artistic direction proves to be once again bulletproof and, the countryside map being bigger than ever, you will pass through many environments swarming with details and nooks and crannies to explore. The different races are very well represented and each have their own visual identity. The elves are particularly unusual - one likes or dislikes Larian Studios' design choice for the sharp-eared people, but in any case it is assumed and well realized; originality and singularity are of value, compared to other races, but also to the other games. You will have the choice between the traditional humans, the dwarves, the elves, the lizards ... and the undead!

As for the different builds that are offered to you at the beginning of the game, there are 14 of them and these offer a beautiful diversity that will be a difficult choice for you. 

But relax, the developers had the good idea to allow the allied characters you meet to offer you to change their specialization to take the one you prefer. Thanks to this famous variety of presets, you have many combinations at your disposal to roll on your enemies and free to you to experiment quantity of combos, because it is indeed quite possible. You will notice the use of the words "preset" and "build" instead of "class", simply because, like a good old role-playing game or a Dark Souls, to take only this example, you actually start with a base and it's up to you then to make your own. You can thus allow yourself all the craziness and combinations possible, as much as you like. Go for a hydrosophist and necromancer soldier, or a pyrokinetic ranger, or a metamorphic thief and a geomancer, and so on.

The ambition to reach the stars of Rivellon

What definitely makes the strength (or one of them ...) of the Divinity license is undoubtedly its quality of writing. The legendary Chris Avellone (literally, he is surrounded by pure gold, shines - super convenient to find his keys in the dark - and has incomparable features), who worked on Baldur's Gate, Fallout: New Vegas, Planescape: Torment, Torment: Tides of Numera ,  Pillars of Eternity  and Prey (among others - yes, this is where you have to say to yourself: "Wait for him to work on other projects of this size , what a kick-ass CV!") hatched the writing of this Divinity: Original Sin 2 ... and it is undoubtedly a stone to be added to the edifice which I hope will be built to its glory in the near future. The texts are beautiful, precise, and the work on the narration is superb, simply. Humor is always as subtle as in the first opus; I paid a few good laughs during the adventure. Note that Larian studios has seen things in greatness since the entirety of the texts are voiced, including narration, and this added to the strength of the writing, gives birth to a bewitching result. Decidedly, I can not get rid of this beautiful narrative of my head. In passing, we speak here of 1,200 characters, 74,000 lines of dialogue for 80 actors.

The scenario in itself is no less worked out and propels you long after the events of Divinity: Original Sin.

Those inhabited by the Source are hunted and purged of their powers by the Divine Order, a sort of ultra-powerful sect dominated by Bishop Alexandar, supposed to be the next divinity, the man who will concentrate the blessing of the seven gods. You are part of Ensourceers taken to Fort Joie to be "cared for" from your Source and will have to fight to escape and face the even greater challenges that await you over the sea, in Rivellon, because the destiny of the world is in the balance.  I will not spoil anything and just ask you to trust Chris Avellone and the script writing team - as a token of their excellent work,

A few words on the soundtrack : I am very satisfied with the sound effects and especially the music that accompanies our peregrinations. In particular, some fights really put a stop to me where I said, "Hey, it sends that! "

It's Your Destiny

So, take control ... In Divinity: Original Sin 2, all your choices have consequences. Of course, not all of them have the same impact in terms of severity, but once again you will have to pay attention to how you choose to resolve the dialogues, as it could result in unpleasant consequences. Speaking of dialogue choices, Larian Studios had the excellent idea to introduce a so-called "Origin" system that allows you to play a character already set in his biography (you can still choose the build) and its labels (more below about those). What's great about this is the addition of a clean  and long quest that will teach you the story of your character and offer additional lines of dialogue that you can sometimes choose to dig out to learn about his past and his life. Let's add that NPCs will recognize you - some have accounts to settle with you! - and this will bring about particular interactions. Once again, the developers did not do things in half because they are five "Origin" characters, each one with a completely different story from the others, that you can embody. About the above labels, these are keywords you choose (up to two) and which allow to enrich (more!) The choices of dialogue: a soldier's past will give you some facilities with the guards, but also with other characters who share this label (without your knowledge);

Your destiny is also to burst opponents with force, and here too Divinity: Original Sin 2 gives a lesson to the competition. Its combat system is more advanced than that of XCOM 2. I will let you read the last sentence to take its measure. The fact is that you are here very free of your movements - within the limits of your action points - and the developers have chosen to remain very close to the world of the role play, in particular with the attacks of opportunity that trigger if you have the misfortune to try to escape from the hold of a tenacious opponent in close combat. Many factors are involved, such as being overhung by enemies (improved damage through a skill, which can also be boosted), but also, and above all, the interaction between the elements . True spearhead of the previous title, it is still present and pushed.

All this necessarily pushes replayability, more than the big brother from 2014 in my opinion, especially as for many quests, you'll want to explore the other possible ways out. Ultimately, DOS 2 offers you an almost infinite lifetime, especially if you want to explore every bit of it in terms of both history and gameplay. Especially since you will be able to experience playing an undead and different racial skills. That's why I advise you to diversify your gear - especially since it is now possible to play in cooperation up to four players! The whole group got rid of AI! For example, elves can devour corpses to remember the last moments of people,

When you see the "Game Master" mode, we know where you walk

And you know the worst of it all? I have not even gone around the whole thing this game has to offer you. 

Before we dwell on Game Master mode, let's talk about crafting and inventory. The first is simple to use and even includes a system of runes. You can learn recipes throughout your journey and put them into practice very simply. The runes are built into the equipment with available slots and you can remove them whenever you want without losing them. My only regret - I have said the only one - is the lack of care taken to inventory, always as pathetic as before. The addition of categories and a search function would have been most welcome; 

Well, let's talk about enjoyment - even more, I mean. Larian Studios has succeeded in offering a fashion in the purest tradition of paper role playing ... with almost as many freedoms! My jaw literally stalled and I found myself imitating Marty McFly for five minutes (without lying) watching everything that was offered in the Divinity Game Master mode: Original Sin 2.

I now realize why the collector's edition of the game is proposed as a Dungeon Master screen with a velvet base for throwing dice. It is completely and probably no justified, deserved and relevant, but who cares :  Enter the Dungeon Master mode to create your campaigns from A to Z, by determining everything: map, levels, paths, surprise events. And we go further with the simple possibility of retrieving illustrations on the DM's PC, sharing his campaigns, recovering those of others and playing with players from around the world! We are not going to stop in this good way: create your dialogues with multiple choices, rewards, unique / legendary / divine objects ... they offer you many levels already built, you just have to fill them. And from there, freedom remains total: create as many characters as you want, rename them, make their stats, generate events, multiple level scenes. Go further and set the background music, the weather, and so on.

And here we are talking only of the preparation phase. Because in play, you can be player, but also, of course, DM, and you can quite take a break to take the time to narrate the story to your players. You can also use the DOS 2 sound bank to accompany and rhythm your story by telling that a cell door suddenly opens and then play the opening sound of metal door. The problem of a video game - any paper role-playing player will tell you - is that it is physically limited in its possibilities, while a traditional RPG has only imagination for boundary. DOS:2 developers are also keen on paper RPGs and have therefore developed this mode keeping this passion in mind. 

So you can always go through a menu to claim a roll of dice (to the number of sides of your choice, of course) to your players by claiming success in such or such statistics (or none at all). Larian Studios encourages not to limit itself to what the game can physically do: if the players want to throw someone from a cliff, a roll of dice and the GM can settle it right away with a little staging if it suits him (and a good DM should). Of course, the DM can also take possession of the "bad guys" to play it PvP against the players. In short, I do not make you a drawing: it is a full tabletop feeling. 

Divinity: Original Sin 2  :  Divine !

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a must, it's a fact. At a time when the RPG is making its comeback with such brilliant and brilliant titles as Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Wasteland and so on, DOS 2 is the game I've always been waiting for. The title of Larian Studios manages to excel at all levels and the only one that is lacking is that of the inventory, that is to say ... do not forget that this development team is known to propose some time after the releaswe a free "Enhanced Edition" that brings many improvements. Chris Avellone's team of writers has done wonders and the overall atmosphere and quality of the writing are simply irreproachable. The gameplay remains bulletproof and even proposes to push  further with tactical options ever more advanced. The skill trees and the extreme personalization of the characters allow all combinations and it is a real pleasure to experiment several combo of eclectic characters. The interactions between "elements" are once again at the top and the induced strategy is equally so. You'll be able to enjoy all this on a background of superb music with striking visual effects, as well as a licked artistic direction, and all for a lifetime of proof. Finally,

For all these reasons, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is THE game to buy right now and to enjoy for life.