This year, coming to its logical conclusion, can safely be called a mini-Renaissance era for real, truly role-playing games with an unyielding fantasy theme and elf ears sticking out everywhere. New part of Drakensang, monolith from Bioware named Dragon Age, “old new Gothic” Risen – all these names will warm the souls of restless adherents of the cult of the sword, bow, fireball and the immortal tree of skills for a very long time. Divinity 2: Ego Draconis is currently one of the main candidates for the title of “classic RPG of the year”, while Dragon Age is also in the special category “the main party RPG of the five-year plan with blood, severity, stabbing and a signature diligent approach to implementation from Bioware». As for the Germans from Larian Studios, then you can be sincerely happy for them. The new game grabs awards from the specialized press one after another, lures the most fastidious role-players with an enchanting gothic atmosphere, flying dragons and a soundtrack from Kirill Pokrovsky from "Aria". We must sincerely admit: we are happy for "Blood of Dragons" and we.

A unique phenomenon

If you now muster up your courage, squint your eyes busily and mentally scroll through your memory the most impressive moments from Ego Draconis, then you can inadvertently come to the conclusion that the sequel to Divine Divinity is not far from the original in terms of the general layout of all gameplay components. A single hero collects tons of loot and completes story quests with side quests, goblins in ridiculous caps and with axes at the ready dance in the crowd, and endless leveling serves to keep the player behind the monitor for as long as possible. But it only seems so at first.

Born to crawl can flyThe “dragon” theme would not have been explored so deeply if the developers had not given us the opportunity to turn into a winged beast ourselves. They did it somewhere in the middle of the game. Unfortunately, the hero will not be allowed to carry out a merciless genocide of all land inhabitants. But such duplicity opens up unprecedented prospects on the “top floor”. In addition to direct participation in spectacular battles with fire-breathing reptiles, in our new appearance we will have access to unique skills tied to the superpowers of the task and the opportunity to attach items that are relevant only to the dragon. In a word, don’t miss it.

The depth and sophistication of the laws of this world is laid down in dozens of downloadable mini-add-ons, and even a full-fledged add-on will remain. The point here is not at all about revolutionary innovations, the unimaginable scale of the production and other porn fantasies of a true CRPG fan. You see, in Divinity 2: Ego Draconis several original ideas have been packed in, which successfully pull it out of the “philistine swamp” of inexpressive role-playing films, of which in Germany they produce probably ten pieces per season.

Let’s start with the fact that https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/xtraspin-casino/ in Larian Studios wrote an unimaginable number of side quests for us. As you can see, we are starting a conversation about the plot by first paying tribute to the secondary tasks, and this, of course, is not without reason. The branching of logical chains of possible developments of events is incredibly amazing, but this is not important for us. Having increased quantitative indicators many times over, the developers did not fail to take care of a proportional increase in the quality of their execution. Every second quest in Divinity 2, what at first seems like a typical CRPG routine can easily turn into an exciting journey with chases, investigations, murders and a completely unpredictable ending. Naturally, there was some appropriate humor here too. You will certainly be allowed to whisper various creepy things into the pig’s ear and become a shepherd for the rabbit. Difficult moral choices, hiding information, searching for the guilty and helping cowards – all this and much more, adjusted for variability, is present in abundance here.

Any task here risks, by the way, getting lost in a heap of its own kind; if we ignore the use of the second distinctive feature of the new Divinity. About the so-called possibility of “mind reading” itself Larian Studios blew all the fanfare at last year’s exhibition in Leipzig. This feature was positioned as the main “catalyst” for the difficult to verbalize process of finding the second bottom in gameplay. As it turned out, the fuss around this telepathy was not in vain.

We won’t spoil your fun by revealing the details of some big and interesting task, so we’ll limit ourselves to a small example. From the thoughts of one cute merchant, who without hesitation praises his goods as the cheapest in the entire region, we (sacrificing a modest amount of experience) learn that the rogue sets fabulous prices, taking advantage of the ignorance of his customers. The only thing left to do is to put pressure on the insolent reseller after exposure, declaring that his little secret may soon cease to be such. As a result, the merchant will begin to sell his goods to us personally at almost below its cost. Here’s what they say, vile blackmail in action.

Mind reading serves as a kind of add-on, a bonus “lotion”. But only thanks to its use, solving available quests becomes really interesting. It is also worth considering that not every character can so easily allow you to climb and trample in his inner world. To begin with, for example, he will ask for a huge amount of experience, and then he will also heartily laugh at our naivety, backing it up with some offensive expression, like, “You’re still thin in the gut, buddy, and your breasts haven’t grown yet.”. This means that you need to properly develop your skill to successfully board an impregnable mind. Another thing is that it won’t be difficult to unravel the tangle of gossip that serves as a substitute for brains for a naive peasant woman, but you definitely won’t expect any internal torment from her over a poorly hidden key to a storage room with gold.

Secrets of success

In terms of plot Divinity 2 is a continuation of the story started in the first part. The main character of Divine Divinity, the athlete and simply handsome Divine One (the developers have some special love for all these “sofas”, don’t you think?) died the death of the brave, taking with him to the next world (it’s not a fact that it was that one) the main “radish” with the extremely predictable name Lord of Chaos. Everything would be fine, but the killer Divine One Damian considered it necessary to instill panic fear and hostility towards dragons in the souls of all the inhabitants of Rivelion. Having subdued the minds and wings of all the “Gorynych Snakes” in the area, Damian, it would seem, confidently walked towards his intended goal. True, he did not foresee that the brave warriors of Rivelion would not sit idly by.

Housing issuePersonal quarters, where you can take a breath, improve your knowledge of certain skills and brew a useful potion, were given to the hero in many RPGs, so a similar bonus Divinity 2, It seems like it shouldn’t be perceived as something fundamentally new and unexplored. Another thing is that in this game the developers approached the creation of personalized choirs in the form of a citadel rebuilt on a grand scale without false modesty. In addition to your own blacksmith, magician and mentor, in the hero’s tower you can find a virtuoso composer who changes the melodies at your discretion, and even a hired dancer. Bored subordinates can be replaced, and by gaining trust through the fulfillment of secret requests, you can get more efficiency from them in their work.

The order of hunters of gigantic lizards began to actively recruit recruits into their ranks, who, during their training, were gifted with glowing eyes – like the main character’s -, a fierce hatred of everyone who has wings and tempting superpowers. As a graduate of a prestigious order, we begin the game. Having chosen the one he likes from the three available specializations – mage, archer and warrior – the hero will immediately go to a picturesque village to ask every resident he meets questions, like “Dragons haven’t flown here today?».

Of course, no one obliges you to adhere to one specialization, so creating a formidable archer out of your alter ego, always holding a sword drawn and a fireball in his pocket, will not be difficult. There are now only five skill schools – versus a little over a dozen from Divine Divinity. Such a “cut” was only a plus for the role-playing system, since the torment in choosing similar development branches in the first part distracted from pressing matters. The local soundtrack can also distract from them. Surprisingly, it does not consist at all of the typical RPG orchestral roars, but of calmer and more down-to-earth strumming on a synthesizer, tom-tom and flute. In melodies Divinity 2, through the efforts Kirill Pokrovsky, you can easily hear even guitar twangs, which at first is somewhat jarring to the ear, but then sets you up for a nonconformist judgment: “Why not?”?»

The battles in the game have become a hundred times more interesting to follow for one important reason. Delightful and smooth, like the writhing movements of dancers in Indian cinema, the animation of the main character’s movements will delight the eye of more than one seasoned role-player, accustomed to the blockbuster swings and swaying of the characters of many other CRPGs. Especially in this regard, it is aesthetically pleasing to watch the movements of female individuals. Such magnificent animation is built, perhaps, only in slashers. But the battles themselves, unfortunately, take place according to the long-established hack’n’slash scheme – we call our enemies half to death, take a breath and finish calling them to death.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis – a diligent and successful fantasy RPG, which equally found room for interesting and branching quests, imposing and graceful dragons, fun with mind reading and a plot that (for all its linearity) is interesting to follow. This game is like a new business class Volkswagen. It seems like nothing supernatural or mind-boggling, but the fit of all the details and the unquestioning quality of execution make you admire it selflessly.

Pros: revealed dragon theme; unusual, very atmospheric soundtrack and general sound accompaniment; interesting, branching and varied secondary quests; the ability to “read” thoughts; excellent development of the world; interesting dialogues.
Cons: simplified role-playing system; not the most impressive ground battles.