Beyond Divinity | |
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Developer(s) | Larian Studios |
Publisher(s) | HIP Interactive, UbiSoft, Focus Home Interactive |
Composer(s) | Kirill Pokrovsky |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
Release | April 28, 2004 |
Genre(s) | Role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Beyond Divinity is a role-playing video game from Larian Studios, which followed up on Divine Divinity and was published on April 28, 2004. The game was met with mixed reviews by critics.
A Deluxe Edition was also released that same year, containing copies of both Beyond Divinity and Divine Divinity. In 2009 a digital download version was released, equivalent to the updated disc version.
The gameplay is heavily based on Divine Divinity but this time the player controls two characters. Most of the time you can have both characters selected, and direct them to move or attack as one (whichever is not in the lead can be set to automatically attack, which is handy for an archer). Each character has their own stats and equipment.
Beyond Divinity is divided into 4 acts; the first was designed to be relatively linear, but it opens up towards the end, and later acts have much more freedom of movement. In each act you can acquire a summoning doll, which allows you to summon a specific creature (skeleton, demon, etc.). You can control these summons directly (and depending on the doll, even give them some of your spare equipment to use) to help in combat, or simply use to carry loot. The act 1 skeleton doll can equip a crossbow, so can provide good support if kept out of close range combat.
There is a Battlefield (an area that contains merchants and some optional, randomly generated dungeons) in each act, which you can teleport to whenever you wish, once you unlock it, and then return to the main game when you are done.
The storyline of Beyond Divinity takes place 20 years after the original game. The player takes on the role of a servant of the divine one, a paladin who hates and hunts necromancers. During the battle with one particularly vile necromancer, the paladin is grabbed by a demon, Samuel, and dragged into another universe where he is soul-forged to a death-knight, a creature of evil. Together the paladin and death-knight must venture forth to find a way to break that forging. To succeed is to resume the path you have set for yourself. To fail is to spend eternity linked to that which you have despised.