This blog is written for the assignment of the GSND 5111 course. We are required to play a RPG game and write thoughts about it.
Not actually my first time playing Divinity: Original Sins 2, but the last time I opened this game was like 3 years ago, so I just got it downloaded and had a quick try on the tutorial level.
After entered the game, there are 4 modes to start a new story: explorer, classic, tactician & story. Since we're going for an RPG experience, I just chose the last story mode.
I noticed that the start menu, loading CG and story-telling animations are made with 2D billboards. These are very finely made animations!
Starting the story, the game presented a dark, wet environment inside a cabin. I the player take control of my character who is a prisoner being exiled to some place called "Fort Joy" (good name lol). It can be seen at this stage that the game adapts an (I don't know the exact term but) angled view. The player could click on the map to let the character walk around; and the camera will automatically follow. Also, the camera could be rotated when MMB is pressed.
The game features a fine chacter system: there are an inventory, dialogue interface, task menu, (unexpected) narration; but the crafting system is relatively too-simple than other games I know.
A very nice detail I noticed is that the scene architectures would automatically fade when they're occluding the characters. This is crucial for the gameplay as the player needs to click on locations in the scene to do everything.
I haven't reached the main story part yet, but I reckon the economy system of this game would be simple, because I've only seen one kind of currency (gold coins) when looting the boxes.
The floor in the game could be covered by elements—blood, water, magical dirtiness, fire, etc. As a character walks by, they would gain certain status or take damage.
Then there's the battle system. The game automatically enters the battle mode when enemies are encountered. Unlike the rest parts of the game, the battles take in turns instead of in realtime. In each character's turn, they are given certain amount of AP (action points) that are consumed when actions are made. With these points, the player could either move to a new location or attack the enemies. This system is working pretty well, just that I don't really like to wait for all other characters' turns for my next turn.
Now let's try to rate the game with the MDA framework learned from the 5110 course:
- Mechanic: The game doesn't have much mechanics, except for the character systems & the battle mode.
- Dynamic: But combined with the story-telling, the game managed to do a successful job on guiding the user into actively exploring & interacting with the world.
- Aesthetic: Splendid job on rendering the mood via environmental & dynamic visual elements. Also the sound and scriptings are fascinating.
Last word, I find it easy to get lost on what to do in this game, as the task system is very subtle. I don't know what I ought to do unless I pay attention to every details in the dialogues; I don't know who is who; and I don't know where to find whom. If I were the designer, I would try to adapt a clearer approach as they have in GTA or Skyrim.