Divinity: Original Sin

Divinity: Original Sin is a turn-based fantasy RPG where you and another person, or just you, control two Source Hunters investigating a murder. Source is a form of magic in this world and Source Hunters seek out the users, who have typically gone mad after drawing on that type of power.

You can be a Source Hunting Sorcerer – it’s a little confusing, but c’est la vie.

Anyway.

Divinity: Original Sin Gameplay

You and your gaming partner can select from a set number of classes and highly customizable features to create your primary characters as you adventure through Rivellon, the main fantasy world of the Divinity franchise.

With a mouse or gaming controller, you point and click to lead your primary character to interact with items (or steal all the things), pick your moves in turn-based combat and navigate delicate conversations with townspeople. You can also interact with your gaming partner at key points in the game, influencing traits you both develop over time.

An example of gameplay:

Our Take

Divinity: Original Sin is heralded as one of the best co-op PC games on the market. Does it deserve this unofficial title? No, not really. But it does get bonus points for trying to support co-op in ways that most other games haven’t even dreamed of.

We’ve sunk in approximately 50+ hours and never came close to finishing the fucking thing. Although it’s worth noting that the average play-through time is at least 60 hours, if not more. The typical complaints with Divinity: Original Sin are that a) it’s very slow and b) it has very uneven difficulty levels – and both of those are true. We got to a point in the game where we simply could not progress with our team setup and when we’ve tried to start the game over again, the replayability is very low because it’s very story-driven.

The prospect of going through everything again to get to the point we reached feels as appetizing as listening to someone scrape their nails across a chalkboard for hours on end.

That being said, we were addicted during the time when we played it actively. Divinity: Original Sin (DOS) has something for every type of gamer – there’s the turn-based combat for the killers, there’s socializing to be done between you and your gaming partner, there are tons of side quests (with interesting stories) for achievers and there’s a massive map for the explorer in you.

However, things can be tricky if you and your gaming partner aren’t on the same page. The game is most easily played if you two are on a console together or sitting side-by-side on your PCs. Playing online is a massive challenge because you can both just go off and do your own thing without a clue as to what the other is doing.

For example, I could be busy doing a side quest for a cat while Alex was looting everything in site and then accidentally triggering a storyline. I would be completely oblivious of his advancements unless I was nearby and vice versa. Or constantly looking over and watching his screen. Which I am pretty good at doing…

You have to stick sort of together or at least be able to screen watch to see what developments are happening, which is hard. It’s easy to get frustrated with different playing styles.

I also found the combat really boring after a while. We could never make it so that I could control one of the NPCs in our team so Alex controlled both of them, which meant in battles he was doing 75% of the work thinking through everything. A lot of the time, I’d have another window open on the other monitor and I’d lose track of the battle and Alex would need to remind me to take my turn, which had to be annoying for him.

Overall, it was a really good game while we stuck with it and I wish we had the patience to give it another shot with a better team, now that we know what unfolds in the first few regions. It’s an extremely well-made and humorous game…and I always love it when developers are willing to give new features, like this unique approach to co-op, some TLC.

Or, more likely – we’ll just give Divinity: Original Sin 2 a go instead.

Overall score: 7/10

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Title: Divinity: Original Sin
Developer: Larian Studios
Game Type: Fantasy, RPG
Bartle Type: Killer, Achiever, Socializer, Explorer
Player Count: 1-2
Average Play Session Time: 60+ minutes
Type of Co-Op: Couch, Online
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Complexity: 3/5