Divinity II: Ego Draconis (Xbox 360)

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Description

A moment of weakness doomed the Divine called Lucian. Instead of putting an end to all the misery by killing the child of the God of Lies, he showed mercy, let it live and even put it on himself to raise him. A most fatal decision, as it made it possible for the Black Ring to introduce Ygerna, daughter of Kalin, a necromancer in the ranks of the Black Ring, into the life of Damian as the boy was called. Bound to her through his love, Ygerna released the powerful magic slumbering inside of Damian. When Lucian learned of what Ygerna had done, he had no choice than to execute her. Being witness to the execution, Damian bound his soul to Ygerna and by doing so marked the return of the Damned. Damian swore revenge for the death of Ygerna but his rage and anger were also his doom. In the battle between the Black Ring and the Divine Paladins, Lucian managed to lure Damian into the Fissure-Temple and ban him to into the dark world of Nemesis.

But even the Nemesis couldn't contain Damian's rage and when he suddenly emerged from the dimension, the armies of Rivellon weren't able to withstand his force. The following war changed the land. Once mighty mountains were reduced to burned earth. Green meadows had to make room for impassable, cragged landscapes. Not all hope was lost though: when the Divine allied himself with the Dragon Knights, the last advocates of Dragon-Magic in the demon-tainted lands of Rivellon, the final battle against the Damian ensued. Ironic, that in the end all was lost because of the betrayal of one of the Dragon Knights who back-stabbed the Divine. But Damian got his revenge and both sides retreated from the battlefield. Since then half-a-century has passed and most of the people have already forgotten what had happened that day and already think of Damian as a urban legend. Another fatal mistake...

Divinity II: Ego Draconis is an action role-playing game and the first 3D installment in the Divinity series. The player takes on the role of a Dragon Hunter from a third-person-perspective. The protagonist is soon involuntarily converted into a Dragon Knight, which, much later in the game, gives him the ability to transform himself into a dragon once he uncovers the means to control his power. As a dragon he has access to different abilities, shares half of his experience with his human form and can also fly over the lands and use his fire spells against enemies. In human form, the player has to decide after the tutorial if he wants to be a a knight, ranger or a sorcerer - although he is still free to level his five skills and dozens of talents as he pleases without being limited to fit the class he began the game with. The talents are divided into five categories: priest (can summon ghosts to aid him), sorcerer, knight, ranger and dragon slayer (general talents). One of these general talents is mind reading. For the price of some experience points, the player can try to read the minds of every NPC in the world giving the player access to new information, uncovering secrets and even unlocking alternate ways to finish some of the vast array of side-quests available in Rivellon.

As in most role-playing games, points for skills and talents are gained at a level-up, and the experience points are gained through fulfilling quests and killing monsters in real-time combat, which can be paused to issue commands like activating talents or drinking a potion. The means to do so, meaning weapons, armor and other useful items, are also obtained by killing monsters, completing quests, using the vendors or simply by opening or destroying all the barrels, crates and chests scattered around the world. At the completion of each quest, the player gets both gold and experience points and can choose one additional item as a reward from a list. This also includes additional experience points and gold.

Besides the dragon form, during the course of the game, the player also gets his very own Dragon Tower. Thanks to the Dragon Stone, the player can teleport himself to his home at any time. Part of the Dragon Tower is a chest in which the player can store important items, a waypoint shrine allowing him to teleport to any other shrine he already discovered, an illusionist allowing the player to change his appearance at any time and a bunch of collectors. These collectors can be send out into the world to collect resources (plants and such) for the player but are as vulnerable to attacks as every other NPC. To increase the chance of survival, the player can train his minions, increase their armor and heal them if they are wounded. Of course the player can also use the NPCs in his tower to do the same for himself. In addition there's an alchemist available who, provided the player brings him the needed recipe and resources, creates potions and a necromancer who can create a creature companion for the player. To do so he needs body parts (head, torso, arms and legs) that the player finds mostly in dungeons on dead NPCs or after killing a powerful monster.

Screenshots

There are no Xbox 360 screenshots for this game.

There are 40 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "神諭2" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
• "Divinity 2. Кровь драконов" -- Russian spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Divinity series
• Gameplay feature: Dragon flying / riding
• Middleware: Gamebryo/Lightspeed/NetImmerse
• Middleware: SpeedTree
• Middleware: Wwise
• Physics Engine: PhysX

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Xbox 360 release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

Vandal Online	Oct 26, 2009	8.5 out of 10	85
Jeuxvideo.com	Oct 14, 2009	16 out of 20	80
Strategy Informer	Dec 10, 2009	7 out of 10	70
MS Xbox World	Nov 26, 2009	6.5 out of 10	65
NZGamer	Nov 30, 2009	6.5 out of 10	65
Wonderwallweb.com	Nov 24, 2009	6.4 out of 10	64
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Nov 25, 2009	6 out of 10	60
Legendra	Feb 27, 2010	6 out of 10	60
IGN	Jan 15, 2010	4.8 out of 10	48
The Review Busters	2010	2 out of 10	20

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Trivia

References

Various developer names can be found in the game.

• The gate guards to the village of Broken Valley are called Joris and Paul after designers Joris Vervoort and Paul van Eekelen
• There's also a herb in the game called "farhangite" after lead designer Farhang Namdar. Its description reads: "What you think looks like a useless lump does happen to have some redeeming qualities. Among other things, this plant is renowned for getting rid of nasty embarrassing rashes."

Related Web Sites

• CDV - Divinity II (US Publisher's product page for the game)
• Divinity II (the official website)
• Kirill Pokrovsky's Site (Music composer's site, offering the game's soundtrack as a free download.)
• X360A achievement guide (X360A's achievement guide for Divinity II: Ego Draconis.)