Still in the Early Access stage on Steam, Divinity: Original Sin is the latest release in the Divinity series. Like its predecessors, Original Sin adopts the classic turn-based combat system and the ‘choose your own destiny’ gameplay that has made the series popular. But instead of limiting your conversations and destiny to NPCs, you can now “role-play” with the characters in your party. The new chat feature gives you the power to change the outcome of every conversation and it adds infinite replay value to Divinity.
The character creation process isn’t like most RPGs either. Instead of limiting you to one character like most role-playing games, Divinity has you develop two main characters. The character creation process gives you full customization that includes: male or female gender; character classes (i.e. Survivor, Warrior, Cleric, etc) and the appearance of both characters. Gamers who like to tweak their characters will appreciate the flexibility.
The combat system is a robust experience that contains brutal battles that can span for many turns. Depending on the scenario, some battles can take a very long time to complete. Combat takes place on a grid-style battlefield where each character has their own set of Battle Points/ Movement Points. These points are deducted based on movement, skills or any type of attack method. You must end your turn once you have depleted all your Battle Points. Once your turn has ended, the game will cycle to the next character in your party to repeat the process. After your characters have spent all their Battle Points, your enemies will enter combat.
Divinity: Original Sin includes an enormously large open sandbox world that gives you enough space to explore without any restrictions. Since the environments are so large, it can be difficult to complete simple tasks. In fact, there are times when you are tempted to explore instead of focusing on the main story. Due to this, the game doesn’t rush you through the story. It also gives you plenty of freedom to complete any quests you may have. Just like the previous Divinity games before it, Original Sin is a nonlinear experience with endless possibilities. As mentioned earlier, the environments are extraordinarily vast, and they sometimes give the impression that you’re alone in the game world. The environments are filled with vibrant colors and dark, foreboding shadows that really help set the mood for the atmosphere.
There are parts of Original Sin’s world that contain plenty of NPCs, so that feeling of isolation isn’t constant. Additionally, just about everything inside the game world is destructible and can be manipulated in one way or another. Everything inside the world of Original Sin serves a purpose (i.e. crates can be broken up into usable material, etc). The same practice applies to NPCs as well. You can literally kill just about anyone you encounter. As mentioned earlier, the choices you make and how you treat people directly affect the course of the game. So it’s up to you to decide whether you want to be good or evil.
Original Sin includes a coop campaign where you can play with a friend via Steam. As of right now in its late alpha stages, there is no online lobby to find players. The only way to find an additional player for co-op (at least at the moment) is to either visit the Steam forums or by having a friend on Steam that owns the game. This really isn’t a problem since finding players is relatively easy. However, it goes without saying that no online feature is complete without an online lobby feature. The online feature of Original Sin also includes the ability to load different modules that are player made through the Steam Workshop These modules also help extend the game’s replay value for both single-player and co-op.
Divinity: Original Sin is an outstanding game that does the series justice. It maintains all the beauty of the previous releases without compromising their integrity, and it delivers the type of gameplay that strategy gamers crave.
James ‘Daripp3r’ Pittaro
Platform: PC (Available on Steam)
System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP SP3 or higher
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 or equivalent
Memory: 2048 MB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB) or ATI Radeon HD 4850 or equivalent
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX9c compliant
Developer: Larian Studios
Publisher: Larian Studios
ESRB: N/A
Price: $39.99
Divinity: Original Sin’s Official Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Divinity: Original Sin contains a rich, luscious world. | |
| Sound | |
| Some of the best music ever heard in a game. | |
| Gameplay | |
| antastic turn-based combat that is complimented by a rich story that unfolds like a blockbuster movie. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| One of the best Divinity games by far. Gamers will not be disappointed when the play Original Sin. | |
