I personally find that BD is not worth buying, at least not until its price drops below $50AUD. Why? Because I feel that there are a lot of frustrating aspects to the game, as well as insufficient development in the gameplay factor.
The very first chapter of the game involves crawling through a massive dungeon that basicly does nothing to add to the story. Its long, tedious, and repetative.
After you escape, the pace of the game drops greatly, as the only way to achieve your next goal is to basicly wander aimlessly and do the quests that pop up. There is no sense of urgency, time, or anything really. Just do the quests that are required, when you feel like it.
Battlefields are extremely basic, and you should not be fooled by the 'random' quests. They are possibly the most basic quests possible, and the only real randomness is... well nothing. Some changes in name and description, and thats it. Its basicly a shop and a place to farm for exp, and nothing else.
Optional quests within the main game lack direction and clarification, often requiring you to simply guess and check. Finding the location of the quest tasks is another completely random affair, where you just explore and hope you bump into what you need to find. Just adds to the tedium and lowers the desire to do these quests.
Neutral critters from all over the place will become your enemies if you attack a single one of them. Even if its an accidental click, you may find yourself fighting dozens of frogs forever, with no hope of making peace. They will charge and attack you, regardless of the fact that they'll be slaughtered.
Fights are often really hasty affairs, where you either don't need to pause, or need to pause often with only a few seconds between each pause. The AI of the characters is very basic in terms of choice (nothing or aggressive). EIther way it is inadequate, and basicly forces you to manage them. Often using special skills or spells just becomes too bothersome.
A lot of the interface related matters provide very minimal information, forcing you to save, try it out, and load again to find out what happens sometimes. The manual is decent, but doesn't go too in-depth either.
There are also no autosaves in the game, so you must remember to quick save every now and then. Don't have a thief? All it takes is some random trap to kill your party and force you to reload.
As the majority of the party members are just summoning dolls, there is very little (none) party interaction and personality. There is also the death knight, which behaves and sounds more like a mockery of death knights than anything else. Think of Jar Jar Binks (including the voice).
And an overall feeling I get from the game is tedium and dullness. Its been hard getting motivated enough to play this RPG. Of the dozens of RPGs I have ever played, ranging from the newest to the oldest, 3D graphics to text RPGs, freeware to purchased games, I would rank this somewhere near the very bottom. Graphics are fine and all, music is good, vocals is somewhat terrible but I don't care. What matters is the gameplay and the desire to play. I've enjoyed games like Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate, PS: Torment, and Morrowind. And I've enjoyed games like King's Quest, Ahriman's Prophecy, and Dink Smallwood. But I just can't find myself enjoying Beyond Divinity. I feel like I have wasted a lot of my money, and the only reason I continue to play now, every now and then, is because I want my money's worth. Or at least somewhere close, or even half way.
I'm also disappointed as I had heard many positive reviews on Divine Divinity, and though it was never for sale at the shops I went to, I had hoped Beyond Divinity would be great too, or at least good.
Anyway perhaps I'm being too harsh on the game, and I may change my mind as I play more of the game. But for now these are my impressions and how I feel as I play this game.
Take care,
TR
