Divinity: Fallen Heroes - Sort of XCOM

Divinity: Fallen Heroes is sort of XCOM for Divinity: Original Sin 2, but doesn't have its guns yet

"Hot diggity daffodil," says I, reading a GDC email two weeks ago. "A 'new and unannounced Divinity: Original Sin 2 title', what a day!" Eagle eyed readers will have already spotted that the email did not in fact say 'hot new in-depth RPG Divinity: Original Sin 3 revealed', and Divinity: Fallen Heroes is indeed not that.
I got a hands on with an early alpha build, and what it is, is sort of XCOM but for Divinity. Or, to put it another way: did you like the combat from Divinity: Original Sin 2?

The combat in OS2 wasn't my favourite part, because as you probably know I lean towards story and elf-bothering, but it's good, and was highly praised. Making a standalone game about it seems like a good move. There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the main cut, thrust, stab, explosion, knockback, poison-applied of it. Fallen Heroes is set post OS2, but there is still adventuring to be done and a world to save. You become the captain of the flying battleship Lady Vengeance, and from there send a squad of four (three basic types e.g. archer or healer, and one familiar heroic face from OS2), out on various missions for complex turn-based murder.

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johnnysd said:

Not interested at all. They are ignoring the obvious game that would get maybe the most buzz, a true sequel to Divine Divinity. I know ARPGs are not super popular here but DD is I believe the best of all ARPGs and Divine Divinity true sequel (isometric, action) would be a huge seller for them.

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It's spin-off so can't complain. Remember Larain has multiple projects in development right now. So I'm sure another Original Sin will be released eventually.

I'm actually more interested in the original RPG that was referenced in a few interviews and video blogs. Guess we have to wait for more news about that project.

Also the Divinity series has never stayed true to its roots. It went from a Diablo clone, to a full fledged Action RPG, and now it's a turn-based RPG. Always changing.

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Andrew23 said:

Played DOS and at beginning I was enjoying it. But as time went on, I realized Im not getting immersed in the world, or story, or characters. So it seems that setting, writing and visual design are not my cup of tea. Had similar problem with their previous games, including Divinity II, which had some intersting combat and side quest design. But at the end, I didnt care much about it. Probably matter of taste.

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Andrew23 said:

Played DOS and at beginning I was enjoying it. But as time went on, I realized Im not getting immersed in the world, or story, or characters. So it seems that setting, writing and visual design are not my cup of tea. Had similar problem with their previous games, including Divinity II, which had some intersting combat and side quest design. But at the end, I didnt care much about it. Probably matter of taste.

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lackblogger said:

Like most things, it depends a lot on what your influences are before you encounter the new thing. For example, if your favourite movies are things like Predator and Rambo then DOOM will more easily snuggle into your immersion zone. Likewise, if you come to RPGs solely from reading Tolkien then you're immersion zone is likely more a foreboding, grimmer world with lots of detailed lore.

In order to understand the Larian immersion zone you have to understand what their influences are, which you'll notice if you also have similar influneces but will likely not understand if you don't. The divinity series comes more from the line of Terry Pratchett and Monty Pyton and has always had a more cartoony and light hearted approach to the cPRG concept as a result.

To me this is a very familiar world & I often find myself laughing out loud while playing Divinity games, most likely because I know the reference points.

Comedy is a different kind of immersion and 'care about' than more dower or sincere settings, obviously. When we watch Austin Powers are we as immersed in the world as when we watch James Bond? Do we 'care' about Austin Powers? Well, not really, only to the extent to which he is able to give us the next laugh. Trying to play a Divinity game from a 'serious immersion perspective' would be like trying to watch Austin Powers from a 'serious immersion perspective'.

The fact that you've played a lot of their games before and still insist on approaching them from a position of serious immersion is kind of weird really.

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johnnysd said:

Not interested at all. They are ignoring the obvious game that would get maybe the most buzz, a true sequel to Divine Divinity. I know ARPGs are not super popular here but DD is I believe the best of all ARPGs and Divine Divinity true sequel (isometric, action) would be a huge seller for them.

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Andrew23 said:

Not sure what is basis for assumption I was approaching the game from "a position of serious immersion", but ok. I dont think I have problem with lightheartedness or humorous setting of the game in general. It doesnt limit my immersion just by itself, I can immerse myself into funny plot or writing, if I find it good.

While Im able to identify concrete things I didnt like in the game design, thinking about it, none of them seems like deal-breaker by itself. Maybe combination just didnt work for me, perhaps matter of taste after all.

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lackblogger said:

My apologies. You'll have to forgive me as I am completely unfamiliar with what the term immersion means in regards game criticism. It's a word that has popped up relatively recently, like a lot of new buzzwords, that people now like to use with regards to RPGs and I can only go by how I imagine the word immersion, that of 'caring' about the world your playing in, the charatcers you're playing with, or getting genuine chills in horror scenes, or feeling the chill of a snowy landscape etc.

While this could be considered an imporant factor for RPGs, it's never really been a dealbreaker, as you say. Particularly not in a Divinity game.

So I'd be delighted if you could help a n00b out here and help me understand what immersion means to you & propably other people (?) whom you presumably learned the phrase from.

I'm picking you up on this because, yes, I am a 51% Divinity fanboy. On the scale of 100% nutter fanboy versus 0% Divinity hate-troller, I come in at about 51%. I'm aware of the issues with the series, but usually they boil down to the usual issues of Diablo loot but not as good as Diablo's loot, Bugs, and the way they always have trouble keeping the game quality persistent throughout the game, often having quite bad and dull late games and over-long introduction areas.

Oh, and the "I don't like the comedy cartoon style, or, equivalently, the writing is shit", to which I now treat this last common complaint as troll matter. Hence again why I picked you up for mentioning story as an issue. You're probably quite innocent here & possibly unaware of this history, but, for 20 years now, for countless games, any Larian thread will have people pop up and say "I don't like the comedy cartoon style, or, equivalently, the writing is shit". And it's usually people who, for reasons only known to themselves (cough troll) are still posting this same asinine line on every Divinity thread they can lay their hands on.

As if there is some dire need for Larian to somehow stop being the comedy relief game for RPGs and for Larian to, for some reason, suddenly start making Dark Souls atmosphere games with perfect turn-based combat and photo-realistic protagonists. LOL. They do what they do, why do people still feel the need to bitch about them for doing what they do after… 20 years.

Like I said, You're probably completely innocent here & I'd still be very interested to hear what you mean by immersion and story & why you're not happy with just character creation, diverse builds, satisfying combat, sometimes interesting loot, mostly fun quests and often interesting NPCs and lots of random comedy, and all the other things that tend to be higher on the agenda of both praise and criticism.

From what you say, it looks like you probably don't even know yourself, so I apologise if I appear to be bugging you about this, if it's just some undescribable hunch, then sure, I can understand you not explaining that, I get that sometimes with games, but if you feel like having a good rant about something specific then go right ahead, I like reading a good rant. Just as long as it's not "Cartoony graphics and shit comedy writing, oh by the way, this is my 7th try at liking a Divinity game" etc.

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forgottenlor said:

Regardless of personal preferences this game concept seems like its a lot less work than creating a sequel to one of their ARPGs would be. They seem to be reusing assets and keeping the combat system of DOS2. So they have not so much they have to do from scratch. I doubt the game will cost them that much to make. Making a new ARPG in the line of Divine Divinity would require A LOT more work and a much bigger budget.

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