Divinity: Original Sin 2

[Nimue]

I don't know if anyone here (besides Windemere and myself) played Divinity: Original Sin. If you did and liked it, you may be interested in the Kickstarter campaign for the sequel (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/la ... nal-sin-2/) which just started today. I'm really excited about this, the first game was terrific and will probably get even better with the Enhanced Edition that's due in a couple of months. Can't wait to see how it goes this time

[Windemere]

Four person co-op with the potential for two teams of two to work with or against each other. Lots of possibilities. Backed!

[Soulfinger]

Mixed feelings on this... I played through DOS with a friend co-op. It is a long story, and playing co-op (*when we had time to play together) made it even longer. I think it took us 3 months or so to make it through the game. We really enjoyed it, but towards the end it was just more-of-the-same (as we knew how to take advantage of certain spells to win encounters). It was great to play in an old-school RPG as Baldur's Gate (I and II) are right up there in my favorite games. Game length may be the reason I don't go after it... I just don't have time to play as much as I did when I was younger.

The two reasons I have mixed feelings on this... #1 is that one of the selling features of DOS is that it was mod-able - in other words, people could make their own adventures, or design their own components. I would have expected Larian to release some (edit: paid) follow-up adventures (either starting at level 1 or continuing the adventure on). While I bought DOS as a stand-alone game without the intention of playing additional mods, it seems like a bit of a waste to "abandon" it without using that potential.

The second thing is that Larian has made a good amount of money with DOS. How much? I don't know, but it was a game of the year, and won a ton of awards. Should Lairan (as a company) not be re-investing some of those profits into future projects rather than going back to a crowd-funding option to start a new project? That would be like EA saying "We need to raise $1M before we start to develop Madden 16". I fully support Kickstarter games for small studios, but for ones that have already had (and are still having) solid commercial success, it doesn't seem right.

All that said, Divinity: Original Sin was a great game, and is well worth the purchase, so I'm not down on that.

Edit #2... apparenlty Larian already anticipated the "why kickstarter again?" question and posted a media piece in advance of the kickstarter campaign:
http://www.lar.net/2015/08/12/returning-to-kickstarter/

Seems to me that an Early Access launch may have been more appropriate if they were looking for player-input... Only difference there is you need a playable game to launch in EA, while Kickstarter doesn't need anything off the bat.

[Windemere]

They've acknowledged the pacing issues and tried to address some of it in the EE coming up. It's a typical Larian weakness though. They have very big aspirations and end up with a fantastic beginning and then run out of time and rush the end. With a more secure financial position and much bigger head start with a fully functional engine, I think they'll be able to manage that better this time around.

As far as the modding, I feel the pain. I've been active in NWN2 and Dragon Age modding in the past and was very eager to get my hands on this and do some old Ultima style adventures. They kind of dropped the ball with it. They have said that DOS II will be similar to DOS with some improvements, but the big thing is that they need to be active with the modders in their forum and providing some level of support and encouragement. It's too much of a time investment to have them release a patch that breaks your mod because they aren't thinking of you and working with you. We'll see how it goes, I really want to continue my aspirations with it.