Divinity: Dragon Commander Previews

We have rounded up three new previews for Larian’s Divinity: Dragon Commander, which hopefully should help our readers getting a more complete picture of the title, if the previous coverage wasn’t enough.

BeefJack:

What’s great about playing as the dragon is that you barely feel in control: this is strange praise, but it adds to the feeling that you are part of a wider-ranging army, as well as contributing to the frantic nature of combat that you’d expect having strapped a jetpack to a dragon. Attached jets propel you quickly across the battlefield at a dizzying pace, meaning you have a barely coherent understanding of the battle in this mode.

Divinity: Dragon Commander would benefit from transitioning effects between the RTS side of things and becoming a dragon. It’s unspectacular the way you simply spawn as your winged-destroyer-of-homesick-grunts. There needs to be more fanfare, something that embraces the silliness of what you’re actually partaking in. By the time the game is released, I dearly hope you are greeted with something just as absurd as the premise upon transforming; perhaps ‘˜DRAGON TIME’ emblazons your screen, along with multiple explosions and an action-film voiceover, to emphasise just how ridiculous controlling the dragon truly is.

The biggest danger Dragon Commander faces is balancing. At this stage, dragons seem considerably overpowered compared to other standard units. Dragons belittle the other units, bullying various squads by raining down rockets. Larian Studios have the difficult task of preserving the powerful feeling that accompanies a dragon and the impact they should rightfully have on the battlefield, while making the fight doesn’t become unbalanced and unfair whenever one pops up. Not an easy task, by all means.

GamesRadar:

In the campaign, a large portion of the game involves playing nice with your political colleagues. These NPCs help you command your empire and act as representatives of factions living throughout the land, which include the fleshless Undead, hippie-like elves, conservative dwarves, tech-savvy Imps, and the self-righteous Lizard race. Random situations present themselves after each turn of the strategy portion of the game, which range from legalizing gay marriage to implementing robbery and self-defense laws. You have to decide how to handle each situation through a series of dialogue options and discussion with other characters. Often, your decision will strengthen your relationship with certain parties while causing others to dislike you, giving every choice considerable weight.

How you handle the game’s politics determines which race’s bonus abilities you’ll have access to. For instance, making the Imps happy will eventually earn the ability to research nuclear missiles and launch them during combat (clearly, this is not your typical fantasy setting). Other races like the Dwarves will help you maintain a steady flow of finances to fund your conquests. Between the politicians, military generals, and your chosen wife, there are a lot of interests to keep in mind with each decision. Also, depending on which races you aim to please for their respective resources, you may be forced to go against your personal convictions, which feels disturbingly thrilling.

Co-Optimus:

The following mechanics involving troop management and combat are the meat of both the single player and multiplayer portions of the game. I was able to team up with another person and together we commanded our own armies against another team of two. Our turn began with a view of a whimsical map divided into territories. In each territory was a number, usually around 1600. We learned that the number represented the number of troops that a territory contained. This is vital to the mechanic of combat. We had a starting income, and a number that represented our incoming income for the next turn. We also had a few starter units such as the hunter or heavy armor. I moved the units out of my starting territory and “controlled” the territories they went to. With my income, I purchased some naval ships and land units and moved them around as well. Additionally, I purchased some technology that would bolster the power of my anti-air units. Finally, I took a look at my starting cards. When I ended my turn, the game waited for the other players to end their turns. When everything was finished, I was privy to the places where everyone moved their units. My ally happened to move to a territory that our opponent moved to, so all four of us were thrust into battle.

All four of us were able to battle in a RTS environment. Our starting units, if we had any, were what we moved around the RTS map. There are numerous buildings to capture, including towers and recruitment centers. By controlling more of the structures, you gain the ability to recruit more forces for that particular battle. Remember that 1600 number on the territory map from before? That was the total number of recruits available on the map from which to draw from. So the battle rages for control of recruitment centers and building from which you can transform them into barracks, naval centers, or other buildings. These allow you to keep producing troops…