You really did want Divinity: Original Sin 2, didn't you
Crowdfunding over and all stretch goals unlocked.
Do you all want another Divinity: Original Sin game? That's the question developer Larian asked, via Kickstarter, cap sort of in hand.
Your answer was unanimous: $2m yes! Larian sought $500,000.
I say "cap sort of in hand" because Larian made money from very good sales of Original Sin. The point of Kickstarter was to both include the community and see how big and wild a sequel could be.
"All of us at Larian Studios have been truly overwhelmed by the level of support that we have received," the Belgian developer wrote on Kickstarter, "not only in terms of pledges, but also feedback and involvement. Right from the beginning, it was our aim to use the campaign as a means to bring our community of fans into the heart of the development process. In every regard, you have exceeded our wildest expectations, and we would like to extend our everlasting gratitude to you all."
The brilliant result means all stretch goals have been unlocked. And they are (take a breath): a Game Master mode, masks for shapeshifting (!), romances, mod support, a Hall of Echoes home, expanded skill trees, an undead playable race (yes!), racial skills, a Strategist mode and, last but not least, the writing talent of Chris Avellone, who's a legend of role-playing games and also a lovely bloke.
The big new thing in Original Sin 2 is a story based around a team of four rather than two, as in Original Sin 1. You can either control all companions in single-player or divvy them up among friends. In multiplayer that gives rise to competitive questing, where you can literally be handed a quest to kill your friend. Brilliant! But they respawn. Not so brilliant. Quite how it works in single-player we'll have to wait and see - it doesn't seem like Larian has settled on an implementation. We wrote a lot more about this in our Divinity: Original Sin 2 preview.
Beyond that, Divinity: Original Sin 2 will build on all the great work that made Original Sin 1 one of the best RPGs released last year. And now that formula works, and the engine that powers it, the developers can go, well, wild. Original Sin 2 is pencilled for a late 2016 release on Windows PC.
From the Kickstarter: "Once we have the game fully worked out, we'll start looking at porting it to other platforms. That's not something that'll happen during the Kickstarter or indeed this year. But - and it's an important but - we do have most things in place to support several other platforms, since we are starting work from the Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition engine. We just don't want to make any promises yet."
Before then, all ye with no PC and who missed out on Divinity: Original Sin 1 can look forward to the imminent Enhanced Edition of the game, which is coming out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It adds, among many other things, lovely local co-op. It's due in October yet there's no word on specifically when, but I'm checking.
