Blood conducts electricity. Of course it does. My supposedly single-target lightning spell arcs from mage to skeleton and on to the ground, where it touches the splattered byproduct of the ongoing melee. From there it reaches my rogue, my warrior, my archer. My entire party is electrocuted in a single moment's miscalculation, and I learn another hard lesson about Divinity: Original Sin's commitment to its own brand of realism.
If you played Divinity: Original Sin in its pre-release days, you may have noticed a very active little chat window down in the corner of the screen. You may also have noticed that in the full release edition, it's no longer there. Larian Studios actually revealed on Steam last week that it had switched off the global chat "as there was just a bit too much profanity and insulting," but as studio boss Swen Vincke told Kotaku, the real situation was a bit more than just a bit much.
Larian Studios launched the final version of Divinity: Original Sin on June 30, after a successful Kickstarter campaign and a long stint in Steam Early Access. The extended beta time paid off: Original Sin has been the top selling game on Steam since its launch. Speaking to PC Gamer on Tuesday, Larian founder and creative director Swen Vincke says the team is "very happy," and though I can tell he's tired, he's still incredibly excited to talk in detail about my progress through the game.
One would expect it's vacation time for the studio, but not yet—Vincke tells me that Larian has a major content update coming for the game, hopefully in the next week, and exclusively revealed plans for new companion AI. Our edited discussion is below, including a few clearly-marked spoilers on early parts of the game.
Divinity: Original Sin launched a few days ago and so far it seems to be doing very well for itself. It's the fastest-selling game Larian Studios has ever published, and studio boss Swen Vincke told Eurogamer that it's definitely going to break even and might even pull in enough profit to finance Larian's next project. As for what that might be, he said the team still has to figure that out.
With hundreds of thousands of Early Access games sprouting every second, it stands to reason that, sooner or later, some of them will eventually bloom into full games. For faux-isometric RPG Divinity: Original Sin, that transformation will take place on June 30th. To prepare, its creators have released a new trailer, additional details on its flexible editor, and—in accordance with prevailing gaming trends—the existence of something called Cow Simulator 2014.
The Divinity games have always been appealing in an adorable, slightly hokey and tongue-in-cheek way, but Original Sin is something else: a mixture of Diablo-style co-op adventuring and unprecedented, Ultima VII-esque environmental interaction. It's a game with terrific promise, and I can only hope that the final release lives up to it. Thankfully, we don't have too long to wait to find out - while Larian's Kickstarted RPG was due to launch on June 20th, it's been pushed back by ten days to allow the team to add voice-acting to the game. A video update, below, explains this decision.
Divinity: Original Sin, the next chapter in the Divinity RPG series, will get a full release on June 20, developer Larian Studios announced today. Although Original Sin has been available through Steam Early Access since January, only the first 20 hours or so were accessible. With a release date now on the horizon, the studio has dropped a pair of new videos to mark the occasion.
Upcoming RPG Divinity: Original Sin is now in beta, developer Larian Studios announced yesterday. And from the looks of the game's latest feature update, there have been some hefty steps taken towards its Spring 2014 release window.
Divinity: Original Sin might be the most RPG-ish name ever committed to a game. It's an almost dangerously generic fantasy title, to the point that, if the developers ever release an expansion called "Awakening", we may hit Bland Armageddon. Hellish administrators will swarm the Earth, enslaving humanity with obtuse paperwork and Toploader CDs. Hopefully they won't do that, because otherwise, their game would appear to be quite good - as evidenced by both Craig's Early Access report and this new trailer.
The Divinity games, if not exactly classics, are pretty lovable in a scrappy, lighthearted sort of way. With Divinity: Original Sin we can add 'ambitious' to that list. Also 'co-op', 'highly interactive' and, for the first time, 'turn-based' - Sin is a little different to the Diablo-esque clicky clicky nature of the first two games. If you're itching to get your hands on the isometric RPG, you'll be pleased to hear that it's now materialised on Steam Early Access. £30/$40 is the price of early admission, the current (alpha) build comprising 15 hours of co-op fantasy adventure.
Divinity: Dragon Commander has been out for a few months now, giving Dragon Knights ample opportunity to decide the fate of its colourful world. Now, developer Larian Studios have collected up those myriad political decisions into an infotrailer showing what players decided. What would the world look like if it were ran by people who enjoyed pretending to be a dragon? Well, for one thing, there'd be slightly more nudity.
Seeing you sitting there in that anti-fracking T-shirt and German pickelhaube, with that iguana on your shoulder, mischievous twinkle in your eye, and bookcase stacked with strategy curios like Hostile Waters, Rise of Legends, and King’s Bounty, I’m 98% certain you’re going to enjoy Dragon Commander.
You’re just the kind of noveltyhungry, socially-savvy, lizardcuddling connoisseur to appreciate Larian’s splendidly eccentric mix of RTS, RPG, TBS and shmup. You’re going to love the fact that you can abandon battle orchestration at any point and go racing around maps in the guise of a giant fireball-gobbing dragon. You’re going to nod approvingly on learning that those battles are the spontaneous results of army collisions on a Total Warreminiscent strat map.
I don't know about you, but I've been getting a bit of eSports fatigue lately; League of Legends champions seem to be breeding like zerglings. If there's one thing that can get me back into the game, however, it's Dragon Commander. I mean, jetpack-toting dragons roasting each other like marshmallows in a dogfight? Now that's the edge-of-your-seat stuff that defines eSports.
A new interactive video from Larian Studios lets you get a taste for the power you'll be wielding in its eclectic upcoming RTS Divinity: Dragon Commander. Surely piloting a flame-breathing, jet-pack wearing dragon brings its own challenges, but we see in this new video that political intrigue and consensus building may be an even trickier proposition.
Larian Studios announced today a new release date of August 6 for its upcoming strategy RPG game Divinity: Dragon Commander. The studio had previously set a goal of May or June for release, but has said that their dragons "needed a few more tweaks to their jetpacks," according to the official studio website.
The Kickstarter for co-op enabled, isometric RPG Divinity: Original Sin has concluded with a bit shy of $950,000 raised. Factoring in donations from all sources, such as PayPal, Larian Studios has passed $1 million and met every announced stretch goal. Said goals include a full orchestral score, expanded NPC companion depth, and a player homestead.
In the words of Hannibal from The A-Team: "I love it when a plan comes together." Larian Studios' Kickstarter for Divinity: Original Sin has crossed the $400,000 threshold with 16 days remaining. The company's upcoming fantasy role-playing game which will feature single and co-op gameplay for up to four players.
Larian’s Divinity: Original Sin, first seen in May last year, is founder Sven Vincke’s homage to his favorite game—Ultima 7—and “an RPG that would give people the same feeling I had when I played that game.” It shows it, too, from its top-down angles and turn-based battles much akin to its predecessor Divine Divinity. It’s set to release in the coming months, but a last-moment Kickstarter campaign seeks an extra $400,000 from backers to expand Larian’s development team to better work on the game.
On the surface, slapping a jetpack on a dragon just seems redundant. But Divinity: Dragon Commander isn't an ordinary fantasy game. Larian's upcoming RTS/card game/RPG/skeleton marriage simulator blends political power plays with massive strategic wars, but it also piles on the absurd beyond rocketeering wyverns. Here's a trailer showing off the steampunk craziness, including appearances of elves with lightning-bolt ears, dapper dragon-men, and a somehow boobed reptilian adviser.
GOG.com is running a "Pay what you want" deal on the Divinity series from Larian Studios. You can get the original 2002 RPG for any price you name. Beat the average (about $8 as of the writing of this article), and they'll also throw in Beyond Divinity. Double the average, and you'll get early access to the Divinity II Developer's Cut when it releases later this month.
