After capturing IGN’s RPGVault “Outstanding achievement in music” award in 2002, our beloved composer Kirill Pokrovsky has once again been honoured with this prestigious award for the music in Beyond Divinity. Well done Kirill !!!

For details on the award, click here.

If you haven’t had the chance to enjoy Kirill’s music yet, or you simply want more, head over to our online shop & get the Divinity series soundtrack. You’ll get a signed version of “The Child of Chaos” novella, written by Rhianna Pratchett & a Divinity series audio CD signed by Kirill.

Patch 1.47 for the English version of Beyond Divinity has been made available on our support site. Click here to download it.

Beyond Divinity was thoroughly turned inside out by Kiya, Barnabus, Raze and Myrthos, resulting in the most complete guide ever. Their strategy guide is the ultimate resource including not only an exhaustive walkthrough, but also descriptions of all quests, skills, items, creatures, and even in-game mathematics.

Finally, after being made available to magazines as cover CD material, the "Beyond Divinity Strategy Guide" is now available as an exclusive download at The Locus Inn, featuring all the information you'll ever need about the game (and extra Divinity artwork!).

Download the Beyond Divinity Strategy Guide.

Graham Plowman a.k.a. “Plowking” on the Larian Forum has just released the second part of the “Dennis the Deathknight” movie. Based on Larian’s RPG “Beyond Divinity”, this movie features a Deathknight rolling “Sexual Harassment”, a hero threatening an imp, and a loss-fer-words antagonist. Click here to get shaken out of yer pants! (You need shockwave installed to see it.)

The Japanese demo is now available for download at the following links:

Mystixstudios
4Gamer

In case your Japanese skills aren’t decent enough and you haven’t tried out the demo yet, please follow these links to the English and the German demo.

Furthermore we would like to inform you that more localized versions of Beyond Divinity have recently gone gold in the following territories: Japan, Russia, Australia and Poland.

More localized versions (Czech Republic, China, Italy and Taiwan) will be released soon and will be announced here.

If your Dutch skills are decent enough, then head over to Gamesplanet where they put up a review of Beyond Divinity, giving it a solid 83%.

Here’s their (translated) conclusion:
“Those who are in need of a solid RPG that respects the successful formula of its predecessor, that makes atmosphere paramount, and that boasts numerous missions resulting in a seemingly endless game experience, should just go out and get Beyond Divinity. A must for RPG gamers.”

Follow this link for the full review.

DailyGame just finished reviewing Beyond Divinity and rated it 8/10. This is what they had to say:

"Gamers looking for dozens of hours of RPG gameplay can't go wrong with Beyond Divinity. It throws a few new twists into standard dungeon crawling gameplay along with a world so fleshed-out, you'll be hard pressed to not want to keep exploring."

Click the following link for the full review.

A new review of Beyond Divinity can be found at Gamerspot.gr. The reviewer was very positive about the game and rated the game 88%. Here's her conclusion:

"Wandering about in the enormous world of Beyond Divinity, you will be astonished by the detail in all the levels. You will enjoy the funny dialogues and the intelligent jokes while completing interesting missions. Beyond Divinity proves to be a worthy investment and promises many hours of enjoyable gameplay, rare objects (for the collectors) and a very interesting plot."

Click here for the full review.

This is a must-see! Graham Plowman a.k.a. “Plowking” on the Larian Forum has just released the first part of the Dennis the Deathknight movie starring the Beyond Divinity protagonists, killer bunnies and a very strange imp...
Click here to check it out!
(you need shockwave installed to see it)

A new review popped up over at PC Dome rating Beyond Divinity 90%.

Here's a (translated) snip:

“The role playing game fans who enjoyed the first part will certainly not be disappointed in the new game, but I would also recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new challenge after serious role playing games because at higher difficulty settings the player cannot use action game style and you often have to make use of the whole attack and defence repertoire against a serious opponent. Apart from that, I would also recommend that fans of Diablo and Sacred-style action/role playing games give it a spin (certainly for those of you who enjoy single player mode) because on the lower difficulty settings the game successfully combines action, an interesting story line and a sense of humour.”

Click here for the full review.

Two more international Beyond Divinity reviews popped up at JeuxVideo.com and GameZone.be. Both reviewers were very positive about the game as you can read in the following snippets:

Jeuxvideo (score: 16/20)
“(…) Vous découvrirez un jeu de rôle riche et intéressant. Les quêtes sont nombreuses, le scénario passionnant, les dialogues croustillants et le système d'évolution des personnages s'avère être très bien pensé. Bref, Beyond Divinity est un grand jeu de rôle, tout simplement !”

GameZone (score: 4.5 stars on 5)
“Het accent binnen Beyond Divinity ligt op het vechten, dit resulteert echter niet in een verwaarlozing van het verhaal, in tegendeel zelfs. Het verhaal zit goed en dankzij de goede sound effects en muziek is de sfeer op en top. Voeg hier nog de knappe graphics, een uitgebreid spreukensysteem en enkele handige features toe en je hebt een top RPG.”

A new review of "Beyond Divinity" can be found at the website of PalGaming.com. The reviewer was very positive as you can read in this snip:

"The game is a very long lasting and for the most part very well done RPG that blends quick and easy gameplay with lots of detail and sophisticated character development and story, the Divinity series is one that will definitely continue to get better as Larian iron out the kings. It's not particularly innovative but it does provide excellent gameplay that will keep any RPG fan happy."

Click here to read the full review.

GameBanshee has launched a new network site for both our rpg’s Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity, offering a walkthrough, a bestiary, a skill section, gameplay tips and many more things. Follow the links for the full details.

RPG Vault is featuring a 'Beyond Divinity' Wrap Report as Swen ‘Lar’ Vincke looks back on the development of our recently released RPG.

“We realized quickly that if we were going to use the Divine Divinity engine, we'd receive a lot of flak about the graphics in the game, given that they're 2D. The only way we could avert that, which we felt would result in destructive reviews, was by providing innovative gameplay. This was fine for us because there were a couple of things we wanted to try out, such as the skill system, the summoning dolls and the battlefields.”

If your Dutch skills are decent enough, you can head over to Telenet Games where they put up a review of Beyond Divinity, giving it a solid 81%.

Here’s what they concluded after playing many, many hours:

“Beyond Divinity has the same foundation as its predecessor and builds on it in a successful way. This is a pure old-style RPG with an amazing eye of detail and countless gameplay hours. It might be a bit hard to learn for beginners and has some minor flaws but this game should be obligated to every gamer out there.”

For the full review, click the following link.

eToychest put up a new Beyond Divinity review. They liked the game a lot and gave it a 90% score. Check it all out here.

Here’s their conclusion:

“If you liked Divine Divinity, you’ll love the follow-up. If you like RPGs, in general, you’ll love Beyond Divinity.”

A new review popped up over at IC games rating Beyond Divinity 84%.

Here's a snip:

“Larian Studios certainly have managed to develop a game that stands against the majority of RPG titles released recently and should give either fans of the previous Larian title 'Divine Divinity' or anyone looking for an RPG title an immersive and solid role-playing experience."

Click here for the full review.

If your Norvegian is any good, you might be interested to hear that Gamer.no just put up a review of Beyond Divinity. Here's a partial translation of their conclusion (thanks to Kristian).

“Beyond Divinity is a really well made follow-up to one of the most overlooked titles. You'll get more of all you liked about Divine Divinity, but with a number of improvements. The skill system is very innovative, and lets you customize your characters in detail. A good story combined with lots of laughing and phenomenal music, makes it easy to get carried away.”

Click here for the full review.

Another review of Beyond Divinity popped up on the internet with a very nice 4 out of 5 rating. The reviewer over at Globetechnology found it one of the best-looking, scariest games he's played in a long time. Here's a small piece of what he had to say:

"A fantastic looking and sounding game, the creepy soundtrack and vivid graphics will definitely make you shudder. However, it's the plotline - a very original take on the Diablo-influenced horror-RPG genre - that makes this game worth the investment."

Head over to Globetechnology to read the full review.

We just released patch 1.45 for the English retail version of Beyond Divinity.

This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.45

For more information or to download the patch, follow this link.

A new review of Beyond Divinity popped up today at M2G. Rating it 84% here's their conclusion:

"Our conclusion about the game is the following: Beyond Divinity might be the game that will make gamers quit Diablo 2 or other RPG's of this genre and offers the gamer a great gaming experience. It has good graphics, great gameplay and very good sound and is once again a proof of the skilled crew they have working at Larian Studios. This game is very good and is a must-have for the RPG fans and can't be lacking in your collection."

Click here to read the full review.

The average review rating to date for Beyond Divinity seems to be converging to 80%, and RPGDot sticks to that trend with their review of Beyond Divinity. They gave the game 80% and the reviewer says that "Beyond Divinity offers fun and addictive gameplay with more depth than virtually any other RPG since Divine Divinity"

He also offers his opinion on the music in the game, and while he's no fan of the title track, he does say that "While the new title music isn't as impressive as Divine Divinity, many of the other tracks throughout the game are spectacular, with haunting melodies and soaring choral voices. I found the music compelling and would have played on just to hear the music in entirety."

Click here to read the full review.

In their round up of April 2004, Gamespy nominated Beyond Divinity as runner up for Game of the Month.

"Gamers who fixate on how much they get out of a game will have a hard time finding fault with Beyond Divinity. This sequel to 2002's underappreciated Divine Divinity is part! Diablo hack-and-slash, but with the detail of Ultima and the atmosphere of PlaneScape. When all's told, you could spend over 100 hours pounding through this adventure which binds your fate to the demon Samuel, and still have replay value left over thanks to its randomly generated "Battlefields." Like the original, Beyond Divinity offers a bounty of tried-and-true gameplay that's a value at any price."

For full details, head over here. Earlier Gamespy reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave it 8/10. (Click here for the review)

Just RPG just (pardon the pun) reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave the game a raving score of 91%.

"Beyond Divinity hits the RPG bull's-eye, with everything an RPG gamer covets - elaborate plotline, specialized creation of wide-ranging characters, huge world, 60+ hours for a run-through, infinite replayability, hundreds of main and side quests, oodles of NPC's, a genuine party to manipulate and level with skill and spell possibilities in the hundreds, party member summoning, staggering numbers of unique and improvable equipment and items, gigantic complementary battlefields, action or tactical combat, puzzles galore, and right-on humor. It's hard to imagine anything I've wanted in an RPG missing from Beyond Divinity."

To read the full review, go here.

Meanwhile, for our dutch friends out there, Gamez.nl reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave it 88%. Here's a quote:

"Met Beyond Divinity heeft het Belgische Larian weer een dijk van een RPG neergezet. De gameplay is zeer herkenbaar maar door de vele mogelijkheden toch origineel. De verhaallijn is uitstekend en met de nodige sarcastische humor aangekleed. De grootste kracht is wel dat je de RPG op verschillende manieren kan spelen zowel tactisch als het simpele hack & slash werk."

Go here for the full review.

IGN, the last of the 3 major game sites to review Beyond Divinity has just put up one of the most thorough reviews to date. They gave the game a strong 8.0 and said
"This is an entertaining and challenging RPG, with less of an emphasis on finger-twitching than thought."

The reviewer had a couple of issues we will be dealing with in a next patch and wrote in that regard:
"If the game balance had matched the creativity and attention to overall design put into this title, I would probably have given it a 90%, because the detail of construction and depth of the environment are truly excellent."

Click here to read the full review.

We have just released the English version of patch V1.42. For anybody playing with versions 1.4 or above this is a must-have patch. To all other players, we strongly advise getting this patch.

For more information follow this link.

Popular site Gamezone just reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave it a solid overall 8/10 score. Here's a snippet:

"If you have ever played Diablo, Dungeon Siege, or Baldurs Gate, than this game will become second home to you. The game has a very similar pace, but it does have a different flare to it by some of the gameplay additions such as solving puzzles and sneaking around. This helps break up some of the repetition that these games are well known for."

Click here for the full review.

After Gamespot, it's time for another one of the major sites to review Beyond Divinity. This time it's up to Gamespy and they rated the game 4 out of 5 stars saying:

"If you're looking for a lengthy (as in 100+ hours) RPG that blends quick and dirty gameplay with heaping plates of detail and sophisticated character development, no one else comes close to this series. Don't expect innovation, but remember that's only one-half of the equation. The other half -- exemplary gameplay -- is what Beyond Divinity has in spades."

Head over to Gamespy to read the entire review.

We just released patch 1.4 for the English retail version of Beyond Divinity.

This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.4

For more information or to download the patch, follow this link.

Gamespot just completed a very thorough review of Beyond Divinity and reported that they enjoyed the game. Here are a few tidbits:

"Beyond Divinity, like its predecessor, is a sprawling adventure that gives you the freedom to play as you wish. It's actually somewhat more focused than the first game, and it gives you clear-cut objectives that you're free to accomplish using your own devices."

"This is a good, solid choice either for fans of Larian's last game or for anyone up for a deep computer role-playing experience."

To read the entire review, head over to Gamespot.

And here we are with… the very final Peek of the Week at RPGVault. To close these series, our Project Leader’s (Swen Vincke) thoughts turn to our future. If you want to know what we are up to, please click here.

Realgamer just reviewed Beyond Divinity. Here's some of what they had to say:

"The puzzles are also annoyingly addictive, you get sick of wondering around aimlessly but deep down you know the answer lies nearby, the combination of battle, path finding and quest solving keeps the game fresh and no doubt you will still be playing this game in a few months time, another game to add to my 'games that stood out' list."

For the full review, click here

We just released a first patch for the English retail version of Beyond Divinity. The patch addresses a number of bugs and also introduces a couple of game enhancements. It furthermore brings the version number of the game to the same level as the German version. For more information or to download the patch, follow this link.

While waiting for Beyond Divinity to appear in your local store, you might want to try out the "Dennis the Death Knight" comic strip made by none other than forum member Plowking. The comic, based on Beyond Divinity, shows how hard life can be if you're soulforged to a death knight. Go check it out !

We’ve released patch version 1.31 for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.31

Click here to download the German patch.

The first English review for Beyond Divinity is online over at Fragland. Their score is a solid 81.2% and this is what they had to say: "Overall I had a blast with this game, it has been a while that I played a good story RPG and this is one. It took me around 80 hours to finish the game and even then I did not complete all sub quests and battlefields."

Click here for the full article.

Digital Jesters have teamed up with Larian Studios to Launch Special Fan Gift Set!

Digital Jesters have rumbled through the Larian treasure cove and have put together a special bonus pack! There are only 500 of these packs in existance, and each pack contains a Child of the Chaos novella, signed by the none other than the fine lady Rhianna Pratchett! Also as part of this exclusive pack, is a very unique Divinity Universe audio CD, with completely new music, carefully composed, and generously signed, by the talented Kirill Pokrovsky! The audio CD contains remixed tracks from both Divinity and Beyond Divinity. As as special bonus, you will be contacted in person by email, and Kirill Pokrovsky will write a special personalised message on the CD (10 words max).

This is a very special offering, never to be repeated!

Click here to enter the store!

We’ve released the third patch for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patches. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.3

Click here to download the German patch.

Together with UK publisher Digital Jesters we have released a video exclusive for all RPG fans and followers of the Divinity Universe. The six-minute video, 'Beyond Divinity', filmed a couple of months ago at a press launch, at the exclusive SoHo House in the heart of London's West End is an in-depth interview with the project leader of Beyond Divinity Swen Vincke.

Swen talks about the secrets, traps, monsters, battlefields and extensive character development possibilities in the sequel to the award winning and internationally acclaimed RPG hit Divine Divinity, which was released in 2002. Beyond Divinity, which is due for imminent release takes players on a fantastic quest in a land torn apart by corruption and dark magic, and is destined to absorb and thrill gamers with its unparalleled depth of adventure and advanced combat systems.

This exclusive interview video can be downloaded from the following links.

For the full text of this story click here

We are getting ready for the imminent launch of our RPG Beyond Divinity, by completely updating our FAQ section and releasing golden snippets of information. All you could ever ask for about the game has been answered... then all you need to do next is play the game.

Follow the link to Divine Goodness

Dear Brethren,

The Raanaar are the new race in the world of Beyond Divinity.
To celebrate this new race, you have been sent a message written in ancient Raanaar.
However, and very unfortunately, this seemingly modern technology cannot display, nor decode the message...
To learn its secrets and unlock the message contained within, visit the following link...

For direct access to the Raanaar Messenger visit this link

We are very glad to announce that after months of hard work, the English version of our long awaited new RPG Beyond Divinity has gone gold and will be in shops as early as April 27th, 2004.

To read more about it, click here

A detailed preview has been posted at Gry-Online. The article is in Polish but thanks to Mslynx and Boginka we know that their conclusion is very positive:

“Well, we have to wait patiently. For me Beyond Divinity is a 'must have'.”

The full article in Polish can be found here

We’ve released the second patch for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.2

Click here to download the German patch.

Gamespot recently had a chance to take a look at Beyond Divinity and wrote up some of their impressions.

"Beyond Divinity is very far along, and, if it can deliver what it promises, the game will offer even more in-depth role-playing and more addictive hack-and-slash gameplay than Divine Divinity."

Read the full preview.

The 33rd Peek of the Week is up at RPGVault and this time Lar talks about issues with the German patch and the copy protection of the game. Check it out here.

Gamespy has posted a new preview about Beyond Divinity. They don’t repeat the details from their last preview, but focus on some of the new goodies they saw during a recent play session.

Here’s a snippet:

“The biggest changes are the completely redone voiceovers: based on response to the demo, they've gone back to the studio, contracted new voice actors, and re-recorded all the dialogue. The new stuff sounds great, especially given the often hysterical commentary offered up by the main character's sarcastic soul-mate, the Death Knight.”

Click here to read the entire preview.

We’ve released the first patch for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix various bugs and balance issues. Click here to download it.

Detailed information about this game update can be found in the accompanied text file.

Allaboutgames has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity and liked what they saw. Here’s their conclusion:

“Overall, Beyond Divinity is shaping up to be a great title, likely to please fans of the genre as well as likely to create new interest in RPGs. Hopefully this time round the game will gain a more widespread appeal than it's underrated original.”

Read the full preview here

A very praising Beyond Divinity preview has been posted over at PC Gameworld.

Here’s a snippet:
“For those of you who have never played Beyond Divinity’s oddly named but remarkably entertaining predecessor, Divine Divinity, stop reading this review and run out and buy it immediately.”

Their conclusion:
“So don’t wait and be the last to find out just why this game has received so much praise; download the demo and give it a try. We promise you won’t be disappointed.”

The entire preview can be found here

eToychest recently sat down with Swen “Lar” Vincke at the Game Developer's Conference, and asked some questions about the game and the direction of the Divinity Series as a whole. Read the entire interview here.

Here’s a snip:
“There’s a lot of humor in your games. Do you think RPGs could use more humor?
We couldn’t do it differently. We have a sarcastic sense of humor so in whatever we do it pops up. So naturally, it appears in our work. I think it’s one the reasons we just adore the Dragonlance novels, they don’t take themselves so seriously. Obviously we try to tell a serious story ultimately, the duality of the soul and all that’s involved, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be funny.”

They have written a detailed hands-on preview about Beyond Divinity too. Here’s their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity looks to be an intense and deep single-player RPG that will satisfy even the most game play hungry gamers. The level of detail put into the game system is truly amazing and is quite possibly rivaled only by NetHack in scale. We’ll have to see how the game holds up once the public gets their hands on it, but it looks like Beyond Divinity will be a tough act to follow.”

The entire preview can be found here.

We are happy to announce the final 5 lucky winners of the Imprunner contest:

joliekiller - score: 59249 at level 25
Rachel - score: 193313 at level 31
gal - score: 122470 at level 20
razz - score: 74470 at level 27
Goldylocks - score: 39416 at level 21

All the winners will be contacted soon.
If you want you still can play Imprunner, but the contest to win a free copy of Beyond Divinity has ended. Hope you had fun with this little game!

Instead of the weekly Peek, RPGVault has posted 4 exclusive screenshots including a cool spell sequence.

HomeLANFed has posted one exclusive screenshot here.

Another selection of screenshots can be found at Worthplaying.

Gamers Europe has posted a hands-on preview based on some play from a press build of Beyond Divinity. Click here to read the full article.

Here’s their conclusion:

“If RPGs are your thing or you loved the original then chances are you’re going to enjoy this. It’s fun to play and doesn’t take itself too seriously which is rarer than you might think.”

We are happy to announce that Beyond Divinity is available in shops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as of today.

Here's the Divinity news we grabbed for you today:

Last week, HomeLAN got a sneak peek at ‘Beyond Divinity' while attending the Games Developer Conference in San Jose, CA. You can read their impressions here.

“One of the big features is that whatever type of character you create has what is knows as a "Death Knight" created with you. You can control both your created character and your Death Knight but when either one of you die, the other dies with you. Ouch. Another neat eddition is "summoning dolls", which allow you to bring forth creatures that will fight with you.”

* * * *

VideoGamesLife has posted a fairly detailed preview about Beyond Divinity. Here’s their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity promises a lot. We can only hope that it can deliver – if this is the case, then it could well receive the grandiose praise its prequel was so close to achieving. The preview code has revealed a few niggles, but if Larian Studios heed the advice, they could be onto a game that’s not simply divine, but is Beyond Divinity. Yes.”

Read the full article

* * * *

The chaps at GameBanshee could manage to fire away some questions at David. Click here for the full interview. Here’s a snippet:

GB: In comparison to the first Divinity title, how many different creatures will we be doing battle with in Beyond Divinity? Care to elaborate on any of the more powerful adversaries in the game?

David: We could now provide a lot more and many different monsters for the player to encounter because we are working with 3D characters. I'm not going to count them all, as you can sometimes choose whether to attack this or that NPC or not. I mean, if you want to slaughter imps and snails, or the friendly tibars and floogefrogs and lavacrawlers, go right ahead. Seriously though, you have your standard humans and skeletons, though their magic-using counterparts will prove to be a pain in the rear. Then there's a whole bunch of different elementals and demons, and an entirely new race...

Fragland has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity based on their playing experiences here in our office. Here’s their conclusion (in Dutch):

“Ik ben nooit echt een RPG fanaat geweest, maar na dit bezoekje aan Larian ben ik ongeveer helemaal bekeerd. Ik heb me zeer goed geamuseerd met de demo die we voorgeschoteld kregen en kijk dan ook vol spanning uit naar de release in maart dit jaar. De iets gedateerde graphics worden zonder problemen opgevangen door de goed uitgebalanceerde, originele en vooral verslavende gameplay en de sfeervolle geluiden! De RPG liefhebber mag weer beginnen aftellen tot de dag dat dit spel in de winkels ligt!”

Read the full preview

The street date for the English version of Beyond Divinity’s has been postponed to late April 2004. The main reason for the delay is Larian’s commitment to give the fans the RPG they want. With the release of the Beyond Divinity demo last month, the studio obtained a lot of a valuable feedback from the RPG community.

Read the full press release

Worthplaying has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity and liked what they saw. Here’s their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity is more of an evolutionary expansion of a world and game that has had some good success. The developers seemed to be on a quest to make sure that all the good things the original game had going for it be preserved along with adding many things that make it even better. It’s almost as if the development team said, now that we had to get Divine Divinity out of the door, let’s add all the things we wished we had time to add the first time. And, for many gamers, this will be a very welcomed addition to their gaming collection.”

Read the full preview

Marian Arnold talks about the making of the cutscenes in Beyond Divinity. Read the full Peek of the Week at RPGVault.