Larian Studios

I start my post by saying that I loved the demo and I’m really looking forward to play the full game (I will buy it the minute it hits the store shelves here in Portugal). I will also add that I played Divine Divinity for about 5 hours and I really don’t know why I didn’t played more... Having cleared this out of the way I will state what are my likes about the demo: (I will update the post regularly)

Likes:

The skill system - Great Skill/Spells customization. I think it was the think that impressed me the most about the demo and I think its one of the best things about the game. I just hope they are well balance because most RPG's almost always have ”very good” and “very bad” skills and that leads to everyone playing the same Skills/Spells. For instance, look at Diablo 2 (I'm a REAL FAN...): Everyone used the bottom tree skills or Sacred where Combat Arts are poorly balanced. I think this “Tree System” is very good.

Graphics - I really think the graphics are good, especially the Letter Fonts. That for me is very important. The overall presentation and the fact that when I put my mouse on top of Strength and get what the modifiers are is really good. I like to know what I invest my Attribute points in (btw the Letter fonts are HORRIBLE in Sacred). Another graphic plus is the design of objects on the inventory. They are really sharp. The 3D characters are also good but not awesome (this time I think Sacred wins).

The Spoken Dialogs – Big plus here also. I think this, Music and Cutscenes are an absolute MUST to create a proper RPG environment.

Story Driven – Being a story driven RPG it’s also a plus compared to mindless click feast of Diablo and Sacred.

Dislikes:

Inventory Management : don’t have word to describe it. It’s just too bad to be true. It has those toggle buttons but that’s not enough. There should be slots. They didn’t have to be visible (like in Diablo or Sacred) but they should be there cause as is it’s just a bunch of stuff thrown in the bag. At least put an auto-arrange button like Sacred.
Life Gauge: The life gauge where the name of the monster appears is just too transparent and you can’t really see the name of the creature you are bashing. The life gauge of enemies should not be transparent at all.

Selected Monster Highlight: There is none! This is very bad because sometimes I can’t tell what monster I am bashing on. Please make the monster I put my mouse pointer on shine or something (like Diablo).

Monster Life Ring: There is none either. I am talking about that red circle on the feet of monster I click. That should be replaced by a more Sacred kind of ring (one of the best ideas in Sacred) that has the amount of life of the monster and the colour telling you if he is weak, normal, difficult…

Please tell me if you guys agree with me or not. I will post suggestions later! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

The German Publisher seemingly thought otherwise. They decided not to include spoken dialogues for the German version.

Well I loved the demo for Divine Divinity that sold me on the game as soon as I started playing it, now I did run into a lot of problems with crashes when I got the full game, but thru help in the forums, and a system upgrade I did get around most of them problems and enjoyed many hours of game play.

Now with the Beyond Divinity demo I found it very short, and lacking all the things the first one had, yes it gives you a side kick to help out in battle, but there really are not that many battles to begin with, unless you count hacking rats a battle. As it was I had finished the demo in just over an hour and for a demo that was not even worth the time it took to install. I dont want to come across as being bitchy, because like I said the first game for all the problems I had, I loved it and still do. Also the 3 best DEMO's that I can say got me hooked from the start was Divine Divinity, Throne of Darkness, and Baldurs Gate 2, when it comes to demos it didnt get any better then them. So what happened with Beyond Divinity demo, this thing is not even really a tease ?

Things I miss from the first demo, multi-level dungeon, shop keeper, Orc's or some other beast thats hard to kill with good EXP, I dont know how many times I tried to lay waste to the Orc's outside of town in the first demo before I found the Dungeon and got some EXP built up, but I went the hardway and was so happy when I did get my first chunk of EXP from an Orc. Over all biger world to explore, lots of things to find. I will go back and play it a few more times with other character builds, being that I know what to do and were to go, it should only take around 30 mins to get thru if that, and see if I missed anything.

As it stands now I am sure I will get Beyond Divinity in time, but I doubt its going to be at the top of my list of games to get for this summer.


4nE