I hadn't played any of the games in the Divinity series (ex. Divinity: Original Sin), so I decided to start with 2002's Divine Divinity, the very first in the series. I've been playing it for the last few weeks and am about 25 hours in and halfway through, I reckon. The praise that I read on Steam is fully earned. This is a gem of an RPG.
It plays like a cross between Diablo and Ultima. There's a lot of non-party aRPG combat (like Diablo single player), but the world is huge and open, there's a deep story and there are all kinds of objects to interact with and books to read (like Ultima). A few reviewers called it a 2D Skyrim (though 2D Morrowind, given the year, is probably more appropriate), which is a bit of a stretch, but I can see why they call it that, since you play most of the game on one huge map that you're free to explore at all times (though some areas may be too tough for you still).
Something that very pleasantly stands out to me, compared to other RPGs, is the game's interactivity, especially for a 2002 game. A majority of objects can be clicked on and dragged to move them, sometimes revealing objects (like keys or levers) hidden behind them or to add them to your inventory. For example, all of the plates, food and decoration on a dinner table can be re-arranged or stolen. Come to think of that, that could be partly where the Skyrim comparison comes from. You can also drag mana potions onto healing potions (and vice versa) to create restoration (healing+mana) potions and drag enchantment runes on armor and weapons to enchant them (which is much easier than many other RPGs in which I never manage to figure out enchantment).
If there's anything that might be perceived as a weakness nowadays, it's that conversations with NPCs are a bit simplistic in comparison to some other RPGs, like Planescape: Torment (with its copious amounts of reading) and The Witcher (with its frequent player choices that affect the outcome of the game). In this game, you don't need to read everything and weigh your answers, since you can usually ask again and choose different answers. It's not bad; it's just that you could be disappointed if you have greater expectations.
Anyways, if you're into classic RPGs, I really recommend checking Divine Divinity out. It has a silly name (and maybe that contributed to it not getting so much attention at release), but it's a very good RPG that I'm glad that I decided to try out. I'll probably continue the series with Beyond Divinity and then Divinity II, meaning that it'll take longer to get to both Divinity: Original Sin games.
BTW, though it's not listed as such, the version on Steam is sort of an enhanced edition, since it supports high and widescreen resolutions and has been made compatible with Windows 7 (and later). There's a
highly recommend fix to improve performance on Windows 8 and 10.
