…warm? form? worm? Something like that.
My point is that I have a new game I enjoy playing. Like I said I was doing to do yesterday, I got Divinity : Original Sin 2 once my money went from “pending” to “available for spending”.
And so far, it’s pretty good. Very much in the tradition of other good games like Neverwinter Nights, or Baldur’s Gate 2, or Dragon Age Origins.
It’s what they call an “isometric” RPG, with turn based combat, and that is a style of game that suits me well.
I just finished the first chapter of the game, which was also kind a tutorial, as is tradition. So far, the game has no weird new mechanics to throw me off and my character’s abilities are pretty damned cool, so, not bad.
Of course, before I did anything I had to go through character creation, and that is always somewhat tense the first time because you have to make decisions that will impact your entire first playthrough when you haven’t even played the game yet.
I had the choice of either choosing one of the pre-made main characters of the game or creating my own, and I chose to use one of the premade ones in order to cut down on potential options and because I figured that would be more fun the first time through.
So I am a lizard-person known as The Red Prince.
Because he’s a prince. And red.
And so far, I’m kind of a dick, in a prissy and amusing way. My character is a spoiled aristocrat and used to getting what he wants, but got arrested for being something called a Sourcerer, able to use Source magic (whatever that is), and thus believed to attract evil creatures known as the Voidwoken.
The original plan was for my character to be sent, along with the other main characters, to the no doubt ironically named Fort Joy, but then a crazy witch woman detonated some kind of spell that killed everyone on board and then a towering Cthulu-ish sea monster destroyed the ship I was on.
And thus ended the action-packed spectacular that was the first chapter. I have washed ashore and no doubt adventure awaits me.
The game is well drawn and richly illustrated and so far, the voice acting is top notch.
I think I am going to like this game. Which is a relief because I would have been embarrassed to return a THIRD game.
The game scores 95 percent with the critics on Metacritic AND 9 out of 10 with the users of the site.
I am paying extra attention to User Score after the debacle with Red Dead Redemption 2. From now on, if the critics love it but the fans hate it, I am going to consider that a major red flag.
Seems obvious in retrospect, but what doesn’t?
Best part is that this game was only $30 so I still have $33 of Steam cash to spend.
I’m in no hurry. I don’t usually have more than one or two games on the go at a time, and between this new game and tinkering with Sims 4, I will keep busy.
And that’s what I have instead of a life. The End.
More after the break!
Played DOS2 some more. Still greatly enjoying it. Happy that after I got washed ashore, the open world aspect kicked in and I am now free to roam.
And the open world is full of quests, missions, plot points, and miscellaneous other points of interest, and that’s exactly what I want in a game.
I have to admit, though, that the graphically dense world is taking some getting used to. There’s just so much to see everywhere that it’s easy to sort of lose track of yourself and then you have to find your character on the screen again.
I am sure I will adapt, however.
More annoying is that there seems to be some kind of disconnect between where I think the mouse pointer should be in order to interact with something and where the game thinks it should be.
I haven’t quite sussed out the nature of the error yet. I think it has something to do with me expected to be able to click the edge of the object in question and the game wanting me to click somewhere closer to the center, but I could be wrong.
Luckily, when you hold down the left ALT button, it highlights all the interactable objects on the screen, so I can find things that way.
Getting a bit tired of everyone having some version of a British accent in these games. I mean, it’s a fantasy world, and the British don’t own fantasy. You could have everyone speak in sexy Southern Gentleman slow drawls and it would be just as “accurate”.
But again, that’s still just a little quibble. You can infer that if I am complaining about such small details, the game must be pretty damned good.
And it is.
One interesting note is that the minute I entered Fort Joy proper I gained two followers – one is a glassy-eyes black cat who seems confused about why it is following me, leading me to conclude that someone is using that cat to spy on me, and a tiny rodent that seems to be rising another, slightly larger rodent.
This, of course, reminded me of one of my favorite supporting characters of all time. the Narnia Chronicles’ stalwart and noble Reepicheep.
C. S. Lewis really hit it out of the part with Reepicheep. A tiny (well, mouse-sized) mouse with a heart full of courage, bravado, gallantry and compassion, he’s like a tiny mouse Musketeer in many ways.
If only there was a word for that.
Reepicheep was my all time favorite character in Narnia (besides Aslan, obviously) when my mother read the books to me when I was little.
That combination of tiny stature and huge courageous heart makes me love him to pieces to this very day.
So far, the one in DOS2 hasn’t spoken yet.
It better have a clipped Brigadier type accent when it does.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.