Divine Divinity

The Good
This game came as a surprise to me. It has a silly name and an ugly box cover, yet I had to buy it and try it.. And it turned out to be quite a game. It's an isometric hack'n'slash fest, but with brains. Anyone who's ever played Diablo will recognize the style of fighting and anyone who's ever played an old Zelda game will recognize it's type of quests. The lands are huge, there are lots of things to see and do, plenty of people to talk to and an intriguing story behind it all. The fact that you get to shape your own weapons is a great idea and the overall equipment is equally satisfying both to the eye and for functoinality.

The Bad
The game could get a bit repetitive after a while and after fighting your thousand orc in the same way. The later parts of the game weren't near as good as the first parts either, maybe because it's a small company that made the game and they ran out of funds. Who knows.

The Bottom Line
If you liked the style of Diablo but want to give your brain a workout too (not only your trigger finger), then you really sohuld consider taking a look at Divine Divinity. It's a harmless little game filled with skills, quests and monsters. Thumbs up!

The Good
Being very interested in game mechanics, I’ll start listing this game’s many good points with the huge amount of freedom you have in developing your character. Yes, there are three classes and your choice when you create your character does have certain effects, such as a wizard getting twice the amount of mana a warrior with the same intelligence would have or a warrior getting four times the damage bonus a wizard with the same strength would have, but you are completely free to raise those attributes however you wish and to pick any skills you think will better suit your playing style.
That’s right, all 96 skills are available to all three classes, so you can mix and match at will. Luckily, you will get a few skills for free over the course of the game and most mage skills can be learned from books, which can be found or bought, though the prices are steep. Even so, with each skill having five levels and the vast majority of the skills being useful, the 60 or so skill points you will obtain by the end of the game will need to be distributed carefully, making for several character development paths that could be just as good, depending on your playing style.

The game world is large and reasonably interesting as well. It will take a long time to explore every area, but you will likely find it worth your effort, as this game offers way more than swarms of enemies to kill and lots of nice loot to use or sell. Sure, there is a pretty insane amount of that as well, but there are also a whole lot of side-quests and even more NPCs that will have something to tell you, a fair portion of those discussions being quite humorous.
And the music is excellent as well, adding a lot to the atmosphere of every section of the game. (For those who are interested, it is available for download from composer Kirill Pokrovsky's site. Though it loses its meaning when separated from the game, seeing as it was made to perfectly accompany the various areas you will end up exploring.)

Another interesting thing that I need to mention is the kind of information your journal provides. Sure, it does the usual job of keeping track of quests, but statistics regarding the exact number of enemies killed of each type are also available, including some of the attributes of each, which can be nice if you simply want to keep score but can also provide some useful information that you could use in preparing for future fights. Also, you’ll be able to see some detailed information about your character on a screen that adds descriptions for each attribute, including your level and your resistances. And many of those descriptions will tend to be at least somewhat humorous, which to me says that the developers enjoyed making this game and wanted to provide the players with as many reasons as possible to enjoy playing it as well.

The Bad
Likely the main issue has to do with the combat system. As one would expect, it closely follows the Diablo recipe, as many other games did as well, meaning that most fights just require you to click a button countless times. And sometimes you need to click that button as fast as you possibly can, for example if you are using the lightning spell, which hits the enemy instantly, so any fraction of a second lost between clicks translates into less damage done and therefore a higher likelihood of the enemy managing to hit back. That, coupled with the relatively small number of quickslots compared to the number of available skills, tends to diminish the positive value of such a varied and open character development system.

Another significant problem is the fact that the attributes of items are determined randomly when you first pass your mouse over them, the game only sticking to a general overall value of the item in question, roughly represented by the color of its name. So you may well need to first learn the location of any important items and then save before passing your mouse over them, reloading if the attributes you see are not suited for your playing style.
It’s quite a tedious process, made worse by the fact that adding charms to items that have free slots is a permanent decision. That can cause quite a lot of frustration if you add your good charms to an item and a short while later find one that’s more useful for your particular playing style, even if perhaps its overall value would be lower, but also if you decide against adding any charms but fail to find a better item for a very long time, meaning that you struggled with weaker equipment for no reason.

I also need to make note of the size of the dungeons. The world itself is large and quite interesting, but the dungeons tend to get tedious after a while. And the real problem with that is that they’re absolutely huge, usually spanning several levels, each of those levels being large in itself. There are usually a few interesting moments in each, for example I still remember the skeleton who very bluntly hit on me, but for the most part you’re just running through seemingly endless catacombs, fighting wave after wave after wave of enemies…

And then you have the main story, which isn’t noticeably better than you’d expect from such games, being one you have likely heard hundreds of times before and will likely hear hundreds of times more in the future. Thankfully, the side-quests, NPCs and humor save a good part of the overall impression, but it would have been much better if the main story would have avoided at least a couple of clichés…

The Bottom Line
If memory serves, I played and finished this game at least two and a half years ago. Yet I still remember it quite fondly, perhaps even more so just because I actually played Diablo II shortly after it and that showed me just how much better Divine Divinity is in every aspect. It’s true that it takes the basic Diablo II recipe and builds upon it, but it adds a lot to that recipe and in doing so it does nearly everything right, while Diablo II did pretty much everything wrong. At least that’s my opinion, regardless of how many will be bothered by it.

Therefore, despite its flaws and the uninspired name, I certainly have to say that Divine Divinity is Diablo II done right. If item attributes wouldn’t have been randomized, or at least not randomized so much, it would have probably been about as good as a game of this type could possibly ever be, seeing as the other problems are more or less inherent to the genre.

The Good
Ultima VII remained an unsurpassed champion of 2D role-playing games in my eyes. Even after Fallout and Baldur's Gate gave a tremendous kick to the RPGs of the West a few years later, I always regarded Ultima VII as the Holy Grail of delicate balancing: it had a vast world and incredible interactivity, and yet was scripted and character-driven. Elder Scrolls games always went only for the first, while Bioware focused mainly on the second.

A decade or so later, an unknown game created by modest Belgian developers challenged my definitions. Divine Divinity is a fantastic RPG that valiantly took upon itself the gigantic task of converging different sub-species of the genre. The developers have obviously studied the classics: Ultima VII was clearly the main source of inspiration for this project. For the first time since that milestone, a large, detailed world of similar magnitude has been realized in a 2D RPG. Tighter Bioware-style scripting was added to ensure smoother pace. On top of that, they added another important component: the addictive system of Diablo II with its action-oriented combat, skill-based character development, and abundant variation of randomized items.

I don't know about you, but the mere idea of such a game almost made me drool. Unfortunately, Divine Divinity was constantly marketed as a "Diablo clone", and my ambivalent feelings towards that series made me skip the game when it first came out. Regardless of anyone's opinion concerning Diablo games in general and its second incarnation in particular, it's hard to deny that wealth of items coupled with a skill system was a positive contribution to the development of the genre. Divine Divinity retains it but does away with the repetitiveness and lack of proper RPG features that distinguished Blizzard's creations. The game offers a wide variety of equipment to try out, as well as a large number of skills divided into three classes with four categories each. Each class can learn any skill with certain penalties applied, so the system is extremely flexible and will keep you starting at skill trees for a long while every time you consider where to invest your precious points.

Combat is handled the same way as in Diablo games, with a somewhat slower pace and noticeably lower frequency. I never disliked action-oriented combat, I just thought that Diablo games went over the top with the quantity. Divine Divinity is a great alternative to those who liked the uncomplicated joy of clicking on enemies but also wished to combine that pleasure with some other kind of gameplay. For a fan of serious RPGs Divine Divinity is indeed "Diablo done right", but that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy it even on the simplest level of gameplay mechanics. Walking through wilderness or exploring twisted dungeons and whacking enemy after enemy on the way while watching how your experience grows is a primal RPG sensation, and Divine Divinity captures it very well.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Divine Divinity has a large open world you can explore right away. You can start the game, exit the first house, go out of the gate and just start walking. Yes, Ultima IX (and later Gothic and Morrowind) also had vast worlds and they were much more impressive visually because they were done in 3D. But none of these games managed to combine the sheer size of a world with both detailed interactivity and believable characters. Divine Divinity, on the other hand, triumphantly succeeds in presenting a breathing, believable, enchanting world you'll want to explore to your heart's content.

Everything you see can be interacted with. You can blow candles, rearrange cutlery in other people's houses, stack boulders on a road, and make improvised beds out of straw. The glory of Ultima VII is back: you can once again march through towns, fields, and dungeons, and steal, move around, or simply poke everything you see. The world of Divine Divinity is beautifully busy: there is stuff everywhere, things you can reach out to and touch. You can literally forget everything the game tells you to do and just explore and collect items. I tried to delay plot-related activities simply because I wanted to be my own master in the game, and it allowed me to feel that way. Only few games have ever managed to captivate me in such a manner.

While Morrowind failed to simulate life-like situations with its robotic, sad NPCs, Divine Divinity once again gracefully brings back the natural liveliness of Ultima VII. Basically, no two characters are alike, and even the most ordinary people you encounter will tell you something that distinguishes them from the rest. The game is chock-full of side quests. Already in the first town you'll quickly meet people who will ask you to do something that has no relation to the main story. The quests range from simple delivery missions to fairly complex situations that can be tackled in different ways and require you to make a moral judgement. In its wealth of optional content and individualization of NPCs and quests Divine Divinity is close to Baldur's Gate games.

Divine Divinity has plenty of something I value so much in games: attention to detail. For example, in the first town there is a tombstone of somebody who, according to the inscription, didn't like flowers. Taking advantage of the game's marvelous interactivity, I took some flowers and placed them on the tomb. I never expected anything to come out of that, but, amazingly, the game reacted and I was invited to a side quest of sorts. This is the kind of thing that shows how much heart was poured into the game. The developers' passion can be felt in every location, every aspect of the world's design. There is so much to see and to do, and the game is always generous to you. You won't see clearly cut-out, "streamlined" content, formulaic structuring, or lazy attitude that has plagued so many games, especially in this millennium. Divine Divinity is full of life and love, and it makes you love it simply by being what it is.

The game's story is not the most original tale out there, but it is kept fresh by all those sub-plots that add their own pieces to the puzzle. There is a sense of coherence and depth in the game's world and its lore, so discovering and learning more about that world prevail while the main plotline takes the back seat. There are a few neat twists in the story, and the lively supporting characters pull it out of the schematic mediocrity it sometimes deteriorates into. In any case, the meat and potatoes of the game's narrative-related content is not the main story itself, but the side quests and the characters associated with them. You'll plunge into a net of intrigues, romantic relationships, organizations, and all sorts of other stuff that make up for the old-fashioned "chosen one" storyline.

Divine Divinity also has plenty of humor. In fact, while trying to take itself seriously in appropriate situations, it never passes on an opportunity to insert jokes and bits of amusing dialogue here and there. I was compelled to talk to every NPC simply because I expected them to say something funny. Humorous elements pervade even the main plot, with some eccentric characters such as the fabulous talking cat Arhu, and situations that bring the much-needed freshness and originality to the otherwise standard procedure: for example, the very first quest in the game involves curing a mad healer who seems to be frightened by cabbage. Even the description of your current primary character attributes manages to be funny.

On top of all that, Divine Divinity has lovely, warm 2D graphics and fantastic music. Just wandering through peaceful rural areas while listening to the sweeping symphonic soundtrack is an experience that should not be missed. Divine Divinity presents a familiar medieval fantasy world in soft, pleasing, dreamy colors, and I was enticed by that interpretation. Even the dark dungeons are cozy rather than terrifying. This kind of atmosphere is hard to realize, and I was glad this game allowed me to plunge into it.

The Bad
The title. I saw this game in a store when it was first released and refused to buy it just because this Idiotic Idiocy was staring at me from the cover. Okay, title is really not an essential component of a game, but it is the first thing you see before you begin to learn anything else about the game. And there is no way around it, Divine Divinity must be the one of the worst titles ever forced upon a great game.

The game's tendency to syncretism is quite obvious. Divine Divinity excels in everything it tries to put together, but doesn't really bring truly original ideas to the mix. This must be the reason for its lack of popularity and impact. By the time it came out RPG fans were already divided into several unpacified clans. Devoted Diablo adepts would be annoyed by the game's slower pace and complexity, while followers of Bioware tradition would frown upon its simple combat. The combination worked for me because I appreciate both styles and I loved the way the game was experimenting with them, but its ambitions probably worked against it as it was trying to satisfy everyone at once.

The Bottom Line
Divine Divinity is more than just a pleasant surprise. The highly talented Belgian developers succeeded in blending venerable and popular RPG traditions in one titanic game. Marvelously interactive large world reminiscent of Ultima VII, addictive Diablo-style character-building, lively dialogues and story-driven structure similar to Baldur's Gate games - Divine Divinity has it all. It is a product of love and hard work, and a sumptuous dish for RPG gourmets across the globe.