Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition is an isometric and third-person action role-playing game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition improves upon the original version of the game that initially launched on Windows platforms in June 2014 as a prequel to the Divinity games. The Divinity Universe stretches back to when Divine Divinity was released in 2002 and its sequels Beyond Divinity in 2004, Divinity II: Ego Draconis in 2009, Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance in 2010 and Divinity: Dragon Commander in 2013 with even future plans for a sequel to Divinity: Original Sin planned for a late 2016 release.

The story revolves around two lead characters who are both Source Hunters that are part of an establishment dedicated to eradicating the land of a dangerous magic referred to as the Source and the Sorcerers who harness its powers. Orders have been received to investigate a murder involving a town councillor who is suspected to have been killed by a Sorcerer in a port town in southern Rivellon, although upon arriving in the town of Cyseal it is found to be under invasion by hordes of orcs and the un-dead which sets both Source Hunters on a vast adventure to learn who caused the invasion and put a stop to it, while bringing the town councillor’s murderer to justice and participating in many quests along the way.

Before starting any adventure, the player is provided with an opportunity to fully customise their character by changing the character’s name as well as selecting from an extensive range of portraits, A.I. personalities, voices, skin colours, head types, hair styles, hair colours, underwear and gender. There are 12 classes which each provide a unique set of 3 starting skills including Battlemage which amplifies brute strength by applying powerful magic in which Oath of Destruction is a witchcraft ability as it presents a damage boost to an ally, Burning Touch is a pyrokinetic ability as it sets fire to a nearby target and Crushing Fist is a man-at-arms ability as it sends a huge fist smashing into enemies to knock them down, while Fighter is a brutal warrior and expert in close quarters combat in which Melee Power Stance is a man-at-arms ability as it increases damage of melee attacks and movement speed with a reduction in accuracy. Battering Ram is a man-at-arms ability as it allows the character to rush forward far ahead in a straight line hitting enemies with 7 to 9 slashing damage and the inclusion of Crushing Fist which is also a Battlemage ability, therefore allowing players the freedom to fundamentally select a character that is a combination of multiple styles such as magic and warrior, knight and medic or a specific type of character class such as a warrior.

The mission structure revolves around a series of quests which can be read about in detail from the log including a diary of events which have occurred and every piece of information gathered in the build up to learning of the availability of the quest and during the quest. Quests include a mysterious murder which must be solved, battles which must be overcome against all manner of enemies, alliances forged with a variety of allies met when on the path to attempting to complete another quest with mutual agreements to help each other achieve set goals, while there are also secrets to be found and a thorough transcription of dialogue between characters; alongside a combat log depicting each attack and inflicted blow in combat and a listing of tutorials covering everything that has been encountered throughout the game.

Combat is turn based, although when outside of combat players are allowed the freedom to roam the environments with the amount of turns during combat involving Action Points as the longer distance is travelled from the location of the character to an enemy the more Action Points will be used, although as Action Points are limited there is also the possibility that there may not be enough to be able to even reach the enemy, while a further balanced gameplay mechanic involving Action Points is that the more intensive melee attack or spell is utilised will result in more Action Points being exhausted, although the adrenaline skill allows players to borrow Action Points from their next turn and the fast track skill which provides a greater distance of progression per Action Point, therefore introducing further strategically driven decisions with finely balanced gameplay courtesy of skills learned throughout the game.

The combat is taken to an entirely new level of immersion by a reactive environment which can be utilised to the player’s advantage through thinking tactically by analysing the area enemies are standing within, such as a pool of water when combined with a lightning bolt will become electrified therefore electrocuting all enemies standing within the water or casting a fireball spell to blow up an oil leak and simultaneously defeat all enemies within range of the oil leak then casting a rain spell to provide safe passage through the fiery blaze created moments beforehand. A new addition to the Enhanced Edition includes the ability to dual-wield weapons and spells to increase an ally character’s power, while spells involve magic scrolls which allow players to cast spells they are yet to learn and the interesting proposition of charming enemies such as spiders to switch allegiances in order to fight as an ally rather than as an enemy.

The inventory contains a wide range of items such as armour, weapons, potions, food, water, chest keys and books which are all quite helpful throughout the duration of the adventure, while the equipment allows players to equip their characters with better armour, amulets, rings and weaponry as they are found along the way that will gradually evolve the character into being stronger in all areas. It is clear that time and detail has been placed into optimising the user interface in order for such important areas as the inventory to work well with a controller instead of just leaving it as a game best played with a keyboard.

XP can be gained by attacking and defeating enemies as well as completing quests as earning XP is important as it allows players to distribute attribute points, ability points and talent points to the respective categories for multiple ally characters that can be recruited to fight by the players side throughout the adventure with the attribute, ability and talent points being utilised strategically to improve upon the areas in which each character is weak in and learn some new skills in the process.

Looting is also rather important for the survival of the characters by making sure they have the appropriate supplies to craft weapons, heal allies, concoct the required ingredients of spells to be able to cast them as well as gathering armour, gold, food, water and alcohol with wooden crates, vases, barrels, baskets and generally in the surrounding environments, although players must beware of the possessions within such containers actually belonging to a nearby guard or enemy as they will attack if they feel as though their possessions are being stolen resulting in a fight which their friends will also join in to battle against your allies.

Character dialogs provide players opportunities to voice their opinion and change the course of what characters have previously been ordered to do with opinions providing traits which result in a stat or ability bonus, although traits can change over a period of time when various decisions have been made. An example of a decision comes early on in the game when the player meets a disgruntled talking shell which wants to return to his beloved sea with the choices consisting of throwing the shell back into the sea and being rewarded with some treasure for performing a good deed or taking the talking shell to the nearest merchant and selling the pearl within the shell for a much higher profit.

The character design is rather diverse as there are a wide range of characters from character customisation and people being met during the adventure which fight for the player as allies, while enemies come in all shapes and sizes including skeletons, orcs, goblins, zombies, giant spiders, ghosts and robots.

The environment design is rather varied with interior environments including buildings such as pubs, houses, offices for town mayors and caves, while there are also exterior environments including pleasant sunny environmental conditions of sunny beaches and towns, although there are also icy blustery areas and rainy conditions too.

 

Players can manoeuvre the camera angle at any given moment by panning and zooming from an isometric view to a third-person perspective, while a tactical viewpoint is also available to see the action from directly above in a top-down view which helps to avoid allies or the wrong enemy from being attacked in the scenario of multiple allies and enemies standing too close to each other.

There is downloadable content available comprising of Grumio’s Last Trick Bag costing £1.69* which includes inventory items such as Grumio’s backpack, pamphlet of recipes, 3 x Grumio’s cotton candy dye, 2 x grenade ingredients and 1 x inert wand which allows players to create Scales of Steel grenade and a White Dragon wand with an Ice Wall skill.

The performance during remote play is exceptional with the graphics, audio and general performance all of the same level of quality as the PS4 version, while the control scheme has been appropriately optimised resulting in a perfectly comfortable control scheme during remote play. This is impressive given the complexity of a home console RPG as the vast majority of the control scheme remains identical with subtle changes such as holding L2 to produce the party selection radial has moved to the top left of the touch screen, while producing the panel selection has switched from holding R2 to the top right of the touch screen, alongside tapping the touch pad to display the map has been mapped to the touch screen.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the control scheme consisting of pressing square to open the action menu, pressing X to perform an action or holding X to search for items to loot amongst the surrounding environment, pressing triangle to toggle hot bar, pressing O to cancel or holding O to end turn, pressing R1 or L1 respectively to cycle through to the previous or next item category or enemy, holding R2 to produce panel selection, holding L2 to produce party selection, pressing up on the d-pad to switch to the tactical viewpoint, pressing down to toggle sneak for stealthy movement, pressing right on the d-pad to enter attack mode, pressing left on the d-pad to force split-screen, pressing L3 to enter selector mode, pressing R3 to toggle tool tips, changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move character, changing the direction of the right analogue stick to rotate or zoom the camera, pressing the share button takes the player to the share feature menu and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.

Tapping the touch pad produces a map of the surrounding environment, while the DualShock 4 controller vibrates when attempting to open a locked chest before picking the lock of the chest and when an action is attempted without having enough action points, although there is no light bar implementation which is surprising as it could have produced a variety of colours to inform players of their character’s status of health during combat.

Graphically, there are excellent lighting and shadow effects, great weather effects such as rain, volumes of water in the ocean and waterfalls rippling and flowing as the sun glistens in the water, amazing detailed and fluent character models, outstanding spell effects and incredible environmental detail with foliage, rock formations, buildings and various decorations throughout the surrounding environments.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, game mode, online multiplayer, add-ons, options and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. The background of the menus focuses on different areas around an island with sea washing up ashore next to a beach as luscious vegetation grows around the ruins of ancient castles with ships sailing along the sea in the distance and clouds move across clear blue skies or sun shining through foliage onto a path towards a nearby village.

The entire voice-over cast performs at an amazing level with varied voices, personalities and characteristics making for a rather vast range of characters which provide a sense of real scope to the towns and villages explored throughout the journey, with one of the many characters sounding just like Sean Connery delivering humorous dialogue about being sceptical of a female Orc being in love with a man as the man insists that he will not let him harm a horn on her head. There is a wizard who disguises himself as a cat providing cat based analogies as a woman in the background proclaims that her immediate surroundings reeks like Orc stench and two guards having a conversation about a pay increase. Sound effects include characters walking, running and performing actions in combat, while ambient sound effects such as howling winds, birds tweeting and water gushing through waterfalls, alongside atmospheric Orchestral music. There is no DualShock 4 implementation which is surprising as it could have produced the voice-overs of the conversation taking place or one of the conversations taking place in the background, sound effects during combat or ambient sound effects such as howling winds, birds tweeting and waterfalls.

The trophy list includes 55 trophies with 47 bronze, 5 silver, 2 gold and 1 platinum trophy. Easier trophies are mostly earned naturally including talking to characters and completing quests such as the Shell Shock bronze trophy for meeting a talking shell called Ishmashell; the Kingdom Come bronze trophy for making Archibald king of the trolls, the You and Me bronze trophy for arranging a marriage between Sam and Maxine, the Whisky in the Jar bronze trophy for brewing a fine whisky for Hershel and the Headlines bronze trophy for talking to Icara to learn more about her sister’s plans. Harder trophies include the Grande Finale gold trophy for completing the entire game, the Kill with Power silver trophy for completing the second from hardest difficulty level in Tactician Mode and the Never Say Die gold trophy for completing the hardest difficulty level in Honour Mode. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 30 to 40 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are four difficulty levels including Explorer, Classic, Tactician and Honour Mode with the major differences including an increased amount of enemies and increased tactical awareness during combat with each step up in difficulty, although Honour Mode is by far the hardest difficulty level as it implements a rule in which if the entire party are defeated the single save game that otherwise has to last for the complete game during that difficulty is erased and players must start back at the very beginning.

Local multiplayer is drop-in/drop-out with both players controlling between one and two characters each depending upon how many allies have been drafted into the team, allowing a second player to jump straight into a single player game at any given moment and is mostly co-operative with an occasional competitive mini-game such as rock, paper, scissors when allies disagree with each other’s opinions on a certain matter. Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition has a rather unique approach to local multiplayer which throws the shackles off any restrictions found in such same screen isometric co-operative games for years by switching to a split-screen mode whenever both players have moved far apart, therefore enabling both players to venture off in their own directions independently of each other without ever having any enforced restrictions of having to remain on the same screen. A further surprise being the quality of performance during two entirely different environments remarkably keeps pace with the single player in terms of visuals, audio, frame rate and A.I., while a player can utilise remote play on Vita as the other player uses a DualShock 4 controller.

The online multiplayer component has exactly the same content as the local co-operative multiplayer for two players at an exceptional quality of graphical, audio, frame rate and A.I. performance that matches that of the single player with the co-operative gameplay of local co-operative multiplayer, while providing the functionality to players of searching for the type of preferred online experience with search filters including difficulty, party level to find players who are not too new or too far advanced than the players characters as well as the ability of including or only listing friend lobbies, including or hiding full games with no available slots to join and including or only listing empty games which still need another player to be able to play co-operatively after they have joined.

There is no online leaderboards which could have included the quickest times to complete each quest and the entire game with such alternative leaderboards as how many items have been looted throughout the adventure and how many mini-games of rock, paper, scissors have been won.

Replayability stems from many areas as there are a huge amount of quests, an incredible amount of weapons, skills to learn and spells to not only cast but also master while encompassing excellent and balanced gameplay mechanics by looting items to have the required ingredients to be able to craft items, earning XP and levelling up, four difficulty levels and local drop-in/drop-out split-screen multiplayer and online multiplayer amongst many features and important gameplay mechanics which should have every fan of RPGs coming back for dozens of hours worth of enjoyable gameplay.

Overall, Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition includes plenty of new content and gameplay enhancements which genuinely build upon the story and quest driven exciting gameplay which already made its original release such a critically acclaimed game. If you are a fan of the Diablo series or the RPG genre in general, then Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition is an absolute must purchase.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition
• Developer: Larian Studios
• Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
• System: PS4
• Format: Blu-Ray Disc/PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1-2 (Local Split-Screen and Online Co-Operative Multiplayer)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 7.69GB (Version 1.02)

*correct at time of publication