Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) General Hey all! So how does BD compare to DD?

I discovered Divine Divinity pretty late after it was released, but once I did I was very happy with it. XD Good story I thought, fun gameplay, interesting quests.

Planned on getting Beyond Divinity at release, but I have always either been too busy to play or too broke to buy it since then. XD Hey now be nice, us 20 year olds with part time jobs and college to worry about dont have much money.

ANYWAY now it looks like I have money AND time to buy it, but there are a lot of other things on my "to buy" list. So to help me make my decision I have decided to ask you all how this game compares to DD, now that it has been patched and everything? At any rate I am sure I will eventually buy it whether sooner or later, just have to make a decision here. I remember when I bought DD it took me a good 5 days or so to finally figure out how to make it work! Thanks to Raze for helping me get that fixed, btw. (We never did figure out WHY my installs always had a texture pack corrupted when the file itself on my CD was not, but the important thing was we got it to work when I overwrote it!)

So anyway I will try to stop reminiscing and shorten this up a bit.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

How do the elements of BD compare to DD? As in story, graphics, characters, gameplay, etc? How are the Battlefields now that they are patched? Any big changes in the patches? How much better is the new skill builder? Do all the skills work? XD

Psyche me up here <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Anyway also wanted to thank Larian for being a great developer! They just stick out in my mind as being very friendly and good people from experiances I have had with them! And I dont usually sound this corny, I really do like them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

If you like Divine Divinity, now that we have this last patch, with lockpick and all, I would recommend buying it.

The graphics are good.

The story is superb.

Gameplay is good, with the occasional fault ( act 2, don't clikc on the animals! )

Not too many bugs with new patch, I think its all cleaned up.

I personally don't like party games, but they seem to have done the party good.

All in my opinion, and I've just got my feet wet into act 3 ( twice.... )

In Act III , it opens up to unexpected depth ...

BD seems a little less open, since it is divided into 4 separate acts, and the goal is more specific (escape, rather than save the world). On the other hand, you can jump to the battlefields pretty much whenever you want. DD could seem a little overwhelming at times (which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view).

The story and humor is similar.
The background graphics are similar. In BD act 1 is indoors and a little dark / gloomy, but it opens up in acts 2 and 3 to to a greater variety of outdoor environments. see; Pictures of BD
The characters in BD are 3D, so there are more customization options during character creation, more animations and more types of equipment, which look different when equipped.

There are more characters in BD, but there are few that you deal with throughout the whole game. Some characters are memorable, but you probably will not get that attached to any.

Since you liked DD, I'd expect that you would probably like BD.

What story has more depth?
And which do you prefer?
BD's or DD's?

I think Beyond Divinity has more depth really, but I personally like good ol' save the world, type gameplay.

I think that BD and DD are actually quite different - and I have a hard time comparing them somehow. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I really liked the amount of freedom you had in DD - I so far tend to get stuck in BD every now and then, and when that happens I can't just go somewhere else and try again later because the storyline of BD is much more linear then the one of DD. I am missing this freedom a bit in BD.

Some of the quests in BD are easier to solve than in DD, and, at least in my opinion, there are more logical clues to the solution of a certain problem in BD. (This, of course, does not apply to all side-quests). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I personally prefer the interface of DD, but it is certainly a pro to be able to control more than one character at the same time.

BD, though, certainly is a good game (especially after installing the latest patch, hehe) and I do not regret buying it at all. I personally like DD better, though, maybe because DD perfectly surprised me and my expectations for BD were explicitely high. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Yes, but it takes long until you discover this (Act III, at the end).

And yes, I agree, <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> is rather linear compared to <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> - simply because of the different acts. I would like "non-actical gameplay" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> to reappear in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> 2 . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

And, yes, both are different : Whereas <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> is more "open" gameplay and the hole universe is different, <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> has a simple theme : Escape from Prison ! But that theme was very well made ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Especially the beginning of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> was far too bloody for my own taste (all these corpses lying around ...). I'd like to see a more lively environment. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

And a bit more green ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Maybe a bit lighter green than I'm used to from <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> , because this kind of grass looks a little bit too dark for my own taste. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

By the way, since the "mass market" is dominated by megasellers like Blizzards D2 with incredible loss of depth, I fear that erole-playing (C-RPGs) might generally tend towards that. Sacred has been a *huge* success here in Germany, but I must also say that the *environment* of Sacred is rather that of a "full-blown" clasic RPG game. Both don't really fit together, imho. What I liked very much about Sacred are the horses - if Larian could inclusde some, I'll be happy. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Not to forget the possibility to buy and manage your own house (not available in Sacred). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Alrik.

I don't smell the market going that way. No way.

I'd also like to mention how well SW:KOTOR, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 sold -- and those are quite deep and involving RPG's.

Even Dungeon Seige 2, from previews, sounds like it's going to be more of an RPG this next time around than a hack-n-slash -- since that was one of the major complaints about DS1 from actual gamers.



And for the PC future, there's: Divine <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> II, Gothic III, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (which will have horses for mounting!), SW: KOTOR II, NWN II, and HOPEFULLY Jade Empire.

Deep RPG's are here to stay.

EDIT:
About horses and managing your own house, I could go more RPG's w/ that!

just to be different, Larians might decide in DD2 that players can choose for their main character to play as ...... A HORSE!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/XmasEek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

... then we'll see complaints from players how they've been taken for a 'ride' by enemies. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> total humiliation!

anyways, back on topic; i agree with iceweb in that both games (DD & BD) are very different. raze puts it nicely; DD is more 'open' especially in terms of map exploration & quest-taking while BD is more focussed in that the game is separated into acts though there's always the battlefields for distraction & training.

BD is a very good game & never mind it's party-based, it's a lot of fun & i have no regrets in this game.