Divine Divinity Steam Review

Divine Divinity (Steam)
Developed and Published By: Larian Studios
Date of Release: July 5, 2012
Price: $5.99

It would seem to be that as of late, classic RPGS are making a comeback. The classic Avernum has seen a revival as Escape From the Pit, and RUNE has been exhumed from it's grave and polished up to run on modern PCs. So it should come as no surprise that a classic gem such as the redundantly titled Divine Divinity has been given new life. Retooled to run on 32 and 64 bit systems alike, on it's 10th anniversary Divine Divinity has been given a new lease on life with an impressive host of bugfixes, and support for widescreen HD resolutions. The ability to play in higher resolutions definitely brings attention to the massive detail present in the graphical assets, quite belying the fact that the game is a decade old.




What sort of game IS Divine Divinity, you might ask? Imagine, dear reader, if Ultima VII and Diablo II were to have a lovechild, who then was brought up lovingly by Baldur's Gate. This game borrows heavily from the best parts of the finest examples of the genre, and yet manages to not be a walking cliche in the process. Perhaps the best part of Divine Divinity is the fact that the game allows you to just kick back and do your own thing, rather than forcing you down a linear path and beating you about the head with a +5 Cricket Bat of Bludgeoning when you try to stray from it.




When beginning your adventure in Divine Divinity you get to choose from 3 character builds, Warrior, wizard and Survivor(essentially a rogue). Your choice of character merely sets your appearance and starting skillset however. You are free to learn skills from any class as your progress, once again showing the open-endedness of the game system. Character progression is completely up to the player. The point and click combat is near-identical to Diablo II, with the added benefit of automatic targeting, which can take some of the frustration out of battles. As for the game's lore, Divine Divinity has a masterfully woven tale to back it's gameplay, filled with epic storytelling, and often over the top humor. The voice acting in particular is a tad overacted, which adds a lot to the game's charm.




I'm going to be brutally honest here, Diablo III was heralded to be the greatest RPG to ever grace the genre, a classic for modern times. And yet it was an utter disappointment in every way possible, from the clunky server issues to the rampant hacking of player accounts. And yet here is Divine Divinity, managine to upstage the big-budget Diablo III even at 10 years old. For less than a Big Mac combo you can hop on Steam and download an adventure that will keep you occupied for hours while Diablo III molders forgotten in the corner. It just goes to show that they really knew how to make games back in the day, before devs turned their attention to how they can screw over paying customers with so called "copy protection". If you want a well-crafted adventure that will keep you clicking into the wee hours of the morning while running on even the most anemic netbook, then you should pick up Divine Divinity. Anyone who is an RPG fan whether casual or hardcore owes it to themselves to experience this fine piece of art.