Divine Divinity

The Good
Divine Divinity is, without a doubt, a Diablo II clone. The whole game system is totally based off of it. Diablo II had a great system, however, and that makes this game very enjoyable. The one thing it doesn’t share at all is the atmosphere-- in Divine Divinity, it's not dark and hopeless; the game has a much more friendly feel, almost uplifting compared to DII.

The game has three main classes, which, although they define your 'special ability' and your appearance (there are male and female versions of each class), do not lock you to their way. You can be a warrior with thief (survivor is the term used in the game... we all know the three classic archetypes) skills, or vice versa. The skill system is pretty interesting and open, and often you'll have three skills you want with only one skill point to put into them. That's a good thing-- nobody likes having half of their class skills be useless!

The game's visual appeal is very high. There are pool which reflect the area around them, adding a very 'lifelike' effect to the woodlands. The caves are dark, dank, slimy, and filled with pesky rats and other, more dangerous things. NPCs don't look too great, but they do okay.

The voice acting in the game is decent. It wasn't made by native English speakers, so it's actually pretty impressive, considering. It is still jarring to have someone say a sentence in the totally wrong tone of voice, however, and that often happens.

Music is a treat. The theme doesn’t wear on you at all... sometimes I fire up the game just to listen to it. In the game, you often you won't even realize how much the background music adds to the ambience.

The game interface takes a little while to get used to, but it's simple and easy once you take the five minutes to master it. Combat is quick, simple hack'n'slash, but this is not a game where the first opponents you meet are easy-- instead of hordes of easy enemies, you will meet a moderate amount of fairly challenging foes. Don't think you won't encounter hordes at any point in the game, though-- you certainly do!

The game has many other little spots that make it fun, too. You can buy a house and move furniture around to decorate it just right. The game is also funny at many points-- I really laughed at a few, which is rare in games-- which adds to the sense of life.

The Bad
Magic was actually a bit of a disappointment. Although the graphics are generally good, some of the magical effects are quite dull, and given that there aren't too horribly many of them, it's pretty bad having half your spells look odd.

The game seems to be easier for warriors than the other classes, but this isn't too much of an issue-- it poses a challenge to all the classes at many areas, and it only seems to be a little easier for swordswingers.

As mentioned above, the voice acting can be painful at a few spots.

The Bottom Line
Divine Divinity is a very enjoyable hack'n'slash game with some special features . It is surprisingly open-ended with many neat and sometimes funny side-quests; this keeps it quite enjoyable throughout all the main quest. Recommended.