Divine Divinity has been in development for a long time, but for once the lengthy period spent on the production of the game has paid off and whilst the game is clearly a labour of love, the love and energy poured into the game make it instantly playable and a very enjoyable experience.
After the recent 3D worlds of Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind it comes as something of a surprise to return to an isometric world. The dated visuals aren't much of a problem though and induce an almost misty-eyed haze of reminiscence whilst playing the game. You choose your character from the usual array of wizards, warriors and thieves and the game comes complete with its own 'world in need of a hero' storyline.
Now, normally we criticise games for such an alarming lack of originality yet its hard to fault Divine Divinity for this when the game is really just a collection of all the good things from all the RPG's you've ever played. The sub-quests, strong storyline and clichéd characters are all present, yet it is the sheer depth of the game that makes it worth playing.
The game starts with you being found unconscious by a community of healers who take you back to their village and nurse you back to health. This opening village provides you with some basic quests and a large underground area to explore before you're let loose on the vast countryside the game has to offer.
Yes, it might not be the sexiest girl in the bar but it's the one that has the most chance of keeping you coming back for more. The isometric graphics and the way you can interact with the world are much more diverse than perhaps any similar game ever made. The game offers three different resolutions up to 1024x768 and looks as good as can be expected.
As I mentioned before though, it's the depth and detail that really make this game. As soon as you start exploring the game's world you'll notice it from the rabbits hopping around the grass, to the birds above your head and the magnitude of things to interact with is quite mind-boggling. Quite literally almost everything in the game can be interacted with in some way. Brooms and candles are no longer useless objects cluttering up the screen but can instead be used as a weapon until you get your hands on some proper equipment.
It's not just graphically detailed however, and the sounds that accompany the game are equally as detailed be they the sound of running water, the songs the birds sing to themselves, or just the general noise that forests emit. For once, even the music in the game is great and really helps contribute to the overall atmosphere the game manages to create.
Morrowind may not be the most obvious game to connect Divine Divinity with but follow me on this one and you'll see where I'm going. Unlike games such as Baldur's Gate which were separated by loading times as the game loaded the different areas into memory, Morrowind was pretty much seamless and allowed you to go wherever you wanted within reason. Divine Divinity is like this in that the only places you can't go are where the landscape stops you rather than the game limiting you. However, don't worry you don't have to walk everywhere as there are an assortment of portals and teleportation scrolls scattered around for you to make use of.
It's quite possible just to walk the earth picking up quests and tasks along the way without much of an aim. Tt would be easy to loose track of where you're meant to be and what you're supposed to be doing if it wasn't for the very handy updating quest journal.
For every character on offer there are numerous skills and abilities unique to that class. These skills are known as The Way of the Mage, The Way of the Survivor and The Way of the Mage. Each of these is broken down to four sub-trees that reflect various values that the character of your choice needs to succeed. So, for example, the warrior has one set devoted to weapons, another to ranger skills, one more to lore and finally one for magical items.
It is also quite possible to mix and match skills from all the possibilities making an almost infinite number of possible characters you can develop. Although, developing skills from a path, which isn't your chosen one, will take longer than normal it is still something that you'll find yourself doing quite a lot.
Even the script, plot and voice acting are all of a generally high standard. Ok, the voices do have the occasional 'Americanism' to them but other than that voice acting is good and even the written narrative in the game is well done. The storyline is quite a hardcore one that will please existing RPG fans and there are little touches of subtlety throughout the game, which add to the overall experience.
The quests are sizeable and varied and feature tons of sub-quests and quests that are linked together. Indeed a large chunk of the quests all seem to fit into the overall storyline, which is nice and helps keep the game focused. As well as this there are always locals to help, goblins to kill, and princesses to save. Another plus point is the way the quests are structured as they require you to pay attention and use your brain rather than the usual go here and do that structure that is found in a lot of RPG's.
Ok, so it has the stupidest sounding name in gaming history but don't let that put you off. Admittedly, a lot of the game's features you will find in other RPG's but you'd be hard-pressed to find another game that combines all these elements quite so well. It may not be a trendsetter and it doesn't exactly progress the genre in any particular direction but what it does do it does well. The game is living proof that games can be delayed for good reasons as well as bad and the time and effort that has been put into the game is quite astonishing. It could well be the last isometric RPG and what a great send-off it would be to the genre.
Silly Name, Great Game
