A love letter to old-school CRPGs and tabletop games alike, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a masterclass in enabling player agency and creativity. I’m a bit late to the game in reviewing this – as developer Larian Studios released Original Sin 2’s Definitive Edition back in 2018, but I think it’s important to discuss why Original Sin 2 is considered one of the greatest RPGs of all time – and why I agree with that sentiment.
Like many games in the roleplaying genre, you’ll begin by creating your character. The game offers a number of races to choose from, and over a dozen classes to begin with. The classes themselves aren’t binary by any means – players are both enabled and encouraged to experiment with different weapons, abilities, and builds for their entire party. Want your mage to wear heavy armor? What about letting your rogue summon undead? Want your entire party to be comprised of teleporting thunder mages? Go for it! And if you’re not happy with the results, a handy magic mirror allows you to respec all four of your party members’ stats and appearances at a moment’s notice, further empowering player creativity and experimentation.
While creating a custom character is an option, Larian Studios also crafted six “origin characters” – fully fleshed-out characters with their own unique personalities, objectives, and backstories. All six of these characters have a role to play in Original Sin 2’s expansive main quest – and share connections with many of the allies you meet and enemies you face. That being said, don’t worry too much if you’re struggling on choosing an origin character, since all six of them are available as easily recruitable companions to fill out your party. Do keep in mind that your party is capped at 4 members, so some origin characters will unfortunately have to be left behind. Speaking on a personal note, I found these characters to all be so lovable, unique, and engaging that it took me upwards of an hour to finally decide who I would want to escape Fort Joy with.
Speaking of escaping Fort Joy, it’s important to discuss what makes Divinity so special – both encouraging and rewarding player choice and creativity. Your adventure largely begins in the aforementioned Fort Joy, a prison island run by an army of religious zealots known as the Magisters. Upon walking through the gates of the prison camp, the player is given a simple task: escape. While many games in the adventure and RPG genre would offer a few structured choices for breaking out of prison, Original Sin 2 empowers players to craft their own escape routes. The game will offer players a myriad of side quests to pursue that may reward them with leads on an escape, but player agency is paramount. Simply walking through Fort Joy and chatting with your fellow prisoners will quickly fill your in-game journal with dozens of quests – some of which can be taken care of in a few minutes while others will span the length of the entire game. Regardless of length, these quests will offer a litany of decisions for players – having to choose which characters to trust, who to kill, and who to ignore entirely.
Inside and outside of Fort Joy, I found my journal to be filling up fast. These quests are often abstract – in support of player flexibility, the game won’t provide directions on what to do, or where exactly you even need to go, instead offering written hints and the occasional quest marker to guide you in the right direction. Even some of the most straightforward tasks can offer near-limitless possibilities for completion, allowing players to use a mix of skills, spells, and dialogue wit to solve the problems presented to them. While Larian Studios’ unique take on questing empowers replay value and player immersion, it can create a confusing first impression for those unfamiliar with the CRPG genre. Even once you get used to Original Sin 2’s journal, this format is not flawless by any means – there certainly was a few moments where I needed to take a step back and search for a guide to help me complete a select few quests, especially once your journal becomes overloaded with dozens of quests later in the game.
Tying in to Original Sin 2’s freedom of choice is the supplementation that your actions have consequences. While many adventure games will offer choices to their players, you can often tell at the conclusion of the game that your choices didn’t really matter. Telltale Games’ titles often fell victim to this – you’d feel like you made dozens of important choices, only to realize that less than half a dozen of them actually made an impact on the game as a whole. Larian Studios forgoes that concept entirely – I remember the shock I felt when I wandered into the town of Driftwood in the game’s second Act. Roughly 20 hours into the game, I met a kindly innkeeper who was more than eager to share praise for her beloved son. As the conversation went on, I realized, to a mix of horror and amusement, that I killed her son roughly 15 hours prior. Her son in particular was as menacing a tutorial boss as they come, easily taking me a dozen tries to defeat. To twist the knife in his wounds, I convinced the innkeeper that I was a friend of her dear boy, gaining the key to his bedroom – which I promptly ransacked of any and all valuables. In the grand scheme of things, this is an incredibly small encounter, but it does an excellent job at demonstrating Larian’s talent for crafting entwined universes that feel alive and reactive. Even the annoying tutorial bosses have families!
Original Sin 2’s promise of freedom extends to its expansive combat system, too. The dynamics of the game’s turn-based combat are meticulously designed, enabling a myriad of character builds and strategies to shine across Original Sin 2’s hours of content. Excelling in combat feels more like solving a puzzle than anything else as players evaluate dozens of potential builds and strategies to gain the upper hand. Many of these fights require a bit of trial-and-error, as it is difficult to predict how an enemy is going to behave – or what skills and spells they are even capable of – until you experience the fight firsthand. This experimental form of learning may be off-putting to some, but nothing feels better than when your carefully crafted combat plan comes together!
I’ve got more than enough praise to heap on this game, but Original Sin 2 is not without faults – even in the game’s upgraded Definitive Edition. While the game’s first two Acts are chock-full of variety and side-quests, the third and fourth Acts feel somewhat rushed. Don’t get me wrong, the second half of the game still tells a compelling story while providing dynamic combat challenges, but there is an underlying unfinished nature to the game. It feels like Larian Studios had more stories to tell, but simply ran out of time. Additionally, there are a few crippling bugs that can completely upend your playthrough. I experienced a few of these bugs firsthand – there are at least two enemies in this game, present in the second and fourth Acts, that have attacks that result in the game crashing upon activation. When this bug first occurred in Act 2, I became concerned that my game was glitched, and that I’d have to restart my playthrough out of fear of future problems. A quick Google search revealed two things – this was a common bug for most players, and Larian Studios was aware of the issue. While customer support was able to offer Steam patches for the PC players, it is beyond unacceptable to leave game-crashing attacks in console ports for over four years. While the second act’s enemy is actually pretty easy to avoid fighting, the fourth act enemy is not nearly as avoidable, resulting in me needing to cheese the foe before they were able to brick my console.
As a whole, Divinity: Original Sin 2 delivers a highly compelling and politically intertwined fantasy story alongside some of the most creative turn-based combat in years – all while providing near-limitless creative freedom for players. While Original Sin 2’s breadth of options and occasional glitches may intimidate you on first glance, players who stick it out will experience one of the most engrossing adventures ever written – densely chocked full of fascinating characters and endless opportunities to experiment.