I mean, the game is amazing, has amazing dialogues, atmosphere and all that, but damn… the combat is surely a downer. Feels like theres no “real” tactic to the game other than just keep on (mindlessly) trying until the battle is won. And yes, I’ve done all quests, sidequests, with a “non-meme” party on the balanced difficulty and I’m -still- having lots of “please don’t use (x) skill or else my whole run is done for” moments.
That’s why I don’t like Larian games. It’s the same bullshit shtick that they used for both Divinity games. There’s no nuance to the battles, it’s just fighting against a vindictive DM that knows all of your weaknesses…and exploits the absolute fuck out of them. I hated it so much in Divinity OS2 that I couldn’t even finish the game. It was painful having to slog through some of if the fights to the point that I just began dreading them.
Don’t they have an story mode for people that don’t like the strategy part of the strategy RPG?
Honestly mate? Chuck the difficulty down if you’re struggling. It’s a single player game, there’s no reason to slog through on a higher difficulty than what you find fun.
That said, if you’re just bashing your head against a wall, it’s likely you’re making some pretty big errors in the combat. The game is designed to be challenging, but not strictly cruel. Always ensure you’re taking time to reposition your party and take advantage of your environment. Astarion and his sneak attacks from the shadows carried my party through some really challenging fights, not to mention the massive benefits that chokepoints bring.
To put it another way, if everywhere you go smells of shit, you might wanna check your boot.