Divinity II: Ego Draconis Review
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Certain cut-scenes, all rendered in the in-game engine, stuttered and jumped around bizarrely, with actors wandering aimlessly and voices diembodying themselves from the action. Exiting menus with the B button inevitably activated whichever skill was mapped to it, especially annoying given the long cooldown period associated with some of them. Inventory management is extremely poor, there's no mechanic for sneaking up on enemies - once you're in range they'll see you automatically, no matter if you're hidden or not.
Whilst I encountered nothing game-breaking I did lose count of the number of minor irritations the engine threw at me, and more than a few expirations were the result of the skills simply refusing to trigger. A little polish could have gone a long way here. I can't help but feel that an extra couple of weeks in Q&A would have nudged Divinity II from an almost-ran into the winner's enclosure. As it is, this is a good game which suffers a death of a thousand cuts - a viable alternative to Dragon Age for the less statistically minded, but sadly prevented by becoming a winner in its own right by any number of minor faults.
The story is compelling and well told, and there's certainly enough flow to put it in the category of "just ten more minutes" games - but you'll need a lot of patience to get the most out of Ego Draconis.
