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Beyond Divinity Review
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RPGDot Forums > Divinity & Beyond Divinity

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Ovädershimmel
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Joined: 19 Oct 2002
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Beyond Divinity Review
   

Don't think it's been posted, so here you go:

http://www.fragland.net/index.php?page=reviews&rid=347

Beware of spoilers though!
Post Tue Apr 27, 2004 5:52 am
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Ioskeha
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Joined: 25 Apr 2004
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Yeah I read this review eariler today, and hoestly it hasn't changed my opinion of the game. I wasn't all that impressed with the demo. I thought the combat speed was a bit on the slow side, inventory/skill screen I found to be too cumbersome, controlling two characters at the same time was awkward for me (tho a few hours of playing the game would probably fix that), and the Death Knights voice was just aweful (but that isn't a probelm anymore since they redid his voice set). I'll probably wait a few months after it's release and see what my friends think about it.

Thanks any ways for the URL.
Post Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:22 am
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
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Joined: 10 Jun 2002
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Location: Australia
   

I'd suggest you keep watching here and read the posts and reviews and you'll soon learn all you need. I'll certainly be playing it, I really enjoyed DD.
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Post Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:43 am
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Aphazel
A Shadow of My Own Self
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Joined: 17 Aug 2003
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Location: Norway
   

I loved DD as well, and can't wait to play the full game of BD. The skillsystem look so awesome! (and I bet it is too) But unfortantly it can take months before I can buy it due to recent troubles
Post Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:59 am
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Ioskeha
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Oh I'm sure I'll buy BD, it's just a matter of when I'll buy it (buy it at release or wait for it to hit the bargan bin). I'm playing DD as I'm typing this, and I'm enjoying it more then I thought I would. DD has a nice Ultima feel to it, and if BD can capture that feeling I'm sure I'll buy it before it hit the bargan bin.
Post Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:04 pm
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How786
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Joined: 05 May 2002
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I found the voice acting in the demo so apalling that I refuest to buy the game. It is laughable, it's so bad!
Playing Sacred, which is so much more polished in every way, has spoiled me. I won'y pay 39.95 for a second-rate production. At best, it's worth $19.95.
Howie
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:47 pm
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Aphazel
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Joined: 17 Aug 2003
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Location: Norway
   

That's your decition. But they have now re-acted the DK's voice. Sorry, you're gonna miss a great game!
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 8:00 pm
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Ioskeha
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quote:
Originally posted by How786
I found the voice acting in the demo so apalling that I refuest to buy the game. It is laughable, it's so bad!
Playing Sacred, which is so much more polished in every way, has spoiled me. I won'y pay 39.95 for a second-rate production. At best, it's worth $19.95.
Howie


LOL

I didn't know that half-finished betas qualified as a polished product.

Has PC gaming really degraded to the state were people think released betas tagged as final are polished?
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 8:29 pm
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How786
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Joined: 05 May 2002
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Oh, come on!

Excuses, excuses, excuses!

Geeez....did I release the DEMO which is supposed to sell the game or did they release it?! Why would you choose to rationalize for what is supposed to be a demo that convinces people to BUY the game?! Demos are meant to do that.

From all that I've just read on the Gone Gold Forum, the 'polished product'
also has the very same atrocious voice-acting. Here is a quote from someone evaluating the 'polshed product':

"The voice acting is actually WORSE than DD. I didn't think that possible. The Death Knight sounds like an announcer at a Monster Truck Pull, and the majority of the NPC's appear to have learned diction from watching early '80's comedies featuring gay characters...i.e. absurdly effeminate...."

Howie
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:09 pm
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Aphazel
A Shadow of My Own Self
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Joined: 17 Aug 2003
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Location: Norway
   

Not all agree.

“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.”

But say so, if it weren't for the bad voice acting you would have bought the game? I'm sorry but I feel that's a stupid reason. No offense.
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:21 pm
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How786
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"But say so, if it weren't for the bad voice acting you would have bought the game? I'm sorry but I feel that's a stupid reason. No offense."

No. I never said this. What IS true is that the game suffers terribly when I compare it to the highly polished SACRED that I've been playing. It suffers in every way from voice acting, to graphics, to the interface.

Yes, I know that they redid the voices but there is a huge thread on their website with people complaining that the redo is actually worse than the original, if that is possible.

Here is one amongst the many rants:


"1.) The voice actors are not very well done. They all sound like there reading it off a book in front of a class. They dont seem to have any emotion or feeling to them. As if im talking to robots or somthing. A demon knight is suppost to be of pure evil. He dosnt sound that way he sounds like a human being with a male voice like darth vader.

2.) In combat the attack is way to slow. Also the character continually runs there is no walk button. The stamina bar also goes down very fast. 8 times as fast as it did in divine divinity. There is no potion icon at the bottom left so i can drink health potions. "

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy playing the game and find that your $40 was well spent.
I'll be spending my money elsewhere----that's all.
Howie
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:39 pm
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Ioskeha
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You can quote a million people for all I care. It doesn't change the fact that the quality of the voice overs is subjective, and peoples opinions of it will vary from person to person. Unless you're one of those type of people that can't form your own opinion then play the game yourself and judge if you like them or not.

I still think it's funny that you call Sacred polished. There's nothing "polished" about releasing a beta as a final product. Hell some of the animations aren't even finished, and that type of stuff should have been fixed in alpha!
Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:32 pm
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
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Joined: 20 May 2002
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Location: Sydney, Australia
   

Just goes to show you shouldn't always trust what you read on a forum.

1. Voices are a personal opinion so I won't waste your time on that. I don't think the Death Knight is as good as it should be but much of the other voice acting is very good, in my opinion.

2. There is a walk button (actually a run button, "r"), so that person is just wrong. It might help for them to read the manual or perhaps look at the keyboard bindings if they pirated it. The stamina and attack speeds are stat related: build them up if that's an issue for you.

On polish, I would agree that Beyond Divinity is far from perfect. On the other hand, while Sacred has very nice graphics it was a buggy mess on release and at v1.6.6 still has too many quest bugs to count. It doesn't really matter, though, because most of them are irrelevant "fetch" or "kill" quests.

I stopped playing Sacred because despite it's good points, it's pretty boring. BD actually has dialogue trees (!), probably the best game world interactivity ever seen and an amazing skill system. Sacred is...well, Sacred is nothing but an action game - there's no interaction and no dialogue. It might barely pass as an RPG but only just.

I can live with some average (or even bad) voice acting in return for real depth.
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Post Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:51 pm
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Ioskeha
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Hey I role-played while playing Sacred. I RP'ed that I like the game for the three hours I played it bfore I took it back to EBgames.
Post Sat May 01, 2004 1:08 am
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DBear
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Joined: 29 Apr 2004
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quote:

2.) In combat the attack is way to slow. Also the character continually runs there is no walk button. The stamina bar also goes down very fast. 8 times as fast as it did in divine divinity. There is no potion icon at the bottom left so i can drink health potions. "

Howie


This person doesn't know WTF he's talking about. The R key toggles between walk and run, as can be seen in options. The potion key, as has the rest of the interface, has moved to the top right.
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Post Sun May 02, 2004 1:44 am
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