Divine Divinity Anthology – Review
Ten years ago the Belgian developers studio, Larian Studios, brought us Divine Divinity. The first of three successful games, the other two are Beyond Divinity and Divinity II: Developer’s Cut. For the 10th anniversary they released the Divinity Anthology Collector’s edition which contains the 3 remastered games in 1 box and a lot of extras.
For those new to the Divinity game series, they are fantasy action RPGs with a strong storytelling and character development. Larian Studios have maintained these throughout the series. The best received game of the three is Divine Divinity. Released in 2002, reviewers loved the game due to its gameplay, detailed graphics, compelling game world and soundtrack.
Beyond Divinity followed on from its predecessor but now the protagonist, a paladin, is soul-forged to a Death Knight. The player controls both characters but you can’t move far apart, and if one dies, so does the other. Beyond Divinity was not reviewed as positively as Divine Divinity however it is seen as a strong game in the trilogy.
Divinity II was released not so long ago in 2010 on PC and this time also on Xbox 360. The biggest change for me was that this game is in 3D unlike the 2 prequels. Instead of the top view, the camera is now behind the main character. I think this change of view and the controls was a good move because else it would have been hard to play on a console with a controller. The combat system is decent but excels nowhere while the story, the atmosphere, the characters and the rich dialogues are really well done.
The Divinity Anthology box contains 2 DVD cases. Inside the first one you will find the 3 games on 2 DVD’s (Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity on the first DVD and Divinity II on the second) and also a code for the 3 games on Steam, so you can play it anywhere you want without having to worry about bringing your DVD’s along. You also get 2 codes for in game items for 2 upcoming Larian Studio games. The first code is an item called The Golden Grail for Divinity Original Sin, the second is The Golden Jetpack for Divinity Dragon Commander. These 2 items are only available in the Anthology box, so if you want them you have to buy the box.
The second DVD case has 2 soundtrack cd’s in it. The first one is called Musica Divina and contains melodies and symphonies from the Divinity universe. The second one is called Musica Obscura and contains a selection of outtakes and rare pieces.
Also in this case are 2 very nice posters for the 2 upcoming games of Larian Studios mentioned earlier. The Divinity Original Sin poster has a list with pictures of all the characters of Divine Divinity on its back, while the Divinity Dragon Commander poster has the Divinity logo on the back.
After the second DVD case you will find a little sheet which contains six nice stickers of Larian Studio and of the Divinity Universe.
And last but certainly not least, it also contains a very nice Developer’s Journal book. In this 130 page long book you will find the whole history of Larian Studios, how it was founded, how they developed the games, their misfortunes, their setbacks, how they got back up again, how they learned from previous mistakes etc. Apart from the history it also contains a lot of artwork, this section is called Artportfolio. It’s a very detailed book which makes a nice collector’s item.
This box is a nice gem to have in your collection. Whether you’ve played the games before or it’s your first time. These games are timeless and you’ll find yourself wanting to play them more and more. So go order your copy while supply lasts as it seems there is only a limited availability of the box version, which is equal in price as the digital version so why not get the nice box which contains so much more.
As there are already a lot of reviews of the Divinity games, we decided to keep this review just about the Anthology box.
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