I recommend “Divinity: Dragon Commander” to those who enjoy story and a mash up keystone genres to command and conquer as a dragon, a dragon with a jet pack no less.
“Divinity: Dragon Commander” is under the copyright of Larian Studios. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO GAME TITLE: Divinity: Dragon Commander for the PC
TYPE OF GAME: Action/RPG/Strategy
PLATFORM: Steam
PLATFORM GAME REVIEWED: STEAM PC GAME
DEVELOPER: Larian Studios
PUBLISHER:Â Larian Studios
RELEASE DATE: August 9, 2013
You are the Dragon Commander. Your mission it is to reunite a broken empire and become the new emperor. Success depends entirely on your ability to efficiently rule your empire, build invincible armies and lead them to victory.
Larian Studios comes through with their latest “Divinity” video game.
Finely blending combination of strategy and RPG elements with a sprinkle of real time strategy gameplay. “Divinity: Dragon Commander” is the name and dragon commanding is the game from outsmarting other nations by cards or clever unit placement to commanding armies on the battle field first hand to making hard decisions in the political arena. With a world torn by treachery and heavy war machinery only the Dragon prince can hope to have the final say.
Overall gameplay focuses on role-playing as the Dragon prince turn “Dragon Commander” utilizing strategy, RTS, and role playing all in one package. As the last loyal of kin it turns to you to reclaim the kingdom from your treacherous brothers through strategy and a large commanding force.
Though you do not stand alone as many who join you along the way offer advantages such as upgrades and the ability to turn the tides with enhanced speed in battle or sleight of hand on the world map.
Strategy when commanding units and the like on the world map is simple enough with actions such as moving units, building units, and making various types of buildings. On this map you also have cards available to buff your own economy or attack another nations economy. Each turn taken gives gold used for units and research points used to upgrade either your dragon form or to buy and upgrade various units.
With each turn your opponents also move, upgrade units, and use cards against you. While simplistic in comparison to pure strategy games that have more depth such as assassination and counsel management, it is only one part of the three part package.
“Dragon Commander” utilizes RTS gameplay to decide battles when you choose to take the battlefield yourself. Each unit has advantages and disadvantages with some having abilities to turn the tides quickly in your favor. Building in the game is straightforward purchasing buildings using recruits and gold to build more units to siege your opponent.
Aside from the air and land units, sea units are helpful to assassinate an enemy building or provide much needed support near the shores. With all this said there still remains the one unit you can employ at the cost of recruits: the Dragon. Each time you summon your hero unit you have abilities to buff and debuff units, firepower, and a jet pack to zoom across the field to key points. All this allows for an enjoyable alternative the usual strategy game combat.
Although like it’s strategy counterpart, it lacks in comparison to the purebred RTS games which either point may turn away those looking for the whole experience when it comes to specific genres. I find it lacking due to the structured RTS gameplay where you can’t choose where to build buildings and at times end up mobbing for the win rather than a clutch maneuver. Difficulty increase could circumvent these cheese tactics, but still remains to be seen whether or not it would make difference.
Even though the game can feel like Jack of All Trades and master of neither, the story and role playing involved picks up the slack. You as the dragon prince have multitudes of choices and can shape the future kingdom how you see fit.
In the political arena, you allow or disallow touchy subjects such as drug usage, same-sex marriage, and wages for those you have dominion over. Relationships with your wife and your generals are also greatly influenced by some of your political decisions as well as dialogue choices with them could end with any one of them not enjoying your company. For those who enjoy going down an evil path, are also properly satisfied as there are options to deal in dark magics to give you an edge at a cost.
Those who enjoy the good path can skip the dark magics and make whatever choices add to the overall betterment of the kingdom. In the instance you are unsure of how someone will react to your choices each turn, you can save before then to ensure that it won’t be permanent damage to your save meant for doing only good, evil, or neutral. With so many choices, compelling role playing, and influential actions makes the RPG aspect of “Dragon Commander” stand out above all else.
Controls are straightforward such as clicking and scrolling to select units and keyboard bindings to use abilities and issue commands.
Which is better, keyboard or controller pad?
There appears to be no controller support as this game was only released on PC, and with RTS combat would be better to stick with keyboard and mouse either way. No noticeable problems with unresponsive controls.
Graphics are outstanding with the amount of detail of the various characters met and the landscape of every battlefield you fight on. With noticeable subtleties such as trees crashing down as your machinery crosses over them or facial expressions and hair movement.
Surround sound audio seems to be a great asset when battling it out on the field as everything seems to explode immersing you more into the game. Audio is clear cut with no noticeable discrepancies allowing for an enjoyable audio experience.
“Dragon Commander” has some a bit more replay value than most story games out there as different paths are available as you decide how to rule your kingdom. There is also a multiplayer battle system where you can duke it out against other dragon princes and co-op campaign for those who prefer playing with friends as they conquer each nation.
All wrapped up in one package “Dragon Commander” is a worthwhile game. While it may not appeal to those hardcore to the various genres mixed together, it still allows plenty of fun by appealing to a multitude of different players.
I recommend “Divinity: Dragon Commander” to those who enjoy story and a mash up keystone genres to command and conquer as a dragon, a dragon with a jet pack no less.
PROS:
+ Story/RPG heavy
+ Influential choice system
+ Save system for strategic errors and progress
+ Combination of complimentary genres
NEGATIVES:
– Lack of depth when it comes to RTS and strategy
