Last year I got a chance to preview D:OS and it was unmistakably on the right track to being a fantastic turn-based fantasy RPG. It’s been in my backlog all this time, and recently I got a chance to play the Enhanced Edition. While I’m far from finishing the story, it’s clear that the quality of the original game has not only improved, but grown.
The game leaves the PC-only realm and jumps onto next-gen with a fantastic new addition: splitscreen co-op support, and of the dynamic variety at that (meaning players don’t have to literally be in the same screen-area at the same time). Multiplayer support is available locally or online, although I have spent little time in either to this point. D:OS is in the class of game that you want to play through with a close friend or family member. This is because it’s a very involved experience with the opinionated and trait-building (and changing) branching dialog the characters have amongst themselves and with NPCs, not to mention the deep and necessary co-op tactics in battle.
D:OS adds an Explorer mode that we’re seeing in some re-releases of games these days, including most recently in the Uncharted Collection. This is a combat-lite mode that allows players to still enjoy the story, dialog, co-op, and RPG elements (all very well done) while not having to be skilled at turned based combat. On the other hand, players can stick with the Classic mode which is “equal” parts dialog/exploration and combat, or the Tactician mode which sports more and tough enemy types who have skills not seen in Explorer or Classic. Lastly, there is a mode I’ll never attempt called Honour, in which you have all of the inherent difficulty of Tactician with only a single save slot — no thanks.
Speaking of save slots, I liked what D:OS did here. There are five auto-save and five quicksave slots by default, but you can adjust this with a slider in the options to give you up to twenty-five of each. While D:OS has a very helpful and well-designed in-game tutorial, don’t expect it to hold your hand in combat (unless you’re in Explorer mode); death can come at most inopportune times if you stumble into the “wrong” encounter, so my old go-to adage of ‘save early, save often’ very much applies. It’s a big enough and deep enough experience that, even without dying and reloading save games, you’re in for a very long and engaging adventure. Do yourself a favor and make it as efficient as possible by using these numerous save slots which you don’t always get the option to have, especially on a console game.
All this is not to suggest that D:OS is a brutally tough game or one that has constant combat. Just as common as combat if not more so are times of exploration and general RPG’ing and adventuring. No shortage of NPCs exist to talk to, the world is large, and there are plenty of areas to explore for loot and the many creative distractions and characters that Larian developed to find. Unfortunately, character movement is somewhat slow and I often wished I could move a little bit faster. I spent most of my play time as a Witch and a Cleric, but I don’t think the default character speed differs between the (numerous) starting classes. Relatively slow movement speed does lend itself to adding some boredom or fatigue, especially during those times you’re retracing your steps, but it’s a small price to play for what is in nearly every other way an engrossing game that wisks hours away from your day.
By any measure, D:OS was a stellar game, and the Enhanced Edition does nothing to take away from that, it only makes it better. Much like Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut — and most any “re-release” — the extra development time leads to a whole hell of a lot of bug-squashing and additional content. Larian did not rest on their laurels here, or bask in their success. Despite being already hard at work on D:OS 2, the passion poured into the Enhanced Edition is tangible. In addition to the fixes and gameplay tweaks, and the aforementioned co-op support, controller support, new quests, situations, difficulty modes, you also get alternate endings and more voice-acting. Moreover, significant graphical improvements have been made (including 4K support on PC, whose users get it for free in their Steam Library if they already own it). On the PS4, the game runs smoothly and looks gorgeous; it’s not the highest res, most technically amazing game on the system, but the artwork and art style are beautiful, don’t be afraid to zoom in on the action with R3.
So as is typical with a review, I was provided with some additional information about the game that is often not made public. A PDF was included that lists the main feature changes, and then goes on for another 30 pages of single-spaced text listing many more of the other changes and tweaks, etc. It’s pretty staggering, and I’m not going to claim I have read through this entirely, but it’s evident that not one part of this game was left untouched from its original release. Still, there has already been a couple of patches released post launch, which is inevitable with a game this complex. Nevertheless, in my playtime, I have experienced no issues, and while I normally caution waiting to play a big game like this to give time for patching, D:OS EE on the PS4 seems ready for prime time right now.
