A cult known as the Divine Order has been hunting down users of Source and locking them up for reasons heretofore unknown. The player steps into the role of a Sourcerer captured by this cult and is now on a ship headed to the island prison, Fort Joy. While en route, a huge Voidwoken Kraken demolishes the ship. The player's Sourcerer pulls through and now has to figure out what destiny intends for them by seeking out the Divine Or

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 updates 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.

There are four difficulty modes to choose from, which are Explorer, Classic, Tactician, and Honour. Explorer is designed for players who lack experience with RPGs or simply just want to enjoy the story. Taking advantage of the strategic skills that are offered helps, but being a brilliant military strategist is not required as this mode is pretty forgiving overall. Classic is geared towards RPG veterans or people who enjoy challenging combat. Your abilities will be tested but if you take the time to learn how the combat system works you should prevail, this mode is challenging but doesn't feel unfair. Tactician is the mode where the enemies have essentially harvested the source of George Patton, Zhuge Liang, Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. This is where being a brilliant military strategist is almost essential to be victorious, as the enemies show no mercy at all and will throw every dirty trick they have at you. Playing this mode might also not be a bad way to learn some useful combat tactics. Honour mode is for the truly confident and cocky or those who just enjoy suffering, as this brings the grueling challenge of Tactician but adds a hardcore mode, meaning if you fall in battle say bye bye to the save file. This way could be potentially fatal to one's PC, but many bragging rights will come from completing the campaign on this setting.

Most PC gamers who enjoy RPGs are aware of Divinity: Original Sin its near-universal acclaim . The praise is not undeserved either; the original Original Sin was a massive RPG with meticulous attention to every detail across the board to ensure it would stand out among all other PC games. With both its critical and commercial success, any follow up has some troll-sized boots it needs to fill, and while the early access build only offers a fraction of the adventure, things are already shaping up to indicate Divinity: Original Sin II has the potential to surpass the incredibly high standards set by its predecessor.

There are some RPGs that hold the player's plan, at least through the beginning parts of the game. Divinity: Original Sin II **** is not one of these games. The player is given objectives and some hints at where they might need to head to accomplish them, but nearly unlimited freedom is given to the player in how they wish to go about it. This freedom on top of proverbially being thrown to the wolves level of hand holding can be overwhelming for players not used to it, but this means how the game unfolds is entirely up to how the player wishes to accomplish the myriad tasks. For example, if you have ever played an RPG and wished you could just hack everyone to death and not have to attend to the errands of an annoying NPC, that freedom exists. I am not suggesting that killing every NPC in the game will lead to the optimal experience with this title, but the freedom is there for anyone who wishes to try it. The barbaric blood path is a choice, the numerous dialog options as well as other behavior choices could make completing the story a very cerebral experience.

Several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get some hands on time with Divinity: Original Sin II at PAX . That experience only gave a brief glimpse into what is offered in this build and I imagine I will feel the same way about the Early Access build when the complete game is released. The predecessor was a massive choice-driven RPG that was in the vein of classic computer RPGs. The bar was set high by Divinity: Original Sin and everything that made that title so great returns here and then some. Making any definite declaration about a game's quality prior to its final release is impossible and I do not want to over hype this title to the point of having expectations it can not reach, but anyone who enjoyed its predecessor needs to keep this one on their radar, regardless of whether they want to wait for the final version to come out or if they want to dive into the early build right away.