IGN likes BeyDiv despite the flaws
IGN likes BeyDiv despite the flaws
Review - posted by Vault Dweller on Tue 11 May 2004, 14:24:16
Tags: Beyond Divinity; Larian StudiosIGN posted a review of Beyond Divinity giving it 8/10 and noting that an impressive series of flaws can be fixed or tweaked.
But my strongest criticisms are reserved for Beyond Divinity's game balance, notably, again, in its skills system. Why divide up each kind of arrow (poison, fire, water, normal, explosive, etc) into its own separate weapons skill? Not only is this highly unrealistic, but it's frustrating to the player who prefers archers and is already willing to give up all melee proficiencies. Similarly, you can learn slashing, one-handed weapons early in the game, only to discover quite a while later that there's a completely different skill which improves slashing, one-handed weapons with the use of a shield. Oh, you might think, so that's why my Death Knight hasn't been doing any damage to even the weakest creatures, despite having allocated five expensive skill points in slashing, one-handed accuracy! I don't mind this non-standard weapons division, but would have preferred having a hint that the skill available at start-up was virtually useless when I equipped a shield.Unfortunately, while the basic idea to create your own skills was good, the implementation wasn't. That pretty much summarizes Beyond Divinity: poorly implemented good idea.
But my strongest criticisms are reserved for Beyond Divinity's game balance, notably, again, in its skills system. Why divide up each kind of arrow (poison, fire, water, normal, explosive, etc) into its own separate weapons skill? Not only is this highly unrealistic, but it's frustrating to the player who prefers archers and is already willing to give up all melee proficiencies. Similarly, you can learn slashing, one-handed weapons early in the game, only to discover quite a while later that there's a completely different skill which improves slashing, one-handed weapons with the use of a shield. Oh, you might think, so that's why my Death Knight hasn't been doing any damage to even the weakest creatures, despite having allocated five expensive skill points in slashing, one-handed accuracy! I don't mind this non-standard weapons division, but would have preferred having a hint that the skill available at start-up was virtually useless when I equipped a shield.
