Seeing as Lynn had posted an announcement about a preview of BD by Gry On-Line which is in Polish (see
here ) I decided to post a translation of the whole text in case anyone should be interested.
This translation is of course an amateur one so I still advise to read the original (if You know the language) Some mistakes may be in the text, and I cannot guarantee that I have always grasped fully the author's intentions.
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About two years ago almost no one had heard of the programmers from Larian Studios. The Belgians first game appeared practically out of nowhere, but nevertheless it shook the computer gaming community. Divine Divinity, as the above is of course about it, was one of the best cRPGs released lately and it won over a large group of fans worldwide, me included. The game got a few prestigious awards and there was almost no end to the praise. All that made it obvious that a sequel would be released sooner or later. That moment has come - with excitement I announce - only a month parts us from returning to the world of Revelion.
All those who hadn't had contact with Divine Divinity may find a short explanation useful. It's a cRPG made in a slightly out of date style, in which the view is isometric. The game itself combines the advantages of two totally different games: Diablo and Baldur's Gate. So the game is a hack and slash in which we kill enemies and collect better and better items on one hand, and a magnificent story with many difficult quests, on the other. More info can be found in a review by Archangel, and what's more important in the comments.
One of Beyond Divinity's stronger points will undauntedly be the plot. The story is quite intriguing. As an effect of the curse put on our hero by demon Samuel, the soul of the hero, lawful warrior of the Order of the divine gets forged with the soul of a bloodthirsty Death Knight. Of course neither of the characters is happy about it but the situation leaves them no choice - they must co-operate for if one dies, so does the other. The only solution is to find a way to undo the curse and it obviously won't be an easy task.
Beyond Divinity is based on the improved engine of the first part to which certain ameliorations were made. From the plot itself one can deduct that this time we will be controlling not one but two characters. Even a whole party to be exact, as during the game we will be able to join other NPC's into our party, or create an ally by ourselves using a skill called "summoning dolls". Since we're on the issue of skills, the system of character development is changed. Unlike other cRPG's here there's no class or profession system - we can modify the skills of our hero at will, learning him both spells and effective sword fighting. The only restriction will be acquiring the books, from which one can learn the skills, or finding teachers. An absolutely new thing is a system known as "Battlefields" which will allow dungeons, items or even quests to be randomly generated by the computer The core of the game and the plot will stay the same but after reaching a certain place the player will be able to go into a different, random dimension. Such a solutions has two advantages - firstly, it lengthens the game and makes it possible to play endlessly, because the difficulty level rises as the hero advances. Secondly - if at some point of the main plot we get stuck due to meeting too difficult opponents we can always take a short trip to another dimension gain some experience, and build up our heroes. The last big change is a totally new reputation system. Like in the first part we will gain positive and negative points depending on our actions. The nature of the change is that in Beyond Divinity reputation will have a bigger impact - its level shall define the accessibility of certain quests, and while solving others lawful characters shall have different choices that the chaotic ones.
The demo version had been released lately, so we can check for ourselves to what extent did the pre-release announcements fulfill. At first the game looks almost like Divine Divinity. Exactly the same options layout and character control system was used. Keyboard shortcuts are also the same so one needn't waste time to learn them again (as it is impossible to play without using them). Controlling two characters at a time was neatly done, and managing their inventory isn't a problem as well. In terms of graphics there are no large differences as well - 3D character models were implemented and they do look somewhat better, which one can best observe in maximum zoom (another addition). The thing that surprised me most is the relatively high difficulty level. Surely it won't be a simple hack and slash where all one has to do is go onward and slaughter. The first task to bring a ghost some proof of it's death may cause problems. The encounter with the first tougher enemy, which one may not beat without using a few tricks, is even more interesting. We shall see whether such a high difficulty level was only supposed to artificially lengthen the demo (it consists only of the beginning of the first act and we can end it within an hour), or will the final product be as difficult. Unfortunately the demo version is full of mistakes and bugs - the first is very difficult combat aiming - while playing in real time it is impossible to click the enemy. The only solution is to turn on the active pause which allows to order attack without hustling. The game sometimes slows down or even freezes - the people from Larian need to work on the code some more. One can have objections to the sound as well As promised the dialogs are fully spoken, but whereas the NPC's voices are correct, the Death Knight screeches horribly. I believe it won't be an exaggeration if I say he speaks like a Chinese imitation of a Darth Vader figure. It is not only my opinion, on the official forum so many complaints were posted that the developers promised to improve that. Well, we shall see.
Lastly the Polish version of the game deserves a few words. Firstly, the publisher has changed - Divine Divinity was published by Cenega whilst Beyond Divinity is to be published by CD Projekt. In my opinion it is a change for the better as the game will be translated to Polish. It won't be fully translated (like The Temple of Elemental Evil for instance) but it will be a so called "cinematic version"*, nevertheless it's better than nothing. The most important is the fact that the Polish release shall be only a month later than the worldwide release and in May the game should hit the stores. It is also worth mentioning that in May Cenega will re-release Divine Divinity at a favorable price of 26,90 PLN in "Game 4U" series (that means the game will be available at newsagent's).
Well, we have to wait patiently. For me Beyond Divinity is a "must have". Frankly speaking, I trust the Belgians from Larian Studios, and so I think that all the flaws from the demo version shall be fixed. And though due to the highly developed combat the game might not suit fans of hardcore cRPG I dare say it will be a hit. Let me not be mistaken!
Author: MAO
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Readers mark: 9/10 *
*cinematic version - only the written text is translated, the voices are left in original
* only readers mark is available as long as a review will not be published
