Divine Divinity (Xplosiv PC)

Divine Divinity is one of the few true rpg gems to have emerged in recent years. It has an immersive plot, nice rule system (though it could do with some work), hauntingly enchating audio (based on celtic music...simply beautiful) and is highly interactive. Graphics are not flashy 3D, yet are still nice to look at and have a BG 2 esque feel...some of the character avatars and the game environments are simply spectacular. My only problem with it is that it lacks NPCs who can join you in a party and doesn't allow much choice for character customisation (would be nice to play an elf rather than a human) and differentiation. Nevertheless, this game is worth its money, and is a good mixture of hack and slash with a deep and engaging story. A little linear at times, yet so huge you won't notice it. Great work from Larian. Hope to see a sequel :) Buy it and enjoy it.

I first discovered DD from a demo from a Discworld Convention, and I must say once I'd popped it into my CD-ROM drive and installed it I was in a world of love.

The music was mesmerising, the characters detailed, and the world around me just as lush. I got lost exploring the world of Rivertown. However, the minor irritant at the time was that my PC was too slow to play the game at it's best settings, so most of the time my mage character moved around at an infuriatingly slow pace. Also, I only had the demo at the time, which I finished with patience due to the slow pace of my character in the game. It was all over so soon, but it would be years before I finally got my hands on the full version.

Once I'd got the full version, I was pretty much overjoyed, seeing as I could then play the game all the way through. I installed it on my compy and got to work. However, there was this lame dungeon crawl near the beginning of the game which I didn't enjoy. Not only that, I made my character run because I didn't want to walk slowly to every destination. However, I could only run for a short period of time due to the weak stamina every character starts off with due to being inexperienced and unfit (I guess). But nevertheless, I trudged through the dungeon regardless. I *was* going to enjoy this game. However, when I got to the stage of waking up the evil and very dead magician/sorcerer Theye-something of other, loads of conjurers and skeletons attacked me and my character was quickly rendered dead on the floor. I tried a few times, and then gave up, as I wasn't enjoying myself much. I got back into playing the game recently after a huge gap from that period, and I'm glad I did. The game is amazing from start to finish. The only lame bit is the bit I have just described to you.

You are stuck as playing a human due to the plot of the game. You are one of the Marked Ones, of which there are three. (I think the Divine One was split into three by the Black Ring at the beginning of the game.) Basically, the Marked Ones are humans favoured by whatever Divine force there is in Rivertown. Anyway, I won't give away the plot here, but one of you has to become the Divine One, a demi-god and defeat the Black Ring from unleashing evil and destruction on the world.

Before all the gods were created, the Lord of Choas existed, and the council of seven, of which there is only one living member left, extinguished him but he left a piece of his soul in an artefact called the Sword of Lies. Hence the game's title was DD: The Sword of Lies.

The game is basically the usual good versus evil romp with a load of level raising quests- most of them having nothing much to do with the main quest, until later, that is. The game can be pretty serious at times, but this is well-balanced with the game's quirky sense of humour, especially in the Verdistis brothel. The game made me smile quite a few times.

One thing I liked about the game was that although you got the pick your class, you weren't restricted by it. For example, I played a Mage with Thief skills. The ability to mix and match skills from any class is a given if you are to defeat the game. Levelling up is an easy task, so is choosing a skill to learn or make stronger. Each skill can be learnt up to level 5. I found it critical to have a level 5 lock-picking skill.

Teleporters make the whole job of getting from A to B much quicker- wouldn't be without them. The only annoying thing is that you have to actually be on a teleporter to teleport to another place (which you will have to have activated beforehand). But overall, it's a very useful tool.

The VO are good, although I found that the character I was playing didn't voice some of the generic text which I was a little disappointed in. Not that I have a problem with reading text, mind.

The game is graphically presented in a 2.5D format which suits it well, so when you are in a building, you'll be able to see the rest of the building or at least the outline of it. The bosses aren't too difficult and the game seems to be fair with the levelling up system, as by the time you get to the end, you'll be strong enough to take on the bosses (yes, I said bosses: there are six of them). This is good as it ends the frustration of having to tediously level up and up your character just to get a whack at the boss- which has happened to me in many RPG games that haven't been as balanced out as this one.

Overall the game is very enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone who likes old school RPGs. The game is half action and half story orientated, so there's a good balance going on there for everyone. Items in the game and money are easy to come by, so you won't have to spend your time worrying where your next health potion is going to come from. It's also worth spending skill points on charms, as they can strengthen and enhance your character in many ways. My character got ridiculously powerful the more and more I plonked charms onto his armour.

I don't know if this game is anything like Diablo, but I would recommend it for people who like or love CRPGs like Baldur's Gate and suchlike.

Divine Divinity is a lot of fun to play, with thousands of missions over three huge maps and more enemies you can muster up in any other fantasy game combined makes an addictive gaming experince that keeps you up until early hours of the morning! Recomended to all!