I am typing this just after beating the Void Dragon in Divinity Original Sin. The last fight was quite fun. Maybe not the best boss fight of the game, but certainly enjoyable. I died once, or better said, I led Astarte die once. The fight required specific tactics which slightly differed from some of the other important fights in the game. And that’s definitely one thing that makes the fights in DOS enjoyable: Most need their own tactics. The first time, I mostly ignored the summoned creatures and focused on destroying the main boss. But if you get too close to him, he unleashes some very nasty spells. And the other baddies kill your party. So the second time I focused on killing the creatures, protecting Astarte and keeping the dragon occupied by a summoned spider and skeleton. That worked and now the game is over. After spending almost 80 hours on it, I’m not too sad to end it. There are still quests that I didn’t do, but I’m not a completionist, so I’ll leave it at this.

The only negative feelings I have regarding this game is the last part with all the puzzles getting keys to go through the maze. I didn’t enjoy this and resorted to a walkthrough. After spending so much time on a game, I didn’t want to spent many hours of trial and error. It reminded me of the last part of Ultima VII: The Serpent’s Ilse, where you have to place all the things on the right altars. Boring! At such a late part in the game, you just want to get on with it.

Luckily the last three fights after that part were enjoyable: The fight with Leandra, the fight with the death knights, and the final boss. Especially the fight with the knights was fun: If you know what you are doing and pass the wand around, you just make them disappear: It’s not only the dialogue that’s funny in this game.

I’ll certainly have fond memories of the tactical combat in this game, the funny dialogue and some fun quests and memorable characters. I have the excellent soundtrack on CD and that will help bring back those memories.

Overall conclusion: I liked it very much. More than Dragon Age Inquisition. About as much as Dragon Age Origins, which is high praise indeed. Maybe not as much as The Witcher III and Skyrim, but that’s largely because of the overhead view. I simply like first person view better. And Dragon Age Origins (on pc at least) proves that that is feasible.

Now I can back to playing A Hat in Time. I played already for a couple of hours. It’s a great throwback to Mario 64. More enjoyable than Yooka-Laylee. I look forward to playing Divinity Original Sin II, but I’m a little fatigued and wait a couple of months. Now I can suspend my Geforce Now Priority subscription…