Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition Announced

The latest update posted to the Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter page contains some exciting news, which can also (I suspect) be taken as indicative of just how well the game has been selling, and what a boon its success has been to Larian Studios:

Hello Everyone!
Today we are very excited to announce Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition for PS4 and Xbox One as well as PC, Mac, SteamOS and Linux. This isn’t just some patch or minor content update to the game you all know and (hopefully) love; it’s a whole new experience! With controller support, local co-op with split screen, fully voiced characters, a totally reworked story (with a brand new ending), and much more, we’re very proud to finally be able to share what we’ve crafted here at Larian.

As well as local co-op, split screen and controller support, the Enhanced Edition also features:

All characters are now fully voiced by AAA-voice actors
New quests, new characters, and new content
Entirely new gameplay modes and character builds
A heavily rewritten story with a brand new ending
Massively reworked visuals and sound effects
And much more to be announced in the coming months!

A Gift For Our Fans

In appreciation of all the fans who helped make Divinity: Original Sin the success that it was, the Enhanced Edition will be completely free to everyone who owns Original Sin.

Over on his personal blog, Sven Vincke has shared some additional thoughts on this:

In any case, for obvious reason I hope we didn’t make the wrong call on this one.

A shitload was invested in our Enhanced Edition and a lot of people have been working on it for a long time. Other than the small but not unimportant detail that it’s coming to PS4 and Xbox One, our Enhanced Edition features reworked dialogs all voiced by AAA actors, a story & world that has been drastically improved with hours of new content, not only during the game but also at the ending (that part that gets played by 5% of players), a truckload of new features & improvements and game modes that play incredibly different to the normal mode because we replaced pretty much every encounter.

And there’s more.

Given how much we put in there, I suspect that what we call an Enhanced Edition goes a lot further than what others call an Enhanced Edition. Chances are of course that all those changes don’t make much economic sense but then again, maybe they will. We’ll find out soon enough and for what it’s worth, I’m quite happy about having been able to make all these changes so that we could craft what’s essentially a new and more complete experience.

I do mean that.

KeyArt_Divinity_Original_Sin_Enhanced_Edition_BlackWhite_Collapse-1024x704

He also lets on that this Enhanced Edition was the “third secret project” being worked on at Larian Studios, the other two no doubt being the other RPGs they are planning to develop using the Original Sin engine.

This is an interesting move. It probably won’t appeal to many who have already invested significant amounts of time into Original Sin in its current incarnation, although some harder-core fans may consider it worth the replay. But for people like me who’ve barely had time to get started in the game, and for people who haven’t yet played the game — especially in the console market — this could be a welcome change indeed. It’ll depend on what some of the other features that will be introduced to the game are.

Notably, if day/night cycles and NPC schedules will be included, that will certainly get my attention…and, indeed, should merit the attention of most Ultima fans. Original Sin was intended, in part, as a homage to Ultima 7; finding a way to bring those (initially planned) features back would do a lot to improve its success as such.

Oh, and if you’d like a massive version of the image above (6200px wide, or thereabouts), click here.