Legendary RPG series: Divinity

Marian Studios is a Belgian development company for computer games. Most of all, it was understood for the growth of the Divinity parlor game, but likewise established in participation with various European television broadcasters and authors of kid's and also instructional video games, as well as betting for gambling enterprises.

Only recently we mentioned in our article about the black eye by the way that the Belgians of Marian Studios had started their career almost with a DSA role-playing game. The targeted plant first was called The Lady, The Mage and the Knight before using a cooperation with the German manufacturer Attic Entertainment Software. Unfortunately, there was a dispute between the two parties: At all, Marian Studios had to do with a magnetic budget according to their own statements, until they pulled the tear.

Fortunately, Belgians did not give up and found a more reliable distribution partner with CDV. Marian Studios finally put the title The Lady, The Mage and The Knight to the files and wanted to call his debate Divinity: Sword of Lies. CDV, however, insisted on the unknown word game Divine Divinity (free translated: Divine divinity ), about all English-speaking magazines made funny.

Divine Divinity: Two classics united

At least the name did not hurt the quality of the game, which was surprised in 2002 with an unusual concept. The team around Project Manager Seen Vince combined the complex game world of an Ultimo 7: The Black Gate (1992) with the easily accessible action role-playing system from Diablo (1996). Diablo meets Ultimo: Already with Divine Divinity, Marian Studios tried to link a simple combat system with a sophisticated game world. Source: Marian Studios / Media Agency Plasma The Mix benefited in particular from its intuitive control, which still works well in 19 years later. Just like in Blizzard's milestone Diablo, the makers focused on a central character, additional fellow at best in the form of conjured creatures at the same time. The interaction with the environment in turn reminded of a mix of Ultimo 7 and Point & Click Adventures, which is why the player with simple mouse clicks inserted objects, chairs opened or busy.

Although there were only three fundamentally different character classes, but this circumstance exploited the large number of skills and spells. Significantly controversial, the judgment of the trade press on the graphic came out: while the Americans coated the gloomy color style, the German colleagues from Gamester to 4players motored over the obsolete technology. Divine divinity was just like its now aged role models on an isometric view — critics expected at that time but rather a high-quality 3D graphic à la the Elder Scrolls 3: Morrow ind (2002).

About every doubt, however, the fantastic music from the Feather of Krill Bokanovsky, who came into the history of video game composers with his works as a master of the Hall. Although his soundtracks sound a bit shrill, they are nonetheless but nominal atmospheric. Although Beyond Divinity's combat system was based on Divine Divinity, it had to be significantly more frequent due to the two character characters in the pause mode. Source: Marian Studios / Media Agency Plasma Divine Divinity should not be over the line without Diablo, however, how many European role plays conquered the hearts of a sworn fan base. The merry the successor Beyond Divinity, who saw the light of day in 2004. At first glance, the game did not seem to be the fastest continuation, in which Marian Studios trusted on the virtues of the predecessor and told a new story. Nevertheless, there was at least a very important change: this time managed two characters, which is why the player in the fights had to operate the pause key again and again. Unequal couple: In Beyond Divinity, both a paladin and a death knight managed. Source: Marian Studios / Media Agency Plasma

Divinity for the mass market: EGO Dragons

For the next part Marian Studios increased significantly more time and went to Divinity 2: EGO Dragons until 2009. The developer cremated the entire game system and made a modern third-person role-playing game with the help of the Embryo Engine known from The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (2006).

In combination with the more gloomy history again, Ego Dragons was compared in this country in this country with the Gothic series (from 2001). Divinity 2 had sufficiently independent to offer — especially a game character, which could almost at any time turn into a dragon. Divinity 2: EGO Dragons suggested a completely different direction than his predecessor and recalled graphically like playfully at Gothic. Source: Marian Studios / Media Agency Plasma Interestingly, the scoring picture turned compared to Divine Divinity: While this time the German trade press spoke of a positive surprise and just criticized small things like the open end, the Americans were much more critical. They fade the mediocre written story and the required amount of patience that you needed until your opinion unfolds the charm of the game.

Marian Studios could not be confused and made a welcome add-on with Flames of Vengeance (2010), which enriched the story about a worthy final. Only a few months later, the overall package was released again and sold as The Dragon Knight Saga. However, the renaming was not a pure cosmetics, based on the numerous improvements: both graphics and sound were optimized, opponents placed differently and some areas like the flying fortresses completely revised. A typical scene from Divinity: Dragon Commander: While the units stormed at the bottom of the opponent base, the player crashed down the enemy with his dragon from above. Source: Marian Studios / Media Agency Plasma Next, the Belgians focused on a spin-off: In Divinity: Dragon Commander you played the Bastards of Kaiser Sigurd and a dragon called Aurora, who had adopted the figure of a human being. They fought against his three semi-siblings around the throne of Riverton, but not in the form of a role-playing game. Instead, Dragon Commander turned out to be a wharf mix of board, real-time strategy and dragon flight game, with the latter reminiscent of Dragon strike (1990) from Westwood or Lair (2007) of Factor 5.

Parallel to Dragon Commander Marian Studios worked on another conventional role-playing game, for which the developer has a very unusual path: he wanted to fight away from the action-rich struggles and towards a challenging, round-based tactical system. This caused numerous problems that the project convicted almost to failure. Above all, neither a publisher nor an investor to realize the game. Divinity 2 was also not a major auditor, which is why Belgians lacked the necessary financial resources.

So one reached for bank loans, started a Kickstarter campaign (which was more than three times the targeted $300,000) and used the beginning of 2014 the still young Early-Access program of Steam. Fortunately for all stakeholders, the risk was on: Divinity: Original Sin (2014) moused to an exemplary surprise hit.

The next page is about the two masterpieces original SIN 1 & 2 — as well as the future of the divinity series.

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