Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

play with a good friend you haven't had time to play games with recently, you wont regret it

also just burn the entire field, its the best and only way to win

It takes time to get used to it but it's a very good game and it gives you reasons to replay it. Worth playing if you enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3.

If you like Baldur's Gate 3, this is more than worth it. The combat is arguably better, but ultimately depends on the type of experience you are wanting. My only real issue is that I feel that the normal difficulty is a bit too hard for new players.

An amazing game that offers a vast amount of content. Don’t aim for perfection; instead, explore all the possibilities the game has to offer

I'd suggest Story Mode for a new person to this game. Your characters are very gear dependent on survival right from the start. Have your main character have points in persuasion to have the story go the way you want it to. Have someone with with lock picking and someone with luck to get some very good random loot toward the end of the game. Good Luck.

A wonderful game, a years that I don't play a game that did me so immerse, the history, the art, the gameplay, the soundtrack. It ins't a repetitive game, your actions and choices make you think and be sympathic with the characters and NPCs, and in some cases they will be with you or against you. For sure I recommend the game and I become a fan of Larian Studios. Thank you and congratulations!

I enjoy the story mode. It's not hard to understand, you just have to give it time.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a brilliant game, and I personally believe it stands on par with Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s clear that DOS2 laid the foundation upon which BG3 was built, as so many of its core mechanics and design philosophies carry over. While I haven’t played any other entries in the Divinity series and can’t compare it to previous titles, I’ll mostly be drawing comparisons to BG3, given their similarities.

Story

Without going into too much detail, the story of DOS2 revolves around you and up to three companions as you journey to become Divine. The narrative is well-crafted, and the villains you encounter along the way are compellingly written. Like in BG3, each companion has their own personal story that seamlessly weaves into the main narrative. However, unlike BG3, you must choose three of the available companions, and those you don’t pick become unavailable after Act 1. Fortunately, Act 1 is long enough to experiment with different companions, get a feel for their personalities, and explore their personal quests before making a final decision.

Some companion stories are stronger than others, and in my experience, they tend to work best when told in the third person. For example, in my second playthrough, I had Lohse as a companion, and I thought her story was fantastic—one of my favorites. But when I played as Lohse in my third playthrough, I found that her story was much more impactful when experienced through her perspective rather than as her. While I haven’t tested this with every origin character, I imagine many of them work the same way, so I’d generally recommend playing a custom-made character for the best experience.

Gameplay & Combat

If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3, DOS2 will feel very familiar. However, its combat system differs in a few key ways. Instead of the traditional D&D-style system of Movement, Action, and Bonus Action, DOS2 uses a pool of Action Points (AP), allowing for more flexibility in how you approach each turn. Personally, I prefer DOS2’s system, as it gives more freedom in how you execute your moves. It's also worth noting that this game is not based on D&D. It has its own spell system, abilities, and mechanics, so while there’s some overlap, you won’t find staples like Eldritch Blast here.

One of my favourite aspects of DOS2 is its environmental interactions in combat. Nearly every surface or cloud you encounter can be altered with different elements. See a puddle of oil? Set it ablaze. Notice a lingering cloud? Cast an electric spell to turn it into a charged storm. Standing in a pool of blood? Cast a healing spell to make it restore health instead of just being a mess on the battlefield. This level of interactivity adds an entire extra layer to combat, which I sorely missed when playing BG3.

Another major gameplay mechanic is the armour system. Instead of just a health bar, characters have Physical Armor and Magic Armor, which determine their resistance to certain effects. Physical Armor blocks physical-based status effects like Knockdown, while Magic Armor prevents magical afflictions like being Charmed or Stunned. This system forces you to think strategically—mages naturally have high Magic Armor but weak Physical Armor, making them vulnerable to physical attacks. Conversely, heavily armoured warriors might shrug off physical strikes but struggle against magic casters. This dual-layered armour system adds extra tactical depth and makes encounters more engaging.

Conclusion

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a phenomenal game that delivers deep tactical combat, excellent storytelling, and an immersive world filled with meaningful choices. While Baldur’s Gate 3 has refined and expanded upon many of its ideas, DOS2 still holds its own and, in some ways, surpasses it—especially in combat mechanics and environmental interactivity.
If you love RPGs, especially ones that challenge your strategic thinking and offer player-driven narratives, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is absolutely worth playing. Whether you’re coming from BG3 or just looking for an outstanding RPG experience, this game is one of the best in the genre.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an absolute gem for anyone who loves deep RPGs. The story is rich and full of twists, and the characters are all interesting with their own personal arcs. Combat is turn-based but super strategic, and the freedom to approach problems in so many different ways really stands out. The world is beautiful, and there’s tons of content to keep you busy. It can be overwhelming at times, especially if you’re new to this type of game, but if you’re into story-driven RPGs, this one is definitely worth your time.

Awesome and really fun game, especially when playing with friends. Another bonus is that by buying it you get access to Game Master mode along with a suite of tools that let you make your own custom levels and campaigns.

This is BG3 without the lame hoop jumping of pretending you're playing a board game.

15 times better than BG, in all manners. Incredible.

its a larian studios title at the very least its absolutely worth your time for tht reason imo!!! i havent played nething by the that i hvent found top tier rpg to the point i find it super immersive at 30yrsold and i never thought that would ever happen again for me esp in ths genre fr over a decade i couldnt enjoy anything rpg and seriously rpg where youactuallly care about the rp aspect more than the g part of it; which subsequently is amazing on its own rite as well imo! give it a shot

This is the first CRPG I’ve completed, and it was an amazing experience. The game offers excellent role-playing elements and engaging gameplay. Both the main story and companion narratives are fantastic. Definitely worth trying if you enjoy CRPGs or want to explore something new!

I played this game all the way until the final area of the game back on PS5 and really enjoyed many aspects of the game including the vast variety of areas to explore, sidequests, gear variety, skill variety, etc,. but the tactical aspects, while generally quite thoughtful and interesting, really dragged. Some of the characters were interesting, I loved Red Prince, Fane, and Lohse, for example, but the game just has this glacial pace feel to it after a while. The voice acting was great and the story was interesting but it also felt a bit shallow at times. No real banter or interaction between your characters and minimal dialogue unless you are talking to your companions directly to unlock their story quests, really made the long sections of the game in between feel a bit lonely and uninteresting in many ways.

The game looks really good for a CPRG and I really enjoyed my time with it, but I got frustrated with certain aspects like constantly trying to manage my inventory, being overburdened, having to maintain certain skills to make exploration rewarding at the expense of the abilities to make combat less frustrating, etc., to the point I quit on PS5. I then got a PC and thought to replay it, now that I can mod some of the things I disliked from the game, but find the thought of putting in another 80 hours just to get back to where I was to be daunting and off putting. Ultimately, I got through the tutorial and went back to Fort Joy and just couldn't motivate myself to play back through it.

It's honest a really good game in many ways, but the tedium can be quite bad the further into the game you get. My suggestion, mod the game. Get rid of some of the more frustrating aspects and reduce the grinding and slow sections of the game to keep up the pace as you will likely get burned out otherwise, just like I did. I wish I started this on PC, because with mods I think I would have probably finished the game. There are definitely areas to improve on, but I look forward to Divinity 3 when they inevitably make it. It's odd, because I managed to get all the way through the first game, and while I remember feeling a bit exhausted by the end, the tedium didn't weigh on me quite as heavily as this time around.

This has been one of the most unique experiences i have ever had with a game, bought it on xbox, and again on PC. its a fantastic game overall.

ridiculous amount of TLC went into this game and you can tell in everything from the sheer amount of freedom, to the attention to detail in the lore and how you interact with the world in-turn. every play through is unique and you end up spending so much of the time in this world playing with it and seeing what new advantageous situations you can create for yourself, whether that be by exploring or reading buffs and messing w stats of your characters but it NEVER feels like a drag. kinda timeless

Like the first part, this one is truely a gem.
This game is even better if played in coop with a friend, who's throwing fireballs on oil and thunder while raining.
There are many different possibilites how to play this game, so it's not repetitive on a second or third run.

This game is superior to Baldur's Gate 3 - apart from Baldur's Gate 3 having much more impressive voice acting. Which doesn't mean that the acting is bad here.

I'm playing this after BG3. Well, the story is less engaging than BG3, but the whole game is still enjoyable and the combats are still great.

The game has tactician mode where you are expected to tactic your way to victory.

But it turns out, tactician is harder than Dark Souls 3 (I platinum'ed it), difficulty curve is inverted where everything is too hard in the beginning and you sneeze to kill enemies around chapter 4.

So people tell each other to steal and kill weak innocents because enemies have twice HP and 5 times armor. Not an exaggeration. And then wait 1 hour (real life time) to buy crafting mats and repeat.

Game is not for everyone.

I LOVE this game - everything from the gameplay to the soundtrack was an amazing experience. Divinity 2 was my introduction into this genre & I haven't looked back. Highly recommend even now :)

Act 2 is pretending like its an exploration where you can do quests in any order but its not. You WILL be too underleveled unless you do a specific order, and the game will not tell you at what order its supposed to be. Why even bother making it non-linear then? This is the most unfun I've ever had in a CRPG because I have to "explore" for encounters that are actually equal level or else I will get squashed like a bug.

Started playing several times. Finished game only in honor mode. Killed everyone. GG

What an incredible game.

I bought this because the reviews were top-notch and it was dirt cheap during sale. Had no idea how hooked I'd be.

There definitely is quite the learning curve, though. However, once you understand the mechanics of the game, you're off to the races.

I think I restarted the game at Fort Joy (first map) about 4 times before I got the hang of things and eventually progressed.

Everything about this game is sooo addictive and once you get the knack for it, you keep coming back for more. The combat system makes for super satisfying fights too. The best part about the game is that it has full co-op support.

Highly recommend to everyone looking for a game to spend 100s of hours on.

Trying to click on NPCs as they spontaneously wander around in random directions is way too frustrating for me, and since the game cannot be paused, I cannot advance.

This game is 8 years old. I just finished it (after a third try, I know, it's just massive). Highly recommended. It is polished, awesome story and good enough balance. And even after going through BG3, I still found it really really great.

It's really great especially in co-op mode. I recommend having The Red Prince and Fane in your starting party as their companion quests really stand out from the others. I Heard Lohse Story is very interesting too but i haven't tried her.

I still don't really understand everything but I love the different ways you can start the game and the different things you encounter depending on how you customized you're character, or if you started with an origin character, it's not a game for everyone, but it's a game I would recommend to friends

Great crpg , one that makes you love tactical combat even if you thought you wouldnt.Great story , very immersive , offcorse not a perfect game , if there is one, very close though.

Great puzzles and exploring. Very challenging combat.

I played this game a while ago and somehow forgot to review it...

Wonderful game! I won't lie I never really got used to combat in D&D but I did enjoy it here, maybe that makes me weird. I definitely preferred the story of this one over BG3 but it might be nostalgia cuz I played this way before BG3. I loved the companions (Ifan my beloved) and each of their stories respectfully. And I love my stupid summoner build with the giga big ass imp by the end of the tutorial island which me and my friend buffed to the end and beyond cuz it would be funny as fuck for it to punt the enemy 6ft underground. One of my favorite gaming experiences hands down.

I am definitely more interested in original stories/worlds Larian makes in the future as good as BG3 was. This game is my reason for that.

Excellent game! The story line is immersive with seemingly endless options. This game has stood the test of time and is still really good. It's a great game for multiplayer and solo. I recommend it.

Outstanding game:
1. Professionally crafted – you have all necessary information, hints, screens and controls. You may tune the toolbar exactly for your needs. It is real pleasure.
2. Player friendly – it is not forces the player to waste his time. Usually, you may solve battle situation in few ways, you are not obliged to acts exactly as prescribed by the developers, you may solve quests in different way without harm for the storyline. You may save or load the game at any moment you want, there is no need to wait for some check point to save, and it is very, very useful.
Sometimes quests solutions are not evident. But this is subject of interest.
The only thing is not perfect – the automatic camera work. But this is not a problem, just a small comment.

Overall a great game. A fantastic story and well made characters with different paths based on the choices you make during the scenario.

On the cons, its the gear/level. Until you understand that even a single level between your party and the enemies make a huge difference you will struggle. This is multiplied by your gear level. You must always keep and upgrade every piece of gear to your level to succeed, especially if u play with physical damage dealers as i did.

On the parts that can be reviewed as either cons or pros is the combat system. Its a turn-based system with a lot of flaws. I cheesed a lot starting combat with one character and opening from stealth with the rest of the party abusing teleportations or stealth bonuses. Also leaving combat with one character, using potition abilities in order to regen/cooldown abilities and then re-enter combat, while the rest fight was expecting one of my characters to complete its turn. Teleportation abilities seem to be so op, that maybe the game cant be played without.

Great graphics, deep story and lots of detail in everything. Great game for casual "D&D" style fans.

So fun, got into this because of BG3 and there are aspects that remind me of baldur's gate while being different enough to be new and fresh. I like the leveling system and the differences between different classes while still being able to mix them for percs.

so there are a decent amount of bugs, and if you don't have an amazingly powerful computer, the game will run slow, even with all of the lowest quality settings *AND* shadows turned off. however, its super fuecking fun, which is the only reason I continue to play this game and deal with the laggy bs

it's good, just get it. Fantastic game. Especially if you're looking for more CRPG's.

The gameplay is smooth, even though the graphics may not be on the 2025 level anymore, they are still pretty decent and nothing that stops you from enjoying the game. But the best are all the different dialogue options, all real and alive. I played BG3 before that and feel at home in this game. You can feel, that Larian put a lot of effort and love into creating this game.

Larian does a phenomenal job with freedom in DOS2. The number of strategies and builds you can use in the game are almost overwhelmingly huge, between a massive list of spells, weird synergies, a surprisingly indepth crafting system, and a world and AI that fully expects and is prepared for you to mess with it in a massive number of ways. Exploring in DOS2 always gives you something new to find and mess with, quests have open designs, and very few quests in the game feel the same, some comedic (with a great sense of humor I might add), some serious or mysterious, there's excellent variety to see here.

I played on Tactician Mode on my first playthrough and would recommend the same to a player really willing to see what Larian has in store for you, as the encounters are incredible. The AI employs a lot of different gimmicks and strategies, many of which require you completely rethink whatever strategy you had coming in, yet aren't so rigid that you'll find yourself incapable of completing them in dozens of different ways. The surrounding level design is superb as well, further accentuated by the game's amazing terrain mechanics; many attacks leave pools of oil, poison, water, or fire for you to mess around with, like electrocuting the water, putting out fire to create smoke clouds to block vision, it's one of the coolest things about the game. Most of DOS2's gameplay ranges between exploration, quick dialogue and combat, so the exploration and combat being as excellent as they are make this game an easy recommend.

That said, everything else about the game is unpolished. As much as I loved DOS2, it feels like an uncut gem. The system, although enabling you to do so much, is in truth quite simplistic; most stats are completely worthless outside of increasing a specific type of damage, so minmaxing is directly encouraged by the game's rules. Why invest points into Finesse if you're not using a spear, bow or dagger? Why invest points into Intelligence if you're not using spells? It does nothing for you. This also frequently comes up with other mechanics like Persuasion, in which every new face you'll meet will expect you to have spent every possible Civil Ability point on Persuasion, or else you'll just fail. As a result, you build everyone into being good at one thing, then dip into several different trees to give them utility along the way.

This is doubly a problem due to the game's heavy reliance on CCs in combat. You have two armor types, Physical and Magic, and losing one type leaves you vulnerable to CCs of a respective damage type, i.e. melee attacks can now afflict status effects if you're out of physical armor, magic attacks if you're out of magic armor. However, given the useless stat problem above, it's inefficient to build a character around multiple damage types, so you'll likely just put them entirely into physical or magical, and spoilers, magic will require some sort of combo to make the most out of its CCs while physical gives you multiple forced turn skips, so physical is without question the better choice. The terrain mechanics that I talked about earlier are also bypassed by the massive availability of "jumps", moving huge areas for only a single action point. Covering terrain quickly becomes redundant compared to just bursting enemies down with big sticks.

As a result, the system of DOS2 is quite poorly balanced. An obvious choice for a build involves you dumping points into Warfare because it gives you these aforementioned turn skip CCs, as well as universally increasing all sources of physical damage per point invested, even an arrow shot or certain ranged spells. While it helps players create characters in a multitude of ways, I wish there was a stronger distinction between magic attacks and physical attacks rather than just a second health bar determining whether or not you can make an enemy skip a turn, that or maybe toning down some of the more obviously powerful tile effects (oil slowing you for a whole turn, not just on its puddle) to not require overcompensation with physical attacks and jumps allowing players and enemies to leap past any obstacle in their way. It certainly isn't required of you to abuse the system like this, but that doesn't change how obviously heavy-handed the game is towards the strategy of bursting down physical armor and looping enemies with stuns until you win.

DOS2's writing is also poor, a generic fantasy setting and story about advanced precursor civilizations with a few interesting tidbits. The plot is predictable, contrived, and characters largely lack impact; fun personalities, but flat, and your party members' questlines are similarly uninteresting with plot hooks thrown in last second to try and create a puddle deep "decision" from the player. It doesn't help that DOS2's writing doesn't keep up with the freedoms of its gameplay, your character can discover things in the main plot or about other characters earlier than intended, but will be none the wiser in dialogue, with you being unable to raise that you already know what they're talking about/that they're lying to you annoyingly often. This is especially done poorly with the antagonists of the game, all of whom are presented as comically evil yet the game attempts and fails to create any grounding for them to stand on for the player to empathize with them as they commit atrocity after atrocity.

The best example of the game's flawed writing is through the game's overarching antagonist, the God King, who for whatever reason is devoid of dialogue throughout the game, only talking through a channel in select few moments, before immediately attempting to kill the player. Without going through a cryptic, race-specific series of steps, his rationale is largely unexplored, yet he is an omnipresent force that a ton of characters swear fealty to, including yourself if you happen to think his design is kind of cool. Doing this does give him more dialogue, but not much, and mysteriously his entire faction still remains hostile to you; several boss fights also still occur with dialogue options giving the player the chance to point out their allegiance, only for the boss to basically not care and the God King to say "errrm, that just happened" right after. What makes this particularly strange is that the game repeatedly attempts to set him up as someone who has a point and is uniquely the only character in the game who practically never lies to or betrays the player, with him pointing out the player's flawed allegiances and wishing to come to common ground... only to then never speak again. This all leads to a hilariously contrived final battle in which I wasn't even given the choice to convince my party to join the God King or even tell them that I was allied with him at all up until the last second, even ones like Fane who explicitly say that they'll side with me no matter what happens and have ties to the God King, resulting in them immediately turning on me and me kicking their asses. At the very least this makes him true to his word, he gave me a funny hat and a place in his court for enslaving millions and sarin gassing a city under his name, so I'd say it was all worth it Bro King.

I'd highly recommend DOS2 to someone looking for amazing tactical RPG gameplay, or someone looking to have a lot of fun with creating interesting builds in an admittedly very flawed system. If you're here for a great story, I'd look elsewhere. There are plenty of CRPGs that offer better stories than DOS2, but that doesn't mean DOS2's world wasn't plenty fun to explore or that the developers didn't put a shocking amount of care into its finer details. In the end, maybe all this game really needed was a bit more time. A bit more time to flesh some characters out, maybe add a bit more to the final act, change up the systems, and have a less awful final boss fight.

Love the story and the gameplay. The game has good dynamics and multiple ways to play.

Replaying this after BG3 started crashing, and wow. It is everything I remember it being years ago. Larian might have perfected their formula in BG3, but they were pretty close in this game. Relaxing, thoughtful and very well written. Glorious.

Good Pure RPG game which has good world building, Good characters, decent class variability expecially for the magical school variants. For fans of rpgs and tactical turn based combat a definitive win. For the game mechanics for me the importance and insistance on magical&physical armour making it that your phys char (mailny played lone wolf)has to solo certain targets that have their phys armour down and my magical based buddy cant help because they have heaps of magical armor so magic cant cc them was a downside.

Great game, but for me most of the weakneses are majorly updated for Baldurs Gate III, which if you are looking to play or try just one RPG High fantasy game w turn based combat go with BG3. If you like come back DOSII.

First time playing a game like this. Been real fun. Like all the different choice options and discovering new stories/elements each playthrough. Still learning bits and bobs and not jumping the gun on murder spreeing anyone too snarky (rip Tarquin lol). But have enjoyed!

Game is great, it's not the 10/10 a lot of people say it is as it has some bad issues, but overall though it's a high 8/10. I'm about to only talk about what the game does bad cause most other reviews you'll see this one next to (if you see this one at all :P) will be unabashed praise, which this game deserves, but consumers also deserve to know the drawbacks of this game.

The main issues are difficulty balancing for a first play through, the game not explaining essential game mechanics, the games combat movement system, and the games ending.

For difficulty, I feel the game is too difficult/punishing during the Fort Joy section, but then, for the most part, throughout the rest of the game too easy. That could have just been due to, during the Fort Joy section, I did not know the true power of knockdown, and after realising this and investing in a full phys damage build it trivialised most of the rest of the game.

There are a few essential game mechanics the game, for some reason, doesn't explain to the player or make prevalent they exist. Some are more excusable, like the blue anchor around the minimap actually being a fast travel button without needing to go to a statue (I didn't realise until 65 hours in) or the yellow button being a ping button. Some are less excusable, like bedrolls being a full heal. Coming from BG3, it's like the long rest system is locked behind an item you find at random in the world that doesn't indicate it's as essential to the game as it is.

The games combat system is, on the whole, good. However a key issue is how it handles movement. Movement costs, AP, which is also used to use your abilities. This trade off heavily discourages movement in place for teleport options, which are plentiful. I found having teleport on all my characters made combat less fun and tactical, but since most enemies also have access to teleport's, its an essential tool regardless.

NO SPOILERS, the game's ending, I found, was bad. The second-to-last fight in the game, if you know, you know, was a miserable fight that I'm shocked made it past the ideas room. The game's final fight was a joke for me. I won't go into details to avoid spoilers, but I'll use an example. If you've played TLOZ Majora's Mask, you know there's the Fierce Deity mask at the end of the game that trivialises the final boss, however to get that, you have to do everything that game has to offer, and realistically you'll only get it on a second or third play through. This game has something similar, except its very accessible to get and I'd be shocked if you don't get it on a first play through. That ruined the final boss for me. Then the post final boss I also thought was bad. Unfortunate.

But most else is great, I could nitpick some more about party members being disproportionately important to the plot, Act 2 overstaying it's welcome a bit or a lack of busted steal/thieving system, but it's all overshadowed by the great aspects, which are plentiful.

TLDR: If you've just finished BG3 and are wondering if this game will scratch that itch BG3 left with you, it will and I'd reccommend trying it, especially with how frequently it goes on sale.

Simply put, one of the best games ever made. If not the best. One of the very few games where I own it on every system that I have

Pros: Incredible CRPG. 110 hours to completion on my end, although I did not complete all side quests. My experience of CRPGs is limited to Pathfinder Kingmaker and WOTR. The combat system in DOS2 was a shock coming from those games. Character creation is more limited, as are spells (skills). Initially, I found this off-putting. Eventually, I came to love the separate armor types (magic vs. physical) and the relation to crowd-control mechanics. Characters' abilities to respec and choose different skill paths made for fun flexibility depending on encounters. The greatest feature of combat is how magic and surfaces react. This level of immersion, even with limited character options and skills, made combat much more engrossing for me than either installment in the Pathfinder series. I also enjoyed the sneaking mechanics (and repercussions when characters found that items had been stolen). Every new location was exciting and had interesting NPCs and encounters. I never felt that I was going through the same thing twice with a new coat of paint.

Cons: Had to rely on internet posts to get around a good number of the puzzles. While these puzzles weren't as poorly designed as some Pathfinder puzzles, there were some puzzles that really required outside of the box thinking to solve that significantly slowed game momentum. Like I said though, these can be solved thanks to the helpful online community. As I mentioned, I'd like to have had more character customization options and skills to choose from per skill domain. Additionally, I wish I had seen the mechanics of hitting/missing/passing/failing through the relevant dice rolls/algorithms for combat and civil abilities (e.g., how much did I miss that persuasion check by? What kind of bonus do I get for using Ifan in this interaction, etc.) Finally, I did not find the player characters nearly as engaging as those in Pathfinder WOTR or even kingmaker. I think this was largely due to the much fewer required interactions I needed to have with these characters. In 144 hours I probably heard from each companion less than 10 times total.

Overall, highly HIGHLY recommend the definitive edition of this game.

All right soo I got into this game after playing BG3 thinking it would be a pretty similar experience and it is all though arguably this game is more difficult

Story and the character are interesting and there are some characters actions and things that they say that might catch you by surprise which is quite good be it funny, morbid or just outright crazy

The combat itself compared to bg3 is a lot more strict in terms of action economy while in bg3 you use separate resource for movement and then you have actions and bonus actions in DOS2 its the same resource "AP" so you move 0.1m by accident and consume 1 AP ? Oh tought luck you can't revert that, it seems quite punishing but once you get used to it its fine. The build and skill combinations variety is huge which can be overwhelming at first but once you get into the grove of it, you notice it rewards creativity of combining different skills to get cretain effects/buffs and debuffs.

Few things I dislike about general character progressions and leveling is how items level basically if you lvl up from 1 to 2 the weapons and armor you have stay at the level you picked them up as (few expections are specific sets that scale up to x level when you have a full set or some items that have a "minimum level" so you can pick them up at the higher level then you are) so basically the entire game you will be looking for items to replace your old low level ones with new your current level ones that synergise with your character. So having 1 or more character with thievery skill is a must so you can steal enough hold and items from NPC to keep up with the game. It is inconvenient but once you get used to it its not to bad as you can hire "mercenary" characters and re spec them into thiefs to pick pocket even more.

Secondly its how the actual skills are acquired you have to every time you level up and get new skills instead of how you'd expect to just get them to pick from on level up you instead have to go to traders that sell the skill books andbuy them to learn them. This can get problematic as you can learn them with out meeting the skill requirements and if you want to change your class can get quite tedious as either you will be visiting traders a lot or what i did was have a mule characters with a boat load of skill books in their inventory that I've acquired through the game so I don't have to keep visiting trades after wanting to respec some skills

All in all I really liked the game and some of the things that were bit of an issue you will get around once you get used to how the game is played, my mistake was I tried to play it like BG3 but that won't work as this game is not BG3 even tho it is similar in its functions once I sorted that out it was smooth sailing from there.

a fun game with very good turn based combat the story doesn't do it for me and the lore is not the most interesting fantasy lore, with exception of a few neat twists regarding the gods. Otherwise its pretty basic fantasy races and cultures. Still likes the game a lot and would recommend it.

Honestly, this is one of greatest games I've ever played. It has so many elements that bring this to a smashing success. Combine that with modding and it's pretty hard to beat. If you like turn-based RPG, then this is well worth trying out. Chances are, you'll fall in love with it too. I played the first one before this, but this one is far superior in my opinion. I think you'd have just as much enjoyment if you start with this one and not have played the first.