Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

I simply love this. For all those who like Pathfinder WOTR, Baldur's Gate 3 and similar, this is a very enjoyable experience, although the battle system differs quite a bit from those others. History is also very interesting and compelling. Can also be played on iPad and it has cross-save feature.

The game world has sucked me in and I can already foresee many, many hours playing it. Enjoying the lore and excited to see where this game takes me.

So first off, fair warning, I'm currently about to bitch about weird gameplay and story decisions, and I've only just arrived to act 2. I've also played a little bit of divinity original sin 1 and extensively played bauldr's gate 3, so I have my biases on what I do and don't like about a game.

For starters, I really like the gameplay itself, even despite my little time with divinity 1, Its a clear improvement all around, combat is better, exploration is better, and the skill system seems far more clear to me. Baldur's gate 3 is obviously better in some aspects (namely in its traversal), but you can see the DNA that forms it is here, and its good even despite its age.

The story is interesting, if a little confusing for me, stuff kind of just happens sometimes and you can see where certain plotlines and ideas were cut, but overall its good. I was invested througout the first act, and I did feel like my choices matred. A good amount of situations give you the option to persuade your way to different outcomes (even if the persuasion system is a bit confusing) and overall, the game is pretty good about preventing cheese on a first playthrough.

Now for the cons, which while not many are major to me.

for the first, the persasion ystem is a bit confusing to me, I'm unsure of how it works exactly. seemingly each persuasion check requires you to have a certain level of persuasion and then compares a certain stat (having played bg3 and divinity 1 it seems to be a simplified version of the persuasion/deception/intimidation system, at least that's the vibe I got based on what dialouges are actually set for each stat). that said This is a guess, I don't actually know how it works, meaning I've had many times where i talk to someone having a high stat and get told that my persuasion isn't good enough.

Stealth is something else I don't quite understand, Seemingly sneaking makes it easier to stealth but if you're spotted you are still spotted, then again, I've seen videos where people are clearly in the sight cones and don't get spotted so I actually have no clue how that works.

I don't like how theivery works, which might just be because I like how bg3 does it more. Basically your theivery level needs to be a certain level or you can't open locked items, I think this would be ok if a certain major complaint I have later didn't exsist, but also if lockpicks didn't get used up when successfully opening an item.

However, my major complaint (as of now) is the permanent companion loss that's unavoidable early on into the game. this is also where spoilers lie, but to be honest I'd still read ahead if I were you, considering I almost screwed myself over with how punishing it is and how the game does not do a good job (if any) about letting you know its coming.

So basically after act 1.5, any companion not in your party dies and is permanently lost for no real reason. And I'm not just saying that because its dumb, I'm saying that because there literally no reason for them to perish at that point. They don't show up in the battle prior, and nothing happens that should kill them, they just are lost permanently for what I can only assume being weird or poorly explained writing decisions. I can assure you it wasn't for the sake a of gameplay, as its not as if the game punishes you for not having certain characters. Hirelings (AKA mercinaries) still exist, and you can respec for free while on the ship, so its not as if you'll loose out of certain gameplay opportunities without them. You wont get punished for not having a high persuasion or theivery character, because you can just change your stats for that or hire one of the hirelings who has the desired stats. The only gampley punishment is the loss of any investment you had on that character (IE armor, skills, etc) which is really only a problem if you changed your party for the fight beforehand, since THAT'S who you will keep, its not based on approval or anything like that.

narratively it also makes no sense (at least at the current moment), Since nothing happens that should kill them. Characters with more or less survivability survive the ordeal (like the child) and its very sudden and random too. There's also the problem of resurection scrolls being a thing, but like with most games, I have to accept that's likely just gameplay story dissonance, which is weird since it didn't have to be. BG3 does actually let compaions die and be revived and have the aknowledge the fact they've been revived. not always mind you but it can work.

Also small thing I can't confirm, but if a companion dies in the battle beforehand and you DONT revive them they're also permanenely lost, which is dumber.

No matter how you slice it this adds nothing to the game other that kind of forcing replayability. And I do mean forcing, as the game has enough branching paths without this that I'd still replay the game without this, I genenuinely don't know why its there. It only takes away from, the game. It's a bold choice yes, but bold doesn't mean good, and no one is going to convince me this adds more to the game than it removes.

anyways
Outside of that baffling decision (which I trimmed down my rant on since a lot of my talking points either needed confirmation, or were just unlikley hypotheticals) This is a good game, and whenever divinity 3 releases I will be playing it, I like this gameplay style, and it seems larian is improving when it comes to story and companions if bg3 is any example. so I look forward to that.

An absolutely phenomenal game. Stunning visuals, deep and engaging mechanics, and one of the best stories I’ve encountered in any form of media. The companions aren’t just side characters - each of them bring unique perspectives, rich backstories, and feel like real individuals crafted with genuine care and attention. Even after finishing the game twice, I still managed to discover new things I’d missed during my first playthrough.
If you're looking for an unforgettable rpg experience, you should definitely give this game a try.
Can't wait for Divinity 3 <33

I started playing this game after finishing Baldur's Gate 3, and I don't know why I missed this game before. I think I didn't wanted to play this game just because it's turn-based. Anyway, I really enjoyed playing this game. It feels like I've experienced a very impressive journey and this is probably a key difference from the open world rpg games, which is currently mostly mainstream.

Yes. Yes I would definitely recommend this. The learning curve is a bit steep, especially because most people would be more familiar with the Baldur's Gate 3 or Pathfinder way of doing things. But in my opinion, this game is the superior product.

For the past couple of days I kept thinking "yeah I would definitely finish this tonight" and was proved wrong every time. Not because the difficulty of fights blocking my progression, but because of a strong desire to wrap up everything I could, and Divinity: Original Sin 2 just had so much to offer.

One of the most cathartic feelings of this type of game lies in the ending slides. The narrator going through everything you have done and how it affected the world. On that end, I am satisfied, both with my time spent on the game and how it judged my choices.

One of my top 5 favorite games of all time. The story lines are great, the characters are interesting and you come to love them dearly, and the combat is a riot.

I think I'm about halfway trough the game and I can't bring myself to complete the game. the leveling in this game is very odd and I simply have no idea what is going on with the story. Maybe I will pick the game up again, I'm not sure

Full of Larian's hallmark charm, heart, and polish, I've absolutely been loving my time in Rivellon after enjoying Baldur's Gate 3 so much. The combat is engaging, the characters are endearing, and the world is fun to explore and experience.

One of the best games I have ever played. Long - but definitely worth taking the time to stop and smell the roses. It's clear that a ton of effort was put into the game. Even if you don't take your time, it takes a good chunk of time to beat the game. If anyone hasn't played this yet, I highly recommend having Fane in your party, possibly even as Avatar ;-)

I can only do a recommendation or no and right now I am being petty. I have played through for over 100 hours. Had a great time. I do not know what they were thinking with the final fight. Everything is way over-tuned, they broke several rules, brought back dead bosses that have no explanation for being back, prevented tactics that were allowed the entire game, included new boss forms with no explanation, and so much more. Honestly they dropped the ball so hard it must have hit the earth's core by now.

This game was a ton of fun up until this point. The fact that they fumbled so hard at the end feels like an insult rather than a mistake. It felt like they kept adding ideas they thought would be cool and didn't think further than that. I have no clue what the devs were thinking. I do not think they even tested this. If you don't care about the game's ending then I would recommend this. Otherwise I would move onto BG3 or something else.

One of the best turn-based role playing games ever made. Just got done playing it for the 3rd time.

I have never been addicted to a game so much, the story and the interest to the game really picks up during the Act II. While you are in the Fort Joy u start slow and somewhat boring, but if you invest around 15-20 hours , it gets really immersive, and better. Definitely recommend a party of 4 companions for the first playthrough to learn about the lore and different factions as much as possible. I started second playthrough almost right away, and finished 3/4 of the game on it, can take a long break now...

From refunding this game back in 2018 (thanks to my ignorance of turn-based combat) to rebuying it in 2025 and now ranking it among my top 5 games of all time! What a glow-up!

Divinity: Original Sin 2 gets everything right. The story is incredible, the turn-based combat is absurdly addictive (it might just convert genre skeptics), and exploration feels unmatched. Secrets are masterfully tucked away, and looting becomes its own compulsive joy. Highly recommended!

Story: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Gameplay 11/10
Music: 8/10

this game is an absolute FUCKING masterpiece but it is challenging and unforgiving especially on tactician mode if you are new i reccomend dumping 5 hours into DOS2 in explorer mode to get the bearings of the game then play classic and if you want after you beat dos2 in classic mode you can even try tactician mode for an even harder challenge! need i say more? JUST GET THE GAME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF THIS ABSOLUTE GEM BY LARIAN STUDIOS!!!

Started from multiplayer. Very cool strategic mechanics and an extreme amount of content that does not allow me to get bored, as well as balanced side quests. Only needed to get used to control that seemed dumb at first glance.

This is my third time playing this game, and I still keep finding things I didn't see before.

The story is excellent and the combat mechanics keep you hooked and engaged. All of the characters in the roster have an interesting backstory that matters when it comes to the main plot.

It's a good game. It's just hard to getting a click with this one if you unfamiliar with tactical turn based RPG. It seems overwhelming at first.

I'm inclined to compare this game to Larian's other game, Baldur's Game 3, because they're very similar in a lot of ways and they're the only two games with this sort of mechanical template that I've played at all extensively. This comparison does not flatter Baldur's Game 3.

I've found this game to be a much smoother experience than that other one in no small part because it runs so much better, not having such ridiculously intense graphical fidelity and being much smaller in filesize. It's also less of a mess—I haven't encountered a single noticeable bug in all the 14.4 hours I've spent playing as of this review.

This game also has a visual style that captivates Me much more, it's far more fantastic than Bald Game's subduededness and elves that look like humans; in this piece, the elves are lanky, eccentric corpse-eaters, and the reptiliane species available to play as is far prettier than any of the dragonborn of which Baldi's Basics is so terribly embarrassed. In this game you can also play as a skeletal version of any of the four fleshy species on offer, which is very cool and neat.

Divinity Original Sin The Second is also much better for roleplay between sentient players, because it doesn't so horribly insist on getting in the way as Baldur Game 3! That game's such a headache with all its awful complexity and much better voice acting and making My computer's fans so fucking loud, Divinity Sin 2 seems much more aware of the fact that digital structure quite gets in the way of playing dollies.

One time My sister and I were playing and her lizard did speak to Mine, though, and we chose dialogue options and went backenforth a bit; I didn't terribly mind, as the lines we chose were vague enough not to push us into saying anything we didn't want to, like Bald III likes to do, and the whole thing was quite lowkey, which 3 Bald Mice hates to do. Baldur's Game 3 is stupid, and I hate it, and if you like it I hate you too. Go do some omorashi shit and play with hydrogen peroxide and paint a picture, Goddamn.

This game is much more focused on combat than Baldur's Game 3, which I rather like, as a malevolent and vicious little thing. Baldur Game combat can feel a bit at odds with the exploration and shit, but I haven't encountered any of that in this game I've played so much less of. That fucking sin against all that is Beautiful Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios does have a jump mechanic for exploration, which is absolutely amazing for all sorts of things, and its absence from Divinity Original Sin 2(same studio and publisher(you can read it right up there ^ beside the trailer and screenshots, see it?)) is a pain I feel constantly. Well, not constantly, just while playing the game.

The dollymaker in this game is far less involved than its descendant, which is a bit sad. You have to pick from like eight colours for your hair(or frills if you have good taste(I love tails so much, aren't they so lovely? God they make Me wet)), isn't that awful? But it's fine, I'd forgive Divinity: Latest Virtue 2 for damn near anything for not being that other thing.

In conclusion, I don't feel like writing this review anymore.

Baldurs gate 3 adds a lot of new things I wish were in this game, but also uses D&D combat system which I think it's pretty shit. The combat system in Divinity is amazing.

To this day I still think overall DOS2 is better than BG3.

Anyway, Larian is amazing. Support them so they can continue making banger games.

Played through the whole campaign with friends as we were all discovering the game and we had an absolute blast. In the end we knew nothing about the characters from the party and their backstories as we were playing as OCs but we didn't really care, the game was still very substantial even without being able to do the PCs quests (about 100h for a party of 3).

The first few sessions were rough because doing a lot of reading in multiplayer is not usual though once we were hooked it just felt natural.
Also you don't have to always be grouped, so everyone can kind of enjoy the game at their own pace, we would sometimes investigate and explore as a group and sometimes on our own.
There were also a lot of moments where multiplayer specifically got to shine that I can't spoil, like the ending.

Battle system is fun, I prefered it over the one from BG3, it just feels more empowering being able to use spells without having to rest.

If you have a chance of playing through the whole game with your TTRP group, I would totally recommend it.

My few nitpicks would be that the persuasion check system sucks and the red outline informing if a creature is a valid target or not isn't really easy to see, which can lead to a few frustrating and unintentional misplays.

Overall, we made so many great gaming memories 10/10 will patiently wait for Larian's next masterpiece.

By the time I had finished BG3 I desperately needed another game like that. Rather than replaying BG3 again and again I wanted something new. DoS2 is another banger from the same studio Larian studios who also made BG3, and boy this game does not disappoint.

Although the game was made about 8 years ago it is still really really fun to play. I chose not to use the giftbag and/or any mods for my playthrough. Together with a friend we beat the game after over 120 hours. The story is intriguing and the music is also very good especially the Path of the Godwoken (Bansuri Version).

So, if you like turn based CRPG's this game is definitely worth playing!

Pros: Great story, great voice acting, versatile party composition and combat, tons of nooks and crannies to explore, and a nice range of difficulty to choose from casual to extreme hardcore.

Cons: Refilling source points at fountain between every fight, lack luster crafting system, a various small QOL that could be implemented.

Highly recommended to play. Fantastic game. Haven't had this much fun with an RPG since FF7 and FF9 days.

I love this game to the moon and back <3 Discovered it after playing BG3 and at first thought "Dang its 8 years old, shouldnt expect too much" but Larian proved me VERY wrong.
The story, companions, character building, world, voice acting, music, EVERYTHING is top notch in my opinion.
How can a game be this brilliant? I love it dearly and will never forget how much fun i had. Even after playing through it 2 times i started another playthrough with a friend. (389 hours in, about 50-100 to go lol)
Its so cool how you can be halfway through the game and completely change your skills and shape your characters the way you want to. Please please please include Fanes voice actor in your future games Larian, his voice (acting) is beautiful!! Obvious thumbs up!!!

Edit: Dunno why i forgot to mention this, but the story or rather the decision outcomes are beautifully gray. Most choices are neither good nor bad. The player can decide which path to walk down and have good reasons for it, no matter the choice. Theres so much depth and humanity in that, especially the ending was mind blowing.
Who also thought that Dallis and Lucian were actually right? They killed and harmed many, which is devastating, but their goal is actually good. Here i thought i´m about to crush the bad guys, but they arent that bad all along.. Their goal is actually relatable and i defeated them, only to fulfill their wish.. Spent a week pondering and am torn to this day. I love you Larian

Crashed out only a couple of times I hate you Dallis.

I got lost a bunch of times while doing quests due to the lack of direction. I was also was consistently feeling under-leveled and had to scavenge around for exp. Quests and areas in this game are sometimes inaccessible without being a high enough level and made for a cruel awakening when I realized that I would have to come back to this area later when I was strong enough, leaving me lost and struggling to get enough exp in the areas that I have already explored. However this could be a skill issue thing and it does not hurt the replay value for me personally, I still want to replay this game now that I know the general order and location of quests.

The Combat system in this game is thrilling, satisfying and is by far my favorite aspect of the game and the thing that had me coming back to the game again and again.

The story is good too, lots of plot twists and such I hate you Dallis although the stories did feel slightly unpolished at times. Very nice game however, I enjoyed the skeleton man.

Impeccable combat, performances and graphics, epic feeling adventure journey, exciting story, unbeatable game.

if you into turn-based strategy games, that are heavily influence from D&D, then this is the game for you.
Larian studios respects their players and you can see/feel in the vast majority of their games.

Divinity Original sins 2, comes from larian, That alone already says enough, Its a good game studio,
Game play is fun, Amazing story, Good workshop mods.

Scottish Dwarves and Questionable Decisions

By Someone Who Accidentally Made Co-op Into Group Therapy

Divinity: Original Sin 2 was my first real step into turn-based RPGs — it felt like the video game version of dipping a curious toe into the sprawling, occasionally ridiculous pool of Dungeons & Dragons — and it completely won me over. It’s smart, dense, and full of systems that somehow manage to feel intuitive, even while you're juggling exploding barrels, blessed fire, and a guy named Gareth who keeps running off into danger like it’s a hobby. The writing is sharp and the world is layered with secrets.

You can play it solo or with up to three friends, and while both modes are fantastic, co-op comes with a unique twist: it becomes a psychology experiment. The decisions your friends make in dialogue or combat say a lot about them, sometimes too much. Playing together felt like passing around a digital morality compass and realizing half the group is just spinning it for fun.

What makes it so special is the weight of your choices. The world reacts — often subtly, sometimes dramatically — to everything you do. Kill one character early on, and you might lose access to a powerful weapon hours later. Betray someone, and it might come back to bite you — or your entire party — in a shockingly poetic way. It’s re-playable in the truest sense: not just because you can do things differently, but because you’ll want to.

The characters are genuinely memorable, my favorite? Marcus Miles, a.k.a. Beast — the gruff dwarf with an endless supply of charisma. I cannot read a single one of his lines without imagining a thick Scottish accent and immediately giggling. It’s a problem. I now love turn-based RPGs. It’s strategic, rewarding, funny, and deeply immersive. If you’re even slightly curious about the genre — or if you’ve ever wondered how you’d fare in a world where your choices actually matter — this is the game to try.

Final Score: 9.5/10
Embrace the chaos, give the characters personalities and don’t kill Tarquin. Trust me.

I genuinely enjoued this game but it has multiple problems that I just can't ignore. Firstly I would highly recommend to play this game with friends since it has lots of thing that you yourself would have never found out without anyone else (or google) and the fights would be less boring, but they still are boring, borh with frinds and without them but with them it would be less like this, and you usually don't have enough action point and you can't change in settings that you can't use skill that adds the action points when you don't have any or skills that don't need any and it was annoying as hell when u couldn't use those because uhm well just because. And another problem about the fightings, the freaking miss clicks, you will suffer, just consider this. Secondly the problem that most of the dialogues ends up with fights and if you don't have perusation then you're cooked and mostly the game gives you just an illusion of choice, you won't get to choose most of the time the things you want. Thirdly, as I see since at least this game Larina's never learnt how to do final acts because final act of this game is too overwhelming with so many things and you can't solve some things if you don't read EVERY.SINGLE.FREAKING.BOOK.AND.LETTER. and I'm pretty sure that me and my friends scipped so many things because of that. And fourthly the lever room, whoever created this I have one thing to say, the ticking next to your bed isn't clocks. I would have recommended this game for you but I just can't, yes there are good things but there are a lot of bad things that. I'll give this game 5/10 on the stretch

One of the best single-player and co-op experiences from start to finish. Work together towards the goal or blow each other up. Can be overwhelming and intimidating, but worth the effort to temper impatience and explore each region thoroughly. Look up some guides for builds because there is a lot of versatility. There is a fantastic modding community.

Sebille is my favorite companion character with all the qualities I look for in a wife: attempts to murder you in first interaction, can eat flesh, surprisingly fragile and tender, efficient and deadly hunter.

Fun and engaging. I love the flexibility and detail baked into the game.

really good game, played after baldurs gate 3 and loved it. story is personally better and gameplay more engaging. 9/10

it is one of the best games ever existed.you can discover new worlds and places and fight.i totaly reccomend this game

I played Baldur's Gate 3 first and then this game and I gotta say for me this is equally good. Masterpiece !

One of the single greatest games I have ever played from a depth perspective... and I say that having still never beaten it to date. I have started over more than a dozen times with different characters. I have gotten to the final area twice, lost one save file, and just haven't finished the 2nd one yet.

When I first started playing, me and a buddy essentially spent an entire week going "There's no way in hell that this actually works right? Holy hell it works" About to lose a fight? Put nails in your shoe, use a rain scroll, freeze the water on the ground, then run away and let enemies slip on the ice and lose their turn. Hell, we had a battle come entirely down to my buddy having to completely disarm himself so he could use a bare handed skill(sucker punch) in order to achieve a knockdown on the enemy... had he missed, we would have wiped. So good.

best REAL rpg i ever played, amazing story so many choices and the combat is perfect.

its like baldur's gate III if baldur's gate III was cool and older and funny

Disclaimer: I tried to get into this game in 2025 after having already played BG3. Its unfair of me to compare these two games back-to-back since the only real similarities between the two are shared assets. The game systems are completely different. Having said that, I still think my opinions on DOS:II would still be the same even if I had never played BG3.
I found this game incredibly difficult, unintuitive, and unfair. The difficulty was really high for a medium setting, constantly being killed in almost every encounter. The game often felt like it was cheating systems that I was bound by. for example, having the high ground but not being able to target enemies on the ground because of a half-wall obstruction and out of range but the enemies on the ground could target and hit me no problem. I also found there were a lot of encounters that were completely overleveled. I hit a barrier in act 2 because I couldn't find an encounter that was at my level or one level above and I couldn't find any quests to complete to gain any XP. I was stuck.
I couldn't get into the story. It was mostly uninteresting and it felt like a collection of fetch quests for characters that could have been helpful (and powerful) but for whatever reason decided not to and then remained useless there after.
I think there was a push for the character building to be as open ended as possible, giving the player as much latitude to make what ever they wanted but this game needed some guard rails, it was far too easy to create an uneffective character and spread out precious resources too thinly.
While I still recommend this game for fans of turn-based RPGs, it just wasn't checking off my "its fun" box. I took a two-month break and came back feeling burdened by it instead of feeling excited, that is a sure sign for me to move on to something else.

Great game and still holds up compared to the newer Baldur's gate 3

great game, one of the few games worth buying on multiple platforms

My first Larian Expirience, game feels really nice, looks Great! Fun & Tactical RPG!

I want to like the game, and i'm sure many people will, but to me the combat is limiting. Now some veterans will surely be outraged by this, but i find the armor system to be boring and limiting. To me it seemed like it either limited the possible play stayles, either you run a certain playstyle which could be seen as the "meta" which trivializes this mechancic and results in bursting through the armor and then CC the enemy to death, or you run something outside the "meta" and evey encounter turns into a slog where you are punished for attacking the same enemy with two different companions because they happen to deal different types of damage (magical and physical).
The armor system just isn't fun in my opinion, and sadly it ruins the game for me.

I think the combat, story and presentation of baldurs gate 3 is superior, atleast for "casual" players or players who do not wish to follow the "meta/optimal playstyle". I do however think that the people who do not fall into these categories will find alot of fun in this game and its enviormental interactions to combat.

played it with the original one in other store back in the day, and got it here when winter sale last year, because the mods here is more organized than nexus. play it through act 1 again, refreshing memory how magister is soo annoying b*st**d. and now, still in early act 2. still trying to get to lohar. great game.

Amazing gameplay, high replayability with multiple endings. Just great, I pick it up for a run every few months

Great game. Lots to do. Read the books. I do find myself missing the jump and shove feature of BDG3.

This game was confusing and at times frustrating.
I loved it, it was great. you can bone the skeleton - 6.9/10

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 "The most fun you can have setting things on fire by accident"

Ah, Divinity: Original Sin 2 — the only game where I heroically saved an orphan one moment and accidentally turned my entire party into chicken nuggets the next. 10/10.

It’s got:
✔️ A gripping story that makes you question morality, loyalty, and whether you really need pants equipped.
✔️ Deep tactical combat that’s 30% strategy, 70% “Oh god why is everything exploding?”
✔️ Dialogue options that range from noble savior to complete feral raccoon.
✔️ You can talk to animals. I once spent 20 minutes consoling a depressed crab. No regrets.

Play it with friends for max chaos. Just be warned — trust no one with teleportation gloves. Especially not Steve. You know what you did, Steve.

Buy it. Lose sleep. Start again as an undead lizard wizard. The circle of life.

The game itself is good, and shows Larian excellent skill in writing and game design. Unfortunately i didn't like it