I've been hooked on Divinity II for the past week. It has the distinction of being the only Divinity game (besides Divinity Commander) with a third person perspective instead of isometric. I initially thought that I wouldn't like it because I feared that the RPG-ness would be watered down, and I did consider quitting in the first hour or two, but I slowly warmed up to it.
The gameplay is very similar to The Witcher (the first one), another game that I considered quitting but really warmed up to. It also has a few Oblivion influences and even uses the same engine. It's not open world, but the areas are somewhat big. The most unique thing about the game is that, around halfway through, you get the ability to transform into a dragon, which helps in getting around faster.
One thing that's stood out to me and that I appreciate is that the developers really tried to make the game as non-frustrating as possible. For example, your inventory starts out with a generous 100 slots and by the time that you've maxed them out, you get a home base with a bottomless chest and can, at any point, send an item to that chest without going anywhere or even leaving the inventory screen. Also, you can instantly visit your base at any time to retrieve items from the chest, brew potions or enchant items and then instantly return to the exact spot that you left... oh, and for the purposes of brewing and enchanting, it doesn't matter if ingredients are in your inventory or the base chest, so you can free up a lot of inventory slots. Also, curiously, there's no fall damage, so there's no punishment for exploring. Fall off of a cliff and the only hassle is getting back to where you were (which is really no hassle once you get the dragon ability). That's definitely not realistic, but this isn't a survival RPG, so I don't really mind it and it's fun to abuse (like switching off dragon form when I'm 500 feet above my destination and falling to it). Finally, you can put points into any skills and don't need to waste them on skills that you don't want in order to unlock others. If you want, you can put a third of your points into fighter skills, a third into ranger skills and a third into mage skills. Every skill in the game is available to you as long as your character is at the required level for it. Anyways, the point is that the game prioritizes convenience over realism, which I think works very well for this particular game and makes it a bit less frustrating than other RPGs.
Other than the dragon form and the convenience features, it's your standard late-2000s 3D fantasy RPG, which means lots of quests, loot, potions/ingredients, dialogue and combat. It doesn't really stand out, but it's still fun to get your questing and looting fix. I haven't quite finished it yet, but I'm close enough that I can recommend it if you feel like an older game that's similar to The Witcher and Oblivion.
Edit: I guess that I wasn't close to finishing it. After 30+ hours, I got down to one quest left and a point of no return, but going through it didn't take me to the endgame, but to a whole new, large area that I've already sunk another 10 hours into. This is going to be a 50-hour RPG by the time that I'm done with it... and that's not counting the expansion. I'm definitely not complaining, though, because I'm still really enjoying it.
Edit: Oh, I see. When you play the "Dragon Knight Saga" or "Director's Cut" version of the game, it seamlessly starts you on the expansion when you finish the original game. In other words, what I originally thought was the endgame was the original game's endgame and the huge additional area after that that took me another 15 hours was the expansion.
The gameplay is very similar to The Witcher (the first one), another game that I considered quitting but really warmed up to. It also has a few Oblivion influences and even uses the same engine. It's not open world, but the areas are somewhat big. The most unique thing about the game is that, around halfway through, you get the ability to transform into a dragon, which helps in getting around faster.
One thing that's stood out to me and that I appreciate is that the developers really tried to make the game as non-frustrating as possible. For example, your inventory starts out with a generous 100 slots and by the time that you've maxed them out, you get a home base with a bottomless chest and can, at any point, send an item to that chest without going anywhere or even leaving the inventory screen. Also, you can instantly visit your base at any time to retrieve items from the chest, brew potions or enchant items and then instantly return to the exact spot that you left... oh, and for the purposes of brewing and enchanting, it doesn't matter if ingredients are in your inventory or the base chest, so you can free up a lot of inventory slots. Also, curiously, there's no fall damage, so there's no punishment for exploring. Fall off of a cliff and the only hassle is getting back to where you were (which is really no hassle once you get the dragon ability). That's definitely not realistic, but this isn't a survival RPG, so I don't really mind it and it's fun to abuse (like switching off dragon form when I'm 500 feet above my destination and falling to it). Finally, you can put points into any skills and don't need to waste them on skills that you don't want in order to unlock others. If you want, you can put a third of your points into fighter skills, a third into ranger skills and a third into mage skills. Every skill in the game is available to you as long as your character is at the required level for it. Anyways, the point is that the game prioritizes convenience over realism, which I think works very well for this particular game and makes it a bit less frustrating than other RPGs.
Other than the dragon form and the convenience features, it's your standard late-2000s 3D fantasy RPG, which means lots of quests, loot, potions/ingredients, dialogue and combat. It doesn't really stand out, but it's still fun to get your questing and looting fix. I haven't quite finished it yet, but I'm close enough that I can recommend it if you feel like an older game that's similar to The Witcher and Oblivion.
Edit: I guess that I wasn't close to finishing it. After 30+ hours, I got down to one quest left and a point of no return, but going through it didn't take me to the endgame, but to a whole new, large area that I've already sunk another 10 hours into. This is going to be a 50-hour RPG by the time that I'm done with it... and that's not counting the expansion. I'm definitely not complaining, though, because I'm still really enjoying it.
Edit: Oh, I see. When you play the "Dragon Knight Saga" or "Director's Cut" version of the game, it seamlessly starts you on the expansion when you finish the original game. In other words, what I originally thought was the endgame was the original game's endgame and the huge additional area after that that took me another 15 hours was the expansion.
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