First, let me start by saying: Ignore the reviews that gave this game incredibly low scores. This is a good game! At times, it even seems to reach the level of Divine Divinity. However, if you're just going to be lazy and not even get past Act 1, you hardly gave the game a chance. With that said, the good news is that after Act 1, the game opens up much like what is akin to what is seen in Divine Divinity. So, why do people harp on this game? Well... for one very big reason. It is different to Divine Divinity. Instead of being a Diablo clone, which was essentially Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity takes a mixture of Diablo mechanics and mechanics that are shared from games like Baldur's Gate. You now control 2 characters, and there's a mouse scroll and pan button. Meaning, no longer is your camera stuck to your character. The setting is similar to something like Planescape (in no way would I compare the games, however). I'm just comparing the setting. The story is absolutely essential to understanding the ending to Divine Divinity. It's also way better than Divine Divinity's story. I ended up completing (100% playthrough) of this 100+ hour game. But the biggest flaw are the bugs. Almost all of them aren't game breaking or quest breaking bugs, however. Below, these are some of the bugs I noticed: Wearing a plate helmet gives the image of a fancy hat on your equipment screen. Some stairs in the game read as "Object 100074." When equipping Ranaar leggings, they are invisible on your character. Making it impossible for you to wear a complete set of Ranaar armor (the effects on your character are fine). These are the sort of bugs that are in the game. In my opinion, they hardly detract from the experience. Reviewers are also incredibly overblowing the problems. Divine Divinity fans were upset because this wasn't Divine Divinity 2. But looking at Larian Studios now, none of their games are same. They're *all* different. Get this game, and ignore whiney critics.
This game is almost perfect, but don't listen to the person above me. However, I do agree that about 5-6 days ago the game was in a pretty bad state. So much so that I questioned what the beta testers were doing! It was appalling, but I don't attribute that to the main developers as it's just Joe and Hannah working on a game that's about 20-30 hours. But, again, don't listen to the person above me as the game is thankfully in a near perfect state as I'm typing this review. Onto the review: this game is absolutely stunning. But don't expect the game to hold your hand. I'd attribute the style of the game to something like Blood Omen for dos (Transylvania-type game as well). The style is spot on. I think that the game shares a lot of comparisons to Baldur's Gate more than Darklands. The reason for this is because you play Necholai, the moon god of the game. While I can see comparisons to Darklands, there's not enough spirit fiction in the game or (types) random encounters when traveling on the world map to warrant too much of a comparison. There really is only like two types of random encounter boxes that pop up, usually just misguided directions from someone. It also would have been interesting to see a greater emphasis on these random encounters alongside the woodwise skill. For example, why are there no options in these events like Darklands? Instead these events serve more like a final fantasy style random encounter. However, the combat is incredibly similar to Darklands. But more so, it takes the combat of Darklands and mixes it with a Baldur's gate-esque type combat. The combat can be extremely fluid at times. But it's sad the game didn't get more backing because the game really could have been spectacular with a spirit realm addition. I think to me that would have sealed the comparison to Darklands and Serpent in the Staglands for me. The game is excellent and almost perfect for me. PLEASE support the developers! They deserve it.
