Preview Wicked Toast leaves crumbs all over Beyond Divinity

[Whipporowill]

Tags: Beyond Divinity; Larian Studios

It seems that <a href="http://www.wickedtoast.com" target=_blank>Wicked Toast</a> has had the pleasure of getting their mittens</a> on a preview copy of <a href="http://www.larian.com" target=_blank>Larian</a>'s upcoming sequel to <a href="http://www.larian.com/Site/english/divinity/divinity.html" target=_blank>Divine Divinity</a> - <a href="http://www.beyond-divinity.com" target=_blank>Beyond Divinity</a>. Lucky buggers!
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Here's a tasty:
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BD has a rather interesting way of imbuing special abilities to characters. These skills must first be learnt before they can be used. This can be done by either getting hold of teaching books or being taught by an NPC. Once the skill is acquired skill points can be attributed to it which are gained every time a level is achieved. Fans of the original game will remember this system. Thankfully BD has expanded its use to create differing level effects allowing the player to create a hybrid character that can both clobber creatures with a sword and blast them into kingdom come with a fire ball.
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I just love those games that are more or less classless, making up my character as I mosey along on my adventure. <a href="http://www.larian.com/Site/english/divinity/divinity.html" target=_blank>Divine Divinity</a> did rather okay in that area, and it seems it's sequel will do even better. While the <a href="http://www.wickedtoast.com/article.php?id=144" target=_blank>preview</a> doesn't really say something unexpected (or new) for that matter, it contains a couple of gui screenshots that I personally haven't come upon before.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="www.bluesnews.com">Bluesnews</A>

 

[Azael]

I see that they've merged the inventory and equipment screens. Good.

I hope this title will have some good real-time hack and slash fun like the first half of the original.

 

[Whipporowill]

... yeah. As well as some of that interesting Larian humour.

"I'm strong, as a man should be". Had me and my pals laughing our collective asses off first time we heard the male warrior in character creation.

 

[Azael]

Yeah, the game was very campy, in an intentional and pretty funny way.

 

[Spazmo]

I'm playing through DivDiv right now and I rather like it. The fun gameplay, general niftiness and occasional hilarious broken English make it good.

 

[DIPthong]

I'm playing through DivDiv right now and I rather like it. The fun gameplay, general niftiness and occasional hilarious broken English make it good.

Micro DivDiv spoiler:



I love it when the two skeletons in one of the first dungeons are talking and you overhear them. Talking about how implausible it is that they can stand or move or talk without the appropriate muscles, and then *poof* they "logic" themselves into a pile of bones.
Quite amusing.

 

[Psilon]

Oolon Colluphid would be proud.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I quite loved Divine Divinity. It was a decent romp. The combat was a bit repetitive, but was thankfully kept fresh due to the massive amounts of NPCs around to converse with. There were some good combat moments though. Taking out the main orc camp was rather exhilirating, especially trying it with a low level character. :shock:

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The sheer amount of the combat in the beginning of the game is what got me to stop playing it. I'm hoping that Beyond Divinity at least cuts the monster packs down by two thirds and fills that void with something a lot more interesting.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I don't really want to think of playing the game again. Going through that large dungeon ONCE was enough to last one lifetime.

 

[Realbumpbert]

I heard they intend to make combat somewhat smaller in scale. Probably a good thing. I'm more fond of mano-a-mano than laying waste to armies of wuss enemies.

 

[Volourn]

I'm with SP 100% on this. :shock:

 

[Azael]

They made one big mistake with combat and that was having pretty much all the warrior skills as passive boosts, with only one special move (Flash Attack comes too late in the game, and isn't that useful anyway). Combat would have been a lot more interesting if there had been more things to do in it besides magic. Which was also nerfed by the end of the game where enemies where immune to 90% of all magic so unless you had invested in several types of spells, you were screwed. By the end of the game, they also threw away all variety in the monsters you fight, which pretty much goes against the rulebook of hack and slash.

Still, I liked the game.

 

[Nightjed]

I just love those games that are more or less classless, making up my character as I mosey along on my adventure. Divine Divinity did rather okay in that area, and it seems it's sequel will do even better.

but divine divinity wasnt classless it still had those differences of how many mps/hps they got from each stat, damage, etc

i would rather start with a neutral character (maybe only changing the main stats like in fallout or just with all in a neutral number) and then make my stats give more mana/hps, extra damage, special attacks, etc though passive skills (giving the player 2 or 3 points to invest on his begining ass-kicking skills would be a good idea)

 

[Azael]

That's how they're doing things in the spin-off and sequel.

 

[Dhruin]

By the end of the game, they also threw away all variety in the monsters you fight, which pretty much goes against the rulebook of hack and slash.

Several dungeons were too big but I still found it fun - especially when you get out of that first dungeon and get to roam around a little. Unfortunately the last Act was stuffed up but Larian know this and I think they've learned some lessons. Originally the game ended with the char becoming Divine but they figured that lacked something, so they tacked on another Act. Financing and time ran out and the last Act ended up pretty sucky. Live and learn, hopefully.

 

[Nightjed]

That's how they're doing things in the spin-off and sequel.

cool then

 

[Nightjed]

why doesnt anyone complain about the ultra small fonts with hyper strong colors that burn your eyes ? did i miss an option to make them bigger ? they were just minuscule at 1024x768 on my 17' monitor and the game is sort of unplayable at 800x600