Three things come to mind, brought to the foreground by Divinity:
1. NO CLASSES! At least not in the conventional way. This is unrealistic and pigeon-holes your character too much-- espcially with class only sets. In things like Diablo and such crap, a character cannot use an item because of his class? A load of bunk. There should still exist prereqs for its use, but class should not be one of them. A more fluid system should be used that allows a character to forge his/her own path and decide how to proceed. True, this can lead to characters "screwing themselves over", but I feel that this lends itself to a far more interesting game.
2. It must be either all the way in 3D or back to good ol' beautiful 2D. The half-way of Beyond left alot to be desired. It felt awkward as the characters seemed out of place in their environments. I don't think that graphics are the most important thing, however so on to the next point.
3. Non-linear gameplay. Divine had it, Beyond lacked it sorely. I love going back to a location and continuing business there. That option should be left open, especially if you want replay value. Plot devices such as teleporting the character and stealing their means of leaving or going back ever are cheap ways of speeding along a story line (which waters down the experience and is such a tired approach). Even in Divine I was upset about being taken to a new place, or not being able to complete a quest because I did it "out of sequence". Dammit, I solved that murder you old [nocando]!
4. An unannounced fourth entry: I did love Divine, but have not been able to force myself to finish Beyond yet. It just didn't click and I realize that there is no desire, no intrigue to pull me along. No new and extraordinary developments either in skills or items, or even plot to take me in. It seems that this was rushed. I apologize, but that is what I believe, based on the previous release of Divine. So please, don't string the player around with sub-par tricks as I think that players feel cheated when they know that you are much more capable. This is my biggest complaint and it extends to all media (books, movies, games), so don't take it as a slight, but pay attention to it. It is the difference between excellent games that you play for years after buying again and again, or that one that you will beat "someday".
Edit: I will now, to be fair, attempt to finish Beyond. Wish me luck and patience.
