Divinity: Original Sin II (PC) – divinely inspired

GameCentral gives a maximum 10/10 score to what is the best role-playing game of the year, and perhaps of all time.

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The PC may be enjoying a second golden age at the moment, but the modern era has few similarities with that of the mid-90s. Rather than big budget games from major publishers, the modern PC’s popularity as a gaming format is due to indie titles, user-generated content, and free-to-play downloads. The types of games are different too, with modern first person shooters having little in common with those of the late 20th century. The one overlap that does exist though is old school computer role-players, of which we’ve had several in recent years. And this latest one might just be the best ever.



While games like Pillars Of Eternity and Torment: Tides Of Numenera have been vaunted as spiritual sequels to Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment, respectively, the Divinity franchise has been going since 2002. Thanks in part to some impenetrable naming conventions, the series has gone under the radar of all but the most hardcore role-playing fans, and only came close to mainstream success with the release of 2014’s superb Divinity: Original Sin – which was ported to consoles a year later.

The first game was a staggering achievement for an independent developer but the sequel manages to make it look simplistic by comparison. The appeal is the same though, in that it’s not the complexity of the gameplay itself that impresses, but the way your actions impact on the game world and its characters. And in that sense, and despite what it looks like, this may be one of the most realistic videos games ever made.


Much like The Elder Scrolls franchise, the worst thing about the Divinity games is the generic fantasy world they take place in. Trying to convince people this is a daringly original, forward-thinking video game is not easy when the cover art – featuring dragons, heavily-bearded dwarves, and peculiarly-clothed elf women – looks like it could have come from any fantasy game in the last four decades.

The plot centres around the persecution of a certain strand of magic users, whose abilities have the awkward side effect of randomly summoning demonic monsters. You and your party (or you can play a single character, it’s up to you) are among these ‘Sourcerors’, whose true nature creates all sorts of moral quandaries about how to resolve the main plot.

The story gets progressively more interesting, but much like The Witcher 3 it’s the smaller details where Original Sin II’s true magic occurs; especially as both games live in a world of moral ambiguity, with few characters that are either purely good or evil. There are no neat solutions to any problem, and if you think you’ve found one then that’s only a sign of unforeseen circumstances to come.

Divinity: Original Sin II (PC) – the combat could almost be its own game

So many times you end up killing people only to later find out they are considerably more sympathetic, or at least complex, than you first assumed. Often times this ends up denying you a potential new side quest, but you also feel the game affecting your world view, tempting you into being a better and more tolerant person. Or, alternatively, convincing you to just give up on it all and go full evil.



The writing and voice-acting for all this is surprisingly good, considering developer Larian is just a small Belgian indie studio, but while you can talk or sneak your way out of many fights that’s far from the only option. The game introduces powers like teleportation, or talking to both ghosts and animals, that other developers would have based a whole game around. And yet here they’re just optional extras you could play the whole game without ever discovering.

As you’d expect of any hardcore role-playing game the character creation tools are pleasingly involved, with different sets of combat and social skills, Source magic, and multiple class types from the obvious classics to those unique to Original Sin II. Although here, as with everything else, the game goes a step further and allows you to create your own classes and character types, all of which function perfectly no matter how bizarre they seem.

Many modern role-playing games focus on combat above all, but here you’re given as many other options as possible, from stealth to smooth-talking, and are left free to specialise in whatever suits your play style best. Or, like any other aspect of the game, you can just skip all that if it doesn’t interest you and use pre-set characters instead.

The game would be extraordinary if it stopped there, the size and complexity of the game world allowing for the narrative depth of a Telltale graphic adventure but within a giant open world arena. But that’s really only the start, as Original Sin II layers on additional mechanics that could almost be their own game. The combat, for example, at first seems a fairly ordinary turn-based battle system. Except it’s actually more like XCOM, as it takes into account defensive terrain and elevation, as well as pools of water or oil that can be exploited by magic users with elemental powers.


All of this is just as challenging as it sounds, but there is a difficulty setting that allows you to make it almost trivial, so you can just concentrate on the story instead. Although Baldur’s Gate is the most obvious inspiration for the game, it’s clear that Larian are reaching back all the way to the original tabletop role-playing games it was based on. The game itself is attempting to play the role of dungeon master, and ensuring that for every possible solution you can come up with it has a way of making it happen.

Divinity: Original Sin II (PC) – possibly the best CRPG ever

The downside of this though, is that while a human dungeon master will usually give players some leeway if they’re unlucky with their dice roles, a computer has no such inclination. But even there the game has a solution, by offering a game master mode where you can create your own scenarios and adventures for other players. And that’s in addition to standard online co-op and even a split-screen mode.

This is an even more fundamental change to the game than it might sound, as the ultimate goal of your characters is to ascend to godhood, and yet only one of them can do so… The rivalry this creates with people you’re supposed to be co-operating with is fantastic, especially as there’s a separate, and surprisingly involved, PvP mode where you can let off steam without upsetting the story.

Considering its size and complexity Original Sin II is spookily bereft of flaws. Even the graphics are quite good, in an old school isometric kind of away. The inventory and quest journal are pretty poor though, with the latter for some reason refusing to keep track of the pertinent details of where you’re supposed to be going and why.


And while it’s by no means a criticism, this is absolutely not the sort of game you can dip in and out of for five minutes at a time. The story’s at least 80 hours long, which is why it’s taken us so long to get this review done, and the near infinite range of possible outcomes means it has enormous replayability.

It’s very hard to think of anything that Divinity: Original Sin II doesn’t have, in what is quite plainly one of the best role-playing games ever made. Even in such a year as this, with so many classic games appearing on an almost weekly basis, this stands clear as one of the most impressive video games we’ve ever played.

Divinity: Original Sin II In Short: One of the best computer role-playing games ever, with such a level of complexity and flexibility it’s difficult to believe it exists, let alone that it could ever be bettered. Pros: Impossibly interactive game world where every action seems possible, and has consequences. Highly complex character creation, excellent battle system, and great multiplayer options. Cons: The inventory and quest journal are awkward and unhelpful. Not a game for the attention-deficient. Score: 10/10

Formats: PC

Price: £29.99

Publisher: Larian Studios

Developer: Larian Studios

Release Date: 14th September 2017

Age Rating: 16

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