"Another great stealth release for Divinity and Beyond (Sorry for the pun)"

Larian Studios has taken 2 parts Diablo, 1 part Baldur's Gate, and 1 pinch of Fallout to create their labor of love, Beyond Divinity. This is the psuedo sequel to the game Divine Divinity.

Story
You are a paladin with his group of other paladins chasing after a necromancer. Unfortunately, he summoned a very nasty demon by the name of Samuel. Needless to say your friends are killed and you are left alive only to be tortured by his servant demons. When you awake in your cell, something is in the back of your mind. That thing comes bursting through the cell doors. A death knight has been bounded to your soul. He has become your shadow. If either one of you dies, then the other perishes too.

Graphics
The graphics are very reminiscent of the game Sacred. Meaning the character models look great close up. The difference however is that the 2D sprites look very muddy and blurry up close. All the characters are animated enough so that they don't move stiffly but lack a variety of different animations. IE The same animation of hands moving is used to pick up stuff, move switches, open boxes, and ect. The spell effects are done fairly well. If you are a fan of the genre, you won't be blown away but you won't shy away from it either.

Game play
It is a real time hack, slash, and potion chugging game. The combat can be paused anytime with the space bar and can be planned out. You can sneak in and bust some heads or just start swinging. There are a plethora of quests to complete. They can range from the Fed Ex style quests to helping find a cure for sick imps. But all and all, very solid game play. It is quoted to have a 100+ hours of goodness.

The battle field is a randomly generated area you can jump in to sell equipment, go on a few quests, hunt weaker monsters, and basically find more treasure. Each has a few townsfolk who want something and you have to go down a dungeon to find the blasted thing. Granted this doesn't add much to the game, but its nice to have. The game was suppose to be very buggy indeed so make sure to patch you game before taking on this one.

Music and Sound FXs
The music in this game is incredible. I believe that this game has one of the best classical orchestrated music since the Hitman Series. The songs are catchy and set up the mood quite nicely. A few songs I actually want to rip out of the game are that good to listen to. The some of the voices however fall flat to me. The Death Knight feels like a pompous fool trying to make himself too angry. The voice actor comes through once in a while but too far in between. What happened to the cool collective Death Knight in the Demo? The imps make me want to kill everyone of them. But the rest do their job nicely.

Closing Thoughts
It is a solid title to me. Its really hard to start though. The first dungeon is hard and is pretty much devoid of a lot of fun until you are able to do things the way you want to do. Then the story picks up and you start to get sucked in trying to hack away at your prey. The comedy is nice and set up. Its not supposed to hit you over the head but you can easily chuckle at some things. IE A female imp wants to make your Death Knight partner "Feel good." =) If you want a nice solid rpg game this one is worth the entry fee.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/04