Divinity: Original Sin II (2016): The Review

Overview

Divinity: Original Sin II is one of the greatest modern RPGs ever made, combining extraordinary player freedom, deeply reactive world design, exceptional tactical combat, and memorable storytelling into a massive fantasy experience that constantly rewards creativity. While its complexity, punishing difficulty, and overwhelming systems can occasionally become exhausting, the game’s ambition and depth place it among the defining CRPGs of its generation. It’s a role-playing experience that trusts players completely, and becomes unforgettable because of it.

Score: 9 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Divinity: Original Sin II feels less like a traditional RPG and more like being handed absolute freedom inside a fantasy world that constantly dares you to break it. Very few games trust the player this much. From the opening hours, it becomes obvious that the game isn’t interested in forcing one “correct” solution to problems. Instead, it throws systems, mechanics, spells, environmental interactions, and player choice together into this gigantic sandbox where creativity becomes the real progression system.

What completely hooked me was the reactivity of the world. Almost everything feels interconnected. Fire spreads through oil. Rain electrifies blood-covered floors. Poison clouds explode. Teleportation can turn entire fights upside down. Conversations can avoid combat entirely, or accidentally start disasters you weren’t remotely prepared for. There were moments where I solved encounters in ways that felt so ridiculous I genuinely sat there wondering if the developers had anticipated it… and somehow, the game usually reacted like they had.

The combat system is honestly one of the best turn-based systems I’ve ever experienced. It’s tactical without becoming restrictive, and chaotic without losing strategic depth. Every battle feels like a puzzle where positioning, elemental combinations, terrain manipulation, crowd control, and party composition matter constantly. Some fights become absolute warzones filled with cursed fire, teleportation, exploding corpses, frozen surfaces, and collapsing plans, and somehow that chaos remains incredibly satisfying instead of overwhelming.

The writing and companion characters are also exceptional. Fane, The Red Prince, Lohse, and the rest of the cast all feel distinct enough that they could easily carry games of their own. Their personal stories evolve naturally alongside the main narrative, and because the game allows them to become playable protagonists themselves, the role-playing possibilities feel enormous.

And honestly, the amount of freedom is almost absurd. Want to talk your way through situations? Go ahead. Want to steal everything not nailed down? Sure. Want to accidentally murder an important NPC and permanently alter questlines? The game shrugs and keeps moving. Few RPGs feel this committed to player agency.

The soundtrack deserves praise too. There’s this emotional, melancholic fantasy atmosphere running through the entire game that makes the world feel ancient, dangerous, and strangely beautiful at the same time.

The Negatives ⚠️

As brilliant as Divinity: Original Sin II is, it can also feel overwhelming to the point of exhaustion. The sheer amount of systems, mechanics, inventory management, quest complexity, and combat interactions creates a steep learning curve, especially for players unfamiliar with CRPGs. Early on, the game can honestly feel intimidating because it explains very little while expecting players to experiment constantly.

Inventory management becomes a legitimate nightmare at times. Between crafting materials, equipment, consumables, keys, books, quest items, and spell management, there were stretches where I felt like I spent more time organizing menus than actually adventuring. Co-op especially can make inventory chaos even worse if players aren’t communicating properly.

The difficulty balancing can also become brutal. Some encounters feel almost impossible if your party isn’t properly prepared, leveled, or strategically optimized. Unlike many modern RPGs that allow players to brute force encounters eventually, Original Sin II absolutely punishes bad positioning and poor preparation. While I appreciated that challenge overall, there were definitely moments where frustration replaced enjoyment.

Pacing can occasionally drag too. The game is enormous, and while that scale is impressive, certain acts feel bloated with side content, dialogue, and long stretches of preparation between major story moments. Depending on your playstyle, the experience can start feeling mentally exhausting before it reaches the finish line.

And while the freedom is incredible, it can sometimes create narrative awkwardness. Since the game allows so much player chaos, certain story scenes occasionally lose emotional momentum because the structure has to account for countless possible outcomes and party combinations.

The Experience 🎮

Playing Divinity: Original Sin II honestly felt like rediscovering what RPGs are capable of when developers stop treating players like they need constant hand-holding. The game constantly rewarded experimentation in ways that made me feel genuinely clever. Some of my favorite moments weren’t scripted at all, they were situations where everything went horribly wrong, and my party somehow survived through complete improvisation.

The combat completely consumed me once I understood how deep the systems really were. Early on, I struggled badly because the game punishes mistakes without mercy. But eventually, fights started becoming incredibly satisfying because every victory felt earned. There’s something uniquely rewarding about surviving an encounter through strategy instead of simply overpowering enemies numerically.

What surprised me most, though, was how attached I became to the characters. I expected deep mechanics and complex systems, but I didn’t expect the companion stories to hit emotionally as hard as they did. Lohse’s storyline especially stayed with me because of how personal and unsettling parts of it became. The game constantly balances epic fantasy stakes with deeply personal character struggles in a way that makes the world feel emotionally grounded despite all the chaos happening around it.

At the same time, I absolutely hit points of burnout. There were nights where I loved the game intellectually more than emotionally because of how demanding it constantly felt. Between inventory management, long battles, quest tracking, and endless decision-making, the game occasionally became mentally exhausting. It’s not the kind of RPG I could casually relax with, it demanded full attention constantly.

But honestly, that intensity is also part of what made it unforgettable. Divinity: Original Sin II feels like a game that fully respects player intelligence and creativity. It doesn’t simplify itself to stay accessible, and because of that, the experience feels incredibly rewarding once everything clicks together.

By the end, I genuinely felt like I had gone on a massive fantasy journey shaped by my own decisions instead of simply following a scripted adventure. Very few RPGs create that feeling this successfully.