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Divinity: Dragon Commander Review
8 years ago
General
Have you ever wanted to run an empire, while also playing an RTS game, while making decisions that have a reflection on how you think a empire should be made while discussion hot topic issues based on what your generals or councilors want, while moving your troops in a Risk style game board, using cards to help your empire while undermining your enemies, all while playing as a dragon with a jetpack? Well, Divinity: Dragon Commander has you covered.
Made by Larian Studios, Divinity: Dragon Commander is a game that places you several centuries before the Divinity series, playing as the illegitimate son of Emperor Sigurd, you are tasked with bring back your empire that was fallen and usurped by your traitorous siblings On top of that, you have access to steampunk demon technology, able to make your armies that range from Troopers, fast moving but make up the bulk of your forces, to Juggernauts, battleships capable of wrecking everything in sight.
On top of making an army, you'll have your generals to back you up, and the game shines best with it's cast. From vulgar old warhorse Henry, bigoted lizard Edmund, free-spirited Scarlett, and stern and elite Catherine, your generals come with their own morals and stories, from Henry being the guard whom lost his eye and arm defending your father, to Catherine trying to push for women's right's in a male dominated world, each general's actions you can influence, either having them work as a group, or making them worse. This will end up coming to you in the form of decisions that will push their story forward and change the empire. From replacing half the men with women, or stopping undead from vandalizing a statue from a gay artist, the results will vary but encourages replay-ability.
Speaking on the undead, the Civilized Races of Rivellon, elves, dwarves, imps, lizards and undead, all will have councilors that will occasionally pop up that will need to be made to decide how your empire will become. From allowing conscription in the army, to building new roads, or allowing gay marriage, the decisions you make will show how they affect the empire, and how the people feel about you, one decision might favor the elves, but the undead will hate it. At a high approval of one faction, that faction will want to push a decision that the others will deny but will increase say gold production.
Easily the most played is this section, but besides politics, you can get married, in chapter 2, you must choose a wife form the races, who will have her own goals and story. One might ask to help deal with issues of familial persuasion, while another will either be encourages to uphold her race's ideals, or to become more pragmatic when dealing with other races. The princess you marry will have their own story and will change depending on the choice, in terms of personality and also physically in terms of the outfit...in one's case, her entire body can change and even her race (won't spoil, but you should check)
Now, as for combat, you can choose whether to fight in auto resolve, or RTS, in which you can send enemies to capture and destroy your opponent by building units. However, this can be factored and changed, sometimes RTS matches can work, otherwise auto-resolve is the way to go, as the map's tend to be the same differently, so a map may end up favoring you, or not. In the Risk map, you build armies and also your economy this way by building on a area, one area may have a high science output so building an Academy can boost it, same with gold. Cards can be used to help your empire flourish with card to boost your gains, while also undermining the other empire with debuffs or even sabotaging them.
the ending is the same, but how you go about it is the joy of this game, and depending on your views of the world and politics, no too paths are the same, encouraging replay-ability. The game is shot, but rewarding, even if it was rushed. There was a lot of cut content form the game, and i hope is Larian studios remakes this game, that they add the cut content in it and make it more fun and polished. all in all, i recommend this for those who want a strategy game with a deep and surprisingly thought provoking story and cast.
Made by Larian Studios, Divinity: Dragon Commander is a game that places you several centuries before the Divinity series, playing as the illegitimate son of Emperor Sigurd, you are tasked with bring back your empire that was fallen and usurped by your traitorous siblings On top of that, you have access to steampunk demon technology, able to make your armies that range from Troopers, fast moving but make up the bulk of your forces, to Juggernauts, battleships capable of wrecking everything in sight.
On top of making an army, you'll have your generals to back you up, and the game shines best with it's cast. From vulgar old warhorse Henry, bigoted lizard Edmund, free-spirited Scarlett, and stern and elite Catherine, your generals come with their own morals and stories, from Henry being the guard whom lost his eye and arm defending your father, to Catherine trying to push for women's right's in a male dominated world, each general's actions you can influence, either having them work as a group, or making them worse. This will end up coming to you in the form of decisions that will push their story forward and change the empire. From replacing half the men with women, or stopping undead from vandalizing a statue from a gay artist, the results will vary but encourages replay-ability.
Speaking on the undead, the Civilized Races of Rivellon, elves, dwarves, imps, lizards and undead, all will have councilors that will occasionally pop up that will need to be made to decide how your empire will become. From allowing conscription in the army, to building new roads, or allowing gay marriage, the decisions you make will show how they affect the empire, and how the people feel about you, one decision might favor the elves, but the undead will hate it. At a high approval of one faction, that faction will want to push a decision that the others will deny but will increase say gold production.
Easily the most played is this section, but besides politics, you can get married, in chapter 2, you must choose a wife form the races, who will have her own goals and story. One might ask to help deal with issues of familial persuasion, while another will either be encourages to uphold her race's ideals, or to become more pragmatic when dealing with other races. The princess you marry will have their own story and will change depending on the choice, in terms of personality and also physically in terms of the outfit...in one's case, her entire body can change and even her race (won't spoil, but you should check)
Now, as for combat, you can choose whether to fight in auto resolve, or RTS, in which you can send enemies to capture and destroy your opponent by building units. However, this can be factored and changed, sometimes RTS matches can work, otherwise auto-resolve is the way to go, as the map's tend to be the same differently, so a map may end up favoring you, or not. In the Risk map, you build armies and also your economy this way by building on a area, one area may have a high science output so building an Academy can boost it, same with gold. Cards can be used to help your empire flourish with card to boost your gains, while also undermining the other empire with debuffs or even sabotaging them.
the ending is the same, but how you go about it is the joy of this game, and depending on your views of the world and politics, no too paths are the same, encouraging replay-ability. The game is shot, but rewarding, even if it was rushed. There was a lot of cut content form the game, and i hope is Larian studios remakes this game, that they add the cut content in it and make it more fun and polished. all in all, i recommend this for those who want a strategy game with a deep and surprisingly thought provoking story and cast.
