Divinity: Original Sin (Part 3)

Part 3 of 3 - Play by Play

Bugs: As wonderful as the game was I still encountered some technical difficulties. Surprisingly I never did freeze or crash to desktop. There were a lot of issues with your summon or "pet". The black cat, Sir Lora, and the chicken had issues running directly through hazards and popping back next to me only to loop back through hazards again. Delorus refused to teleport with the group when activating waypoints but would appear through map transitions. While a pet was selected, people from the party would follow it and the map couldn't be viewed. When reserving an incarnate's turn, its third melee strike would glitch out. The ropes on the Lady of Vengeance would rapidly glitch through the floor and objects. An undead would still run through poison even if the decaying debuff would cause 'em damage. Crafting was still a mess. Saving the game would reset the window. Opening the window will always open it with weapons available and not the last setting. Using items to craft was random. This can be seen where a cup would fill with water from another cup of water instead of a water barrel or like gathering dust from a rare skull instead of a bone. The window had a tendency to not update when your inventory was open at the same time. There are still items with the description "useless" that still can be used in the crafting system (such as "bed linen" and a cutting tool). There were maybe 20 dialogue lines where a character wouldn't speak (out of 74,000). I also hated the fact that talking with a merchant, switching to another character, and giving them an item would raise attitude to the first character.

Suggested Improvements: It would be nice to have some innovation with some of the crafting. As it stands there is no use for Quill and Inkpot. There isn't a use for dye (except red dye for potions). It would be nice to setup some sort of flare that lights up dark caves and alleyways. You should be able to just drag a rune onto a item (or at the very least have the "manage rune" window automatically open to a list of runes). Though you can buy a lute, you can't play it. Even though reading books before picking them up and adding directly to your wears are nice first steps, I'd also suggest an "already read" tooltip underneath. Some book titles are automatically changed when read so why not add some sort of "useless" title to a book that is illegible. There is no way to have the cat come with you when you take the child on board. Many "peaceful" solutions, with the help of persuasion, do not reward you in the same way as having a standard fight. The Watcher's Mercy, for example, has the dwarf die in both scenarios but fighting him allows you to loot his unique helm and gain additional experience. The instrumental background music is a nice touch but I honestly did not hear the tone changes as I played the game.

Small Details: I liked the fact that skeleton characters have a distinct rattle when they move. I don't like how nearly every animal I ran into had a terrible, sad story. I liked how Gwydian picks up his dead family member by the shoulder as he walks away in the quest On the Ropes. It is entirely possible to talk to the pianist in the mansion and have him play three different songs while you are exploring the mansion. I enjoyed the subtlety in romancing a character. There is an option to yell, run, and grab hold of Lohse after she falls unconscious. On the other hand, Sebille will unexpectedly kiss you if you are kind to her.

Quests

Act 1

1. "Troubled Waters" - Stole an item and panicked when chased down.
2. "Every Mother's Nightmare" - I kept Erma's doll with me through the whole game but never found her daughter. Her husband must have been right.
3. "The Teleporter" - I ran into this guy rather early but refused to talk to him. It was only after I discovered the gloves that I decided to find out what he had to say.
4. "Artefacts of the Tyrant" - Never fought Krylr the Kettlegrinder from using Tyrant's Helm because I never found the stupid helm behind the statue. Didn't have 15 Wit.
5. "Withermoore's Soul Jar" - I hesitated with doing this quest initially, couldn't find the way down into the room under the prison, and somehow still found the right Jar on my first try.
6. "The Escape" - Kniles the Flenser proved to be a rather difficult boss. It was perhaps one of the first times I learned how potent teleport and chicken claw abilities were.
7. "The Burning Pigs" - A quest that had me stumped for the longest time. It was actually one of the last quests I did once I associated bless with curse.
8. "Purged Dragon" - I was so paranoid with interacting with the dragon that I somehow first killed Radeka and then returned to Slane the Winter Dragon. Tough fight.
9. "Lady o' War - I really was trying to kill every enemy on the screen. I didn't even know Malady was doing anything over there until the last second. I hated the fact that all the bodies filled with good loot disappeared after the battle.
10. Don't Open the Chest - Having the Jester perk made this the highlight of my night. You can make several puns to the talking heads, even convincing one to completely change his mind. I did initially teleport the chest but moved it back when realizing there isn't anything that could harm me.
11. Voidwoken Battle - I don't know why this guy was so difficult. The only way I could defeat him is by going around his back and killing him before he could strike.

Act 2

1. "A Danger to Herself and Others" - This quest had me on edge. The only way to proceed carefully was to use the Scholar tag, get close to her, defeat her emotions (which I took down 2 before stopping her), and carefully operate on her brain. I could have easily slipped up on any step in the quest.
2. "A Taste of Freedom" - I didn't even know there was a guy strapped down before running into some enemy-filled barrels. After I took them out I released the guy. How was I supposed to know he was going to poof out of there. Next time I saw him, he was toast.
3. "A Web of Desire" - Initially I did this quest with the choice of golden chest covered with ornate runes, overflowing with emeralds but 2,000 gold was a joke! It was so bad that I decided to restart it and choose the transparent chrysalis option the second time. Then I killed her out of spite.
4. "All In the Family" - I actually was kind of nervous giving the guy the rare artefacts. I wanted to try and combine the item myself, to no avail. After all that time, he gives me a stupid weapon with a durability of 1. What a piece of junk! Looked awesome on my wall for the last 3 hours of gameplay that I had.
5. "Burying the Past" - Looking back, it is hard for me to justify my actions. I managed to visit the burning building and tell Gareth not to kill White Magister Jonathan but the consequence of that action led to the death of Gareth's parents. A sad, but realistic outcome. In my defense, I chose Bring him back to Lady Vengeance thinking it would turn into an escort quest. Oh well.
6. "Eithne the Trader" - My experience with this quest was poorly lacking. Despite it being a community quest, my entire encounter of not choosing a side made her turn hostile immediately.
7. "Lost and Found" - I had a huge moral dilemma since there isn't an option to scold the man for having such a ring or persuading him you never found it. Your options is to ignore him & walk away (which I did since the ring is so good) or give it to him.
8. "Love has a Price" - I hated this quest so much. I was kind of hoping the lady would tell me a scary story like in Divinity: Original Sin. I managed to have the lady fall in love with me. I have no idea how those burglars managed to get into the room with my companions guarding the door and the door locked behind me. Because of this, my friends were not able to come in. Losing all my stuff and not being able to chase down the owner when he makes a run for it made me even madder. I had to restart the whole sequence.
9. "The Snoozing Adventurer" - I was caught completely unaware of the talking chest. Even more surprising is that because of my Jester tag I somehow finished this quest in record time. I had hoped the sleeping dwarf would have given me more information. I had a huge chuckle when he said Listen to the head.. don't open the chest.
10. "Business Rivals" - I found Marg the Troll quite reasonable in requesting just one interesting story from me. Grog the Troll was less than friendly. Killing him was way easier than I expected and he managed to drop a level 18 ring! For being a level 12, that ring nearly doubled my armor from 230 to 410. Rumor has it he will come after you in Act 4 if you don't defeat him right there and then.

Act 3

1. "Running Like Clockwork" - I must have carried around that stupid ruby for like an hour or two before realizing it was a pocket dimension. I was pretty confused on how to open the first door so much that I actually found the quick-and-dirty way through the pipes, bypassing all the traps and encounters. Pretty boring that way if you ask me. I never got to hear that cool music after using the Hyperdrive Protocol either.
2. "A Familiar Face" - You run into Delorus after saving him at Fort Joy. I verbally asked Who are you again? He was super helpful in a lot of areas as a secondary archer that packs a punch. I had him with me for about an hour or two before his bugging made him unbearable to keep with me.
3. "The Key to Freedom" - I do not regret giving Almira the Swornbreaker, but I wish I knew that I could "buy it back" right after she used it. Although none of my guys were Sworn, it would have come in handy in the next Act.

Act 4

1. "Old Means Gold" - Cat the Appraiser told me about three rare artifacts she wants out of the secret vault. I refused to give them to her because, well, one of them was a painting and I just couldn't part with it. Can't believe she was only willing to give me less than 2,000 gold for each item!
2. "The Consulate" aka "A Lizard Nightmare" - I tried everything to make this quest easier from blessing the floor to wiping away the fire to ignoring them. The only way I was able to complete it was by sneaking past all the enemies. There weren't any epic loot from the arena and wasn't aware of destroying all the mirrors before the fight. I even ignored conversing with all the guards, walked right past them, and had my thief pick the lock on the door.
3. "Blood Dowry" - This quest never initiated for me because I thought after the husband tried to recruit me to murder his wife I would expect to be able to tell the wife or the father all about it. Sadly, I didn't see that option and dropped the whole thing out of my mind. If only I accepted the task and then told someone about it! But then again, I did rescue the dwarf queen first. That messed up a lot of things in town.