Divine Divinity

"As good as I expected"

This game just popped out of nowhere. In a year where the over-hyped RPGs turn out to be disappointments, a light shines the way in the form Divine Divinity. NWN was disappoint in that it was too easy and not enough interaction between characters. Icewind Dales II was too Linear and much of a chore to be enjoyable. DD was neither. It was fun playing from beginning to end.

Graphics - 8/10
Not the best in the world, but pretty decent. I realized that this game is library based, so objects and tiles gets used over and over again. The good side of this is that it speeds up load time. The bad side is that all the dungeons look the same. Other than that, everything is great. The enemies have a unique look to them. The objects are nicely rendered. The nude pics and computers in the secret Larian jail looks nice.

Sound - 8/10
The games has some nice sound effects. All the necessities are they. The chopping of flesh, the clinking of metal; they're all there. For some reason, they didn't seem very genuine. Hitting metal sounds like breaking glass. It can definitely be improved.

Voice acting is pretty good, but not great. A lot of it sounds very ordinary...as if the Larian guys did it themselves. Even if they did, it was still good, though it could be better.

Music - 9/10
The music is really good in this game. It sets the mood nicely and have many memorable beats. Sometimes during gameplay, I whistle along to the melodies. The only disappointment is that some gets reused at the wrong places...like the last level. For something so grand, you'd expect something new, but there wasn't any.

gameplay - 9/10
They took the battle system from Diablo, but they added a new skill system that improves upon it. This game is more of a RPG than a hack & slash like Diablo. It has 4 giant maps that will keep you busy for a long time. You can forget about your social life, cause this game ain't letting you go once you start. The characters are quite unique and can be quite humorous. Characters like the wishing well and the 'talented women' seeks are what make some of the quests great. If you play as a male, you get to make out with an elf chick, while you constantly get hit on if you play as a female. The only problem I see with the gameplay is balancing. Mages generally have a much harder time playing through the game than fighters or survivors. If you don't choose your skills wisely, fighting fast enemies like Iona's pet can be very frustrating.

Replay - 4/10 if you have a life and a job. 9/10 if you don't.
This game is huge. You'll probably spend well over 100 hours the first time through. All items are random so you get different items every time time you play a new game. Try not to get addicted, otherwise you can kiss your social lift goodbye.

Buy? Yes. It's worth it. It's a very good game, almost as good as BG2. It looks like this could be the best RPG of 2002.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/02, Updated 10/26/02