Divinity 2 Expansion Pack Announced

[Droog White Smile]

Looks like it's just been announced in Moscow, so only Russian sites have the news for now.

Anyway, the name is Divinity 2: Flames of Vengeance, and it's going to continue the main storyline. The developers promise:
- 15 hours of gameplay
- many optional quests
- mindreading is more important and is needed to complete at least some quests
- interesting non-combat oriented quests (e.g. in one quest you're supposed to give a theatrical performance)
- better interface
- better AI
- better graphics (DirectX 11 support)
- you will be able to export your character from the original Divinity 2 or start a new one
- skill trees will be expanded

The game will be released for PC and Xbox 360 this fall.

See screenshots here.

Russian speaking people can read the announcement here.

 

[DaveO]

Appropriate title for an expansion considering how many people I've seen posting replies about being 'burned' by the original Divinity 2. I'm waiting for the comedy of ineptitude that will occur again once they make it available thru Good Old Games.

 

[Phelot]

Yeah, Div2 had a terrible ending. It was essentially a huge tease and ad for Div3. They kept mentioning other locations, implying that you could get there only to reveal that ZOMG ITS FOR TEH NEXT GAEM.

All in all, I did enjoy the first half of it. Though this expansion will obviously have dragon flight which is what turned me off to the game in the first place.

 

[Lesifoere]

The dragon portions are so fantastically horrible that I couldn't bear to play even with cheats enabled. Fucking flying fortresses.

How does the game end, anyway? Mildly curious.

 

[Konjad]

Well, I played it and it bored me after few hours.

Dialogues were horrible.
Combat is bad as well, but it's standard next-gen, so I'm already kinda accustomed to it.
Anyway boring game.

 

[DraQ]

The dragon portions are so fantastically horrible that I couldn't bear to play even with cheats enabled. Fucking flying fortresses.

Bland - yes, but outright horrible?
Ok, I might be biased, but still.

 

[Lesifoere]

Yes, horrible. Bad control scheme even after remapping, godawful shittastic targeting system, those anti-dragon barriers, those endless "destroy shit here with dragon's breath and fly around in the hope of finding the lever that'll deactivate the barrier" fests--even the Derp Roads in DA are more tolerable.

Not even going to start on the performance issues.

 

[Cenobyte]

Hmm, I think this could have some potential.

The features don't sound so bad and all in all Div 2 was quite entertaining.
And yeah, I also hope that Larian will rework the dragon elements. While it was more or less funny in the fjords, the fortresses were annoying as hell.

 

[DraQ]

Yes, horrible. Bad control scheme even after remapping, godawful shittastic targeting system, those anti-dragon barriers, those endless "destroy shit here with dragon's breath and fly around in the hope of finding the lever that'll deactivate the barrier" fests--even the Derp Roads in DA are more tolerable.

Not even going to start on the performance issues.

Controls were workable, though sorely lacked ability to perform any complex manoeuvres, like barrel roll or loop - contrast the much more dynamic flight in Drakan.

The targetting system was indeed shitty, the game felt as if it got stuck in some crappy point halfway between point and click and FPP/TPP action game when attackng at distance or engaging in aerial combat.

as for the rest, I treated it as more or less 3D equivalent of a vertical scroller - Div2 is not an RPG.

The game could use some sensible camera allowing player to have a good look on their character while paused.

Also skills and spells should be greatly expanded - you never got to experience OMGDARGONMIGHT!!1 in this game - contrast with otherwise bland and lacklustre TIoTD where as a fully developed dragon at the end of the game you could spam spells levelling entire cities, or set the forests ablaze or blow them up into showers of matchstick sized splinters with your fiery breath. The game even included several missions where you took control of a single human, added, I imagine, for no other purpose than to make you feel the contrast when you had to run from weakest of monsters and magical projectiles you shrugged off by dozens completely obliterated the tree canopy you used as cover.

I wouldn't recommend IoTD to anyone, but a hardcore dragon enthusiast, but those are the things it did extremely right.

Finally, the major part of the immense fun inherent in playing as a dragon is the ability to completely ravage the ground based troops with relative impunity. Your game does not deliver that. Fix plz.

And performance - yes, the less said about it, the better, though I blame fucking gamebryo - a bloated, unoptimized abortion* of a game engine, if you will.

*)

 

[Droog White Smile]

The game could use some sensible camera allowing player to have a good look on their character while paused.

Not sure if that's what you're talking about, but you can rotate the camera while paused by holding down the mouse wheel.

And performance - yes, the less said about it, the better, though I blame fucking gamebryo - a bloated, unoptimized abortion* of a game engine, if you will.

Not true. Fallout 3 runs on Gamebryo as well, and it's one of the most optimized recent games. I'd say Larian's lack of experience with modern 3D graphics is to blame. In particular, their implementation of HDR seems to be a huge resource hog.

 

[DraQ]

The game could use some sensible camera allowing player to have a good look on their character while paused.

Not sure if that's what you're talking about, but you can rotate the camera while paused by holding down the mouse wheel.

In case of dragon it orbits around a point of empty space 2-3m above it.
It's similarly, but less severely off-center in human form.
Additionally, pausing makes fugly interface element clutter the part of the screen where your character tends to be.

In particular, their implementation of HDR seems to be a huge resource hog.

To their credit, the HDR in Div2 actually has a point other than inducing retinal lacerations and looks p. good.

 

[random_encounter]

The dragon portions are so fantastically horrible that I couldn't bear to play even with cheats enabled. Fucking flying fortresses.

How does the game end, anyway? Mildly curious.

Spoiler

Basically, the main character was led on by the spirit of the Dragon Knight who really wasn't the spirit of the Dragon Knight at all, but the girlfriend of the Big Evil Guy. Freeing her wouldn't have led to the death of the Big Evil Guy and was exactly what the two of them wanted, tricking everyone into fulfilling their plan. They reunite and imprison your character in the process by trapping them in crystal within the Halls of the Dead along with the Divine.

You have no say in whether you are trapped, it just happens.

Evil wins. *CUE SEQUEL*

Controls were workable, though sorely lacked ability to perform any complex manoeuvres, like barrel roll or loop - contrast the much more dynamic flight in Drakan.

The targetting system was indeed shitty, the game felt as if it got stuck in some crappy point halfway between point and click and FPP/TPP action game when attackng at distance or engaging in aerial combat.

I'll give it that there was potential within its mechanics (skill system for both char and dragon), but the implementation left a lot to be desired. The dragon sequences should have been cut entirely if that's all that they were going to do with them. I, too, preferred Drakan's implementation over this excuse because you could at the very least attack enemies that were actually on the ground.

It's on about the same level as the dragonfly shooter sequences in Jade Empire.

 

[Chaotic Lulz3r]

And performance - yes, the less said about it, the better, though I blame fucking gamebryo - a bloated, unoptimized abortion of a game engine that should be consigned to oblivion *.

*) .

Fix0r'd.

 

[Lesifoere]

The dragon portions are so fantastically horrible that I couldn't bear to play even with cheats enabled. Fucking flying fortresses.

How does the game end, anyway? Mildly curious.

Spoiler

Basically, the main character was led on by the spirit of the Dragon Knight who really wasn't the spirit of the Dragon Knight at all, but the girlfriend of the Big Evil Guy. Freeing her wouldn't have led to the death of the Big Evil Guy and was exactly what the two of them wanted, tricking everyone into fulfilling their plan. They reunite and imprison your character in the process by trapping them in crystal within the Halls of the Dead along with the Divine.

You have no say in whether you are trapped, it just happens.

Evil wins. *CUE SEQUEL*

Basically very like BD's ending? I almost want to see the ending now. Youtube, here I come.

 

[Texas Red]

Divinity 2 can't be worse than DD, can it now? While I enjoyed the atmosphere and such in the first game, the dungeon crawling made the game completely unplayable.

 

[Droog White Smile]

The shit's legit. Here's a confirmation by Lar himself.

I can confirm. In a presentation for the russian press, we showed bits and pieces of the expansion pack. Looks like there was a bit of "lost in translation" going on, but we expect DTP to do the official annoucement tomorrow.

 

[Lesifoere]

Divinity 2 can't be worse than DD, can it now? While I enjoyed the atmosphere and such in the first game, the dungeon crawling made the game completely unplayable.

It's worse. Much worse. DD was the best Larian had to offer.

 

[A user named cat]

I truly hate Larian now. All they had to do was continue along the lines of DD and improve some areas such as combat, voice acting and presentation. They had the humor, atmosphere, art style, exploration and soundtrack just right. But no, they have to be typical sheep, must devolve with the rest of the devs. I suppose they should be patted on the back for at least topping Beyond Divinity, but even Bethesda could've done that.