Beyond Divinity – PC – Review

It is a shame when a game
is released and it leaves you with a feeling that it is incomplete. Such was the
reaction when the first game, Divine Divinity, was released. Many people felt
that the game, while it was a blast to play, was lacking depth. So the
development team decided to go back to the drawing board to attempt to create a
game that fulfilled the player’s expectations. Two years have passed and we now
have Beyond Divinity, but how good is it? Read on to find out.

Beyond Divinity takes place twenty years after the original game concluded. You
are a student of the Divine, a paladin who hunts sorcerers and other evildoers.
The only purpose of your entire existence is to hunt and kill anything that is
evil. One day you get into battle with a particularly menacing necromancer, and
when you are in the cusp of beating him, he takes you to his universe. In this
universe, the “higher powers” decided to taunt you so in an act that will
consume you forever, they “soul forged” to a Death Knight, a creature of great
evil.

To your surprise the Death Knight is as upset as you are about this soul forge,
so you two make a pact. From this point on the two of you will find a way to
undo this curse and find out how to get back to your universe. Will you be able
to succeed, because if you don’t you will despise yourself for all eternity for
being stuck in this situation.

If you have ever played games such as Diablo, Dungeon Siege, or Baulders Gate,
than the gameplay mechanics should be very familiar to you, but this game has a
very interesting twist. When players first start the game, they are to create a
character. There are myriads of options, from the appearance, body type, and
even what class of character (warrior, wizard, or survivor). There is nothing to
fret about since; you can mix different character skills to make the character
represent you to the best of your ability.

The twist comes in here, unlike many other RPG games, you immediately start with
two characters, your hero and the Death Knight. While you do have two members in
your team, if one dies they both die, due to the soul forge. What is really
unique about this game is the Summoning Doll, which actually boils down to
another character for your group. Each “Act” has a different summoning doll, but
they will immediately die if they leave the range.

Another new feature in this game is called “battlefields.” These are portals
that take players away from the main stream of the game, and they go into
villages. In these villages, players will be able to take up many different
tasks, and gain new skills to build your characters up. This offers a nice break
of the game, and helps prevent some repetition that these games are well known
for.

As mentioned before there are different “Acts” that the players must go through
to get to the end of the game. The first Act is one that introduces the players
to the game, such as interacting with the NPCs, doing sub missions, and getting
used to how the game is played. The acts that follow the game will impress you
as you dive deep into this games heavy storyline. It leaves you wanting more
till you have time to complete the act that you are currently playing.

What is different about this game is that in order to complete all of the
objectives you will have to learn that going in head first with a sword is not
your best bet. At times it will be in your best interest if you take your time,
develop a strategy in order that you might live to fight in another battle. The
game throws you many different gameplay tactics in order to keep the game from
getting repetitive. At times you will have to sneak past guards, solve different
puzzles, or just go in and take anyone down that comes in your way. All of these
different gameplay features help make the game fun, without going through the
same monotonous scheme that many games have today.

Beyond Divinity is rated M for Mature for blood, violence, and gore.

The system requirements for this game are:
800 MHz or better Processor
256 MB of RAM
Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
4X CD-Rom
Direct X 9
Direct X compliant video card with 64 MB of VRAM
Direct X compatible soundcard
2 GB of Hard Drive Space
Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay: 8.2
If you have ever played
Diablo, Dungeon Siege, or Baulders Gate, than this game will become second home
to you. The game has a very similar pace, but it does have a different flare to
it by some of the gameplay additions such as solving puzzles and sneaking
around. This helps break up some of the repetition that these games are well
known for.

Graphics: 8.0
The graphics for this game look decent enough. The problem is that there are
many other games out there that look much better than this game. While there is
nothing really wrong with the game, but with this day and age the graphics
engine could have definitely benefited from a nice upgrade. While the spell
effects are nicely done, everything else does not match up to the same quality.
I am not saying that this game looks bad, it just could look much better,
especially when you place this game up to other games of this nature.

Sound: 8.1
This game features some standards fantasy setting music that this genre is well
known for. There is also the typical sound effects such as swords clashing,
money being picked up, and many other things gamers have become accustomed to
listening to. The voice acting in this game was decently done, and not horrific
like you find in many similar games.

Difficulty: Medium
The game can teeter between being too easy or on the difficult side. It all
depends on how strategic you make your moves at certain points in the game.

Concept: 8.2
I have to give the developers “props” for giving players a new experience with
the “soul forged” idea. Now instead of worrying about your central character
dying, if your partner dies you die as well. This will make players a bit more
conservative while playing throughout the levels.

Overall: 8.0
If you like this genre of games, then Beyond Divinity will be something that you
will thoroughly enjoy.