Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Beyond Divinity Report Part 1

As a HUGE fan of Divine Divinity, I wanted to give my thoughts on Beyond Divinity. I have recently finished Act II and will give a secondary report after playing the final two acts. And let me start by saying that had I never played DD, I would consider BD a fair, if not good, stand-alone game. Furthermore, I realized that BD is not considered the sequel that we are all waiting for. The point of this is to give one hardcore gamer's point of view with the assumption that DD2 will be made.

This is a very egocentric account of BD. The only reason I am offering this critique is because I want to have another experience like playing DD.

Anyway...here goes:

I) Software Technology

**STARFORCE: I will try to be nice. I purchase all the games I play and I think that people that download pirated copies of these games are complete jerks (especially considering the work of the people that develop games). And these jerks are making us suffer with HORRENDOUS software like Starforce. I wonder if this piece of crap has translated into any bottom line revenue increase for Larian. I doubt it. It probably has indirectly led to less revenue.

Recommendation: Do not include it on DD2

**STABILITY: Prior to playing BD, I finished Far Cry (an admitted resource-hog of a game). Far Cry did not crash or reboot my computer once. I go through spells where BD reboots my computer every 5 minutes. I do not have conflicts. My drivers are up to date. I do not have heat issues. I have a high end computer rig.

Recommendation: BD should have been released at the 1.45 stage. In that case, the game would be mostly playable. I realize there are budget and time constraints. But BD should live up to DD. And unfortunately, there is no stability comparison between the two.

**SUPPORT: I am not sure if Larian is overwhelmed at the desired support for this game, but the support they offer is woefully inadequate.

Recommendation: I have none. I just hope that the budget allows for a better support system when DD2 (please!) is made.



II) The Game

**THE MAIN CHARACTERS: I had fun with the DK (despite his voice--see below).

**VOICE ACTING: This has been talked about immensely on the boards.

Recommendation: Complete overhaul. Some voice-acting is good (some of the imps, the demon at the end of the 2nd act, etc). Most is awful. Just please make females do the female voices in DD2. It is very unnerving to hear a man voice a woman -- very transgendered (not that there's anything wrong with that--Seinfeld, anyone?).

**SKILL SYSTEM: Why was a major overhaul done on one of the strongest aspects of DD? In BD, there were way too many skills. The satisfaction of assigning skill points in DD was just not there for BD. Broken skills (lockpicking) are unacceptable. And how about being at a certain skill level and then reading a skill book and having that initial skill level drop. I don't get it. And as far as learning skills from teachers? I thought it was a decent idea that just doesn't implement well.

Recommendation: Return to the root skill system created in DD. Modify and strengthen that skill set. And revamp the teaching of skills or eliminate it.

**EQUIPMENT: The equipment just didn't seem as (for lack of a better word) "cool" as in DD. Too many names. Too much lame equipment being fantastically named. When playing RPG's, finding a special or unique item is so rewarding. Going to the deep dungeons in BD never gave that special feeling. Locked chests lost their appeal very early. And I loved equipment sets in DD. On the surface, some items appear to be part of a set in BD. But that is just not the case.

Recommendation: Put some more thought into naming the equipment. Don't cheapen the questing for equipment with overly ridiculous names. Make it feel like a job well done when finding that special charm, jewelry, sword, etc. Way too much randomness.

**THE WORLD ITSELF: One of my favorite parts of DD was the world itself. When I was in the Orc section, it felt like it. Verdistis had a "snobby" feel to it. The Dwarven mines were fantastic. BD feels like a means to an end. There is no "feel" to it. The imp village had potential but failed to realize it.

Recommendation: Expand on what DD did. Let us visit Verdistis again. Elaborate on the Dwarven Mines. The Elf Village in DD could have been exploited. That could be a quarter of the story in DD2.

**EXPERIENCE/BALANCE: That was one of the few issues in DD. The game if played reasonably well became very, very easy toward the end. Monster bosses at the end of DD were whipping boys for me. So I understand why monsters at a severe level disadvantage were not rewarded with experience in BD. Think about that from the game player's point of view. There is no worse feeling for me in BD than trekking through a late Battlefield in Act II (playing on the hardest level) and slaughtering monster after monster without getting experience. Talk about unsatisfying.

Recommendation: Balance the game from the character's focal point rather than the games. Modify monster levels and experience rewards from the character's current situation. Make us work for it a little also. Levelling up is the most exciting part of a game. Make us feel like we earned it.

**FIGHTING: The level of interest I have in battling enemies in BD is waning (especially in the battlefields). Many of the monsters I am fighting don't yield experience. I made a mistake early in the game and now have to kill every snail and tibar I see. And I hate monsters that run away from you and open new parts of the map and maybe even trigger a quest situation (but that can be a good frustration also)

Recommendation: See the balance recommendation above. All killed monsters should yield experience! Some type of window should be created to set creature hostility...maybe hostile, neutral, and friendly. If I don't want to fight snails anymore but I wanted to in the beginning for experience...swith the hostility to friendly. If you click on a neutral animal/enemy, the game can ask if you want to go to battle.

**BATTLEFIELDS: My first battlefield was fun. Each successive one was less fun. Too much exploring. Too many useless items. Too many useless monsters. Too many 3rd floor arrivals with nothing inside.

Recommendation: Probably should be to eliminate them unless there is a better reason for them. How about instead of Battlefields, make battleworlds. The keys could transport you to a small world (a half/hour or hour of gameplay) with a very unique landscape (enchanted rain forest, lake village, volcano, whatever) and unique enemies. Instead of random sloppiness. Make each world have a specific point. Example: if you are willing to do this quest, solve this murder, kill this overlord...whatever...you can choose from one of my four holy weapons. Just my lame thought. But you get the idea. The basis was there. But the randomness made the implementation weak.

**MAPPING: And I hope this was due to bugs, but the mapping issues in BD were unbearably frustrating. Between completely blacked mini and main maps and blacked out areas that had already been explored, the BD questing experience was made very difficult. In the second act's battlefield, my map was huge and confusing. On top of that, when my game would crash, the exposed areas on the main map disappeared. This made it a living nightmare to find the battlefield entrance I needed.

Recommendation: Remove the bugs and add some character to the locations. Furthermore, battlefields, dungeons, etc. should not be placed on a section in the main map. They should have their own map page. Talk about unnecessary confusion.

**SIDE QUESTS: I actually thought some of the imp village side quests were very fun. Discovering which sister was the murder was very DD'ish. Finding the three ingredients for the alchemist's cure was good (but could have been so much better). Some of the side quests in DD were unbelievable. Following blood trails. Getting duped into an ambush by dropped gems. Those gaming moments were brilliant. I just got the feeling in BD that I was just going through the motions more so than in DD. Which leads me to...

**Intangibles: You can't predict how people will respond to the feel of a game before you release it. The game needs to be played. The magnificence that was DD placed me in a world that made me feel like I was a part of it. In a corny way, I became my character. NPC's like Zandalor and Lanilor felt like old friends. I never got that feeling from BD.

Recommendation: Go back to the original concept. Hire the original story writers or urge them to put the same thought and care into DD2's storyline and world.


SUMMARY: If I had never played DD, I would have given this game a B-. Unfortunately, Larian has to live up to DD. What a shame more people didn't play it. But due to the brilliance of DD, I have to give BD a D. Fun at rare times, disappointing at most times. My reasoning for writing this report is that I pray a DD2 will be made and drop me back into the gaming experience I had while playing DD. I LOVED that game. I love Larian for making it. And my expectations, though possibly unreal, are high for this studio.

Thanks for reading,

Larry

Wow!! Nice work. You spent a lot of time and effort for this. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

I agree with a number of issues also.

Thanks.


I did spend a lot of time on this and I am playing Act III and the storyline looks promising. As I have stated many times, Divine Divinity was simply awesome. I want DD2 to be that also.

DD and BD both had the same story writers.

And the storyline in Act 4 is better.
Very strange and surprising.
Congratulations to the writers.

Barta