Will co-op in Larian games be great again?
I love Larian’s games, but it seems to me that co-op in their games has only gotten worse. In Divinity Original Sin 1, your decisions directly influenced your character’s personality and stats, and you weren’t just another dummy in the party - every decision was made together, and if there was a disagreement, you’d argue it out in a mini-game where your stats also mattered.
In Original Sin 2 and BG3, you only miss out on content if you bring someone into co-op. You can’t interact with that person or their partner - they’ll always be “busy”. So it turns out that by inviting just one friend, you lose access to the storylines of two interesting party members right away. The absurd thing is that if you’re playing BG3 with four players, you’ll mess up all the characters’ storylines - for example, you won’t be able to take Shadowheart to the temple, and she’ll just leave you. That’s ridiculous!
And you no longer make decisions together - you just see what the others want to choose, but it doesn’t affect anything. In DOS2, there were still funny party dialogues in every act, where each of you could choose from three options, but that didn’t really change anything.
So, is there any hope that in the new Larian game, a player in co-op won’t be treated merely as a combat unit who waits until you finish a dialogue, but rather as a full-fledged member of the group and an active participant in the narrative?
Below is a 3D model that I printed and painted, I'll attach it just for attention :D