The strategy maps have the flat appearance and simple rules of a board game. The hand-drawn styling has some nice, etched details, but overall there’s not a lot of information to convey. Territories only bring in a small amount of gold and research points. A single, non-upgradeable building can be placed in each, providing a flat bonus to those resources and/or generate various cards. Capturing an unoccupied territory is as easy as moving a unit onto that space. There is no diplomacy – politics aboard the Raven are solely about managing your empire – and every enemy must be defeated.
Every player can use cards during both gameplay phases. On the strategy map, these grant bonuses for your empire or sabotage the population and production of your enemies. Those only last a single turn, however, and so their effects don’t feel like they have any major impact. That lack of weight isn’t aided by an artificial intelligence that doesn’t take chances. Divinity: Dragon Commander‘s limited options make it a game about numbers. And despite the AI’s penchant for building up large armies quickly, it rarely sends the bulk of its forces against you in the normal difficulties. Much of the time spent in this phase consists of building a bigger army, occasionally fighting small skirmishes until you have enough troops to push to their capitol.
Navigating the map isn’t lacking in any enjoyment, though. The cogs still turned in my head as I planned my route to victory across Rivellon’s numerous territories and neighboring islands. Multiple fronts against multiple enemies, as well as a rather unfriendly starting position on its larger, second map, required some thought in where to position my troops. It’s just not a particularly difficult nor exciting challenge once a foothold is established.
When opposing units occupy the same territory, a real-time battle can be fought; and like the strategy map, the response is a little tepid. At the start of combat, you control a single base with a recruitment citadel – buildings responsible for draining the shared population to your side and granting you a resource to recruit units – and empty, designated slots for constructing the factories responsible for building those units. Dotted across the maps are neutral bases. In order to win, you’ll have to strangle the enemy’s supply of recruits by capturing more of those bases, building recruitment citadels and destroying theirs.
That too is a rather uncomplicated affair. Divinity: Dragon Commander‘s real-time combat consists of amassing a large group of units, pointing them toward the enemy, and then watching them trade blows until only one is left standing. There’s not much in the way of strategy other than mob mentality or filling the ranks with more expensive, heavy units than your foe has fielded. Units do have advanced abilities, as well as rock-paper-scissors traits, but it can be difficult to utilize them effectively when your army is a writhing, dumb clump. Additionally, everyone’s units are the same, so the opposing clumps never look nor behave any different than your own.
The artificial intelligence is again predictable. They’ll follow the same paths every time, making it quite easy to counter their routines. And with a basic combat model, it becomes a repetitive exercise, especially when repeatedly fighting on the same map. It’s far too tempting to reach for the auto-resolve options – these consist of your four generals, which increase the odds of success at a small price in gold, or the imperial army for no cost but no bonus. That’s a disappointingly a dire choice, however. It’s possible to capture absolute victory even when the game predicts a 0% chance to win.
If you’re out-numbered, there are two ways to balance the scales. Cards can be played before loading into the battle that grant bonuses to specific units, debuff the enemy’s or employ extra troops at the start of the fight. The other is the ability to take direct control of a dragon, which is quite possibly combat’s saving grace. Equipped with a jet pack, you can fly at blinding speeds across battlefields. At first it’s quite fragile, but as upgrades and new abilities are researched, the dragon becomes a powerful tool. It’s quite a bit of fun decimating scores of units yourself to turn the tides. Basic orders can also be given in this form, though you’ll have to exit it to do anything more complex than directing your army to a target.
Divinity: Dragon Commander does feature online co-operative and competitive multiplayer between skirmish and campaign modes. Being able to strategize with a friend makes the turn-based and real-time phases more enjoyable. But multiplayer lacks that flagship vessel and its content from the single-player campaign. Without it, my friend and I quickly became bored of simple conquest.
Larian Studios has done some wonderful, charming work on Divinity: Dragon Commander. The political and personal decisions made between generals, diplomats and queens create a web of reactions that are fun to follow. It wasn’t difficult to become invested with the personalities and stories of those characters. It’s almost worth recommending the game on that content alone. But that’s only one portion of the experience, the other two of which aren’t nearly as rewarding. Despite its flaws, this is a direction for the franchise I want to see more of, and I can’t wait to get back to championing the rights of naked dwarves and undead artists across Rivellon.
Final Verdict
7.5 out of 10
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
