Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition (Xbox One)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): October 27, 2015
- Release Date (EU): November 27, 2015
- Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
- Developer: Larian Studios
- Genres: RPG
- Also For: Computer, PlayStation 4
Game Features:
Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition <3
Divinity Original Sin was original released in 2014 on PC only. When I first played the game, I thought it was easily one of the best classic-styled RPGs released in years. Larian Studios managed to capture that classic RPG feel while at the same time modernizing some of the more outdated pieces of the genre. And now, Larian Studios has ported this awesome experience to the Xbox One and PS4 with the Enhanced Edition!
The Enhanced Edition brings about a lot of changes from the base game, including voice acting of nearly all the characters, split screen local co-op (which works amazingly, by the way), new areas, new skills, new difficulty options, and gamepad controls. While most of these changes seem rather drastic and large, the base game actually remained pretty much the same. Playing through the main story, I didn’t really come across much that was different in terms of story and questing, which is both good as I’m glad they didn’t make any game-changing...changes, but also a little disappointing, as it somewhat removes the incentive to play the game a second time. I think one of the biggest changes that really affected my playthrough this time, compared to my first playthrough of the original game on PC, were the additional skills added like dual wielding or grenades, but even then it didn’t really affect much of the experience as I would’ve expected. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the base game on it's own is easily one of my favorite RPGs of all times, and I still definitely enjoyed playing through the game a second time. I have been told that the new difficulty levels do change some of the encounters and puzzles, however I haven’t gotten around to really testing them out so much (mostly because I’m bad at the game :()
One of the new additions that is probably my favorite to the Enhanced Edition is the local splitscreen co-op. One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed Original Sin on PC was being able to play the game online with a good friend of mine, playing together is easily one of the most fun things about Original Sin, and now Larian Studios has made it even easier to enjoy some co-op. A second player can drop in/drop out of the game, whether online or simply right next to you on the couch, and can either continue playing the game together or simply go off and explore on their own! Initially I expected there to be some sort of horrible lag or loading issues whenever they would get too far away, but the transition is seamless, has no lag whatsoever, and never really brought up any issues during gameplay that might cause problems.
One of the bigger technical-related changes to the game is, obviously, the gamepad control scheme. As always, it’s one of the more important things that a lot of PC-styled RPGs like this tend to get wrong on consoles, developers always seem to just make things more convoluted than they have to be, or they’ll remove a majority of the options in order to simplify how you go about menus in a game. When I first booted up the Enhanced Edition on my Xbox One and played a quick test of the tutorial, I wasn’t all that much of a fan of using a gamepad in place of easy mouse and keyboard controls; it seemed like a lot of functions took more steps to complete than they really needed. Instead of simple key presses on a keyboard, I had to go through selections in a radial type menu just to get to my inventory or character info. Managing loot and items in your inventory, for example, was one of the more noticeable issues I kept having troubles with, as well as examining items. I’m simply used to just clicking on a container and having my characters go and investigate instead of going through a couple menus.
But then, as I continued on, I found myself becoming quite accustomed to the controls overall, and even quite liking them. The Enhanced Edition uses a radial-styled menu to access various parts of your character, R2 brings up the quest log, the inventory, character data etc, and L2 brings up a menu for directly changing your party, be it changing between characters or separating your party for yummy local splitscreen co-op. The controls in the overworld are also just as simple, Y lets you access your hot bar, X brings up the Action menu which lets you do various things to items (search all, move to inventory, etc), B is of course the cancel button, and A of course confirms actions and dialog choices. The left stick moves the player, and the right stick moves the camera. Larian Studios definitely did some research on how best to adapt to gamepad controls, which is more than you can say for some PC RPG ports.
Verdict
- Gamepad controls actually work.
- A lot of new content added, including voice acting, skills, new difficulties and more.
- Local Splitscreen works flawlessly.
- Not much replayability, if you're already familiar with the original PC version.
