When thinking about Divinity games, the general consensus is that they are pretty good Diablo-like action-RPG’s. Divinity – Original Sin is the newest product of the franchise, and it’s now available on Steam’s Early Access. Which basically means that you’re going to pay to play an alpha version. This is a growing trends nowadays, and developers Larian want to take advantage of it.
While I’m all for alpha releases and paying a symbolic fee, I’m not entirely sure that Larian fully understands this notion. The game can be picked up for $40, which is as close as you’ll ever get to a full retail price. Considering it’s an alpha version, that’s not exactly cheap. What are you getting in return? Well, for now, an estimated 15 hours of single-player or cooperative gameplay. That’s not too much.
Still, Larian promises that Divinity – Original Sin will be “highly interactive” and seems to be doing some notable changes to the core gameplay. Original Sin will introduce turn-based elements, will refine the RPG aspect of the game and will try to move away from the general click-fest of Diablo or Torchlight. Sounds good, but it’s hard to tell at this time whether they’ll be able to pull it off or not. In any case, the game uses a newly built engine, looks good enough for an alpha, and will be constantly updated. Which is also one of the drawbacks of this alpha release. Most major updates will mean that you’ll have to start over from scratch, as saved games won’t carry over.
“If you want a polished experience, we advise you not to play the Early Access version. It only makes sense to play an Early Access game if, for instance, you want to support the development of the game, you want to influence development with your feedback or if you want to get a taste of things to come.” is what Larian recommends, and I tend to agree. Unless you’re a fan of the genre or of the series, you’d best wait for the completed version of the game. A lot of the planned content won’t be coming in the alpha version, as the developers don’t want to spoil too much of Divinity – Original Sin’s story. Ultimately, the decision is yours, it’s definitely not a bad game from the looks of it, but it probably lacks the bang for the buck factor. Awesome deals like last weekend’s Torchlight 2’s sale should take care of your clicking needs for now.
Here’s the trailer for the Steam Early Access release, in case you want to see more for yourself:
