Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Easy Allies Review 

Great review, I agree wholeheartedly, I really can't recommend this game enough if you're an RPG fan, this thing is absolutely insane. The fact that it's only $45USD is likely the single greatest absurdity ever documented by mankind. I'm a person who plays games exhaustively, getting everything I can out of everything I play, and I left the first area after 34 hours of engaging, memorable gameplay. Every item in my inventory has a story attached to it, and I could tell war stories about every member of my party. There was something to do or loot to collect in just about every nook and cranny I came across, and I loved every second of my experience there. Couple that with the staggering freedom the game offers (both in how you build out your characters and in how you approach completing objectives), and you've got a world and game that feels more "real" and alive than just about anything else before it. That all being said, this game is not necessarily for everyone. If you're a person who prefers a game with a clear through-line, a game that's gonna tell you very clearly and concisely what you need to be doing, when you need to be doing it, and how you should probably do it, this might be a bad time for you. If you're a person who doesn't like the idea of "builds", or who doesn't enjoy making decisions about every aspect of their characters, character management is probably going to be kinda tedious for you. If you're a person who hates the idea of missing out on content just because you didn't spend a ton of time combing a single area top to bottom looking for secrets, you're probably gonna have some issues. But if you're a person itching for a more-than-grand quest with a sense of adventure so palpable you can nearly taste it, where just about every decision you'll ever make will matter and have consequences, where combat is complex and challenging to the point of near unfathomability, and where freedom is so abundant that just about any crazy solution to an issue you can possibly think of will (probably, like 8 times out of 10) work, ***this game is for you***. And if I may, here's an example of some of the freedom I enjoyed early on in the game that totally blew me away. There's a certain gate in Fort Joy that's guarded by four or five enemy soldiers. There are several quests that involve you getting through that gate, so you'll probably need to go through it at some point. Honestly, I'm not quite sure how you're meant to get inside without fighting the soldiers. Didn't know then, don't know now. When you first get there they'll out level you by quite a bit, so you'll probably decide to put off fighting them until later. That is until you hear that there's a pair of "Teleportation Gloves" elsewhere on the island. Upon acquiring those gloves, you may come back to the gate and find that you can actually teleport the melee-focused guards over the gate where they can't harm you. You may also find that there are two raised platforms at just the right height for your own ranged character(s) to be able to slowly chip away at them from near-complete safety, allowing you to kill the guards and open the gate despite being considerably out-leveled by your opponents, having used your own sense of ingenuity to re-orient an encounter an make an unwinnable fight trivially easy. Now I won't say that **every** fight can be flipped around like that. What I will say however, is that the freedom this game allows is going to be your greatest ally if you choose to embrace it. Embrace it.

I’ve waited for this review for 5 months! Anyways great one Ben!

This game getting a 9.5 just feels so much better than getting 4.5 stars. Love the new scoring system

I've been waiting almost half a year for this review, but at the end of the day I'm happy that you got around to finishing the review Ben so thank you for that!

Well done, Ben! So well written. Great edit too, Ian!

Great review as always Ben. I know you agonised over this one a lot so congratulations on finally getting it out! (Also great editing Ian!)

Great review, Ben. Good call on taking your time with this one.

I love your guys reviews and podcast. Thanks for doing them.

You guys are truly the best in the game in terms of reviews. I usually always go to EZA first, but for some reason I poked around at other reviews for this one at first. When I finally landed on this review, it was clear how far above you guys are in terms of writing, production, VO and efficiency of language. Plus, Ben Moore is a top notch writer. Thank you! Gonna pick this up on Switch.

Ya finally did it, Ben! Congrats. Well worth it

Thanks for not rushing it out; well-cooked review! Great job Ben!

8:14 Assume Potbelly is Moof and Kill him. Immediately recruit Potbelly into the party. Cast Eldritch Blast and go about your way.

Awesome review guys, even though it comes so late I really appreciate that you decided to give it the time it deserved rather than riding the release train. I think you’ve convinced me to put some time into it.

Thanks for the in depth review Ben. Well done. Keep it up!

I'm glad the true GOTY finally got it's review

You guys took a really long time with this one, likely because there were other on paper "bigger" titles, but I'm glad you still covered it in the end. Great review. =)

Hahaha, that Tabletop Escapades reference to Potbelly is amazing.

Great review as always. Should I play the first game first or just jump into this one?

I have this sitting on my Gog account, ready to play with 3 of my brothers for a COOP adventure. The only reason we haven't yet started you may ask? Cause still making our way through the fantastic Divinity: Original Sin (Definitive Edition) on PS4. With the amount of fun we're having in 2 player COOP, I'm looking forward to our crazy 4 player COOP adventures.

Is this the old reviewr from good old gamestrailers ? Been looking for him for ages

Good lord, this game is gorgeous. Great review Ben. I don't play RPGs but this review has piqued my interest.

Ben!! You did it!!!

Going through the first one with my girlfriend right now. We finally hit the halfway point not too long ago. This game is a beast. I’d guess we’ve probably put about 40 hours in so far, but 30 of those were spent getting our asses kicked on the normal difficulty. Really enjoying it after bumping the difficulty down. Amazing game.

Probably my game of the year.

I'm looking forward to this game coming out on console on August 31.

My best RPG experience in recent years.

Props to Ben for getting this out, even though it's so much later. That's some dedication.

It may be late, but god damn are Easy Allies reviews ever awesome!

I’m diggin’ the new scoring system

I'll take a late and insight review over a punctual and ineffectual one any day. Feel free to take your time with reviews; the important thing is that they stay as deep, insightful and reliable as they always have been.

The biggest problem with divinity for me is how complicated it is at first. Its overwhelming seeing all the menus, and the sheer amount of things to do.

Tabletop Escapades Reference at 8:14! :)

Very thorough review!

So in a way its also like a strategy rpg? Ive been real on the fence about this game due to never really having a grasp on it. But this review really made me wanna try it since it sounds like its strategy base sorta like Xcom

Excellent review, I really want to play it whenever I have the time to devote to such a massive game (whenever that might be :S). I do fear, though, that with the new score system there won't be any 10/10 games again. This sounds like as-close-to-perfect a game you could think of, but it still got 9.5. The thing is, every game has some flaws, a perfect product doesn't exist. I think I preferred the star system, I don't understand why you changed back, it worked perfectly fine...

wow ben is putting in work with the reviews

God I cannot fucking wait til aug 31st so I can get my hands on this masterpiece. It looks amazing I’ve been waiting patiently for over a year for this to come to consoles and it’s almost here !

need this in my game library someday

Oh man, I can't wait for this game to come to ps4.. The first one is one of my favorite games and this one seems even better.

8:13 lol

So is the new scoring system a 20 point or 100 point scale?

Great review Ben and it really benefits from the significant time you've invested in the game.

That Tabletop Escapades lore!

The real question is... Would it have been 5 stars?

*Sees this review in my youtube inbox. ME: Its been 84 years...

Great review. Because of Nintendo Direct I may be playing this for the first time .

Great Review, have to pick it up again. stopped playing it after a while.

Where is podcast

WHAT YEAR IS IT!!?

Great review!

Hope this gets to consoles, the first, local co-op was great

I can’t wait to play this game and I’m not even a fan of top down rpgs it just sounds incredible

I assume that Potbelly is Moof.

the new scoring scale has me worried this wont be a 10/10 edit: :'( still a great review haha and happy it's finally out honestly among my Favorite games of all time though it has some bugginess and the last act is a bit confusing. also there are a bunch of mods that tune the difficultly (easy 20% harder, normal 20% easier etc)

Best RPG since Baldur's Gate 2. All future RPG's can learn a thing or twenty from this one!

More I hear about this game the more it sounds...PERFECT...I've decided to finally walk away from WOW after decades and this game just came around at the perfect time. Thinking of waiting till the fall steam sale, hopefully Dragonquest 11 will be on sale then too. Truly this game has everything I have wanted especially GOOD LIZARDMEN TO PLAY AS!

I played Pillars of Eternity last year on the PS4, but it didn't do it for me. But I'm hoping for a console port for this one as I really loved Divinity 1.

Ben, FINISH LIFE IS STRANGE!

What type of rpg is this? I genuinely want to know the style name...

I hope it comes to ps4 someday.

Ben just waited to release this review now in 6 and 7 season in order to break it up a little.

Is it ever coming to PS4?

Hope this gets to consoles fast!

cant wait for this on ps4

A man of his word, Ben Moore.

AWESOME REVIEW

Table Top Escapade: The Video Game :P

This game deserves everything. Seriously changed how I look at rpgs

"Assume that Potbelly is Moof and kill him." :D

Good job Ben!

Love this game we need more great PC games like this one. PC game market bout dry as hell right now

worth the wait!

One of the best games in a while, I'm glad it got a score it deserved

Excellent review and my GOTY 2017

Nice Tabletop references lol.

You talked about the difficulty, but didn't mention what difficulty you played on, or what difficulty options there are. I'm curious about that.

Good review

Finally a “normal” review of a great game!!

Bump it up to a 10. Definitive is coming.

Can't believe how f*cking good this game is.

oh wow...who would've guessed they would go by the the 10 point system...because it's obviously the most logical choice... The 100 point system still makes the most sense to me but since you can just multiply a 10 point score by 10 to turn it into the 100 point system then whatever.

I wanna get into this game so bad but I cannot get into the combat :(

Woww so yall really took your time with this one sheesh

GOTY 2017! Only "bad" thing i have to say about the game is that if you play it with only 2 characters and pick the lone wolf perk then the game gets way too easy, it need's to be played with 4 players in party if you want some challenge from the game.

That game... it's just so good... Now Pillars 2 and I can die in peace :)

Coming back here after seeing the positivity for Baldur Gate 3, I wanted to see more games of the genre.

Easily my goty 2017, especially playing it with two friends.

This game has a lot of freedom .It can be overwhelming and complicated because of the choices.. I rate this game 10/10 im playing it on my ps4 pro

Lucian did nothing wrong.

in a dream world, I'll be playing this on the switch

Benjamin Moore.

Nice score. Gotta agree with it. Amazing game

About time.

congrats ben

One of the best rpg I've ever played.

Not a day too soon

So glad :)

This game looks great.

Started the game in Fort Joy all graphic setting in Max... upon leaving Lady Vengeace and landed in new well, land *GODFUCKINGDAMMIT! STUTTERSHIT!* I Underestimated this game RAM size requirement

El Pollo Diablo!