Beyond Divinity hits the RPG bull’s-eye, with everything an RPG gamer covets - elaborate plotline, specialized creation of wide-ranging characters, huge world, 60+ hours for a run-through, infinite replayability, hundreds of main and side quests, oodles of NPC’s, a genuine party to manipulate and level with skill and spell possibilities in the hundreds, party member summoning, staggering numbers of unique and improvable equipment and items, gigantic complementary battlefields, action or tactical combat, puzzles galore, and right-on humor. It’s hard to imagine anything I’ve wanted in an RPG missing from Beyond Divinity.

This game has been suffering from an identity crisis. Until December, the game was called Riftrunner. Many thought this was Divinity II, a follow up to Divine Divinity, the sleeper RPG hit of 2002. The developers now make it clear that this is not Divinity II, but simply a completely new game in the Divinity universe. The developer has confirmed there will be a Divinity II in the future, actually the far future, by late 2005 or early 2006.

For those who experienced Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity makes use of the basic Divine Divinity engine; nevertheless, there have been drastic, positive enhancements to that familiar gameplay. Do not expect a repetition of Divine Divinity play, but much more.

STORY

Beyond Divinity departs from the cookie cutter, hackneyed plots of most RPG’s by surprising the player with a startling development at game’s onset. From the get-go, your hero is soul-forged, that is figuratively tied, to a rather vile creature, a Death Knight, something each of you despises. This was the doing of an ArchDemon with the tepid moniker of Samuel. Left to rot in Samuel’s prison, both you and the Death Knight, now bonded seemingly forever, finally decide to work together, break the soul-forging if a certain potent magician can be discovered, and go back to each one’s particular existence. This decision to cooperate is a good idea given the fact that when one of the party dies, the other does as well.

CHARACTER CREATION

This aspect of Beyond Divinity can be generated quickly or customized to your heart’s content. The goal is to make the hero and Death Knight complement each other. Personally, I made the Death Knight a tank-type character minoring in range weapons and major league fire spells. My hero went down the mage-dominant path, with some tank reserve in him. This combination made combats not only winnable, but very tactical and interesting.

The game’s complex and large skill system lets the player create diversified characters, beginning from one of four primary careers: warrior, wizard, survival (thief-life) and the unique Summoning Dolls discussed below. Given the large amount of skills available, the possibilities seem endless. Many skills must be taught to the characters by NPC’s, especially merchants scattered around the world, or learned from books.

CHARISMATIC GAMEPLAY

In a departure from more recent RPG’s, Beyond Divinity begins with an actual adventuring party of 2, over which the player has complete control. This doubles all of the manipulation and leveling considerations during questing and the considerable amount of combat that will be encountered. (In another review of this game, I was amused at the reviewer pointing out that beginning an RPG with a party was unusual. Did that reviewer forget the Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, and Icewind Dale series, or the multi-member parties of the great early RPG’s, like the Ultima, Wizardry, Might and Magic, and Bard’s Tale chains?)

Your party during the game is not confined to your hero and the Death Knight, but a certain object, a Summoning Doll, found during the journey summons a powerful ally, bringing the party up to a maximum of 3 at any one time. Each game chapter contains a useable Summoning Doll. The summoned object, the first of which is a Skeleton, can be equipped, upgraded, and leveled. Unlike many, who put massive amounts of skill points into the thievery skill of finding and dismantling traps, I used my summoned party member to walk boldly in likely trapped areas, sort of a freebie guinea pig of trapdom. Summoning dolls disappear or “unsummon” when leaving the physical proximity of their summoning. However, with a time penalty, they can be resummoned at will.

QUESTING NIRVANA

Concerning the sheer number of quests in an RPG, my recent review of Sacred for this site acknowledged that Sacred “contained probably the greatest number of total quests ever in a game of this type, between 200 and 300.” My prescient, fortuitous use of the world “probably” left the RPG quest king door ajar, for Beyond Divinity quests number at least 300, and probably more. Talk about an RPG with plenty of intermediate goals? There’s so much to do in Beyond Divinity that some players may be overwhelmed at first. This is not meant as a criticism of the game but simply a statement of fact. These quests make Beyond Divinity a decidedly nonlinear game.

WORLD

Beyond Divinity’s world is quite large, and consists of a series of interlocking indoor, dungeon and wide-open outdoor environments. There are masses of NPC’s, many with quests and others just to add local color. Individual merchants can be found throughout the explorable areas. Each Battlefield, discussed below, begins at an encampment staffed by a small group of merchants. Given the ability to teleport to a Battlefield instantly at any game juncture, these merchants become quite accessible. These merchants as do others throughout the world double as teachers of advanced character skills.

Interaction with the world, both outdoor and indoor, is extensive. Among other things, the player can open treasure chests, pillage corpses, break vases, peeking behind paintings, rummage through closets, combining liquid and bottles to make a convenient carry-with item, fashion and place traps, read books, or pester animals. The player can also move many objects, some of which have surprises hiding underneath. Important items can be highlighted by pressing the ALT key, a practical technique used originally in the Baldur’s Gate series, I believe.

THE BATTLEFIELDS

Beyond Divinity takes an innovative leap in RPG gamedom by affording the player with a separate and important game within a game, the Battlefields. Each chapter or act of Beyond Divinity contains several, increasing levels of Battlefields. This is entirely separate from the main story or even the main game’s side quests. These battlefields all have merchants with plenty of items and equipment in stock, and ample quests of their own. Players can level and just diddle around in the Battlefields. Once you find a Battlefield Key, the party is teleported there at the simple click of the mouse. This is true even in the middle of combat. On several occasions, I was getting trounced, and “fled” to a Battlefield to recuperate and, at times, level.

The Battlefield approach is new in my experience to RPG’s. Others respawn monsters so the player can return time and again to level. Normally, this is just a game area and, frankly, this can be a rather tedious exercise. The Battlefields change all this by providing fresh merchants, quests, dungeons, outdoor areas, and brand new puzzles. This feature, to me, was worth the price of Beyond Divinity admission. Talk about losing yourself in a game’s natural world!

The developers have stated that, without the Battlefields, finishing Beyond Divinity will be quite challenging. I found this to be the case. See my criticism below in which a bug has apparently emptied one of the three Battlefields in Act I, causing significant problems in passing the level.

BRAINTEASERS GALORE

Beyond Divinity has a mix of the unusual and the normal puzzles. There are plenty of levers to trigger, many in a particular sequence that requires trial and error or deciphering an NPC’s hint. The game contains some neat requirements for moving around your party members in a coordinated manner. Early in the game, you must separate the hero and Death Knight to activate levers in adjoining rooms so that both can enter an area. Of course, expect to locate and use many different keys along the way. Some of the puzzles are downright wicked, and will tax the player, but that adds to the game’s charm and flavor.

STAGGERING RPG GOODNESS

What would a great RPG be like without huge numbers of quests, monsters, NPC’s, items, uniques, skills, and spells? Beyond Divinity makes these articles available big-time throughout the game. Here’s some statistics to prove the point:

Quests 300+
NPC’s 600+
Monster Types 140+
Skills and Spells 290+
Items 500+
Equipment Classes 300+

NIFTY STUFF

Most RPG’s contain homages or references to noteworthy prior endeavors, be they games, books, or movies. (For example, Sacred has tons of references to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.) Beyond Divinity has one whopper of an homage. Two NPC’s encountered in the game are known as Edmund and Abbe. So as not to spoil the surprise, I will just say that these are the main characters of one of the greatest adventure books ever written. Think French author, a despicable imprisonment, and revenge of the highest order!

Beyond Divinity has two handy automaps. One fairly small that can be nestled anywhere onscreen to give the player a close-in view of the current environs, including approaching foes. Clicking anywhere on this map will move the party rapidly to the new location. The larger automap, available with a single key press, expectantly, gives you the big picture, but travel is regrettably not possible on this map. The larger map permits helpful annotations by the player.

The Diary has several useful functions. Wonderfully, it records every conversation in the game verbatim, so there’s no need to remember what’s been said or take notes. I used this extensively, particularly when the Death Knight would give you a brief overview of a dangerous dungeon level, indicating what was where. A quest log keeps track of the status of the massive numbers of quests, and includes a “Filter” option to let you specify exactly what quest information you wish to see. Better yet, you can make as many personal notes as you wish on the Automap for easy reference during gameplay. A Trophies section collects complete information defeated enemies. I used this a great deal because it detailed the strengths of weaknesses of enemies repeatedly encountered.

Without giving away too much, the “minigames” in Beyond Divinity are especially interesting and innovative. There’s a pivotal game of chess. In one act, the only way to progress is to become number 1 in the world at something special, where the party is competing against other NPC’s. Many other exciting interludes await the Beyond Divinity gamer. Finally, in something gourmets and gourmand will like, you must concoct a special and in demand recipe.

The handy dual teleport stones return from Divine Divinity. This makes finding a safe harbor quite simple at any time. Potion brewing provided you enhance that skill can come in very handy when far from a merchant, especially just before a big battle.

Beyond Divinity uses a reputation system that affects how characters react to you. Treat one of a group harshly and the rest will attack on sight. You get the idea!

The game has a tremendous system for increasing the power and flexibility of items, including equipment and armor. Some items have a charm quality. That means that magic charms bought or found throughout the game can be attached to the item to turn, for example a mundane sword into a powerful magic weapon. Charms do such things as increase agility scores, like strength, and add magic points. If the player is lucky enough to find a crystal bag, it can be filled with crystals bought or found to enhance character defense only. Crystals come in all shapes and sizes.

Last, but certainly not least, is Beyond Divinity’s smart humor. Some dialogues, most of which are spoken, had me laughing hysterically. Gone are the sophomoric days of RPG humor when you would look at a mirror, which would say “You are looking at the ugliest, dumbest person ever.”

VARIOUS GAME MODES

Beyond Divinity has plenty of combat, but pushes the RPG envelope here also. This is accomplished by the gamer choosing one of the four game difficulty levels when the game begins. Level 1 is skimpy on combat, which is of the real-time, action variety. Level 2 stresses real-time action combat, and presents a higher level of difficulty. Level 3 is tougher still and provides a tactical combat experience where strategy plays a large role. Level 4 is hardcore where the player will find intricate, intense combat at a tactical level.

At all difficulty levels, players can pause the action to make decisions about what each member of the party is to accomplish next. I found even Level 2 action combat to involve strategic considerations.

Hovering the mouse over an enemy shows an ever-changing life bar. Running from combat causes no shame in Beyond Divinity. Sometimes this is necessary if you wander into an area way too tough for your adventurers.

Monsters do not respawn and provide continual fodder for the leveling grist mill. However, see the discussion of the Battlefields above.

REPLAYABILITY

Beyond Divinity’s replay value is very high. Try a run-through without taking advantage of the Battlefields. Then, there’s the different difficulty modes toggling between action and strategic to while away the hours. Or, for the strong of heart, try hardcore. Gamers can play Beyond Divinity with a party of mages or tanks on in-betweens. Or, play a game performing no quests, or one doing all quests. The possibilities seem patently endless.

What's more, after you complete a run through of Beyond Divinity, the Battlefields are open indefinitely. This affords practically infinite gameplay from this single game. Believe it or not, different quests await one on finishing the main game. A first for RPG’s? I expect so.

SUPPORT

Simultaneously with Beyond Divinity reaching domestic stores, Larian issued a substantial 25MB patch fixing many material problems. Prior versions of the game had been released in other countries, so there was a benchmark. This exhibits extraordinary and welcome support from the developer. As further evidence of this stance, the game was delayed several weeks because of criticism of the voice acting by those playing the Beyond Divinity demo.

GRAPHICS/ MUSIC/ SOUND/ VOICE

For those who read my reviews, I must again affirm that these topics have no impact on my enjoyment of an RPG. To me, an RPG’s story, character development, and gameplay system are the most important aspects of a game. However, I am surely in the minority here, so here goes.

The graphics look similar to Divine Divinity and are adequate and lucid. The view is overhead at an angle, or third person. Some of the larger monsters effectively seem to overwhelm the party in size and demeanor, and the spell effects are something special. You have the helpful capability to zoom in and out of the action with the use of your mouse wheel. I enjoyed closing in on combat sequences for a real taste of the action. Further, the game allows play in a nice variety of screen resolutions from 640x480 all the way to 1600x1200.

The music is anthem-like and contributes to the game’s tone. Voice acting occurs throughout, and adds to the ambiance. Sounds, especially those of combat, are excellent.

I feel constrained to mention something that really seems to irk some of those playing Beyond Divinity. As mentioned above, the game was delayed to improve the voice acting from the game’s demo, in particular, the voice of the Death Knight. A number of people, not me, seem quite put out by the Death Knight’s voice in the retail version as well. I must admit it reminds me of an angry cab driver. In any event, the Death Knight does not speak constantly, so I expect most will not let this detract from the pleasure of playing this terrific game.

CRITICISMS

Though I prefer single player games, I should point out that Beyond Divinity has no multiplayer mode, only single player. In this gaming day and age, I expect that many will be disappointed by this.

As usual with such a massive effort as releasing an RPG, Beyond Divinity has its share of bugs. Most are small potatoes and simply annoying, like the in-game diary not updating when quests are completed, or occasionally romps by a character in the dark void adjoining a game environment.

On the other hand, there is a serious imbalance in Act I. That act is extremely linear and serves as a symbolic tutorial so the gamer can become familiar with the controls, combat, and questing. But, Act I is no slouch and requires some intense puzzle-solving and combat. And, as mentioned above, monsters do not respawn to permit revisiting areas to up the party’s experience and levels. Unfortunately, one of the Battlefields (Level 2) is completely devoid of anything other than chest and objects to loot for treasure and items. Whatever quests, resultant rewards, and fiends were there have apparently disappeared into the great ethereal void. This caused a real problem when trying to complete the first act which, not unexpectedly, requires combat against some high-level foes.

The inventory of the party members has no option to automatically arrange the contents, though you can toggle principal object categories on and off to ease the finding of items. The player must laboriously move items around to make everything neat for quick handling. If the player does not do this, a character’s inventory is a jumbled mass of disparate and overlapping items.

Finally, Beyond Divinity seemed a bit overwhelming in the combat area, particularly near the beginning. I found myself frequently losing choke point combats, and having to reload saved games constantly to try another strategy. (Opportunely, the game’s save anywhere system made this state of affairs bearable.)

BOTTOM LINE

Beyond Divinity provided just about a perfect and entertaining RPG event. Many playing sessions stretched into the wee hours of the morning, usually finding me on the edge of my seat doing just one more quest or one more dungeon level. It was great fun to control a party again. No question that, those, like me, who enjoyed Divine Divinity will appreciate the many impressive qualities in Beyond Divinity; as well as those new to the Divinity universe who can expect a wonderful RPG experience!

Final Grade: 91%
JUST RPG RECOMMENDED GAME!

Minimum System Requirements:

• Win98SE/2000 SP2/ME/XP
• PIII 800Mhz
• 256Mb of RAM
• 64Mb 3D video card
• 4X speed cdrom drive
• 100% DirectX compatible soundcard
• 2GB free HDD space
• DirectX 8.1 is required
• compatible with DirectX 9 drivers

Official Beyond Divinity Website