So CRPGs are critically underdiscussed on GB. I played about 20 hours of Divinity: Original Sin 2 when it first came out and dropped off of it - I never really got into it in fact. It wasn't the game's fault - it was the type of thing where I knew it was the type of game that I enjoy, I just wasn't in the headspace for it at the time.

I wanted to get back into it for a large part of this year, but held off as I knew the Definitive Edition update wasn't far away (it's also out on consoles now too). I've put about 10 hours into it so far and am really enjoying it this time through. It's got me wanting to get home from work, get the kids to bed and play as much as I can each day. The writing in it is excellent (which is a step up from Divinity: Original Sin 1) and the voice acting is also superb.

I'm rolling with Lohse as my main as a healer/buffing mage, Fane as my Summoner, Ifan as Ranger and the Red Prince as my 2H damage dealer and tank. Not sure entirely on this composition as Lohse doesn't seem as involved in combat as I'd like, so I might try to branch into some more offensive spells as well.

I finished my first playthrough around the start of this year so it'll probably be a while before I jump back in for another go but I am really interested to see what's been changed. Works out especially well since I didn't take Beast along on my first run and apparently he's the companion that had the most work done so that's very enticing. But yeah, I'll have to wait for next year's annual video game drought before I can commit to even a shorter playthrough considering how long this game is.

I got around 30 hours in before getting distracted by something else, so I was very much looking forward to this Definitive Edition as an excuse to jump back in and try again...which is to say I spent about an hour paralyzed at the character select screen thinking about party composition before deciding to go to bed.

Maybe I'll just follow a build guide. It's not like I was unsuccessful when I played it last year (I got past Act 1, at least), but I did feel like I was struggling at some fights, partially thanks to the whole magical/physical armor split making hybrid parties less useful unless they're super optimal. Like, it's a novel solution to address how absurdly good CC was in the first Original Sin, but it had the knock-on effect of making offensive magic feel sorta weak unless you focused on it.

@arbitrarywater: FextraLife's Build Guides seem pretty straightforward and detailed. There's video and (hurray!) written guides.

Yeah I jumped back in after the update. Only ever played a handful of hours previously, which always seemed to me like a crime. Liking it a lot once again! Not far in on my restart, but I bumped the difficulty down so hopefully I won't get stuck and ruin my momentum.

@arbitrarywater: For what it's worth I went through with a hybrid party and, looking back on it, horribly unoptimized builds on normal difficulty. I probably won't repeat that whenever I get around to a second playthrough but it's definitely doable and gets a lot more manageable after Act 1 in my opinion with the access to a greater number of spells and free respecs to tweak stuff. Having the free respec is just incredibly liberating all around really so don't be too worried about following a build right from the jump.

Now that it's out on ps4 I want the game. I want it so bad. I LOVE CRPG's. But I'm holding off for the moment in the hopes that there might be a Switch version /drool

Real GOTY 2017. Kinda bummed the crew didn't gave this game a chance. I get it, it's a long CRPG but it's well worth the time investment. The only criticism i got is that the ending or how you get to the last 2 % of the game was weird i felt like i bugged out the game. Definitely going for a second run with this update but my backlog is getting to big ATM. Destiny, Dragon Quest, Yakuza Kiwami 2, so many good games got a release.

I played through like 4x prior to definitive edition. Not feeling like going back again. One of the best CRPGs of all time though.

I am new to this one, running a Lone Wolf character with a Lone Wolf companion. I made that decision after reading a bit on how much that may fit better with what I want out of the game. So far I am having a real blast with my custom battlemage human running around with Fane as a witch. As I noted in the positive thread regarding what one is currently playing, I love how flexible this game seems to be in regards to my actions.

The new update has made me want to buy it. I was initially waiting for the PS4 version, but it sounds like PC is the preferred, so I'll probably get it on that when another sale hits.

My friend and I each bought it on a whim on Saturday. Neither of us have played any of the divinity games, I have some experience with baulder's gate and the like though. We are playing on tactician because why not.

We're absolutely in love with it. We each control half the party and the co-op in the game is incredible. It's been brutal but not altogether impossible. The main thing we realized is that magister fights in the fort are just not doable for us at the beginning with no gear or levels. Now that we've escaped and are geared up and around level 4 we've been going back in to clean up guards for extra xp and its been extremely fun and challenging.

I'm pretty worried about our initial builds not being good after act 1 but we arent stressing it much because theres apparently a respec ability later.

A lot of the quick look from last year was spent talking about how brutal and difficult the game is. I could be completely wrong and if so I apologize but I imagine a lot of that sentiment must have come from getting into altercations with characters like magisters and such early in the game with no gear or levels. On tactician we just started reloading if we ever got caught into a fight we obviously couldnt win. I'm guessing on normal difficulty those fights are actually possible but very hard so it doesnt give off the feeling of 'oh i shouldnt be doing this right now' that we've assumed.

I stopped after the first act and have never gone back. Something about the Larian vibe just doesn't work for me. Not sure if it's their version of turn based combat, the writing, or just the overall atmosphere. Compare to Pillars of Eternity II, which I blew through in a few days.

I'll give it another try eventually. Kind of a bummer that pre-Definitive Edition saves don't transfer.

I'm a huge fan of OS1 and 2! D:OS2 is probably one of the best cRPGs in years and deserves to be high up among other classics. I was really glad the tone changed a bit and OS2 is a lot more serious while still maintaining a lot of the typical humor and fun stuff. It's just a lot more balanced than in OS1. I didn't mind it in the first game, I loved it also but just the quality of writing and tone mixing is much better in OS2. That's probably partially due to new writers like Kevin VanOrd and help from Chris Avellone (who wrote Fane I believe). Very glad it sold amazingly well for Larian and it got great reviews (both original and DE are at like 90+ average). I think it's above 1 million now on PC and there should be much more because of the console release. CEO of Larian in their last video update said that their next game probably won't have to be kickstarted which means they are very happy with sales and reviews of course.

Gonna jump back in soon! I bought the original PC release on day 1 and beat it. My playthrough lasted 79 hours according to steam. My party was a custom undead lizard Metamorph, Lohse, Red Prince and Fane. Do your companions' personal quests, they were very interesting imo, with a moment from Lohse's personal quest being one of my favorite in general in recent memory. Super hyped for Definitive Edition!

Very glad existing owners get a free upgrade just like with OS1 + Sir Lora. Was expecting a separate library entry but they just give you the option to launch the original or definitive in their launcher which is also cool. Nice that there are new difficulty options, It can be a tough game but now with the new "story" difficulty hopefully more people will get into the game. I played the original on explorer and there still were challenging fights but nothing as crazy as the boss fight in OS1 at the end of the first map, so I feel like Larian also balanced OS2 much better than OS1.

I'm probably gonna choose the other 3 companions for my party + custom character to make the playthrough feel different. DE of OS1 had tons of changes and improvements and the DE of OS2 seems as expansive as that one. Apparently the internal patch notes had like 59 pages and there's thousands of things that have been changed/added/rewritten. Looking forward to it very much, but I gotta finish up Prey first.

Back in and enjoying it a lot after bouncing off the base edition pretty hard. My first go around was shortly after launch when all the reviews were hailing it as a genre-defining masterpiece and crowing about how freeform and how much like a tabletop it was. As a pretty avid tabletop RPG player, I expected more (in hindsight, perhaps unreasonably so). Specifically I was really disappointed with how limited and inconsistent the sandbox could be outside of the combat (e.g. killing an NPC in the tutorial and they show up at Fort Joy alive and well ten minutes later thanking me for rescuing them, a Magister walking through an area littered with charred bodies and bloodstains and not batting an eye, etc.). That coupled with really disliking a lot of the NPCs led to me dropping it shortly after escaping Fort Joy.

Free from the original launch hype, adjusting my expectations and giving it another chance on its own terms, I've been enjoying it immensely. I spent 7 hours playing on Saturday alone and can't wait to dive back in once I'm done with classes for the week. My issues with the NPCs and sandbox limitations still remain, but the combat is really something special, to the point that I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to a more standard CRPG system. Very glad I gave it another shot.

OS 1 was my game of the year when it came out, so I was always going to play this one.

Backed it on Kickstarter and then found out it wouldn't run on my shitty old PC, bummed me out hard, but I just didn't want to get into gaming PCs again, so fast forward to the PS4 version, and I'm all in again.

Been playing pretty much non-stop since it came out and am somewhere in the middle of Act 2. I love everything about the game, the writing is a lot better than in OS1, so is the world/world building, the combat is still just as great and the armor-system keeps things interesting at all times.

I'm playing on Tactican so it's hard, but that's what I want in a game like this. The new difficulty options should make the game accesible to pretty much anyone too. So I really hope it will get some renewed buzz (probably not from the GB crew though).

I had 25 hours in multiple coop games with buddies before we all kind of fell off for various life things. And now that the Definitive is out, we hopped back in and are really enjoying it. Definitely our go to game right now and kind of supplanted their desire for Monster Hunter World.

I am going to try my best to make time for the Definitive Edition and I figure I can't really fuck up my party too bad if I play on Explorer mode. But I just don't know if I have time for a 70-hour campaign right now!

Really enjoying it. I preordered on PS4 to play Act 1 early, and I was really excited to jump back in on release and respec my fucked up party. Finally found a really good groove now after figuring out which abilities suit my playstyle.

Yeah I'm only in Act 1 at the moment. I'd stopped my first playthrough at start of Act 2. I'm finding it a lot better this time around and I'm enjoying the setting far more than I did initially. Not sure if I've got my party build right but I'll see how I go.

@rorie: 1 hour of DOS:2 for every hour of WOW. You'll get to the 70!

Couldn’t get very far into the first and initially bounced off this one as well. After reading up on the game’s mechanics I gave it another go and am really enjoying it on explorer difficulty.

I like that they went a bit more serious with their writing in this game. The premade characters are great party members and the free respeccing is something that more games should adopt. Also, pet pal is still the requisite first skill to get.

My wife and I made it fairly far in the game but never saw it to completion. That being said, I still absolutely love the game and will certainly dive back into it...at some point. For now though, there are just too many good NEW games coming out right now to justify me playing a game I've already sunk nearly 100 hours into.

I need to finish the first one, I'm like 40 hours in, started more than a year ago and have been playing on and off