Not content with the 9/10 we gave Divinity: Original Sin 2 upon its release in September last year, Larian has spent many of the months since reworking elements of its landmark RPG. The results come to PC on August 31 in the form of a new Definitive Edition – or, as it should have been called in homage to the studio’s first game, Defined Definity. I’m prepared to die on this hill.The update, like the one Original Sin enjoyed before it, brings change by the literal boatload. Some improvements are in response to fan feedback, like a reworked final act for the campaign, which now hosts several new fights.Others are convenience tweaks you might never have thought to ask for, including a clearer journal and shared party inventory. The upgrade is completely free for those who already own the game, which makes the purchasing decision easy for the many among you who picked up this Steam bestseller already. But, of course, there’s another significant investment involved in playing this uncompromising RPG: time. Is another 50 or 100 hours of this experience worth it?Story ModeWhile Classic Mode is officially considered Divinity: Original Sin 2’s ‘normal’ difficulty, it’s far more demanding than the ‘normal’ you might find in any triple-A RPG.

• Nexus 2 Free Download

Nexus 2 Free Download

The blurb asks for cunning, resourcefulness, and preparedness. It also, in my experience, requires a certain amount of selective roleplaying. Killing off or ditching too many of Fort Joy’s potential companions in the first act can leave you with a severely underpowered party that will struggle to brute force their way through some of Divinity 2’s difficulty spikes.The Explorer Mode proved more forgiving, designed to still “reward clever thinking in and out of battle.” But it didn’t go nearly as far as the lowest rung of difficulty in Divinity’s peers – the Story Time Mode in Pillars of Eternity, or Story Mode in Beamdog’s Baldur’s Gate remasters. The latter went so far as to make death impossible, removing the tactical experience entirely. Secret sourceFor those particularly keen on Divinity's combat system, the PvP Arena mode has been expanded with new characters and game-changing Mutators - like suddenly-sprouting wings.Divinity: Original Sin 2 now has its own Story Mode.

True to Larian style, it’s not a total walkover – death is still a pertinent concern, as my earliest battles have made evident. But it makes fleeing and resurrection easier, and is specifically designed to showcase “the fun and the fantasy, not rigorous challenge.” Given that Divinity’s routinely gruelling battles might otherwise prevent newcomers from seeing the inventive quests and wonderful character writing of Original Sin 2, that can only be a good thing.Old faces, new voicesLarian has re-recorded 150,000 words of Original Sin 2’s script for the new edition. And in the opening minutes of the game, I’m struggling to work out why that is. The game’s existing voiceover were largely respectable and, sometimes, even inspired. The addition of companion voices when the game left early access, for instance, transformed Lohse in particular from a try-hard clown into a layered and genuinely funny supporting character.It’s not clear what has qualified certain lines for a do-over where others have been left as they were. As far as I can tell, the game’s very first conversation with a Magister is identical in script and tone – yet entirely re-recorded. By contrast, those with the guards on the next door remain untouched, as does a subsequent exchange with the Yorkshire-accented Magister investigating a killing.

I was treated to a very human-like sheep bleatingPresumably, there are factors beyond my ken at work here – minor script tweaks, perhaps, or original actors who couldn’t make it to new sessions. But from an outside perspective some of these decisions are mystifying, if harmless.Mercifully, Larian hasn’t fiddled with the excellent narration of the descriptive passages in Divinity’s dialogue. And I was treated to a very human-like bleating from a sheep this time around, which is a strong contender for the most Divinity thing in Divinity.Crate trainingDivinity: Original Sin 2 begins with your passage by prison ship to an island where magic-users are banished. Here’s what I’ll say about that ship: it must be very tall. Larian has added a new tutorial, and the way this has been managed is by shifting the lowest deck one floor up, so as to make room for a new tutorial area underneath. It’s a charmingly simple solution and one that makes for a friendlier introduction to the game as a whole.I particularly like the fact that it starts by asking you to move a bunch of boxes stacked against a door.

Divinity’s interactivity, bolstered by a new physics engine in the Definitive Edition, is the calling card of the series. In fact, there are a couple of decks of cards in the tutorial you can chuck around should you wish.Perhaps the most important addition with this new tutorial is how it teaches you to explore the nooks and crannies that would be window dressing in other RPGs, exposing the game as the sprawling environmental puzzle it really is.Divinity’s complex combat gets a brief but proper showing too, and Larian’s personality is unmistakable, even in training.

Combo effects are introduced via a sleeping Magister, who has foolishly planted his chair in a puddle, just an arm’s reach away from a spare Electric Discharge scroll. And, without spoiling anything, the studio can’t resist teaching you a painful lesson in letting your guard down after a fight.It’s all over in a few minutes, and should help any new player get to grips with the intimidating depth that can make starting your first Divinity game feel like falling into a well. Meanwhile, those on a second playthrough can simply climb the ladder to the next level, avoiding the rigmarole entirely. Perhaps every game should have a tutorial deck.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is, but that doesn’t mean mods can’t make it even better. With its robust editing tools and intuitive Game Master mode, expect to see lots of tweaks, new features and entire campaigns in the future. We’ll be updating this list over time, but we’ve already found plenty of helpful mods. Here are the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods so far.Free pet pal The pet pal talent is objectively and irrefutably the best ability in the game.

Giving you the power to talk to critters, it’s an endless source of jokes, hints and hidden quests. By not picking it, you’d be missing out on many of the adventure’s greatest moments. This mod simply makes it a free ability, so you can use it straight away without being forced to pick between it and one of the many other handy talents. You’ll be able to blather away with Rivellon’s chatty animals to your heart’s content.

An update to the mod also makes it affect everyone in your party, not just your character.Expanded party size Original Sin 2’s companions are all worth bringing along on your journey, adding elaborate personal quests to your journal that span the game and providing plenty of roleplaying opportunities. Unfortunately, with the maximum party size of four, you’ll have to leave at least two of them behind. The expanded party size mod, not surprisingly, lets you take all of them with you.

There are some minor UI and dialogue issues, but nothing game breaking. Combat will be a bit unbalanced, however, so you might want to consider a higher difficulty.Infinite spirit visionSpirit vision lets you strike up a conversation with ghosts, opening up new ways to solve quests. It’s basically pet pal with spectres. Unlike pet pal, however, it’s an ability you have to cast, and it doesn’t last forever.

This makes it easy to forget that there could be several more characters floating about. Infinite spirit vision keeps it on all the time, effectively making it a passive ability. If you’re in an area that’s haunted, there’s no faffing required, and you’ll notice right away.

The original mod has vanished from Steam and Nexus, but this newer one comes with an expanded radius so you’ll see ghosts that are further away.Origin and racial skill books Several skills in Original Sin 2 are exclusive to specific races and character origins. It’s one of the few restrictions in what is an otherwise very flexible, classless system. The origin and racial skill books mod makes these skills unlockable in the same way as all the others by turning them into skill books. This includes pet summons, so you’ll be able to make a custom character that can control Ifan’s wolf and the Red Prince’s dragonling, but it doesn’t include the abilities granted by Fane’s Shapeshifter’s Mask.

The skill books can be found in specific book shelves. The mod is no longer being updated as of December 2017.Artificer and Bard skills This mod adds a whopping 50 new skills to the game.

They can be mixed and matched with other skills or used to create Bard and Artificer characters. The Bard skills call to mind its D&D counterpart, revolving around buffing and debuffing, but the cherry on top is the weaponised lute you can get your hands on. Artificer skills are based around messing with items, like duplicating potions and cursing objects, handy both in and out of combat. Both of these skill sets are great for support characters.Tempest skillsSpears are kind of weird in Original Sin 2.

They’re finesse weapons, but unlike daggers and bows, they don’t have any skills specifically associated with them. Unless you download the Tempest skill pack, that is. This mod gives spears piercing damage, bypassing armour, and also introduces ten spear-based skills that run the gamut from simple jabs to summoning an intimidating barrage of spears.Chronicles of Divinity map collection If you’d rather kick off a campaign without building every single map yourself, the Chronicles of Divinity map collection adds 12 new maps for GMs to throw into their games or tweak to their heart’s content. The collection includes a dingy pirate’s cove, an ancient Elven forest and a prison filled with lava. More maps are being added, including an alternate version of Fort Joy. The maps all come from the in-development Chronicles of Divinity mod, an unofficial expansion to the main game that introduces new classes, quests and the ability to sail around in your very own ship.Combat sneak By reducing the AP cost of sneaking in the middle of a fight down to two, the combat sneak mod makes stealth a viable combat tactic. At 4 AP, it's normally too expensive to make it all that useful.

You'll still need to watch out for archers who might spot you, of course, and you'll want to take advantage of cover and stay out of the red view radius while you're sneaking up on your targets or getting out of dangerous situations. This mod is particularly useful if you take the Guerilla perk, which increases damage by 40% when attacking from stealth.JRavens GM Toolkit While the GM mode comes with a mountain of assets—everything from incidental props and window dressing to ships and castles— you can never have too many toys to play with when you're building your very own campaign. This toolkit expansion adds hundreds of items, both entirely new and stuff that Larian created but either didn't finish or left out of the final version. It also makes the maps larger and more customisable, letting you remove previously fixed elements like rocks and trees. Particularly handy are the empty maps that allow you to create custom areas for your campaign without the need to make them on the separate editor. The mod is still in development, but its creator has been fixing bugs. They recommend starting a new campaign rather than using it in a pre-existing one.Void Knight Another new class mod, Void Knight introduces a slew of skills that combine martial and magical attacks that debuff any unfortunate enemies that get in their way.

There are skills for strength-based warriors, including knockdowns, charges and leaps, but these are joined by magical abilities that summon shadows and transform the caster into a void dragon. It's a broad set of skills, but the void mark system lends the class some cohesion. Certain attacks apply a void mark on enemies, cursing them and reducing their resistances, and when the number of void marks on a target hits four it empowers that skill. You’ll be able to make a Void Knight in character creation, but you can also pick up the skills from a vendor in Fort Joy and, later, on the Lady Vengeance.Crafting overhaul If you’ve found the perfect set of armour but hate the colour, or if you desperately need to craft a sword in the middle of the woods, then the crafting overhaul mod has you covered.

Along with more than 1600 new crafting recipes and over 550 new items, it introduces armour dyes, unique craftable gear, fancy elemental weapons and extra conveniences like portable crafting stations and bags. And you’ll also be able to get your hands on the grisly corpse harvester: a weapon that lets you harvest parts from the corpses of your fallen enemies. And why would you need body parts? To craft new items, of course. I suspect Fane’s a big fan of this nasty piece of kit.