Divinity: Original Sin II

"DOS2 explains approximately nothing," one review says, and 11% of the longer reviews (19% of the longer negative ones) complain about how little the game explains. Fort Joy is a running joke, with players restarting their characters several times before they leave the first island. Reviewers list systems they found by accident (bedrolls fully heal, the minimap button fast travels, Source fountains refill points), a journal that "does not even give you a vague idea of what to do", obscure puzzles, and items or quests that can be missed or broken by doing things in the wrong order. Some say they played with a wiki open. A minority defend this as the old-school appeal of working the world out for yourself.

Items draw complaints in 8% of the longer reviews and 17% of the longer negative ones. "Inventory management is a joke," writes one reviewer who still recommends the game. The list includes piles of junk to sort, carry weight, no easy way to sell from another character's bags, item stats that are slow to compare, and quest items that look like vendor trash. Gear is the other half. Items are fixed to the level they drop at, so equipment goes out of date with every level-up, random bonuses rarely suit a build, and unique sets are quickly outclassed. A few say they stole from merchants to keep up. Mods for bags and carry weight are the usual fix suggested.

The back half of the game is the focus of 8% of the longer reviews and 15% of the longer negative ones. Some of these say the first two acts are the best and the rest declines: "Game with an exceptionally good start that devolves into a tiresome slog the more you play it." Another rates it "First 2 acts 9/10, maybe 10/10 after little bit of qol modding. Last 2 acts 2/10 though." Players name a thin third act, a sharp rise in difficulty in Arx ("with Act 4, the difficulty curve becomes a difficulty leaning cliff"), gimmick fights, the pipe and lever puzzles before the last battle, a final fight they disliked, and an ending they felt was rushed or ignored their choices. Some disagree and name late-game scenes among their favourites.

Words like tedious, slog, grind and slow appear in 7.5% of the longer reviews and 19% of the longer negative ones. Reviewers point to long fights with lots of waiting, slow walking speed (sprint mods are popular), walking back to Source fountains, bartering item by item, and crafting buried in a cluttered inventory. A few find the length itself a problem and say the campaign could have ended an act earlier.

Technical problems come up in 5% of the longer reviews and 13% of the longer negative ones: crashes on start or mid-fight, a bug that loads players into a "Debug_Client_Profile_1" profile, frequent crashes on Apple Silicon Macs, black screens when starting a multiplayer session, quest bugs, and long loading screens. Several reviewers lost hours of progress to autosaves that didn't fire when they expected. "There is no rhyme or reason to the autosaving timing," one writes, adding that the game keeps at most 25 autosaves and stops once it hits that cap. One reviewer praises Larian's support for fixing a broken quest in their save within days.

4% of the longer reviews and 12% of the longer negative ones describe encounters that feel rigged. In the second act especially, areas only work in a certain order: "You WILL be too underleveled unless you do a specific order, and the game will not tell you at what order its supposed to be." A single level can decide a fight, so some players kill neutral NPCs for experience or follow community level maps. Others describe fights triggered from dialogue with the party bunched together: "Enemies spawn out of thin air, and fights are triggered without any warning, maybe even from story dialogue." They also mention bosses who act first and enemies who get two turns in a row.

Reviewers who weren't expecting it are upset that companions left behind when the party leaves the opening area are lost for good. One calls the choice "permakilling half the party immediately after act 1 was ..... certainly a choice." Another complains that "the game LITERALLY NEVER EXPLAINS THIS TO YOU". Others accept it as a reason to replay.

The interface draws criticism in 2.4% of the longer reviews and 6% of the longer negative ones. Reviewers name small text with no scaling option ("Tiny text and UI make it unplayable for anyone with even minor vision problems."), a camera that needs constant rotating, misclicks that walk a character away and waste action points, skills blocked by obstacles the player can't see, and no jump. Lightning storms bothered at least one photosensitive player. Several reviewers say the controller layout is the more comfortable way to play.

1.5% of the longer reviews mention persuasion. The complaint is that NPCs start dialogue with whichever party member is closest, so a check goes to a character with no Persuasion and the result sticks unless the player reloads. Persuasion also depends on the right attribute, and the game doesn't show what score a check needs.

Under 1% of the longer reviews mention the launcher, but they make up 4% of the longer negative ones. Reviewers say an update added a launcher that shows news and other Larian games before the game starts, along with an account prompt, which some read as required. "Now, after installing, I have to use a launcher and to create an account. Unacceptable, Larian." A few reviewers reply that no login is needed for single-player and the launcher closes with the game.

A few reviewers complain about AI allies they can't control, such as Sir Lora and Gwydian, who walk into fire or poison, set off traps, or die while the party is in turn-based combat. Party members following the player also take odd paths across hazards.