Now I’m overpowered with skills, ability scores, weapons, armor and, most importantly, knowledge. I punched the difficulty back up to the default. Many hours of gameplay later, I finally felt like I’d wrapped my head around the spiderweb of combat systems. Once I’d taken the difficulty down a notch, then I was given the breathing room to learn the combat’s mind-boggling interweavings-the Rock, Paper, Scissors, etc. At the intended Classic difficulty level, me, a beginner, was getting racked by the enemies’ Acts of God while I was literally just tying sticks and stones together to make a hammer.Įnough bellyaching, though.
There’s a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors going on here that’s more like Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lightning, Poison, Steam Burns, Gale-Force Winds, and Die in a Fire. But Larian Studios built its game for tacticians with some previous experience, not for entry-level interns like me.
But Divinity: Original Sin 2 (along with its revamped self, the Definitive Edition) thinks it’s putting its best foot forward by making your first hours miserable. Of course I want to play games “the way they’re meant to be played” per the developers’ suggestions. Of course I want to start a game on its intended difficulty. All because of a misunderstanding between me and the difficulty levels. I’m going to be honest with you: If I’d written this review even a week earlier, its score would’ve been lower.
