DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN
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To play Divinity: Original Sin is to fall in love with role-playing games all over again. It's tempting to label the game as an immediate classic simply because it recalls the days of Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, a time that many role-players still look back on with much fondness. It's true that Original Sin has the trappings of those memorable gems: an isometric camera perspective, an adventuring party of four, magic spells and pubs to relax in and an intriguing fantasy kingdom that captures the imagination. What makes this game so special, however, is that it avoids slavish devotion to those games of old and instead tells a tale very much its own--a tale of conflict between the elements that plays out in electrifying turn-based battles, and a real-world tale of loyalty, in which game and player establish a bond born out of patience, perseverance, and the promise of joyous surprises in every crevasse.
That Original Sin expects a certain amount of patience is obvious from its opening hours, during which you grow accustomed to the game's quiet confidence in your own intelligence and wits. As you traipse about the first town learning the ins and outs of the complex crafting and combat systems, you discover that there are genre conventions you must live without. There is no automated crafting interface that pieces together recipes you have learned; instead, you must remember those recipes or refer to your logbook. Waypoints are few, and quests rarely lead you directly to your ultimate destination. You do a lot of meandering in these early hours, which makes the pace drag, but this is your chance to explore, to test the waters, and to poke and prod at the game to discover what makes it tick.
To play Divinity: Original Sin is to fall in love with role-playing games all over again. It's tempting to label the game as an immediate classic simply because it recalls the days of Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, a time that many role-players still look back on with much fondness. It's true that Original Sin has the trappings of those memorable gems: an isometric camera perspective, an adventuring party of four, magic spells and pubs to relax in and an intriguing fantasy kingdom that captures the imagination. What makes this game so special, however, is that it avoids slavish devotion to those games of old and instead tells a tale very much its own--a tale of conflict between the elements that plays out in electrifying turn-based battles, and a real-world tale of loyalty, in which game and player establish a bond born out of patience, perseverance, and the promise of joyous surprises in every crevasse.
That Original Sin expects a certain amount of patience is obvious from its opening hours, during which you grow accustomed to the game's quiet confidence in your own intelligence and wits. As you traipse about the first town learning the ins and outs of the complex crafting and combat systems, you discover that there are genre conventions you must live without. There is no automated crafting interface that pieces together recipes you have learned; instead, you must remember those recipes or refer to your logbook. Waypoints are few, and quests rarely lead you directly to your ultimate destination. You do a lot of meandering in these early hours, which makes the pace drag, but this is your chance to explore, to test the waters, and to poke and prod at the game to discover what makes it tick.
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