Posted April 17, 2014
Anyway, Divinity: Dragon Commander.
TLDR version: I'm of two minds about it Buy if you like RPGs and RTS. Don't buy if you like RTS and only want it for gameplay.
Wall of text version:
I honestly am of two minds about it. Why? Well, that'll require a bit longer explanation. The whole game is basically divided up into three parts which are loosely connected together. So let us talk about the three bits, about how are they connected and wrap it up with my overal thoughts.
The good
So, the first part of this game you will encounter is the RPG-lite* bit. It's basically what StarCraft 2 did mixed up with interesting characters and a good share of decisionmaking: You get a 'base' ship on which you're going to stay until the end of the game, and in between turns on the global map, events are going to occur on the ship. These events include:
- Personal storylines of your four generals
At the beginning of the game, four generals join you and each and every one of them has their own personality, their own goals and traits, and by ordering them around or advising them, you can shape how does their personal story - which is going to span troughout most of the game's main storyline - shapes out
- Empire-wide decisions
Every now and again, a small council of advisors forms up and asks you to pass a law or regulation. This council consists of one embassador out of each 'higher' race, and they all have their own agendas. Your popularity with the nations they stand for will be directly influenced by how much you agree or disagree with their political standpoints
- Queen storyline
Yes, you'll get married. Yes, she's got a story to tell as well.
All in all, the individual storylines set in a quirky and a bit weird world of Dragon Commander are extremely well written, well told, and often enough quite funny - no, the game is in no way taking itself seriously. I'd say this is the best part of the game, as you will always be eager to see how this and that decision of yours turn out, and how did it influence the people on board of your ship. If there's something I'd definitely base my recommendation of the game on, it's this part and I do believe that every RPG-loving person will inevitably fall in love with it.
When talking about storyline, it would probably be prudent to also mention ... Well, the storyline. The game's set in a steampunk world of Rivellon, and you're playing a half-dragon emperor trying to conquer the lands from his former siblings. So yeah, the setting's great - especially if you love steampunk - and the main storyline is ... Well it is kind of forgettable to be honest.
The bad
The second part of the game - and sadly, what I feel is by far the weakest link - is the Risk-like overland map. Basically, from the RPG mode, you can at any time open a world map, and there you can construct buildings and units, and push them around the individual regions of the map in a turn-based system. It's kind of like Total War games - just waaay less complex. There are like 8 buildings to build (just guessing out of memory, can't be arsed to check), you can build units here, and you have got two resources to manage - gold and research points. First one's obvious, second allows you to get new units, unit upgrades, and upgrades for your dragon (more on that later) from your ship. And there are cards, which do various things like sabotage a territory's income, or increasing it, or - You get the picture. I'll elaborate on that a bit more as well.
Now, the overland map is ... Let's just say extremely underwhelming, which is a bloody shame as it's the part of game that connects everything together. First of all, it's not very complex. There's no diplomacy, no trade, no taxes or unit upkeep - you're just trying to build as much crap as you humanly can and get as many territories as fast as you can, and that's about it. Now if simplicity were the only issue I would not complain, however what irked me the most was how little actual strategy was involved.
Basically, the world map is extremely random. I have previously mentioned the system of playing cards, and here's how it works: Based on the amount of structures generating them, you get random cards with various effects which range from destroying a building in a territory trough annihilating population to summonning mercenaries in case of a territory being attacked. And the last mentioned is probably where I have the biggest problem - no amount of preparation and strategising can prepare you for enemy instantly summoning units wherever he can, randomly. Now you might argue that I, as a player, can get mercenaries as well, however - AI always seems to have them in abundance in spite of never building the building required to generate them, and even if status was equal, I would not like the design by its very definition. And the worst thing - there's no mechanic representing any kind of intelligence, so you can't either destroy opponent's cards, figure out which one he has so you can plan with them in mind, or fortify against them! They just sort of exist. And are weird.
I've got more issues with the overland map, but that was probably the biggest one. And in spite of the fact that you can play battles in RTS mode which is basically an instant win - that only applies to a single battle per turn tho. The rest must be either retreat (which makes you lose a random amount of units), or autoresolve.
Now I could live with that if the overland map was actually well-connected to the RPG bit, but it's not. The bonuses you get there are negligible, and it's very easy to balance popularity with the ambassadors so everybody loves you - which is a shame since popularity is probably the only important factor. So yeah, when it comes to overland map - Nope. Don't like. Based on that, I would not recommend.
The ugly
And as the last thing, there's the fairly competent RTS mode. Now, the RTS is extremely fast-paced and a lot of fun. There's not much to talk about there really - you go into battle with whatever units you brought in from the overland map, you capture resource points which generate... Well, resource, and you use that resource to construct buildings at pre-defined spots and build units from them, so the initial advantage/disadvantage will get very insignificant fast if you're skilled enough.
This part is quite well-executed, units work on a strict rock-paper-scissors system so you need to compose your army intelligently, and ... ... You can turn into a dragon with a fucking jetpack!
Yeah, that's right. Basically, from RTS camera view, you can at any point go into a dragon mode, which becomes a third person dragon simulator! Your dragon has a long list of various active and passive abilities which you can use against your enemies (or to buff your own units) and playing it is AWESOME. Great sense of speed, you feel great hurling fireballs that explode groups of enemies at a time. It's powerful, it's fast and it's fun. Definitely a highlight of the RTS mode, and definitely a reason to get the game at least for cheap - to play a lot of skirmish battles where you'll rain fire upon your enemies.
I did put this into the ugly cathegory tho, and there's a reason for that. First of all, there are some annoyances to the RTS mode. It works pretty damn well, don't get me wrong, but the AI is brainded. Vast majority of the time played, they will use one, single path which you need to fortify and hold, and then you can take all the time in the universe to build up an army and crush the opponent. So yeah. That. RTS mode, while fast and fun, is not very challenging. And clouds are weird and obscure vision. All in all tho, it's worth trying.
The end
Soooo yeah. That's about all I wanted to say mething. Oveall, I did like the game quite a lot. I honestly have enjoyed playing it, albeit given its fair share of issues, it does feel like a discount material. I feel that special mention should also go towards production values. Voice acting is great, the game looks gorgeous in all of its parts, and writing is fantastic. All of that goes hand in hand with great art direction and very good soundtrack. But... Graphics are not everything, and gameplay-wise, the game does't have THAT much to offer. RPG bits are fantastic and the game's worth buying for them alone, and you will enjoy RTS part quite a bit as well, but when what connects all that together just doesn't work all that well, everything good about the game will suffer. Not to close up on a negative note tho, rarely has a game grasped me so much that I'd play 5 hours of it in a single day, so that's a thing I suppose. There you have it. My obligation has been fulfilled. Whoever managed to read all the way down here will get a cookie.
*What I consider important in an RPG is writing, characters and storytelling. Just so we're on the same page. If you call this kind of thing 'TalkyLookyWrity', feel free to replace all occurences of 'RPG' with 'TalkyLookyWrity'
