I played BD until I escaped the Citadel - by that point I was so fed up with the game I couldn't play it anymore. I have this problem with a LOT of games anymore - and I think I found the problem. They lack immersion. That's what Divine Divinity had - it pulled me in and actually PUT me into that world where it mattered. In Beyond Divinity, it felt fake and stale, too played out and unattractive drama. Beyond Divinity made a HORRIBLE first impression on me, and first impressions are a LOT to a game. You can't say "Oh it gets better later on," because a truly genuinely perfect game should have a breath-taking and involving beginning, something that makes you feal like purpose, or might have purpose. When I look at a fantasy game, I want an epic adventure that lets me know that my imagination is going to go wild and that I'm going to play something that's going to grip me to the edge of my seat with excitement from the beginning - not being stuck in a prison trying to escape! This is no start for an adventure. Ironically, Baldur's Gate 2 started the same way (imprisoned) and I could not keep myself playing - I didn't feel immersed or preped up to play enough after I found the beginning of the story, down-grading me, it's almost insulting to know that me, playing a main character, is but a prisoner without option.
On the other hand, the same prisoner scenario occured in the game "Gothic." At first, too, I played this game and quit after 30 minutes. I picked the game up 6 months later, and I realized that if I kept up 10 minutes more that it really didn't start out as bad as I thought it did. I had options. My character had a future - a chance to build up in the world they created and get to the top. But I felt challanged in a BREATHING virtual world to get up there - but they made that challange INTERESTING enough to keep playing and keep you on the edge of your seat. It let me imagination run wild because the world seemed REALISTIC and HERE. The only thing keeping this game from being probably the best Role Playing experience I have ever played is because it started out rough in those beginning 15 minutes.
I played Beyond Divinity for over a couple hours. It shouldn't get "great" after 5 hours of play, that's just unacceptable. While the story seemed interesting, they just didn't deliver it right. I hope they do a better job with Divinity 2.
