Divinity: Original Sin II

Teleporting 30 corpses into the boss room, then casting "mass corpse explosion" to instantly kill the boss is a perfectly valid way to play the game.

HOLY SHIT this game!!!. it's one of those games where you look at the clock when you sit down at your computer, and the next time you check to see what time it is, 8 hours have passed and you forgot your dinner and Corona-virus and that you need to go shopping. And when you get up from your chair, you cant wait to come back and get sucked into the world again. like wtf kind of magic is this ? Im not even a fan of turn based RPG'S :D

"Owning a heart is a wondrous thing, but owning a head is a terrible thing."
Divinity: Original Sin 2 (D:OS 2) is a round-based role-playing game (rpg) developed and published by the company Larian Studios. They are also responsible for the creation of the original Divinity game series, dating back to 2002.
Pro & contra:
++ Solving problems in your own specific way. Tired of conventional encounters? Sneak past your enemies. Talk your way out of most conflicts and situations. Do a pacifist run with a solo build. Get rich by planting and farming tea leafs. Become a mass murderer by throwing death fog barrels at anything alive, killing it instantly. Teleport your enemies into death fog; be teleported into death fog, and survive it because your character is an undead. Break the game by boosting your intelligence beyond 80 points, choose the Savage Sortilege talent, and one shot your enemies with most spells.
++ Good writing matters. It is the difference between Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. In this second game instalment, I have spent hours listening to the interesting characters that I have met within the fantasy world of Rivellon.
+ Bring your best buddy. Played it with my brother; we argued about decisions, laughed at our own stupidity, and finished the game with a big smile.
+ Hard, harder, honour mode. Do you prefer being outnumbered by opponents? Like to live dangerously with only one save file? Not afraid about losing it, if your team is wiped out? Then, this product shall satisfy thy needs. As the Master of Pain, I guarantee it!
Under normal circumstances this would be the section where I state the negative points of a game. Alas, there is nothing bad I can say about this one. Really, nothing...
*whispers* Nothing. At. All.
Summary:
D:OS 2 succeeds to deliver on what I believe are the most important features in a game like this: great writing and creative space to role-play. It represents a masterpiece within its genre, and a reference point for future rpgs.
Recommended for co-op players and free spirits.
Achievements:
Estimated time for 100% completion: +150 hours
Singleplayer achievements: 95
Multiplayer achievements: 2

1. Buy game
2. Play to Act II
3. Create new character with a different skillset
4. Finish Act II
5. Create new character only using one companion
6. Play to Act III
7. Create new character on hardest difficulty
8. Play to Act III
9. Wonder why you never finish the game.
10. Don't play for 3 months.
11. Think about making a new character
12. Repeat steps 2-12.

Short Review
Read this if you just want to hear what I think about the game.
I would recommend Divinity: Original Sin 2 to anyone who enjoys a good RPG. Its storytelling is fun and engaging, while the deep tactical gameplay is unlike anything I've seen before. The soundtrack and voice acting immerses you into this fantastic world Larian Studios have managed to create.
Pros and Cons
+ Unique take on turn-based combat that is both fun and challenging
+ Engaging main story that doesn't always take itself too seriously
+ Overall great voice acting combined with a stellar soundtrack
- The lack of guidance can sometimes be too much
SCORE: Excellent
How I score games
Full Review
Read this if you want all the details.
After being stripped of a powerful magical power known as Source, you're sent to prison by ship along with many other sourcerers from around the world. But not everything goes as planned, because not far from your destination, the ship is attacked by a group of mysterious creatures. The ship sinks, but right as you're about to meet your demise from drowning, a voice calls to you. This is the beginning of your journey to becoming Divine, an adventure littered with friendship, challenges to overcome, and lots of humor.
So where do I even start with this game? It's a great game, that much I can say already. The story might not be the most complex and mind-bending one to be told in a video game, but sometimes stories don't need to be littered with twists and turns waiting around the corner. It doesn't take itself too seriously either, but this approach to the storytelling actually works, and it doesn't interfere in the game's serious moments. I really enjoyed the story the game tried to tell, especially the moments spent with my fellow companions, who all had their own story and goals running beside the main story arc. My party consisted of The Red Prince, a lizard who was caught red-handed with a bunch of demons, Lohse, a bard consumed by a demon and Sebille, an elven assassin and a former slave. I was Fane, an undead, and one of the last of his kind. There's a reason I'm not going deep into each character because I honestly believe their stories are so well-told and certainly are something to experience for yourself. After spending so much time with my companions, it was sad to have to say goodbye to them at the end of the game. That's a good thing because it meant that the writers accomplished what they probably intended. But this is an RPG, so how well does the game incorporate choices? Pretty well actually. The choices you make often influence the characters in your current location, and sometimes even the whole location itself. I would say that the main direction of the story is mostly linear, but where you get to choose is how you accomplish the tasks at hand.
Now on to arguably the past part of D:OS2, as I will be referring the game as from this point onward: the gameplay. The game features turn-based combat, but its take on this is what differs it from most CRPGs. The game's combat scenarios revolve around the environment they take place in, rather than only the characters. The game's many magic elements leave behind a surface corresponding to the skill you used, affecting anyone standing in that particular field. Oil can slow down enemies, while ice can make them slip. But if you desire even more devastating effects, then you'll also be able to combine these elemental effects together. By cursing a field of blood, you'll apply a decaying effect to anyone unlucky enough to be standing in that area, causing them to take damage when healed. These environmental effects make for a much more believable and deep combat experience, making the game seem far more advanced than most turn-based games. Each character also has an amount of physical and magic armor. If you haven't guessed already, physical armor protects against physical attacks, while magic armor protects against various types of magic. Once you manage to deplete either, the combat begins to open up for the possibility of applying effects to your enemies. This could be everything from making them terrified to knocking them down. As you can probably hear, D:OS2 is really advanced when it comes to combat, and you'll need to make usage of all the tools the game gives you because the game is very challenging.
Just like any other standard RPG, D:OS2's stories are told through various quests which the player can complete. There's a lot of them in this game, and none of them involves boring chores, such as fetch quests. While the quest design itself is great, I did have some problems with how they are communicated to the player. The game doesn't feature any quest markers for locations you don't know of, which is of course a good thing, however, the game gets a little too greedy with information at times. A lot of quests task you with reaching a certain location or character, but never gives you any clue to where these might be. This means that I often had to use various guides online because I simply wasn't able to find whatever it was I needed to continue the quest. This became irritating as I really wanted to solve the quests on my own, but without any clues, it is very hard. I also found it a bit weird that I would sometimes have multiple quests with the exact same objective.
Next up is presentation, and by that I mean graphics, visual style, and audio. Let's start with the graphics. They certainly aren't the most stunning, most impressive on the market, but I didn't expect that because I already knew that this isn't a AAA title. There is a lot of detail put into the world, which really helps you immerse yourself in the many locations.
The visual style of the game is a mixture of photo-realistic and cartoony. Some of the character designs were really visually unique, which helps the game set itself apart from other fantasy titles. But what about the audio? The audio effects are just what you would expect, but the voice acting really exceeded my expectations. Especially the cast for the main characters did a fantastic job in their role, which might even be part of the reason why I enjoyed spending my time with them so much. RPGs can sometimes have really bad voice acting, but this isn't the case here. The best part about the audio though is easily the soundtrack composed by Borislav Slavov. The music fits perfectly with the style of the game and gave me the vibe of going on a grand adventure.
If you liked this review, I would appreciate it if you took the time to check out some of my other reviews here. Also, feel free to leave a comment on this review if you want to discuss it or feel like I overlooked something.

I'd recommend this game with all my heart, as this game is possibly one of the most free form games I've played in a long, long time, no class restrictions or anything, you want to be a warrior, that uses fire spells, and smacks people with a staff to do magic damage ? Sure! You want to be a necromancer archer ? Why not! Or create yourself an avatar that uses wind earth water and fire magic, the list just goes on and on.
The game is almost the perfect turnbased RPG, as you build, play, and talk your own way, you can talk yourself out've quite a few things, stealing, fights, anything really. Going even further with the roleplay theme, you can choose preset characters that have a history in your world, and have characters that know them, and love, or hate, or are friends, or work with your character. On the other hand if you choose to make a brand new character, not one of the preset, you create that history, and change how people interact with you, entirely based on your decisions throughout the game. A decision in act 1 can change stuff much later in the game.
The combat is beautiful, actually a work of art, with combo systems. For example if they're shocked by electricity, throw a water balloon at em, or make it rain on them, stunned... or if they're on fire, throw a spell that creates an oil field below them, poof, big explosion. This is just the bare bones use of these things, some of the combos people have done on youtube and such, are absolutely crazy.
I can't help but to give this game a huge positive review, and say this game (If you're a fan of turn based RPG's) is entirely worth even its full price tag without a doubt in my mind. This game shines so bright if played with friends, but also does really well as a single player experience. The combos friends and you can pull off, are insane, but sometimes it's fun to have complete contradicting builds, and have you guys mess each other up some times. I've lost so many hours to this game, just having fun with friends, doing stupid builds, or messing around.
The story is really well crafted too, it's hard not to stay interested the majority of the time, or even if you're not, the game quite literally rewards you for exploring, there are tons of hidden quests throughout the game, and tons of ways to do anything in the entire game. for example your first real goal is to escape a place, and there are like 6 ways to do so, having entirely different routes.
For a turn based RPG, this game is in my honest opinion a 10/10.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review!
Hush~♥

Perfect for a quarantine.