Larian Studios has started the clock running on its crowd-funding campaign for Divinity: Original Sin 2, the sequel to last year’s excellent fantasy RPG. The studio’s looking for $500,000, slightly more than the $400k they targeted for the original game.
Of course Original Sin ended up earning nearly $1 million, and judging by its reception I think it’s likely Larian will see similair success with the sequel. The Kickstarter page has been up less than an hour, and $67,992 has been raised already.
So what’s new in Original Sin 2? The game’s turn-based combat, co-op support and huge, open levels remain, but this time it seems like Larian’s concentrating more on making your character feel rooted in the world.
”The theme of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is how your origins affect who you are and what chances you get in life,” the team explains. ”At the start of the game, you pick a single character and determine your starting stats, race, and origin story. You’ll be able to recruit up to three companions, each of whom is just as detailed as the character you’re playing, with their own origin story and motivation to help you in your quest. This makes it possible for each companion to become a player character in multiplayer mode; every party member is equally important to the whole.
Co-op has been expanded to support four players, and Larian’s introducing ”competitive questing”, giving each player a separate plot-line and watching their goals and motivations clash. There’s no obligation to sow inter-party strife, but for role-playing fans it should be a chance to mix things up a bit.
The conversation system has been improved so that dialogue differs dpending on which character is taking part, and the crafting system - which felt a bit clunky and superfluous on the original - is being reworked. Oh, and this is awesome:
”We’re also introducing Skill Crafting, a new mechanic that lets you combine different skills and spells to create powerful new ones. With skill crafting, you can mix a “silence” spell with a “summon spider” spell to make a “summon stealth spider” spell. A “rain” spell combined with a “grease” spell yields a “grease rain” spell. (By the way, wet grease explodes if it comes in contact with fire. Just another elemental bang to ruin your enemy’s day.) And you can mix bleeding spells like “lacerate” with a “rain” spell to summon a tempest of blood.”
The magic system in Original Sin was already great, but that sounds incredible. There’s a lot more information over on the Kickstarter page, so you should definitely head over there if you’re interested in finding out what Larian has in store. Oh god, I just refreshed the page and the funding’s gone up to $88,000 already. There’s 34 days to go on the campaign. This one’s getting funded.
