Customer Reviews

Divinity II: Ego Draconis

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Why should you BUY Ego Draconis? If you're a fan of old-style RPGs with lots of quests (many with multiple solutions) and the absolute minimum amount of assistance when it comes to solving quests/puzzles, you'll have a ton of fun. Very early in the game, your character gains the ability to read minds, which provides insight into people's motivations and can alter the outcomes of various quests. And if you like games with a high level of difficulty, run out and buy Ego Draconis immediately! Even on the "Easy" difficulty level, you'll be dying quite a bit. Enemies do NOT level with you, and walking into a fight with enemies even a few levels above yours is guaranteed to end badly for you. The game also has a lot to offer people who enjoy thoroughly exploring every map/dungeon in their games. Ego Draconis offers many rewards to those who take the time to explore every nook and cranny.

Why should you RENT Ego Draconis? Well, how high is your tolerance for bugs and glitches? Because Ego Draconis has quite a few--Larian really should've spent a few more months polishing the game before they released it. I haven't encountered any that were game-breakingly bad, but even minor glitches can get annoying when there's enough of them. There are also a very limited number of areas in the game to travel between, and while the game offers different ways of resolving the quests you take on, there don't seem to be any significant consequences for the decisions you make. Which means that, at least for me, the game doesn't have a lot of replay value.

Why should you AVOID Ego Draconis? The main concept that the game is centered around is that your character can turn into a dragon, and I was pretty excited about that concept--it made the game a must-buy for me. But there are several things about it that I found very disappointing. For one thing, you won't get to turn into a dragon until you've put in a lot of time with the game--it took me just over ten hours to reach that point. Once you can transform, you'll find that your dragon is hemmed in by invisible walls and barriers that limit your freedom of movement. And the game also dictates which enemies you're allowed to attack while you're a dragon. I never experienced the sense of freedom and power that I expected to enjoy while playing as a dragon. To sum up: Ego Draconis is a decent game based on some interesting concepts which could've made it an amazing game...if they had been fully developed.

This could have been a really great game, but it was rushed out to market and has some problems.

The graphics on this game are pretty sub-par and are, frankly, a disappointment on a system that is as capable as the Xbox 360. The textures are blocky and low resolution. You can easily tell that things such as trees are rendered as flat pictures when you are flying as a dragon, as you can look down on them and see that they have no depth. The trees will actually rotate with you and look like a piece of paper instead of a tree.

There are some graphical stuttering issues, as well as screen tearing issues. The cut scenes stutter and, at times, blink as they play.

Graphics: 4/10

There is a pretty serious bug with the game save system. You can save your game, play for an hour or so and then save over the previous game... if you get killed, your game will load at the previous location (not where you saved it) about 60 - 70% of the time. You will still have whatever you had at the second save and your progress will be saved, but you will start wherever you saved the time before. There is also an issue where you will get killed, reload the game, and then load to a red screen that freezes, making you have to quit the game and restart.

Save system: 1/10

The interaction system is flawed as well and it is difficult to talk to people, as you have to get right on them and click on them while they are walking away from you. It is also difficult to search chests, crates, and barrels because the system doesn't work well.

Interaction: 4/10

The game play is fun and there are some really good ideas at play. This game is recommended for fans of Oblivion and Dragon Age, as it shares a lot of the same ground as those much better games.

Now for the good things:

The inventory system is wonderful, as you can send items to your battle tower from the field, so you don't have to continually sell things or destroy them. What's even better about this is the fact that items in your chest are still available for your alchemist and enchanter, so you don't have to carry tons of stuff around in order to be able to enchant or make potions.

Inventory system: 10/10

Being a dragon is a lot of fun, but I have one problem with it. It appears that you cannot attack people on the ground with your dragon. I have tried this many times and I cannot get it to work. People on the ground will either disappear when you turn into a dragon, or they will be able to attack you while you can't attack them. Beyond that, being a dragon is good fun and the controls are pretty straight forward and easy. There are a decent number of good skills your dragon can use and it is pretty satisfying overall. It is, however, sometimes hard to get your character to turn into a dragon, as it does so slowly and it is a bit clumsy.

Being a dragon: 8/10

The standard RPG walking around stuff is, well, pretty standard. You walk around and look for enemies like all other RPGs. The enemies are sometimes difficult and you have to figure out strategies for attack and can't just run in and swing your sword. The mix of hack-and-slash action and magic is really good, but there is a delay between magic and physical attacks that makes battle a little clumsy at times. With this said, there are a great number of magic and battle skills available and it is VERY comprehensive. There is also an amazing array of weapons and armor and plentiful charms and enchantments to apply to them. You can create some very serious stuff pretty easily.

You can map attacks, spells, potions, etc. to the D-pad and the A, B, X, and Y buttons on your controller at will by pressing and holding the button or direction you want to assign something to and then choosing what you want. It is a nice system.

Combat: 8/10
Magic options: 9/10
Attack options: 8.5/10

This game would be an 8/10 if there weren't serious bugs, but it is a 6/10 as it stands. I would recommend waiting for a patch for this game before buying it.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed this game more than Dragon Age: Origins. Though, to be fair, BioWare set the bar way too high by claiming that DAO was the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. The game definitely has the unique feeling that Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity had. However, the transition from 2D isometric to 3D is a disappointment, as I absolutely love of isometric RPGs -- particularly the "fog of war" (unexplored areas are completely black), that rewards exploration.

The framerate on the 360 version is not the greatest, but it does not detract from the playability of the game at all. This is in sharp contrast with Neverwinter Nights 2, which is painfully slow regardless how fast your computer is.

Controls cannot be remapped, but the default button configuration becomes intuitive after the first couple of hours. Of particular interest is the ability to pause the game while you select your target, which is very much needed when playing with a game controller instead of keyboard / mouse. What is more, you can setup a "tactical pause," much like the auto-pause feature in Baldur's Gate, that will pause the game when your health reaches a certain threshold and allow you to quaff a potion, regroup, etc...

The difficulty in the beginning of the game is worth mentioning... you absolutely must do side-quests in the beginning to be strong enough to progress the main storyline, even with the difficulty set to "low." If you purchase one of the armor sets on the 360 Marketplace, that will also help tremendously - look up the stats on the net and find the set that best suits your character's desired stats.

Although not as good as Divine Divinity, this definitely has more depth to it than your run-of-the-mill WRPGs these days. Admittedly, I jumped ship and no longer play new RPGs on the PC platform (because I stopped pouring money into upgrading my computer about 4 years ago), and this decision limits my choice of WRPGs and user-created content. But as far as Xbox 360 WRPGs w/ first-party content only, this one is a gem.

In short, this is a severely underrated game. I can only assume that people who do not enjoy this game have not given the game enough time... The beginning of the game, and various other parts are extremely difficult and frustrating, but if you press on, there is a very good game to be had.

I just finished this game last night, probably putting about 40-50 hours into it, and I felt compelled enough to come to Amazon the next morning to write a review.

First let me say I got this game for $9 over the holidays, but I think it's well worth at least $30. I'll keep my review short and easy to navigate.

Gameplay: It's what hooked me on the game. I'd say it's a similar feel to Baldur's Gate games on the original XBOX. Hack-n-slash, not too deep but plenty of variety in terms of how you go about taking down your opponents. Also, you can choose to focus on the typical warrior, mage or ranged attacks, with separate Dragon Knight abilities I would imagine are available to all classes. I chose a warrior (I always do the first playthrough), because I love to just hack through my enemies.

Difficulty: It's a hard game, which is probably why some people reviewed it poorly. They gave up quickly (same thing happened with Demon's Souls, one of the greatest games ever made) and decided the game sucked. I ended up playing it on the lowest setting and it still kicked my butt plenty of times. I don't pretend to be great at any of these games, but I'm a huge gamer and love to have fun and relax with a game. However, I can step up to a nice challenge once in a while, and thankfully you can save whenever you want.

Bugs: Game froze up on me twice in 50 hours. Compared to Oblivion or Fallout New Vegas, this game runs perfectly.

Graphics: Not up there with the best, but certainly not a distraction. Can't graphics have their own flavor, not look photograph-perfect and still be enjoyable these days? I thought the graphics were fine.

Story: Really sticks together and drives you through the game. Unlike Risen or Two Worlds (both of which I loved in their own way, as well) this story and interaction with the NPCs feels much more polished. There's a love-it-or-hate-it surprise ending that might feel a bit rushed for some gamers. I had a bit of a WTF moment last night, but this morning I thought back and was glad the game ended the way it did.

Navigation: OK, here's the one area I'd take off marks, but it doesn't necessarily detract from it being a 5-star game for the price. It's a bit difficult to figure out where things are. There's no waypoint to guide you, and some of the things you have to do like find levers or gather parts of a ship scattered throughout the world feel a little cheap without that help. I had to consult a walkthrough, which I never do. But it's a minor frustration that eventually you figure out if you have enough patience.

Multiplayer: I don't even know if the game has it, I don't game online (probably one of the last dozen gamers left in the world that doesn't).

Overall: At this point, if you look around hard enough, you can find this game at a bargain price, and it's totally worth it if you like this kind of game. I think it was IGN that gave this game a 2/10 or something on the 360, which is an absolute joke. But if you're familiar with IGN, you know their entire review structure is a joke. Seriously, watch some YouTube videos to get a flavor for the gameplay and give this game a try, it's a ton of fun.

I should say I didn't play it before it was patched. I did not encounter any bugs. Gameplay is addictive, though a leveling system requires some thinking. The same game may be hard as hell or easy as in a God Mod (with not too much in between) depending on your build.
Being a dragon is FUN!!! I just love burning all these little obnoxious balistas and towers!
The ending was a bit of a surprise, but fear not, an add-on, Divinity 2 Flames of vengeance is coming soon, where we will continue a story of a dragon knight (about 20 more hours, whicn will make it 60 hours total) and kick asses of all bad guys. The add-on will improve graphics, they totally overhauled an engine. A big patch will be available as well if you do not feel like buying an add-on.

I waited on this game because of the lackluster reviews, but then it went on sale and picked it up. Wow -- it is actually a great game, BUT with several cautions about what I am mean by "great game:"

1. The game is better looking than some suggest -- there's real time lighting on everything and relatively large levels to explore. Unlike Fallout there's good use of different color in the various areas. Spell effects are totally generic though. Framerate is solid but looks to be around 20 frames per second on the 360 version. The textures are not as blurry as some suggested -- when you consider the size of the levels, I think the levels look pretty great.

2. The game relies on real time combat with cooldown timers on your special abilities. Enemies almost always attack in groups and will try to surround you. You are either gonna love that or hate it. It takes some getting used and the game throws you into hard quick-death action after the initial village. You _must_ jump to avoid long range enemy attacks or you will die many deaths. You can move behind objects to avoid attacks too. Potions are easy to come by and can be keyed to a quick button for easy use. I suspect this is where the poor reviews came in: some folks including professional game reviewers died a hundred deaths in front of the mage tower very early in the game and decided the game was "too hard."

3. Level design is much better than I expected to be. There are large outdoor areas that were obviously carefully crafted by the designers. Interior dungeons offer a nice change of pace from the above ground areas. There are no cookie cutter dungeons like we had over and over in Oblivion.

4. But it is not a perfect RPG. The designers offer 3 different classes and over 3 dozen special abilities. That sounds great but a good half of those special abilities are of questionable usefulness. There are obviously "better" skills to pick. In the first Divinity PC game you could imbue your weapons with all kinds of different effects and different enemies had different weaknesses to things. Here for example there is poison but no freezing. Mage powers are all basically variations on fireballs. The designers simplified the skill tree and it hurts both the game's replay value and its RPG-goodness. There are 3 classes but the game heavily favors melee combat since you are so frequently surrounded by enemies using melee attacks. You can choose to be invisible or deflect attacks later in the game, but melee attacks are so frequent your poor ranger is a MUCH harder character to play than a sword user, especially in the early and mid-game when you have access to few skills.

5. There are some interesting choices for quests along the way and the game often shows a wacky sense of humor if you bother to read the various books you find in your travels. You can to a limited degree play "evil" or "good," but the choices arent all that dramatic either.

6. Like Diablo 2, there's lots of weapons and equipment and its all randomly generated with different skill boost qualities. Some items are rare and so on. But there again, it is all too simplified. Most of these item qualities simply enhance the skills sets mentioned in #4. There are stones you can set on your equipment to add abilities but like everything else it, the abilities are not all that interesting or diverse.

As much as I wanted to love the recent game Dragon Wars, I actually liked Divinity 2 better over all. I enjoyed the large world that one can explore. For all of Divinity 2's flaws, it offered a real challenge that made me think before I walked into a battle (Dragon Age was a total 100% cake-walk). With Dragon Age, you are basically hand-held thru fairly linear levels and I was bored at the 20 hour mark. Divinity is easily a 3 star game, and possibly 4 stars if you like harder RPG games that you typically find on a PC. Some folks talk about bugs but I never encountered one.

When will someone make a real sequel to Baldur's Gate 2? All of these recent RPG's pale in comparison to that older PC game.

The controls are awkward and there are a whole bunch of small bugs, and some larger ones around loading saved games. Fortunately, you get used to the controls after 2-3 hours and the intro quests, and I managed to get around the game load issues by deleting my saves and re-saving rather than over-writing. Once you get past these issues, there is a vast amount of content with a rich story line and vibrant world to explore. I was surprised at just how engrossed I became especially because, at the beginning, it really seemed like this game was going to be a dud. There's also a bit of a steep difficulty curve, but if you approach it as a bit of a strategy as well as an action hack 'n slash, using the pause button to target and plan as the manual indicates, and the difficulty is not only manageable but a large part of what made the game so engaging for me-- It wasn't just mindless button mashing to the goal. Because of all of this, I'm rating this game 5 stars, for the experience I had, even if the packaging wasn't flawless.

Divinity 2 is a free roaming "do anything you want" kind of rpg, the likes of Oblivion, for example. It's a fairly decently sized world to explore, tough enemies to fight, and tons of loot to gain. Let's not forget about the leveling up and unlocking cool new skills and spells.

With that said, let's take a look at some of the pro's and cons.

The Pro's

Adventuring in Divinity 2 is fun. There's danger or surprise around every corner. There's tons, and I mean tons of secrets to be found. In the starting village alone, there's secret tunnels, keys, chests, etc that if you aren't really looking for, you wont find. This really benefits the curious and adventurous player who wont want to miss anything.

Combat is great. The battles go smoothly, the spell animations work well, while not being overly dramatic. The melee combat aspect is done just as well also.

Character development is done a LOT better here than in games such as Oblivion. The skills/spells list is set up very nicely and there's no class system, so you can build a warrior type character, with let's say, a few priest spells such as healing for example, and you have yourself a paladin. This mix and match system let's you customize a unique character with skills and abilities you want.

CONS

The framerate is bad. I wont lie to you. I'd say it's about 20 FPS pretty much everywhere. The only upside is it doesn't get any worse during combat or anything.

There are some bugs. Sometimes loading a saved game will actually load a game you had saved the day before. While this doesn't happen every time, it does happen I'd say about 30% of the time.

The story while being unique, and deep, is short. The main plot and game only takes about 40 hours or so. With that said, there's still another 40-50 hours in adventuring and finding loot, so it does make up for it.

The difficulty level is messed up bad. The enemies are always going to be higher than you, and even the weakest looking skeleton can and WILL kill you in a matter of seconds if you aren't really prepared. Even on easy, you never know when some super beast freak will one hit you out of nowhere. So *always* watch yourself, no matter where you are. It's VERY unbalanced.

The graphic quality as a whole is sub-par and reminds me of PS2. With that said, I still personally like the graphics style and for me, graphics don't mean crap anyways. I only mention it because there's a lot of shallow gamers out there who are all about the best graphics.

CONCLUSION

In the end, Divinity 2 seems a little like an unfinished product. Like the devs ran out of time and had to ship it early. It has it's flaws, and it's bugs, more so than it should have, but if you can look past that, and handle a rough framerate, this free roaming rpg is a blast to play and the world is amazing to explore.

I'd recommend it to anybody who's played and enjoyed games like Oblivion, Sacred 2, the Fable series, or Dragon Age. Just keep in mind, you have to be a forgiving gamer because for some, the flaws WILL outweigh the good. Luckily for me, they didn't and my 60+ hours spent was full of enjoyment, adventuring, looting, and slaying. 30 dollars WELL spent.

Divinity 2 is a lower budget RPG on the xbox 360 & PC and it definitely show's visually & performance wise... but tech issues aside this is a great game. You have to put a few hours into it, be patient as there are several character evolutions resulting in fresh new gameplay as the journey progresses. This game just gets better & better as you go.

The quests are fun and have a devious sense of humor, this is an RPG that doesn't take itself all that seriously. Divinity 2 is sort of like watching Commando (arnold 80's movie). The production & acting is bad in "Commando" as well but it's just great fun to watch, that's the best way to describe Divinity 2.

Highlights would be the combat & humor. Combat's always fun and if you pay enough attention to the books and dialogue you'll run into many interesting situations that will have you chuckling.

However this game isn't for everyone, but if you love western RPG's and can tolerate 20 FPS gameplay you can't go wrong with Divinity 2. The PC version may perform better but i've been playing the 360 version and enjoying every minute of it.

Great game everything you want from an rpg! Great characters, pretty big world, lots of quests, dragons and a solid story. This game slipped under the radar.