Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Discount Divinity II: Ego Draconis

Divinity II: Ego Draconis
Customer Ratings: 3.5 stars
List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $16.43
Today's Bonus: 18% Off
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Why should you BUY Ego Draconis? If you're a fan of old-style RPGs with lots of quests (many with multiple solutions) and the absolute minimum amount of assistance when it comes to solving quests/puzzles, you'll have a ton of fun. Very early in the game, your character gains the ability to read minds, which provides insight into people's motivations and can alter the outcomes of various quests. And if you like games with a high level of difficulty, run out and buy Ego Draconis immediately! Even on the "Easy" difficulty level, you'll be dying quite a bit. Enemies do NOT level with you, and walking into a fight with enemies even a few levels above yours is guaranteed to end badly for you. The game also has a lot to offer people who enjoy thoroughly exploring every map/dungeon in their games. Ego Draconis offers many rewards to those who take the time to explore every nook and cranny.

Why should you RENT Ego Draconis? Well, how high is your tolerance for bugs and glitches? Because Ego Draconis has quite a few--Larian really should've spent a few more months polishing the game before they released it. I haven't encountered any that were game-breakingly bad, but even minor glitches can get annoying when there's enough of them. There are also a very limited number of areas in the game to travel between, and while the game offers different ways of resolving the quests you take on, there don't seem to be any significant consequences for the decisions you make. Which means that, at least for me, the game doesn't have a lot of replay value.

Why should you AVOID Ego Draconis? The main concept that the game is centered around is that your character can turn into a dragon, and I was pretty excited about that concept--it made the game a must-buy for me. But there are several things about it that I found very disappointing. For one thing, you won't get to turn into a dragon until you've put in a lot of time with the game--it took me just over ten hours to reach that point. Once you can transform, you'll find that your dragon is hemmed in by invisible walls and barriers that limit your freedom of movement. And the game also dictates which enemies you're allowed to attack while you're a dragon. I never experienced the sense of freedom and power that I expected to enjoy while playing as a dragon. To sum up: Ego Draconis is a decent game based on some interesting concepts which could've made it an amazing game...if they had been fully developed.

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This could have been a really great game, but it was rushed out to market and has some problems.

The graphics on this game are pretty sub-par and are, frankly, a disappointment on a system that is as capable as the Xbox 360. The textures are blocky and low resolution. You can easily tell that things such as trees are rendered as flat pictures when you are flying as a dragon, as you can look down on them and see that they have no depth. The trees will actually rotate with you and look like a piece of paper instead of a tree.

There are some graphical stuttering issues, as well as screen tearing issues. The cut scenes stutter and, at times, blink as they play.

Graphics: 4/10

There is a pretty serious bug with the game save system. You can save your game, play for an hour or so and then save over the previous game... if you get killed, your game will load at the previous location (not where you saved it) about 60 70% of the time. You will still have whatever you had at the second save and your progress will be saved, but you will start wherever you saved the time before. There is also an issue where you will get killed, reload the game, and then load to a red screen that freezes, making you have to quit the game and restart.

Save system: 1/10

The interaction system is flawed as well and it is difficult to talk to people, as you have to get right on them and click on them while they are walking away from you. It is also difficult to search chests, crates, and barrels because the system doesn't work well.

Interaction: 4/10

The game play is fun and there are some really good ideas at play. This game is recommended for fans of Oblivion and Dragon Age, as it shares a lot of the same ground as those much better games.

Now for the good things:

The inventory system is wonderful, as you can send items to your battle tower from the field, so you don't have to continually sell things or destroy them. What's even better about this is the fact that items in your chest are still available for your alchemist and enchanter, so you don't have to carry tons of stuff around in order to be able to enchant or make potions.

Inventory system: 10/10

Being a dragon is a lot of fun, but I have one problem with it. It appears that you cannot attack people on the ground with your dragon. I have tried this many times and I cannot get it to work. People on the ground will either disappear when you turn into a dragon, or they will be able to attack you while you can't attack them. Beyond that, being a dragon is good fun and the controls are pretty straight forward and easy. There are a decent number of good skills your dragon can use and it is pretty satisfying overall. It is, however, sometimes hard to get your character to turn into a dragon, as it does so slowly and it is a bit clumsy.

Being a dragon: 8/10

The standard RPG walking around stuff is, well, pretty standard. You walk around and look for enemies like all other RPGs. The enemies are sometimes difficult and you have to figure out strategies for attack and can't just run in and swing your sword. The mix of hack-and-slash action and magic is really good, but there is a delay between magic and physical attacks that makes battle a little clumsy at times. With this said, there are a great number of magic and battle skills available and it is VERY comprehensive. There is also an amazing array of weapons and armor and plentiful charms and enchantments to apply to them. You can create some very serious stuff pretty easily.

You can map attacks, spells, potions, etc. to the D-pad and the A, B, X, and Y buttons on your controller at will by pressing and holding the button or direction you want to assign something to and then choosing what you want. It is a nice system.

Combat: 8/10

Magic options: 9/10

Attack options: 8.5/10

This game would be an 8/10 if there weren't serious bugs, but it is a 6/10 as it stands. I would recommend waiting for a patch for this game before buying it.

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I can honestly say that I enjoyed this game more than Dragon Age: Origins. Though, to be fair, BioWare set the bar way too high by claiming that DAO was the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. The game definitely has the unique feeling that Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity had. However, the transition from 2D isometric to 3D is a disappointment, as I absolutely love of isometric RPGs -particularly the "fog of war" (unexplored areas are completely black), that rewards exploration.

The framerate on the 360 version is not the greatest, but it does not detract from the playability of the game at all. This is in sharp contrast with Neverwinter Nights 2, which is painfully slow regardless how fast your computer is.

Controls cannot be remapped, but the default button configuration becomes intuitive after the first couple of hours. Of particular interest is the ability to pause the game while you select your target, which is very much needed when playing with a game controller instead of keyboard / mouse. What is more, you can setup a "tactical pause," much like the auto-pause feature in Baldur's Gate, that will pause the game when your health reaches a certain threshold and allow you to quaff a potion, regroup, etc...

The difficulty in the beginning of the game is worth mentioning... you absolutely must do side-quests in the beginning to be strong enough to progress the main storyline, even with the difficulty set to "low." If you purchase one of the armor sets on the 360 Marketplace, that will also help tremendously look up the stats on the net and find the set that best suits your character's desired stats.

Although not as good as Divine Divinity, this definitely has more depth to it than your run-of-the-mill WRPGs these days. Admittedly, I jumped ship and no longer play new RPGs on the PC platform (because I stopped pouring money into upgrading my computer about 4 years ago), and this decision limits my choice of WRPGs and user-created content. But as far as Xbox 360 WRPGs w/ first-party content only, this one is a gem.

In short, this is a severely underrated game. I can only assume that people who do not enjoy this game have not given the game enough time... The beginning of the game, and various other parts are extremely difficult and frustrating, but if you press on, there is a very good game to be had.

Honest reviews on Divinity II: Ego Draconis

I just finished this game last night, probably putting about 40-50 hours into it, and I felt compelled enough to come to Amazon the next morning to write a review.

First let me say I got this game for $9 over the holidays, but I think it's well worth at least $30. I'll keep my review short and easy to navigate.

Gameplay: It's what hooked me on the game. I'd say it's a similar feel to Baldur's Gate games on the original XBOX. Hack-n-slash, not too deep but plenty of variety in terms of how you go about taking down your opponents. Also, you can choose to focus on the typical warrior, mage or ranged attacks, with separate Dragon Knight abilities I would imagine are available to all classes. I chose a warrior (I always do the first playthrough), because I love to just hack through my enemies.

Difficulty: It's a hard game, which is probably why some people reviewed it poorly. They gave up quickly (same thing happened with Demon's Souls, one of the greatest games ever made) and decided the game sucked. I ended up playing it on the lowest setting and it still kicked my butt plenty of times. I don't pretend to be great at any of these games, but I'm a huge gamer and love to have fun and relax with a game. However, I can step up to a nice challenge once in a while, and thankfully you can save whenever you want.

Bugs: Game froze up on me twice in 50 hours. Compared to Oblivion or Fallout New Vegas, this game runs perfectly.

Graphics: Not up there with the best, but certainly not a distraction. Can't graphics have their own flavor, not look photograph-perfect and still be enjoyable these days? I thought the graphics were fine.

Story: Really sticks together and drives you through the game. Unlike Risen or Two Worlds (both of which I loved in their own way, as well) this story and interaction with the NPCs feels much more polished. There's a love-it-or-hate-it surprise ending that might feel a bit rushed for some gamers. I had a bit of a WTF moment last night, but this morning I thought back and was glad the game ended the way it did.

Navigation: OK, here's the one area I'd take off marks, but it doesn't necessarily detract from it being a 5-star game for the price. It's a bit difficult to figure out where things are. There's no waypoint to guide you, and some of the things you have to do like find levers or gather parts of a ship scattered throughout the world feel a little cheap without that help. I had to consult a walkthrough, which I never do. But it's a minor frustration that eventually you figure out if you have enough patience.

Multiplayer: I don't even know if the game has it, I don't game online (probably one of the last dozen gamers left in the world that doesn't).

Overall: At this point, if you look around hard enough, you can find this game at a bargain price, and it's totally worth it if you like this kind of game. I think it was IGN that gave this game a 2/10 or something on the 360, which is an absolute joke. But if you're familiar with IGN, you know their entire review structure is a joke. Seriously, watch some YouTube videos to get a flavor for the gameplay and give this game a try, it's a ton of fun.

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I should say I didn't play it before it was patched. I did not encounter any bugs. Gameplay is addictive, though a leveling system requires some thinking. The same game may be hard as hell or easy as in a God Mod (with not too much in between) depending on your build.

Being a dragon is FUN!!! I just love burning all these little obnoxious balistas and towers!

The ending was a bit of a surprise, but fear not, an add-on, Divinity 2 Flames of vengeance is coming soon, where we will continue a story of a dragon knight (about 20 more hours, whicn will make it 60 hours total) and kick asses of all bad guys. The add-on will improve graphics, they totally overhauled an engine. A big patch will be available as well if you do not feel like buying an add-on.

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