Limited hands on time with the early build of Divinity: Original Sin II can only paint a very limited picture of what will be forthcoming in the sequel, but the information available should assure fans of the original that they can remain optimistic about what is to come. The enormous world and the near limitless freedom to explore it returns, as will the lauded combat system. Veterans of the original will feel at home in combat, though several improvements have been added.

Divinity: Original Sin II pulled off the impressive task of taking the kitchen sink approach to game design by cramming as much into it as possible yet somehow making it all work, making it a fantastic title for solo or multiplayer gaming. Playing the Divinity: Original Sin is not required to enjoy this title or its story, though having played the first game will make the experience more rewarding. Everything about Divinity: Original Sin II is of the highest quality and any negatives that could be said are basically nitpicking, such as the camera angles might obscure characters one percent of the time or the inventory set up isn't as nice as you've seen in some other games. No game is perfect, but this one comes closer than most. Larian Studios created a masterpiece with Divinity: Original Sin and using that as a template and listening to player feedback during the development process, they challenged themselves to create a superior successor and accomplished that goal. Divinity: Original Sin II is not only a contender for best game of 2017, but one of the best RPGs ever created. The SLG game beginner Guide could easily take a hundred hours to complete and the interplay between the well-constructed story, gameplay mechanics and player freedom creates a world I could see myself revisiting with different parties just to watch the story unfold differently. Simply put, Divinity: Original Sin II is truly divine.

Dwarves have the Talent Sturdy, which gives a +5% to Dodging and a +10% max Vitality. Dwarven Guile gives players +1 in Sneaking. The Skill innate to this race is Petrifying Touch. Lizards have the Talent called Sophisticated, which gives them +10% Poison Resistance and +10% Fire Resistance. Spellsong gives dwarves +1 to Persuasion. The Skill built into this race of beings is Dragon's Blaze. The Undead are the living-challenged version of the four races. They will have the Talents of whichever Undead race they choose. In addition, they have the Play Dead Skills. The Undead can also heal from poison and will take damage from standard heal

Players are given points at the beginning of building their custom characters. They are automatically assigned to specific Attributes or Skills depending on what Preset was selected, but the player may reassign them. There are three points available for Attributes, and two for the Combat Abilities section, which also includes Weapon and Defense Abilities. There is one point open to assignment for Civil Abilities. Based on points assigned to the player's Combat Abilities, the player will have different Skills available to them. They may choose three of those available Skills to st

Original Sin II is an isometric PC RPG that plays beautifully with mouse and keyboard but also offers full controller support. Perhaps this was a result of how well the controller worked for Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition on console or maybe just a preemptive move with plans for this to go to console, but either choice for control input works well. The music is beautifully composed and accompanies this fantasy setting splendidly, along with the impressive voice acting, and having this title be fully voiced was no small feat. The graphics will not push higher end graphics cards to the limit, but the design of characters, environments and monsters look great as do the cutscenes that possess a painting-like quality. The overall tone of Divinity: Original Sin II is dark and serious, but somehow manages to maintain an element of lighthearted fun and levity. There are a few humorous, sarcastic quip dialog options that pop up quite a bit and the Pet Pal talent can lead to a lot of interesting side quests and humorous dialog. The greatest moment of silliness is when the player enters stealth mode and assumes the form of a shrubbery walking around. While one probably wouldn't file this title under the humor section, it's clear the development team had a sense of humor while creating this.

There are many treasures and interesting hidden encounters on the island and a good portion will be missed if the player is fixated on only solving the quest that is supposed to lead to the escape from Fort Joy. Original Sin II gives the player a lot of freedom in regards to their play style and how they want to interact with NPCs, but remember that every action carries its own consequence. During the review play through, Fane started peaceful and diplomatic with all magisters and other NPCs lurking about Fort Joy and always sought a non violent solution for each encounter, that is until one particular incident happened. A cat had decided to follow us, and even thought with the Pet Pal talent he didn't speak very much he was a friendly companion. During some exploration of Fort Joy Fane and his companions came near a locked gate, they weren't causing any trouble and guards told us to step away. As we started to take our leave a guard shot an arrow at the cat without provocation killing it instantly. These guards then saw a display of poison and fire that left their charred, broken corpses arranged in a display that would make John Wick proud. A well timed autosave from not even five minutes prior allowed for a load where the feline companion was back good as new, but this time Fane was getting on the other side of that gate, and these same guards were preemptively killed again before they could bring any harm to the cat. This had a slight impact in how the magisters viewed us in town, so from this point on the play shifted to a much more aggressive style that was intolerant of magisters.