Divine Wandering - A (Spoilerific) Divinity: Original Sin Review, Part 3

Divinity: Original Sin is not perfect. There are some glaring issues, as well as some not so glaring issues. I'd like to focus on those for this part of the review. Ranting, complaining, and mild cursing to follow.

Complaint the first:
Clicking what I want to click should never be a guessing game. I mean it. And yes most of the time in an isometric RPG it doesn't matter what I click on. 90% or more of my clicks are for moving across the world. But that other 10% or so... I'm clicking what I'd like to kill. Even more important I'm expending limited resources (AP) each click. I'm baffled at times as to why a click goes astray. Targeting graphics flicker in and out of existence without discernible reason. Can I target this enemy or not? Seriously can I? Please can I? Damn I just moved up beside it. I was trying to use my bow. And this spell I'm aiming will it or won't it hit the target. For some reason the targeting icon is freaking out. Move the mouse imperceptibly and its back, then gone again and back again in the blink of any eye. Good I finally launched that fireball. Crap it hit an object between me and the target. But the targeting graphics told me it was a clear shot. Occasionally even the AI gets confused. But I believe that's only because the computer has to use the same finicky targeting data that I do. Its absolutely infuriating at times.

Complaint the second:
A lack of firm direction in a game is fine when the goal of a particular section of gameplay is clearly communicated along with the steps needed to accomplish that goal. When I get all the way into the bowels of the Abandoned Church near Cyseal after hours of difficult fighting only to find my path blocked because I hadn't completed a previous quest that the developers obviously intended me to finish before hand, we have a bit of a problem. Firstly this causes the plot to become unhinged. And while it is an interesting and complex narrative, it felt very tangled and stilted, as there wasn't a good flow to it. And that all came down to the fact that I didn't know where the story was going to be next. It would have been nice to have some sort of guide so I could follow an intended path in individual quests. I could easily subvert that plan if I wanted to and it would have felt much better when I did it on purpose instead of by accident. Instead my questing turned into a game of gotcha between me and the developers. "Ha! I got into the church when I was underleveled!", I say. "Ha! You weren't supposed to be here yet, so we've blocked your progress to the final section!", the developers reply. And I realize that the church and quests are entirely optional, and I could have skipped them entirely and gone on to the next section of the game. But the bits of narrative contained in the quests are certainly not something anyone who plays the game should miss. And this same situation happened to me again in the next section of the game. Twice. Just knowing the intended sequence of quests would be nice.

Complaint the third:
Let me pause the game. For now I'm playing single player. If I allow someone to drop in then disable pausing. Its pretty simple. Even bringing up the game menu doesn't pause the game. Sometimes I need to take a piss whilst in hostile territory, or check the oven, or take a phone call, or stand up and walk around for a few minutes because the finicky targeting is driving me crazy, or... Let me pause the damn game.

Complaint the fourth:
I wish my party members were more fleshed out. Especially Midora. She's awesome. And maybe I haven't seen all of her story arc yet, but at 53 hours of play, she is aloof and distant. In fact I don't really have much attachment to any of my party members. Some more barks would be nice. Hearing Midora or Jahan say anything is so rare I often forget they are even there.

Complaint the fifth:
Slipping on ice in combat is a cool mechanic. Slipping on ice outside of combat is only funny the first couple of times. After that it is annoying and pointless. Using spells and special arrows for ice removal outside of combat is not fun. Its a chore.

Complaint the sixth:

The Trait system feels half-baked. I understand that they are trying to make decisions in dialogue have a discernible effect on gameplay. But it is very unclear in the course of play what will happen to my character Traits in a given conversation. And frankly some of the buffs are baffling. Compassionate gives a 3% bonus to critical chance? Spiritual makes me immune to fear, while it's opposite Materialistic gives me a bonus to Loremaster. Those two are hardly balanced. Immunity to fear will have a much higher impact overall than an additional skill point in Loremaster. Its a really weird system.

Complaint the seventh:
An, "Are You Sure" prompt when I choose a dialogue option that leads to combat with, say, one of the only merchants in town would be nice.

Complaint the final:

So we're at the end of a particularly tough battle. All but one of my party is dead. Now I need to res them... But I used a ton of res scroll during the fight, and all the leftovers are in one of the fallen's inventories. Guess it's time to play warp around to different merchants for the next 20-30 minutes until I find enough scrolls to revive my party. Fun. Having a limited number of resurrection scrolls whilst in combat is fine. When you die you basically loose two turns in a given sequence. Plus resurrection can be used strategically, as you can teleport the fallen character to a new location. Outside of combat its just a chore. Maybe I could have planned ahead better, but it really doesn't add anything compelling to the game. The scrolls are not so expensive or rare that managing them out of combat is ever really interesting.

And cease rant. None of these issues were so terrible as to make me stop playing entirely. But some of them have caused quite a bit of frustration, desk pounding, and cursing. I wouldn't trade a single one of them for the game as a whole. But, seriously, can I please click on that enemy right there? Please?