So, Divinity is a major thing now that Larian Studios announced a new game during the Game Awards ceremony, and now new players benefit from another benefit from the company: the last game, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is getting a free Enhanced Edition upgrade for whoever was already an owner of the base game.
Bear in mind, this freebie of sorts is available for console players, pertaining PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X and Nintendo Switch 2.
The announcement came in a new trailer that, for some reason, fails to list any technological advancements of the new edition on modern day platforms, so let’s dive into that. But first, you can watch the video yourself — just hit “Play” below:
Divinity: Original Sin 2 x Enhanced Edition: what are the differences
Between its base edition and its enhanced version, Divinity: Original Sin 2 brought a lot of updates…for free at the time of its release. And not just quality of life stuff either: not only there was a lot of new story-based content, but gameplay was tweaked and tweaked in order to bring a more refined playing experience for both old and new users.
Here’s a full breakdown:
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Balance and Combat Changes
- Skills/Abilities: Skills were extensively rebalanced, generally reducing the effectiveness of high-burst Area of Effect (AoE) abilities while boosting utility and Damage over Time (DoT) skills.
- Lone Wolf Trait: The character points gained from the Lone Wolf talent were capped at normal maximums to prevent excessive min-maxing and balance.
- Status Effects: New mechanics allow some healing spells to benefit from combat-focused critical stats and certain status effects (like Torturer) to pierce armor.
- Summons and Totems: The power of summoned creatures and totems was increased by having them scale with the user’s Intelligence stat.
- AI Improvements: Enemy AI was made smarter, especially regarding targeting player reflections and using healing abilities.
- Difficulty Scaling: The Tactician difficulty mode was re-scaled with growing enemy stats and increased enemy Dodge chance.
- Progression Speed: Overall experience gain, particularly in later acts, was reduced to slow down the leveling curve and smooth out progression spikes.
Content and Story Enhancements
- Late-Game Expansion: The game’s later acts (Reaper’s Coast and Arx) received major expansions, adding approximately 10 hours of new gameplay, quests, and improved NPC connections for better story coherence.
- New Gear: Four new powerful gear sets were added through quests, known as the Relics of Rivellon.
- Dialogue and Writing: Over 250,000 words of dialogue were refined and re-recorded to improve clarity, origin stories (like Sebille’s), and the game’s overall narrative flow.
- Godwoken Fate: The story was adjusted so Godwoken characters not recruited into the player’s party are cursed instead of being granted a divine blessing.
- Accessibility: A “Story Mode” difficulty was added for players prioritizing narrative over combat challenge.
UI, Performance, and QoL
- Performance: Physics calculations and surface effects (like fire) were made up to four times faster, and file sizes were reduced.
- Visuals: Support for 4K resolution and High Dynamic Range (HDR) visuals was added.
- User Interface (UI) Upgrades:
- Inventory: The party’s inventories can now be viewed side-by-side, and players can bulk-send or sell “Wares.”
- Tooltips: Improved tooltips for skills and environmental surfaces.
- Journal: The journal was reworked, splitting it into separate sections for active quests and general lore/notes.
- Quality of Life (QoL) Enhancements:
- Shared Resources: Items like lockpicks and the effects of the Lucky Charm talent are now shared across the entire party.
- Travel: Fast travel waypoints were streamlined.
- Crafting: The crafting system and recipe books were overhauled.
Economy and Progression
- Trader Prices: Prices for unique items and armor were tuned to better reflect their utility and value in the in-game economy.
- Experience Points (XP): XP gains were reduced in later acts (Reaper’s Coast and the Council area) to create a slower, smoother progression curve and prevent over-leveling.
- Item Utility: Items were repriced and their utility adjusted; for instance, wands now create elemental surfaces on the ground.
