Divinity: Original Sin Preview

There’s a new preview of Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin up on Strategy Informer, providing us with yet another source of reading material for the co-op, turn-based fantasy RPG. Here are a couple of paragraphs to keep you satiated:

While initially not too different from the Baldur’s Gate-style choose-your-own-response that most RPGs incorporate there are a number of crucial differences in Original Sin. The first is that depending on how Roderick or Scarlett responds they gain points in various fields, like how in Mass Effect a bad or good answer can get you Renegade or Paragon points except with a much wider range including the likes of Courage, Leadership and Charm. These attributes are only levelled up with actions, and they influence a number of factors including different dialogue options and how likely you are to win an argument. Which is the second point you can choose dialogue options for both Roderick and Scarlett, and even have them argue with each other with you deciding both sides to fit what you want their personalities to be like. If they argue on a course of action the aforementioned attributes come into play. For example if Scarlett had a lot of points in ‘˜Intimidate’ she could threaten Roderick to choose the quest-affecting dialogue choice she wanted, and would probably win. All of which is under your control! It’s an immensely cool system, even if it does really mean you’re talking to yourself.

Combat is turn-based, occasionally brutal, and has its own subtle tricks up its sleeve. It uses Action Points for both movement and actions, you take a turn until your AP is used up, an enemy does the same, you know how Turn-Based Combat works. The first little innovation, which probably isn’t unique to Original Sin but I certainly haven’t seen it before, is merely the neat ability to hold over unused AP until your next turn. Far more exciting however are the magic spells you can use. At first they seem standard Fireball, Ice Blast, Summon Elemental, Storm, those kinds of things but it’s what they can do to the world that’s so cool. If you’re fighting around water for example and throw a Fireball in you’ll evaporate it, or you can use an Ice Blast to freeze it and watch enemies slip comedically about. The Storm spell proved useful out of battle too, as the citizens of Cyseal flocked to put out a ship on fire in the harbour and Roderick just pointed at it and summoned rain. I didn’t get any reward for that, not even XP, but everyone in the harbour area thought I was a hero. I’m sure other spells will prove to have plenty of interesting side-effects and uses come Original Sin’s final release.