Recent reviews by Red_Rocket_Rider

This game is a blast to play with a friend. They keep the gameplay fresh by introducing new gimmicks and mechanics every chapter and the story is wholesome too.

The game sucks, I'm afraid

Counting squares = neuron activation

The game improves upon the original in many ways, but also loses a bit of it's charm.

The combat is a bit more complex, with more schools of magic, a differentiation between health, armor and magic armor, Source magic, crossover spells, etc.
While I was initally a bit iffy on the armor system, it's actually pretty nice once you get used to it. It makes target priotization a bit more complex and being able to land guaranteed debuffs is nice.

The story and tone is probably the biggest change when you compare the game to t's predecessor.
While the narrative took a backseat in Divinity 1, both the main story and the stories of your party members are much more fleshed out and important in this entry.
The writing is better overall. The companions all have ellaborate backstories, fleshed out personalities and expansive quests, the story feels more structured and logical, the worldbuilding is more thought out.
If you're playing this game after Divinity 1, you might get whiplash from the tonal changes though. The game is much darker and more grim. Internment camps, racism, war crimes- all those things can be seen or heard about in the first hours of the game. Sometimes those themes clash a bit with the more lighthearted and silly parts of the game, like being able to talk to animals or magical items.

One part that I would consider a downgrade from Divinity 1 is the way player characters are handled. Basically, you can play as one of the companions instead of a self-made character. Since you are unable to change companions after the first act and companion quests are a huge part of the game, that basically forces you to play as an Origin character if you want to get the most story out of the game. I personally much prefered playing as the two Source Hunters in Divinity 1. Their constant bickering was a highlight of that game for me. The interactions between playable characters seem somewhat lackluster here in comparison.

Overall, I'd consider Divinity 2 an upgrade from it's predecessor, but there are a few things the original did better and a few things that Larian hadn't yet perfected when they made this game. I consider it somewhat of a stepping stone towards Baldur's Gate 3. But it is very well worth playing for yourself.

This game has been my go-to game when I want something to play while listening to a stream or podcast.
The game's UI and animations are more polished than other games of it's kind and it's the only Rogue-like that I keep coming back to even after over a year.
That feeling when a build you're going for finally comes together and you end up achieving a new high score is unmatched.

Great game, but I can't recommend it given that the latest update added spyware with no way to opt out. If you want to know more about your ads' effectiveness or whatever, just make a damn survey.
This is my most played game on Steam atm, with the previous entry Kingmaker in second place, but this is unacceptable.

Edit: I'm changing my review since Owlcat is reverting their decision. The game itself is great and I'm glad Owlcat has made the right call to not tarnish the work of their developers with shady business practices.

This game is fantastic. From the character writing to the gameplay to the presentation- this game stands at the apex of not only CRPGs, but RPGs in general. You will love this game if you like DnD, CRPGs, famous character-based RPGs like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout New Vegas, etc or if you just have good taste.

A prior version of this review was a bit more negative, since performance issues, bugs and Act 3 in general tarnished my otherwise positive opinion of the game, but there have been a ton of patches and hotfixes within the first month to adress all of these issues.

While releasing games in a finished state should be the standard, it's hard to be mad at Larian when they release a game that blows most modern releases out of the water and have been working tirelessly to remedy the issues their game has since release.

If the support keeps up, act 3 gets worked on and the inevitable high level campaign DLC is good, this might be a 10/10.

This game has some of the best character writing and world building I've ever seen in a game.
The two main characters are especially well written and make you keep playing the game just to find out more about them.
The mystery has a lot of twists and turns, but never feels too far fetched or even unrealistic.
I'm also a big fan of the way skills work in this game. The skills are basically voices in your head that give you insights and even argue with each other, which I thought was creative and entertaining.
I was worried I'd lose interest in this game eventually, but this game hooked me within the first 10 minutes and never let go until the end.

There are only a few downsides or problems I can think of and they're nothing major either:
1. In the latter half of the game, it's clear that while the dialogue was written to adapt based on your choices, it wasn't always voiced. Basically, if you make some obscure choices, the text will say X, but the voice actor will say Y.
2. The game introduces some supernatural elements towards the end. I personally thought this didn't really fit the otherwise realistic and gritty world too well and just felt unnecessary.
3. The game gets pretty political. This isn't an issue by itself, but the fact that the game gives you the choice between 4 political affiliations and then mocks you for picking one that isn't communism is a bit weird.
4. You need to level uip your stats to retry checks. This means you can softlock yourself out of side quests if you have reached the maximum threshold in a skill or are near a point of no return with no way to get EXP and level up. This could've easily been fixed if either starting a new day or increasing your stats via gear or some other means allowed you to retry skill checks.
5. The game leaves you without your sidekick for a day at some point because he has to take care of something. This just feels unnecessary and weird, because the sidekick will talk about things that happened in his absence as if he had been there. It also means you will miss out on your sidekicks commentary and help for anything you do within that day. Since I felt pressured to use my time wisely and make progress quickly, this means I missed out on a lot of dialogue. His absence adds nothing and shouldn't have happened.

Like I mentioned, these five points don't really detract from the experience much at all though, so you should definitely give this game a try whether you like these types of games or want to try something new.

This game and it's sequel are some of the best CRPGs I have ever played.

Pros
-the game has a fairly unique setting: it mostly takes place in a bunch of untamed regions that you slowly turn into your kingdom over the course of the game
-the companions are all interesting and well-written and have personal quests that give them a good amount of character development
-the roleplaying in this game is second-to-none, there are countless evil and good or chaotic and lawful decisions to be made
-on top of the CRPG gameplay, there's also a kingdom management element of the game- running your kingdom also involves a lot of decisions, further adding to the roleplaying aspect (alternatively, the kingdom management mode can be disabled if you don't want to bother with it)
-this game is the most faithful adaptation of a table-top rpg I have ever seen

Cons
-the gameplay can be slow and repetitive, the dungeons especially are way too vast and filled with dozens of the same encounter
-the developers are Russian and one character in particular talks like they just put their Russian dialogue in Google Translate and called it a day (I'm talking about Amiri. The rest of the companions talk in perfect English, for some reason)
-exploring all the locations on the map feels like a chore most of the time (sometimes there are worthwhile events or loot hidden in some random location, but most of the time it's just some enemies and mediocre loot)

Pros or Cons depending on your preferences
-this game is incredibly long
-compared to the sequel, where the story involves very high stakes and often revolves around big set pieces and cinematic moments, this game is more calm and grounded
-the game is very hard, especially towards the end
-this game involves a lot of reading

To summarize, exploring the map and exploring dungeons can feel like a chore in this game, but the roleplaying and decision-making more than make up for it.

Fallout 2 is everything Fallout 1 should have been and a lot of things later Fallout titles should have been.
Out of every Fallout game, I think it captures the franchise´s essence the most.

Not only is Fallout 2 much bigger than it´s predecessor, it also fixes a lot of it´s biggest flaws. The companions are actually useful and have character. The communities you visit are interesting and feel alive. The game gives you even more freedom in how you solve quests than the first game.

Instead of just doing the main quest and helping out a few communities, this game also let´s you interact with the world in a way that makes it feel alive. You can become a respected member of a crime family; you can get married to a ONS and later divorce them; you can fix up a car only to have it stolen and then track down the car thieves.

Fallout 2 also has more pop-culture references and 4th wall breaks than any other Fallout game, which can be good or annoying depending on your preferences.