Game: Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition 

Release: October 27th, 2015

Developer: Larian Studios, Focus Home

 

RPG - You hear that term a lot nowadays and more and more it's used a throw in when people can't determine what type of game a game actually is. Action adventures are called RPG's falsely and it's been occuring more and more lately. Well, enter Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition, a true to the definition of an RPG as you will ever see. It requires patience, commitment and punishes players for acting too hastily. Those who are bored or looking for an old school take on the RPG genre (which, lets face it is still so awesome) need to jump into the Enhanced Edition for Divinity Original Sin as it's the epitomy of what an RPG should be. 

Initially released on PC last year, it has been carried over to both PS4 and Xbox One with incredible detail. One of the most evident modifications to the game for consoles is the control menu. The PC game has so many menu options that I was worried on how Larian would make the adjustment to console. Utilizing a sub menu feature, Divinity Original Sin is actually incredibly easy to navigate as it organizes several different menus into one. Highlight anything you want and press B brings up all of the available ways to interact with it/them and pressing Y allows you to see a detailed description of whatever you have highlighted. With turn based combat a focus of the game in Divinity, being able to quickly navigate my options which were always changing based on my current situation was a necessity and I definitely appreciated the way Larian took console players into account when bringing the game over. Don't be worried about the menus by any means in Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition. Similar to how Cryptic did with Neverwinter on Xbox One, all of the menus are situated just perfectly for console users to enable easy navigation and functionality while avoiding confusion.

At the top I mentioned this Enhanced Edition is an old school RPG with a classic experience. If you are used to huge MMO's or RPG's that all have the classic "!" over the top of your destination's head or just follow a waypoint line on the screen to reach your destination, then just close the tab now because that's not what Enhanced Edition is about. In fact, there are no marking systems or ideas on where to go as you have to figure it out yourselves. Don't worry, it's not that bad. Remember all the old Final Fantasy games? Yeah, like that. This adds to the RPG feel of the game as RPG stands for ROLE. PLAYING. GAME. By not holding your hand during gameplay or exploration, Larian has allowed players to become fully immersed in the game and make for an easier transition to feeling like they are actually playing a role, not just a game. The sensation of feeling "lost" can be vast at first as many have only played RPG's of the newer sense where you are guided at every twist and turn. The absence of marking points and that "Ok, so what do I do now?" feeling is only accentuated by the voice acting in the Enhanced Edition. It's a new addition to the console version as PC saw simple text dialogue. Having every single character, both playable and NPC, having a voice makes it easier to become part of the game and pay attention in Divinity. You know when you text a friend "yeah" and they don't know whether you mean "yeah, no problem" or "yeah sure ok" being sarcastic? That's a prolific topic in simple dialogue text as you can't hear the NPC's tone of voice. With the addition of voice acting for everyone, it allows players to become part of the game and actually aid in your navigation as talking to various players and NPC give you hints on the game's story line and lore.

Personally, I've always been an RPG player first and foremost and yet Divinity Original Sin still impressed me. With all of the PC features crossed over to console, I thought that would be it as far as hardware capabilities would be stressed to the max. To my surprise, the console version introduces split screen local co-op. Being an RPG, of course a major issue is your party size and managing your quests based on your current party's abilities and inventory. With the addition of local play co-op, you can now split up your party and go off on separate quests while sitting right next to each other and earn double the XP twice as fast. 

As you know, we are huge proponents of frame rate over resolution and rightfully so. Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition runs at a full 30 FPS on console. Now, while that may sound like a downgrade from the 60FPS many run on and it literally is, realistically it's not. By running at 30 FPS, Larian was able to maintain all of the rich environmental features that are quintessential to the true RPG experience that is portrayed in Divinity. 

In Divinity, you start the game off with two characters and of course the ability to choose male or female for them. You get to choose from a huge variety of 12 separate characters, each with their own abilities, including one brand new to consoles in the magic user Inquisitor. I chose this class as I'm personally a huge magic user and spell caster fan. Not sure why, I just feel that they make you think more in RPG's than just  smashing your way through as a brawler. You begin in the city of Cyseal and thrown to the wolves immediately by trying to solve a murder mystery. Of course, while doing so, the prototypical multiple sidequests continually pop up and flow into one another perfectly. What Larian does in Divinity is make sure we stay engrossed in the game by incorporating many side quests into the main story. Your standard, useless quests just to get XP by picking flowers or whatever are not in Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition nor should they be. Once you actually know where to go for a specific quest you'll have a marker on the map to remind you of where it is. On the other hand, until you actually find the person to give you that information you'll be acting like a door to door salesman talking to everyone under the sun and entering every building trying to get a clue. It can be slightly frustrating but it's so worth it as the feeling of satisfaction is incredible in Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition thanks to Larian's dedication and ability to deliver a classic, true RPG. 

All of your characters have a skill tree incorporating 30 trackable skills such as potions, etc and items can be traded with all characters. Be sure to look what everyone has in their inventory as even the basic no name characters have that "Oh wow! they got that. I need that" item just floating around. You earn skill points from combat which can be used to upgrade your abilities, you can pick locks to get items all the while building your perfect team for combat. This is where Divinity's light (see what I did there?) shines through. All of the old favorites like skeletons, orcs etc are there along with of course your party members of archers and brawlers. Classic turn based battles in Divinity Original Sin make planning and preparation a must. Each turn uses up your action points for each character which are increased or decreased based on your inventory and loadouts. The environment acts as both your partner and enemy as you can ignite fire barrels by throwing candles at it from your inventory. If you have certain magic types you can electrify water and damage your opponents. Oh by the way, look out for friendly fire. Just because people are on your team doesn't make then immune to your attacks. Make sure your party members are not in a water puddle the enemy you are attacking is because they'll be electrocuted right along with them. All of these features make it incredibly difficult in combat to just "pass through". You need to do your homework in Divinity in order to proceed.

If you are looking for a quick, rapid fire wannabe action game that calls itself an RPG, then stay away as I noted above. On the other hand, if you are looking for a true, organic, interactive game that is the epitomy of what an RPG encompasses then Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition is your game. Saving often, strategic planning, avoiding traps and the ability to decipher navigation incorporated with a great story makes the Enhanced Edition of Divinity Original Sin a benchmark for what RPG's should strive to achieve and is definitivey the best RPG currently available.