I just read the news. PC players who already bought the first release of Original Sin 2 will get everything console players get for free in August. There are some mild spoilers in the article.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/interview-what-went-into-making-divinity-original-sin-2s-definitive-edition/

The pre-order bonus Sir Lora for PS4 and Xbox One will come here?

Contrary to what that article says, D:OS 2 is certainly not better than D:OS 1 EE.

Among other things, D:OS 2's combat is abysmal and vastly inferior to D:OS 1 EE's amazing combat. That's a major de-enchancement from the first game to the second. I've never seen the devs mention that they are going to fix that in D:OS 2 DE.

I give them credit for not shafting original purchasers of the game though, by charging them again for the DE, as many other devs would do.

What did they change that was so bad?

Care to elaborate? I've only played D:OSEE and i've been waiting for the price of D:OS2 to drop before purchasing it :s

Will it work better or worse on Linux? Is there a broken (but still better than nothing) Linux port to be released like when the EE came out for 1? Reports give me little confidence in the base game working in wine, but the DE will probably negate any progress made on that front (if 1's EE is anything to go by: the old version worked perfectly in wine, and the EE was garbage, and so was the Linux native version until various people "fixed" it). If this game had worked on Linux at the start, I would've bought it at full price. Now, I'm just waiting for the price to be low enough that having yet another non-working game in my library isn't that big a deal.

^ I think I know what Ancient-Red-Dragon is referring to. In DOS2, they changed the combat so now all enemies have separate physical & magic shields which you must defeat before you can even start to inflict health damage. Other than feeling annoyingly grindy (basically feels like you have to kill every enemy in the game twice over), it has negative effects on gameplay. Eg, a mixed fighter + mage party ends up half as weak as all fighters or all mages (because damage to one shield doesn't reduce the other so you're better off all focusing on one shield via all magic or all physical attacks).

And since nothing affects enemies before their shield is down, all the cool environmental effects that were popular in the first D:OS is now mostly useless as everyone will have long moved out of position by the time they can be damaged (made worse by the fact all enemies seem to have teleportation). And since it takes longer to damage the shield than to kill them after the shield is down, 90% of "post-shield" abilities also feel mostly worthless.

Other common complaints include a very rushed (and buggy) Chapters 3-4, stats are dumbed down (no speed, AP doesn't increase with constitution, etc). Enemies feel like they're often cheating (your cooldowns seem longer for same abilities, and the same god-like spell you receive is used by low-level bodyguards). Stealth is MUCH worse to the point it's not worth playing a Rogue (stealing = you have to sneak then pick-pocket, then drop item on the ground then re-pick it up after its been "investigated" or run away and wait for a 30s cooldown on every single item). Performance is also worse (hardware that got 160fps in DOS1 will get nearer 40-50fps in DOS2, with very little to show for it).

I own the original DOS:EE and have also played the 1st Chapter of DOS:2 at a friend's and by the start of Chapter 2, quite honestly I'd had enough and agree with those who say DOS2 feels a step back in many areas and was left feeling disappointed with it as a sequel to the point I have little interest in buying / completing it. Combat definitely feels worse (most people's biggest gripe), but DOS2 also felt like it lost a lot of the light-hearted feel / charm / other stuff that made the original feel unique. Eg, "twin-soul" based party / plot (playing as TWO main chars in DOS1) is now just dumbed down to 1x main char just like any other RPG, and as mentioned all the really cool environmental combat has been made half-useless due to enemy shielding mechanic.

I see. I think I better watch some let's plays of DOS2 before I make a serious buying decision. Thanks for the explanation AB2012!

Yea thanks AB2012!
I've heard that the later chapters will be very different in Definitive.
The physical/magic shield thing should just be a cumulative shield, it seems like. That might fix it.

Own Divinity Original Sin 2 thanks to kickstarter, never played D:OS2 because I was holding out for a Linux version.
Everything I've read about D:OS2 really seems like Larian over-complicated everything in the game just like previous Larian game Beyond Divinity compared to Divine Divinity. The shield breaking gimmick before you are actually able to inflict damage reminds of the really dumb AEGIS system in the Secret World MMO.


Beyond Divinity can be seen as a Divinity: Original Sin 0.45, because alot of things in Beyond Divinity/things Beyond Divinity did were eventually incorporated into D:OS 1.

Rephrase person above - does anybody know if linux port is coming at all? I mean - 1st game had its issues (rip amd users with mesa), but otherway ran flawlessly.
While this one... well, dxvk is coming soon to wine, but it will take few years to sort all bugs.

Right now it looks like Nope, console versions only. The official Larian forums have one or two threads asking the same question with dead silence as the response from Larian employees.