Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Thoughts

Divinity: Original Sin 2—the game so nice I beat it twice!

Okay, I know that's a cheesy line, but when you consider that the game is an 80+ hour RPG, I'd say it's a pretty solid recommendation. Although I loved my time with Persona 5, not once did I entertain the idea of second playthrough—whereas I walked away from Original Sin 2 hungry for more, despite having played two campaigns simultaneously. Original Sin 2 is not only superior to the first game in every single way, but is also—unquestionably—one of the best turn-based RPGs ever made. It's smart, engrossing, deeply tactical, and well worth every single minute you invest into it.

The only major issue with Divinity: Original Sin 2 is that it's buggy. That's it. And unless this is your first rodeo with a western RPG, you're probably aware that buginess comes with the territory. That's not to excuse the glitches you'll inevitably run into, but rest assured that the occasional graphical hiccup or game crash doesn't ruin the experience—provided you save frequently. Every other problem Original Sin 2 has, from its unhelpful quest log to its wildly imbalanced encounters, are drops of bad in an ocean of greatness. Original Sin 2 garners so much good will that even when the game encroaches upon frustrating territory, you'll bear it all with a smile.

The key to Divinity: Original Sin 2's resounding success is threefold: it looks great, plays great, and gets you invested in its story. Any one of those usually provides reason enough to play through a game (the combat was all the first game had going for it), but having all three are the markers for a masterpiece. Before I dive into each of these facets, I have to commend Larian Studios for not only learning from the first game's failures, but also expanding the co-op from two players to four. Original Sin 2 was a ton of fun to play with my friend group, even when we were mucking up battles and accidentally (and sometimes not-so-accidentally) blowing each other up.

The jump in presentation from the first Original Sin to the second is subtle, but noticeable. The UI has been cleaned up, the visuals are clean and gorgeous, and the voice acting has been reigned in. I played a little Neverwinter Nights parallel to this and the difference between the two is night and day. That's not a fair comparison, but it helps to drive home how truly important a sharp art style, poignant soundtrack, and easily readable interface are to keeping the player invested. Original Sin 2's presentation wasn't the reason I was playing the game, but it certainly helped make a fairly complicated game more palatable—the voice acting in particular is downright savory.

What did keep me coming back to Original Sin 2 was the explosive combat. The Original Sin series possesses, bar none, the most engaging RPG combat I've ever experienced. It's smart, colorful, and extremely flexible, giving players innumerable ways to engage with it. A lot of skills have been reworked and a bunch more have been added, introducing spells formed from two different disciplines (like fire and archery), as well as abilities powered by Source, Original Sin 2's rare but powerful magic resource. This rapidly expands the ways you can interact on the battlefield, and since magic & physical armor now block debuffs, you can no longer stunlock foes from turn 1 like in the first game.

Even when fights are gruelingly long and cruel (I'm looking at you, Aetera) you usually won't mind losing because it's so much fun trying to puzzle out a viable solution. Notice that I didn't say "the correct solution"; every build and ability in the game has its pros and cons, and if you're approach battles wisely you can tackle fights well above your level. It helps that Original Sin 2 isn't about hard numbers as much as it's about spacial awareness and clever combos. For instance, if you need to stall a warrior while you whittle down another opponent, there's a ton of ways to do that: block yourself off with a wall of vines, freeze the ground beneath him, shoot an arrow into his feet, teleport him across the map, etc. Feeling like you're outnumbered but coming up with a risky play ("I'll Shackles of Pain myself so that when you blow me up they'll die too!") really captures the rambunctious magic of Original Sin 2. It's an experience no other game has: chess-like strategy blended together with improv comedy execution.

And if that wasn't enough to sell you, the story in Original Sin 2 is absolutely excellent. I would've been pleased if it was good—that would've heightened it above the farcical plot of the first game—but Original Sin 2 goes above and beyond, keeping a smidgen of the old humor but dowsing it in consequence. The story and choices you make are fraught with morally gray quandaries, few characters lacking a reason for the violence they cause. The first Original Sin was about stopping an apocalyptic force from returning, while in this game you are the cause of the apocalyptic force this time, and "solving" this problem is no easy task. The struggle between good and evil is stranger, murkier—all the major factions vying for power are simply trying to restore justice to a dying world.  I fully expected to ignore the plot at the start, but I was pleasantly surprised at how often Original Sin 2's dilemmas divided my friend group. By the end of the game, two of them had vowed to kill my character if given the opportunity—which is the sign of a great role playing story.

There is no RPG system with more fun, funny, and tactical combat than Divinity: Original Sin 2. Improving on the first game alone would make it a landmark experience, but Larian studios went above and beyond, creating a title that I would argue is a must-play. If Original Sin 2 is to have a greatest accomplishment, it isn't the strong visuals, phenomenal gameplay, or enticing story: it's that it makes the player engage with a role playing game, where every story choice, every stat increase, and every combat deliberation is theirs and theirs alone to make. There are a lot of ways to play Original Sin 2, a lot of characters to haggle with, and a lot of fights to survive, but these myriad of branches stem from the same trunk of truth—Divinity Original Sin 2 is unbelievably good.