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Preview Wicked Toast leaves crumbs all over Beyond Divinity

Whipporowill

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
2,961
Location
59°19'03"N 018°02'15"E
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

Magister
Joined
Dec 6, 2002
Messages
4,405
Location
Multikult Central South
Wasteland 2
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

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
2,961
Location
59°19'03"N 018°02'15"E
... 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.
 

Spazmo

Erudite
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
5,752
Location
Monkey Island
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

Novice
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
76
Location
NC, USA
Spazmo said:
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. :lol:
Quite amusing.
 

Otaku_Hanzo

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
3,463
Location
The state of insanity.
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

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2002
Messages
11,475
Location
Behind you.
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

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
9,614
Location
Pax Romana
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

Liturgist
Joined
Jun 12, 2003
Messages
197
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.
 

Azael

Magister
Joined
Dec 6, 2002
Messages
4,405
Location
Multikult Central South
Wasteland 2
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

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
675
Location
Wasteland
Whipporowill said:
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)
 

Dhruin

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
Messages
758
Azael said:
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

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
675
Location
Wasteland
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
 

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