Divinity 2 IS a very good example of what high fantasy RPGs should strive for: A dense, living world with all unique characters and small stories to tell at every corner. Wherever you go you'll find someone to meet or a conversation to listen to, it might devolve into combat or not, you might be rewarded or create an even bigger mess than what you started with!
I've spent a good while exploring all the locations you journey through, amassing a whole 120 hours in my first campaign, and potentially seeing about somewhat more than half the content available. Lots of interesting characters are always nearby, ready to provide you hints about the world surrounding you or directing you to a quest altogether, of the which almost all of them feel handcrafted and unique, with plenty of different outcomes. Whereas I found the 2nd act's location to be the one most rich on missions, you'll never feel like you're roaming empty space of wasting time by pointlessly walking in search of something to do, or at least I always found myself discovering new things everywhere I went.

Quicksave is always possible, of course, but I've found that Divinity 2 is most enjoyable by living with your mistakes, although, sadly, a few encounters in the game that might surprise you can be hard to clutch, and very few times it'll be a necessity to engage combat with previous planning, even though in a roleplaying sense you should face them with no previous knowledge, but luckily this is mitigated in the late game.
Talking about combat, how is it? It's fun, it has depth and it most certainly doesn't hold a punch back.Once more, save often, before every battle you might expect: If your enemies can make a move that'll ♥♥♥♥ you over, they most certainly will do it, but you have all the same tools they do as well. Divinity 2 allows you to play clever very often with a very small elements/surface systems, which allows you to set oil and poison alight, put it off with water, blood or ice, creating vision-obstructing smoke or steam that you can electrify, as you could as well with blood and water. This small mechanic along the positioning, the wide repertorie of skills for every school of magic and synergies they might have, and plenty more for melee as well make combat rich and deep, and even though source spells are a bit more scarce, their special effects plus the effect of curses and blessings on these substances will allow you to gamble the creation of healing fountains for your heroes that foes might potentially use, or that can be cursed to not only to remove thier benign effects, but also to instead grant debuffs.

Story wise, the game is pretty straightforwad while it directs you to divinity, although the way other characters and factions see the acquisition of the so desired throne of the Divine and their methods are where the juice is at, as all of them have different motives and wishes to grant not only for themselves, but to shape all of Rivellon in order to see them done. Make no mistake though, the closer you approach to the seat of power, the more you'll have to consider once the fate of the world rests on your hands.

About your character, I personally found the visual customization to be rather simple and not too interesting, but it heavily compensates with the depth your character can be created with. Plenty of magical schools, attributes, talents and even tags that'll shape your avatar's personality are key pieces to the immersion of roleplaying, not forgetting the wide options available on dialogues. While you might see the different schools as something that only defines the skills you have access to, I think they can still mean something more: A character of a noble background might be someone at a seat of power, but if you decided you'd invest into the scoundrel abilities, the which allow you to sneakily take down foes, that might mean they earned and keep their spot in the hierarchy with the help of dirty deeds, made by their own hands.

After playing through Divinity 2 I can safely say that this is one of, if not the best experience I've had with a turn-based Roleplaying Game. This is probably the closest you can get to a pen-and-paper RPG experience in a videogame, and it's helped me satisfy it, considering my bad luck for never having more than session 1 at any DnD/Pathfinder group I've met with for factors out of my control.

10/10
Perfection is subjective, and for me, a mistake or two are barely a consideration in the grand scheme of things, and this masterpiece sure is grand.

Divinity 2 IS a very good example of what high fantasy RPGs should strive for: A dense, living world with all unique characters and small stories to tell at every corner. Wherever you go you'll find someone to meet or a conversation to listen to, it might devolve into combat or not, you might be rewarded or create an even bigger mess than what you started with! I've spent a good while exploring all the locations you journey through, amassing a whole 120 hours in my first campaign, and potentially seeing about somewhat more than half the content available. Lots of interesting characters are always nearby, ready to provide you hints about the world surrounding you or directing you to a quest altogether, of the which almost all of them feel handcrafted and unique, with plenty of different outcomes. Whereas I found the 2nd act's location to be the one most rich on missions, you'll never feel like you're roaming empty space of wasting time by pointlessly walking in search of something to do, or at least I always found myself discovering new things everywhere I went. Quicksave is always possible, of course, but I've found that Divinity 2 is most enjoyable by living with your mistakes, although, sadly, a few encounters in the game that might surprise you can be hard to clutch, and very few times it'll be a necessity to engage combat with previous planning, even though in a roleplaying sense you should face them with no previous knowledge, but luckily this is mitigated in the late game. Talking about combat, how is it? It's fun, it has depth and it most certainly doesn't hold a punch back.Once more, save often, before every battle you might expect: If your enemies can make a move that'll fuck you over, they most certainly will do it, but you have all the same tools they do as well. Divinity 2 allows you to play clever very often with a very small elements/surface systems, which allows you to set oil and poison alight, put it off with water, blood or ice, creating vision-obstructing smoke or steam that you can electrify, as you could as well with blood and water. This small mechanic along the positioning, the wide repertorie of skills for every school of magic and synergies they might have, and plenty more for melee as well make combat rich and deep, and even though source spells are a bit more scarce, their special effects plus the effect of curses and blessings on these substances will allow you to gamble the creation of healing fountains for your heroes that foes might potentially use, or that can be cursed to not only to remove thier benign effects, but also to instead grant debuffs. Story wise, the game is pretty straightforwad while it directs you to divinity, although the way other characters and factions see the acquisition of the so desired throne of the Divine and their methods are where the juice is at, as all of them have different motives and wishes to grant not only for themselves, but to shape all of Rivellon in order to see them done. Make no mistake though, the closer you approach to the seat of power, the more you'll have to consider once the fate of the world rests on your hands. About your character, I personally found the visual customization to be rather simple and not too interesting, but it heavily compensates with the depth your character can be created with. Plenty of magical schools, attributes, talents and even tags that'll shape your avatar's personality are key pieces to the immersion of roleplaying, not forgetting the wide options available on dialogues. While you might see the different schools as something that only defines the skills you have access to, I think they can still mean something more: A character of a noble background might be someone at a seat of power, but if you decided you'd invest into the scoundrel abilities, the which allow you to sneakily take down foes, that might mean they earned and keep their spot in the hierarchy with the help of dirty deeds, made by their own hands. After playing through Divinity 2 I can safely say that this is one of, if not the best experience I've had with a turn-based Roleplaying Game. This is probably the closest you can get to a pen-and-paper RPG experience in a videogame, and it's helped me satisfy it, considering my bad luck for never having more than session 1 at any DnD/Pathfinder group I've met with for factors out of my control. 10/10 Perfection is subjective, and for me, a mistake or two are barely a consideration in the grand scheme of things, and this masterpiece sure is grand.