Info about Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition:

Official game description:
Digital Collector's Editions
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About the Game
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The Divine is dead. The Void approaches. And the powers lying dormant within you are soon to awaken. The battle for Divinity has begun. Choose wisely and trust sparingly; darkness lurks within every heart.  
Who will you be?
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A flesh-eating Elf, an Imperial Lizard or an Undead, risen from the grave? Discover how the world reacts differently to who - or what - you are.
It’s time for a new Divinity!
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Gather your party and develop relationships with your companions. Blast your opponents in deep, tactical, turn-based combat. Use the environment as a weapon, use height to your advantage, and manipulate the elements themselves to seal your victory.
Ascend as the god that Rivellon so desperately needs.
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Explore the vast and layered world of Rivellon alone or in a party of up to 4 players in drop-in/drop-out cooperative play. Go anywhere, unleash your imagination, and explore endless ways to interact with the world. Beyond Rivellon, there’s more to explore in the brand-new PvP and Game Master modes.  
*   **Choose your race and origin.** Choose from 6 unique origin characters with their own backgrounds and quests, or create your own as a Human, Lizard, Elf, Dwarf, or Undead. All choices have consequences.  
*   **Unlimited freedom to explore and experiment**. Go anywhere, talk to anyone, and interact with everything! Kill any NPC without sacrificing your progress, and speak to every animal. Even ghosts might be hiding a secret or two…  
*   **The next generation of turn-based combat.** Blast your opponents with elemental combinations. Use height to your advantage. Master over 200 skills in 12 skill schools. But beware - the game’s AI 2.0 is our most devious invention to date.  
*   **Up to 4 player online and split-screen multiplayer.** Play with your friends online or in local split-screen with full controller support.  
*   **Game Master Mode:** Take your adventures to the next level and craft your own stories with the Game Master Mode. Download fan-made campaigns and mods from Steam Workshop.  
*   **4K Support:** an Ultimate 4K experience pushing RPGs into a new era!

Release date: Sep 14, 2017

Categories: Turn-based Combat, Tactical RPG, Choice-based Narrative, Character Customization, Cooperative Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, Open-World Exploration, Mod Support, Party-based Combat, Environmental Combat


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Memorable and well-developed characters (weight 0.55): Characters are charismatic, multi-layered, and emotionally engaging, with deep backstories and unique personalities. Origin characters and companions add significant depth to the narrative and gameplay.
- Engaging narrative with meaningful choices (weight 0.52): The story is immersive, with branching quests, moral dilemmas, and dynamic reactions to player actions. Choices significantly impact the narrative, creating a living world with high replayability and emergent storytelling.
- Flexible and creative quest design (weight 0.42): Quests are non-linear, offering multiple solutions and meaningful consequences. Players can approach challenges through combat, stealth, persuasion, or unconventional strategies, enhancing freedom and replayability.
- Rich world-building and lore (weight 0.38): The game excels in immersive world-building, with detailed environments, deep lore, and a reactive world that adapts to player actions. The writing is sharp, witty, and layered, creating a vibrant fantasy setting.
- Unique and creative mechanics (weight 0.35): The game introduces innovative mechanics like environmental interactions, elemental combos, and skill synergies. These systems encourage creativity, allowing players to experiment with unconventional strategies and solutions.
- Atmospheric music and sound design (weight 0.31): The soundtrack and sound design are immersive, enhancing the game’s atmosphere and complementing epic moments. The music is memorable, and the voice acting is top-tier, adding depth to character interactions.
- Improved graphics and polish (weight 0.26): Despite its age, the game features impressive visuals, detailed environments, and smooth gameplay. Improvements over the first game, such as enhanced graphics and expanded mechanics, contribute to its enduring appeal.
- Superior to *Baldur’s Gate 3* in key areas (weight 0.26): Many players consider the game’s combat, mechanics, and story more satisfying than *Baldur’s Gate 3*. Its tactical depth, creativity, and freedom often receive higher praise, though opinions on narrative quality vary.
- Robust character customization (weight 0.14): The character creation system is deep and flexible, offering vast customization options for skills, abilities, and appearances. Players can tailor their characters to fit diverse playstyles and role-playing preferences.

Common complaints:
- Frustrating Early-Game Combat (weight 0.65): Players report repetitive, poorly designed combat in the early game, with unfair scaling, lack of skills, and unwinnable encounters. The autosave system exacerbates frustration by saving mid-fight, forcing replays.
- Poorly Balanced Difficulty Spikes (weight 0.63): Difficulty is inconsistent, with extreme spikes (e.g., enemies one-shotting players) and unfair mechanics like forced high-level encounters. Late-game (Arx) and boss fights are particularly punishing, even on easier modes.
- Unintuitive Progression Systems (weight 0.57): The XP and leveling systems are criticized for being inconsistent and poorly explained, with unclear progression paths and level-gating that forces grinding or guides. Crafting and equipment systems are also underdeveloped or obsolete.
- Repetitive and Tedious Late-Game (weight 0.43): The story loses momentum after Act 1, with repetitive combat, predictable encounters, and pacing issues. The final act is less polished, and the game’s length (100+ hours) contributes to fatigue.
- Confusing Puzzles and Quests (weight 0.29): Puzzles are poorly integrated, often requiring external guides due to unclear mechanics or translation errors. Quests lack direction, and some are missable without a wiki, adding frustration.
- Unsatisfying Ending Design (weight 0.25): The ending sequence is criticized for forced mechanics, rigged fights, and lack of neutral/protagonist-centric choices. Players find the epilogue dull, and bugs/crashes often disrupt completion.
- Steep Learning Curve (weight 0.23): New players struggle with overwhelming mechanics, trial-and-error gameplay, and lack of guidance. The game’s complexity and punishing difficulty deter beginners.
- Cumbersome Armor Mechanics (weight 0.22): The dual physical/magical armor system is widely disliked for complicating combat, forcing min-maxing, and disrupting gameplay flow. It often leads to unavoidable team wipes and limits build diversity.
- Outdated UI and Graphics (weight 0.2): The interface is clunky and unintuitive, with outdated graphics and animations. Textures and menus feel less polished compared to modern CRPGs like *Baldur’s Gate 3*.
- Inventory Management Issues (weight 0.14): Inventory systems are cumbersome, with cluttered backpacks, excessive keys, and tedious item management. The interface exacerbates these problems, especially in multiplayer.
- Unbalanced Builds and Combat (weight 0.14): Certain builds (e.g., glass cannon) dominate, while others are unviable. Mages and hybrid builds are particularly weak due to resistances and armor mechanics, limiting replayability.
- Poor NPC and Co-Op Interactions (weight 0.12): NPCs are criticized for passive-aggressive dialogue, poor AI behavior (e.g., friendly fire), and superficial interactions. Co-op gameplay suffers from frustrating design choices and lack of strategy.
- Problematic Save System (weight 0.1): The save system is frustrating, with long gaps between autosaves, deleted files, and anti-player timing (e.g., saving mid-fight). Multiplayer saves are unreliable, and choices lack warnings.
- Underdeveloped Companions (weight 0.08): Companions lack depth, with weak character arcs and limited interactions outside key story moments. Some feel like burdens, and their innate abilities are often useless.

Gameplay feedback:
- Deep turn-based combat system (weight 0.79): The game features a highly strategic turn-based combat system with initiative mechanics, action points, elemental interactions, and environmental effects. Players appreciate the tactical depth, including terrain usage, elemental combinations, and armor mechanics.
- Branching narrative and choices (weight 0.63): The game offers dialogue-driven choices with branching outcomes, multiple quest solutions, and narrative consequences. Players highlight the impact of decisions on story progression, NPC interactions, and replayability.
- Dual armor and elemental systems (weight 0.3): The combat system features separate physical and magical armor, alongside elemental interactions (e.g., fire + water, electricity + oil). These mechanics add strategic depth and creative combat solutions.
- Co-op multiplayer mechanics (weight 0.27): The game supports 2–4 player co-op with shared storytelling, dynamic interactions, and independent goals. Players enjoy cooperative exploration, combat, and role-playing, though conflicts may arise over decisions.
- Puzzle-solving and environmental tactics (weight 0.26): Puzzles are integrated into quests and combat, requiring environmental manipulation (e.g., moving objects, using terrain). Players appreciate the blend of strategy and creativity in solving challenges.
- Open-world exploration and freedom (weight 0.25): The game emphasizes exploration with hidden locations, puzzles, and unrestricted movement. Players value the freedom to interact with NPCs, objects, and the environment, enabling non-linear progression.
- Companion interactions and stories (weight 0.22): Companions have unique quests, relationships, and agency, impacting story progression and gameplay. Players enjoy dynamic interactions, including betrayals, romances, and shared storytelling in co-op.
- Crafting and item interactions (weight 0.15): The crafting system allows for logical item combinations (e.g., poisoned weapons, non-slip shoes) and equipment customization. While some find it limited, it adds depth to gameplay and strategy.
- Teleportation and magic mechanics (weight 0.14): Teleportation and magic systems enable fast travel, combat mobility, and environmental interactions. Players use these mechanics for tactical advantages, such as repositioning or triggering elemental reactions.
- Modding and customization support (weight 0.13): The game supports mods for new content, rebalancing, and custom campaigns. Players value the ability to enhance or modify gameplay, extending the game's longevity and variety.
- Origin characters and lore (weight 0.12): Origin characters have unique backstories, quests, and lore, enriching the narrative and role-playing experience. Players appreciate the depth and personalization these characters bring to the story.

Performance notes:
- Frequent game crashes (weight 0.09): Players report the game crashing unexpectedly during launch, loading, or specific encounters (e.g., Blood Moon Island). This disrupts gameplay and may indicate stability issues in core systems.
- Gameplay-breaking bugs (weight 0.08): Numerous bugs affect quests, item stats, NPC interactions, and progression. Examples include incomplete objectives, respec mirror malfunctions, and cloth physics glitches, severely impacting player experience.
- Optimized for diverse hardware (weight 0.07): The game runs smoothly on low-end hardware, supports 4K/HDR, and is praised for its light system requirements and optimization.
- Performance instability (weight 0.05): Players experience persistent stutters, FPS drops (e.g., 5 FPS on older hardware), and performance issues in large areas. Some report desync in skill animations, suggesting optimization gaps.
- Multiplayer connection failures (weight 0.04): Hosting and connection issues disrupt multiplayer sessions, preventing players from joining or maintaining stable online gameplay.
- UI and interface problems (weight 0.04): Overlays, character portraits, and main menu issues create usability challenges, detracting from immersion and accessibility.
- Linux/map editor incompatibility (weight 0.03): Technical bugs affect Linux users and the map editor, limiting functionality for specific platforms or modding communities.
- Save file corruption/deletion (weight 0.02): A critical issue where save files are deleted or corrupted, leading to loss of progress and player frustration.

Recommendations:
- Must-play for RPG fans (weight 0.78): The game is widely regarded as a masterpiece for fans of deep, tactical RPGs, particularly those who enjoy narrative-driven experiences like *Baldur’s Gate 3* or *Dragon Age*. Its depth, replayability, and strategic combat make it essential for the genre.
- High replayability value (weight 0.72): The game offers significant replayability due to its multiple builds, choices, and narrative paths. Players are encouraged to experience it at least twice to fully appreciate its depth.
- Best for hardcore gamers (weight 0.2): The game is recommended primarily for hardcore or experienced RPG players due to its complexity, difficulty, and lack of hand-holding. Casual players may find it frustrating or inaccessible.
- Exploration and interaction key (weight 0.12): Players are encouraged to thoroughly explore, interact with objects, and read dialogue to uncover hidden content, side quests, and skill upgrades. Companion choices also significantly impact the narrative.
- Worth buying on sale (weight 0.12): While the game is considered worth its full price by many, it is frequently recommended to wait for a discount (e.g., $15–$30) to maximize value, especially for players unsure about its difficulty or style.
- New player tips essential (weight 0.08): New players are advised to avoid starting on the hardest difficulty (Tactician mode) and to use guides or mods (e.g., *Divinity Unleashed*) to navigate unclear mechanics or optimize their experience.
- Superior co-op experience (weight 0.07): The game is praised as a top-tier co-op experience, ideal for playing with friends who enjoy deep storytelling and tactical combat. It is often recommended for groups with consistent schedules.
- Combat strategy and exploits (weight 0.07): The game rewards tactical combat, including leveraging armor types, teleportation mechanics, and frequent loadout upgrades. Some players recommend exploiting certain mechanics (e.g., teleportation gloves) for easier gameplay.
- Supports Larian Studios (weight 0.03): Many players recommend the game as a way to support Larian Studios and encourage future high-quality RPG development, particularly for fans of the genre or studio’s work.

Other player notes:
- Game introduced Larian Studios (weight 0.05): Many reviewers noted that this game served as their introduction to Larian Studios, leading them to explore or purchase Baldur's Gate 3. It was seen as a precursor to demonstrate the studio's capabilities.
- Long playtime highlighted (weight 0.02): Players mentioned a lengthy playtime (e.g., 300 hours), indicating strong replayability and content depth in the game.
- Accessibility features praised (weight 0.02): Reviewers appreciated accessibility settings like foot glow and character highlighting, which improved visibility and gameplay experience for all players.
- Production quality simpler than BG3 (weight 0.02): While the game's production quality was noted as simpler than Baldur's Gate 3, reviewers agreed it did not detract from the overall experience.
- Potential for remake or series (weight 0.02): Players expressed interest in a remake or adaptation of this game into a full series, suggesting it has untapped potential for expansion.
- Helpful tips for new players (weight 0.02): New players found advice like frequent saving and exploring dialogue options useful, making the game more approachable for beginners.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.23): Players frequently cite extreme difficulty spikes, unbalanced combat, and unclear quest guidance as major sources of frustration. Specific mechanics like the XP system, punishing Tactician mode, and poorly designed puzzles exacerbate this. Technical issues such as frequent crashes, camera problems, and bugs (e.g., lizard skeleton bugs) further disrupt gameplay.
- Excitement (weight 0.12): The game's depth, replayability, and creative freedom in combat and storytelling generate excitement. Players highlight the engaging co-op mode, emergent gameplay moments, and the strategic depth of combat as key drivers. The novelty of discovering unique interactions and the game's immersive world also contribute to sustained engagement.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.08): Players derive satisfaction from overcoming challenges, mastering the game's tactical combat, and exploring its rich narrative. The freedom to customize builds, the depth of the crafting system, and the overall quality of the RPG experience—especially when compared to its predecessor—are frequently praised. Mod support and improvements in storytelling also enhance satisfaction.
- Admiration (weight 0.08): The game's writing, character depth, and overall design earn admiration. Players appreciate the emotional depth of companion characters, the immersive world-building, and the attention to detail in mechanics like combat and crafting. The soundtrack, graphics, and the game's ability to remain relevant despite newer releases are also highlighted.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Unmet expectations, particularly in storytelling, technical polish, and post-game content, lead to disappointment. Players criticize repetitive combat, unsatisfying endings, and underdeveloped late-game content (e.g., rushed areas like the blood moon island). Comparisons to *Baldur's Gate 3* often highlight areas where *Divinity: Original Sin 2* falls short, such as narrative cohesion and technical stability.
- Joy (weight 0.05): Joy stems from creative combat, humorous interactions, and engaging multiplayer experiences. Players enjoy discovering unique mechanics, experimenting with builds, and the chaotic yet immersive moments that arise from the game's sandbox design. Positive multiplayer interactions and the game's wit and charm also contribute to this emotion.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.04): Players reflect fondly on past experiences with the game, including reuniting with characters from *Divinity: Original Sin 1*, reliving memorable moments, and appreciating the game's art style and old-school RPG elements. The emotional attachment to the story and characters after completion also evokes nostalgia.
- Amusement (weight 0.04): The game's absurd and humorous moments, such as chaotic multiplayer interactions, unconventional gameplay mechanics (e.g., teleporting crocodiles, fistfighting chickens), and dark humor, provide amusement. Players enjoy the unpredictability and creativity of these emergent gameplay scenarios.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.04): Players enjoy the game's combat variety, flexible strategies, and immersive storytelling. The engaging NPC interactions, sarcastic dialogue, and the lighter atmosphere compared to *Baldur's Gate 3* contribute to a broadly enjoyable experience, especially after overcoming the initial learning curve.
- Appreciation (weight 0.03): Players appreciate the game's depth, narrative quality, and technical stability. The well-written companions, immersive world design, and the freedom to approach challenges creatively are frequently cited. The game's pro-consumer practices and overall uniqueness in the RPG genre also earn admiration.
- Immersion (weight 0.02): The game's atmospheric details, rich world-building, and reactive storytelling create a deeply immersive experience. Players highlight the engaging plot, personalized character interactions, and the freedom to shape their adventure as key factors in their immersion.
- Curiosity (weight 0.02): The game's depth and variety encourage exploration and experimentation. Players are curious about discovering new mechanics, unique item combinations, and narrative outcomes. The anticipation of future surprises and the exploration of different playstyles also drive this emotion.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Players express enthusiasm for the game's content volume, combat depth, and replayability. The passion for the game after extensive playtime, the appreciation for its mechanics, and the preference for it over newer titles like *Baldur's Gate 3* reflect this emotion.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Unexpected story twists, emergent gameplay moments, and the game's overall quality exceeding initial expectations create surprise. Players are often pleasantly surprised by the depth of creative mechanics and the high production value, especially given the game's age.
- Awe (weight 0.01): The game's depth, complexity, and freshness even after hundreds of hours inspire awe. Players admire the intricate narrative, the variability of the game world, and the thoughtful design behind its mechanics and storytelling.
- Gratitude (weight 0.01): Players express gratitude for the developers' work, the game's accessibility, and its impact on introducing them to new genres. The high quality of the game and its lasting influence on the RPG genre are also sources of gratitude.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Minor but persistent issues, such as passive-aggressive NPC dialogue, cluttered loot systems, and repetitive voice lines, cause annoyance. Unbalanced combat and difficulty spikes, particularly when the leveling system feels too easy or punishing, also contribute to this emotion.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players develop a long-term emotional attachment to the game, praising its story, companions, and world. The turn-based combat, character interactions, and the overall quality of the experience foster a deep love for the game.
- Recommendation (weight 0.01): The game's strengths, such as its depth, replayability, and quality, lead players to strongly recommend it to RPG fans. Comparisons to *Baldur's Gate 3* and endorsements for its overall positive experience drive this sentiment.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Severe issues, such as unfair combat encounters, save file deletions, and perceived deception in reviews, provoke anger. The frustration of losing significant playtime or feeling misled about the game's quality contributes to this intense emotion.}