“Saga” is one of those words thrown around a lot in the video game community. Defined as a long story of heroic achievement, I suppose most adventure games and RPG’s fit the bill. Sagas, epic sagas, legends, legendary sagas, etc., the list goes on and on. Every franchise wants their game’s backstory to become a saga, a tale of the ages; something that is still relevant long after the game becomes outdated. Very few franchises can capture the essence of a saga in a single release and by putting the word in the title, Larian Studios, the makers of Divinity II, had a lot to live up to.
I believe they did.
I’m at least 40 hours in and have no idea how close I am to finishing. And that’s only forty hours into the game itself as I’ve no doubt logged many more hours more in dying because this ancient Xbox 360 game’s autosave feature hates me and everything I stand for. The game autosaves in random locations and is not based on time or progress. After playing more recent 360 titles, I’ve become so used to the game autosaving itself that I forgot saving from a menu was even a thing. This game slowly reminded me after I managed to lose a few hours of my life from dying without saving for a while. It’s a lesson I refuse to learn apparently as it just keeps happening. If you’ve ever wanted to see a grown man rage-quit and cry himself to sleep, peek through my window while I’m grinding away at this game.
As America's favorite diabetic Wilford Brimley might say, "You save your Divinity, and you save it often!"
As America's favorite diabetic Wilford Brimley might say, "You save your Divinity, and you save it often!"
That aside, the game has its pluses. You can wield a sword, bow, or cast magic and even turn into a dragon at times. All of these things are way cool and fun to use in the game. The armor looks pretty bad-A, you can customize your character to look pretty awesome, all of the NPC’s are somewhat unique, and the missions, even the side missions, rarely grow dull.
The frustrating parts of the game stem from the aforementioned basically non-existent autosave function and the occasional difficulty spikes that will have you kicking and screaming. The controls for the game also take a bit of getting used to as each button on the controller face is an action. You can assign actions to each of the four d-pad buttons and to each of the four action buttons. You can only press them for a second when performing an activity as holding them in for longer than a second activates a menu that allows the player to assign actions to the button. Because of this there are no build up attacks or attack variation, only quick button taps. You can only strengthen attacks by leveling up your character, which isn't so bad and not hard to do.
This is my first attempt at a Divinity title as I never played the first installment but I do appreciate what they tried to accomplish. The game has a charming sense of humor but stops short of taking it too far. It has a deep lore and focused storyline while still nearly achieving an open world feel. But as I said before, it’s a saga and sometimes feels too long and grueling. I thought I had beaten the game twice already only to unlock more missions and a different section of the map. If you’re into that kind of thing, this saga might be a nice one to travel back in time for if you can tolerate the early generation graphics and have something soft to punch repeatedly after you forget that the autosave feature is out to get you. The game still goes for around $20 most places.
Image credit: lisisoft.com
Image credit: lisisoft.com
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