Divinity: Original Sin

They're holding hands, isn't that cute?

This blog started because I was complaining that I couldn't play the games I wanted with my fiance, either because she had no interest, or the games were too hard for her. she's not a pro, and FPS's, or games that request clutch decision making may not be the best thing to start with. I'll develop those skills in her, and make her a true gamer.

In the mean time, I was looking for games that can be played Cooperatively, and could account for a slower player. I was searching on Steam, and online sources(at the moment, we're only gaming on PC's), and eventually found Divinity. Now, I ran through a check list in my head. Turn based combat. Fantastic, this means that when combat happens, she can take her time, and think about what she wants to do without getting flustered about time constraints. Extensive Roleplaying elements. This was a boon as well. We've both played our share of tabletop games like D&D, Pathfinder, WoD, etc. Roleplaying is fun, and something we both value in a game. Reactive game environment. Now, this is just plain cool. I even used it as a selling point to get her to want to play it. Basically, there's 4 elements of magic, and they all interact with each other. Pools of poison are combustible, so a fireball can turn into an explosion. Water conducts electricity, so zapping a guy standing in water zaps everyone standing in the water. pretty fun. And lastly, we are two distinct characters, that are independent of each other.

Zombie toll trolls are a thing.

Lets go a little deeper into the game itself. Now, Apparently, Divinity:Original Sin is the latest in a long run of games in the universe. To be completely honest, neither of us were familiar with the existing world, or it's history. But the game gives you a little primer as soon as you start. Basically, it goes like this. Magic is everywhere, but kind of looked down upon. Why? cause it's tempting to use Source Magic! Source magic comes from the source, which used to be wonderful, and the source of life. but something, somewhere tainted it. Now, people who use source magic are akin to necromancers, and raising zombies to do your bidding is just plain bad(It's a common theme in games with magic. Borderline cliche there.). Anywho, you play as source hunters, people who have some strange authority granted to them to go hunt down people who practice this forbidden magic.

When creating characters, it's on one screen

Character creation is interesting, because no matter what you choose, you're really not shooting yourself in the foot. Every class, and every character, has access to learn every ability or spell in the game. As you level up, you allocate skill points into their respective fields. You can start of as a purely magic using wizard, and start spending points on armor use, and fighting skills 5 levels in. You can balance a certain build in mind, or just grab whatever suits your fancy. What me and Amnry did, was play 2 vastly different characters. She, a spell caster, and I a fighter. My character focused on 2 handed weapons, and armor with ALL the resistances, she buil a little of everything, spell wise. It's also worth noting, that you get to control 2 additional NPC characters, that you can recruit. One thing I really enjoyed about this, is I could control both of them, while Amnry just controlled herself. We started play with each of us controlling one other, but I could tell, pretty quickly, Amnry was getting flustered and overwhelmed. The fact that I could easily swap the NPC's to exclusively my control was pretty cool.

The last thing I thought meriting mention was the way dialogue worked. In most conversations, the person initiating the dialogue gets control, but any time there's a "big decision" that can have effects on the game, it corrals both players into the dialogue. Each player chooses what they like. If both players agree on one option, the dialogue proceeds. If not, the characters in the game argue with each other, and an in-game version of Rock-Paper-Scissors occurs. winner is deemed more dominant, and gets to choose. I fell it's a pretty cool system, because it lets you truly role play. When Amnry and I play, we oddly match up in allot of our dialogues. but now and again, we butt heads(An allegory for our relationship, I'm sure). We duke it out over RPS, and winner gets to choose.

All in all, this game is pretty fun, both for myself, the avid gamer, and for my fiance, the not-so-pro. I find myself sometimes fighting the urge to micromanage her, but it really isn't so great, as I have 3 controlled characters to her 1. Further, there are many times she even asks me what she should do. I can easily shrug, and tell her to do what she would like, and because of all the elemental interactions, there's allot that can happen as a result. It really gives her the autonomy of playing, rather than watching, and and experience I've been finding both of us crave at the end of our respective work days.

Overall, I'd give this game a 9 out of 10, for the fun it provides, and the great Co-op features.