Beyond Divinity is a computer role playing game set in the award-winning Divinity universe. It is Larian Studios' latest RPG experience.

Beyond Divinity is based on the same engine as Divine Divinity and is also set in the same gaming universe. It builds further on the strengths of Divine Divinity, but contains many new gameplay additions and engine improvements.

We did a lot of them but the following list includes the most visible ones:
- Updated graphics engine including real time 3D characters with support for DX9 & higher resolutions.
- Total control over party members.
- Zooming functionality.
- Over the top magical effects.
- Fully spoken dialogs.
- A new character development system including a new skill system and advanced character creation options.
- A new reputation system.
- Real time generation of dungeons, maps and quests.
- A better balanced equipment and trading system with many new and unique items.

The surprisingly simple answer is that if we didn’t, we’d have to redo decades of man-years in development work and it would take us a lot of time before we could release another RPG. With the Divinity engine we have a very powerful framework to try new gameplay mechanics in and implement new RPG features. We intend to fully use that framework.

Developing a RPG engine like the Divinity engine is no trivial task. The emphasis of the Divinity engine is on providing an all-round RPG experience for the player. There aren’t many RPG’s containing a similar high level of interactivity, non-linearity and player freedom. There are two main reasons for this:

The first is that it’s so hard to develop. This was evidenced by some of the technical problems encountered when Divine Divinity was first released. Those problems have now been solved, and what’s left is a highly versatile and incredibly powerful RPG engine allowing us to dedicate more time than ever before to the game play rather than the technical side of things.

The second reason is that usually most of the budget goes into the graphical side of things. While Beyond Divinity does contain its graphical goodies, we haven’t gone excessive and opted instead to perfect the gameplay side of our engine. We’ll focus on the graphical side in the next incarnations of the engine.

Based on the Highly Awarded and Internationally Acclaimed Divine Divinity
Divine Divinity was considered by many to be one of the best RPG’s of 2002. Public acknowledgement of the qualities of Divinity was strong and we paid close attention to why people liked Divinity so much. We stuck to the strengths of Divinity and improved the areas which were considered to be weak.

Total RPG Experience
There are many variables that a true RPG game should deliver. With Beyond Divinity, we think we deliver on all fronts. Beyond Divinity offers infinite character development; unparalleled levels of interactivity; intense item fever; a wide variety of enemies; a next generation rule set; enormous replay value; tons of quests; a new world to explore and a fun real time combat system.

Rich and Rewarding Storyline
Without any doubt the heart of any true RPG is its story. It is the main artery that is needed for its very survivals since it’s what motivates players to develop their characters. Beyond Divinity contains a rich storyline that will take players through a fantastic universe and offer them many plot twists. In addition, Beyond Divinity has one extra card up its sleeve … the Battlefields! The Battlefields is the name of our new and innovative technology that generates random quests and worlds. Together with the new character development system, it is a guarantee for endless replay.

The Gameplay Boosters!
Part of the success of Divinity was the high density of what we call Gameplay Boosters. Gameplay Boosters can best be described as things which are interesting to do or fun to discover. They might include playing a game of chess with a demon to gain a legendary sword or discovering a long lost recipe to brew dwarven ale. In general the more Gameplay Boosters contained within a gameworld, the more fun it is.

In Beyond Divinity the density of these Gameplay Boosters is a lot higher than it ever was in Divinity.

No, it isn’t. It can be said that this is an extension of the Divinity Universe, but this is a completely new experience, with a fresh storyline.

While we have not made any announcements, we are committed to expanding the Divinity universe. So yes, there will be a Divinity 2.

Beyond Divinity is currently available for PC only. A Macintosh port is likely.

We expect Beyond Divinity to get a teen rating from the ESRB, and a 12+ from the EU board. Asia should get a similar rating.

The English version of the game will be in stores on April 27th 2004.

Beyond Divinity is already available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and will soon be available in other territories including the Benelux, Scandinavia, Portugal, France, Australia, Poland, the Czech republic, the Russian speaking territories, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Beyond Divinity is being localized in French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Czech and Polish. Other languages and territories may soon be announced.

Yes. There is a German and an English demo. You can find it in our download section or by following this link: http://www.larian.com/riftrunner/BDdemo.php

The demo gives you the chance to play the beginning of the first act of the game, it’s an excellent opportunity to experience a small part of the Divinity universe.

The demo is 168Mb in size.

The minimum specs to be able to play the game well are a PIII 800Mhz with 256Mb of RAM, a 64Mb 3D video card, a 4X speed cdrom drive, a 100% DirectX compatible soundcard, and 2GB free HDD space. DirectX 8.1 is required, compatible with DirectX 9 drivers.
The game will run on win98SE/2000 SP2/ME/XP.

Beyond Divinity supports five resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 and 1600x1200. Much depends on the quality of your graphics card and the configuration of your PC.

Yes. Furthermore, you have a quick-save and quick-load key for rapid saving/loading.

No. Beyond Divinity is a single player game.