The RPG genre is one of those massive genres where for every game you played, you probably missed ten other great games that came out at the same time. Larian Studios may not the name recognition of studios like Blizzard or Bethesda, but that doesn’t make their big hit: Divine Divinity any less impressive. And now with kickstarter they are back with what looks like their most intriguing game yet.
Divinity Original Sin:
Divine Divinity for those that didn’t play it could be described as an open world RPG made in the same isometric style as titles like Diablo. You had complete freedom in developing your character while going after the main quest, or completely ignoring it for exploring the world.
Their second game: Beyond Divinity didn’t do too well and their follow-up: Divinity 2 became a hidden gem after patches and a re-release. With Divinity Original Sin, Larian is in a position to start fresh and build something new with the aid of kickstarter.
Divinity Original Sin is considered a prequel to the original Divine Divinity. The premise of the story that has been revealed is that the player can tap into a forbidden magic power called “the source” and they have to make use of it to survive.
But what really has me interested is the gameplay that has been talked about. Divinity Original Sin allows players to run around in real time when not in combat, but switches to a turned based system for when fighting occurs. The video and kickstarter description talks about the depth that the team is aiming for.
Allowing the player to make use of the environment to enhance elemental damage, or use crafting to create new weapons. Tactical combat is something that we don’t see a lot of today, with most designers favoring real time combat. Having another chance to see modernize tactical CRPG combat definitely has my attention.
Divinity Original Sin also features drop in and out co-op: allowing two players to do whatever they want within the world. Both players could effectively split up and do their own thing, or team up for the many challenges of the game. The idea of being able to play with friends, without being shackled to them sounds amazing.
With the kickstarter only a few days old, they are past the halfway point to their goal of 400k. I know that RPG fans have already gave with kickstarter successes like Torment, Project Eternity and Shadowrun Returns for example. And while having games built with the older rules and systems in mind is great, I’m interested to see a brand new take of translating the complexity to modern audiences.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weUPfejQ7xE[/youtube]
