Divinity: Original Sin Goes Where Ultima 7 Has Gone Before

Rock, Paper, Shotgun! has a new preview of Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin up as of today, and it contains enough references to Ultima 7 to merit a mention here on Codex Main.

We already knew that Original Sin was being build, in no small part, as Larian Studios’ homage to what many regard as the crown jewel of the Ultima series. In particular, Larian stated their intention to re-capture the level of world and object interactivity that characterized Ultima 7, to wit:

There’s a sign on the wall in Larian’s studio, almost lost among the concept art (some cheesecake bikini armour is in evidence, but more on that later). It reads, and I’m paraphrasing both Larian and George Mallory here, “Why can the player move a flowerpot? Because it’s there.” To a small extent, those words summarise why Original Sin might well be the most interesting upcoming RPG for somebody like me – somebody who likes to push at the boundaries of a game’s systems, bending them until they crack.

And it would seem they nailed it. The game even begins by tasking players with — get this — investigating a murder:

There’s a murder and a mystery to go along with it, and the first major quest involves discovering the perpetrator. There’s a spot of turn-based orc bashing beforehand, as the heroic duo of Source Hunters head into town, but it’s entirely possible to spend the first four or five hours playing detective. Conversations – mostly comical and well-written – contain clues and accusations, and the flow of the investigation subtly pushes the player into the sizable town’s several districts. It’s a clever way to introduce characters and the different ways of interacting with the world.

For example, to find a way into one suspect’s house, me and my partner found that we could pick the lock, teleport inside using arcane magicks, talk somebody into giving us the key, or murder the person carrying the key. Everyone in the game can be killed and Larian have ensured that every quest can be completed using alternate means if an essential NPC dies. Many of these backup solutions are intentionally obscure and/or challenging, but that they exist at all shows Larian’s strength of commitment to this particular brand of sandbox/open world.

How open a world, exactly? This open:

With enough strength, a character can drag items of furniture, or just about anything else. A bowl could be thrown into a room to set off a trap, or a rat could be chased in to much the same effect (a worse effect from the rat’s perspective). Both of these events rely on rules set within the game’s logic – the bowl has weight prescribing how far it can be thrown and the rat has been programmed to run away from people. If a character were trying to lift a wooden chest, they may be told they needed to upgrade their strength. Empty it of its contents and the weight will change accordingly, however, and the problem might be resolved.

Every item and character in the game has rules governing its behaviour and the player characters (solo is possible but the co-op allows drop-in play and adds a huge amount to interactions and combat alike…can tease and twist those rules as much as they like.

And, indeed, this open:

Even the creatures out in the wilds have been hand-placed rather than spawning randomly and it was during a test of the ways in which monsters interact with NPCs that I created a catastrophe. I just wanted to know if orcs would attack guards if a group were lured close enough to the town walls. I ended up with blood on my hands. And on my clothes and coagulating on the soles of my shoes where I’d stepped through the rivers of the stuff that had spilled from all of the dead people. The dead people that the orcs had killed.

I instigated a massacre.

It gets better from there; click on through to read the rest of the story.

I don’t know about all of you, but I’m even more excited to play this game than I was previously. Which is saying quite a lot, as I was already absurdly keen on getting my hands on it. We may not have to wait for Shroud of the Avatar to see a worthy successor to the open world, sandbox gameplay we all know and love from over two decades ago.

(Hat tip: Infinitron Dragon)

6 Responses

  1. Sanctimonia says:

    Other than Shroud and Star Citizen (which I won’t be able to play; thanks Chris), this is the only game I’m stoked to play. These guys rock.

  2. mark says:

    I agree, except for Shroud. Everything I see from Shroud seems ‘off’ from what I would expect of an Ultima spiritual successor. The gameplay decisions seem peculiar, and quite frankly, the art assets clash and look almost mod-ish. Where are the bold decisions like what Everquest Next is doing? Have you seen the Voxel Farm engine? Why isn’t Ultima pushing the envelope in these regards.
    I have heard the argument that gaming has ‘changed’ and the new format that Garriott is pursuing reflects the new sensibilities. This is absolute horse$h1t. Back in the mid 90’s when I played Wing Commander 4, I was upset that it didn’t push the envelope, and add features to WC3, and that WC3 and WC4 actually DROPPED features that WC1 and 2 had. In my head, I made a quick list of features that would make the ‘perfect’ wing commander. Well guess what, Star Citizen has that list, and more. So back in the 90’s, or earlier, it was quite clear what would have made the ‘ultimate’ wing commander. I propose the same for Ultima. To me Larian is closer than Shroud…. MUCH.

    • Sanctimonia says:

      I’m guessing part of the issues with Shroud stem from budget (theirs is a fraction of Star Citizen’s), although considering the crazy stuff I’m putting in my game perhaps that’s not a good enough excuse. I also think the proposed gradation between solo and multiplayer will eventually place limitations on what sort of systems they can implement effectively such as actual home design, landscape deformation, virtual ecology, etc. For example, a solo player goes to full multiplayer and, holy shit, the entire continent has changed and they’re in the middle of a man-made lake surrounded by the “Kill All N00bz” guild.

      The graphics issue is probably due to accepting user contributions and Unity Store purchases, so hopefully they’ll unify the style and quality at some point.

      The one gameplay proposal that turned me off was the combat system using something like a card game (Magic the Gathering, etc.). I agree with their sentiment that, to paraphrase, “in the heat of battle you may not be able to successfully execute”, but I don’t think the card system is the way to go; too immersion breaking. An animation of your character fumbling with a reagent bag and dropping it on the ground or alternate animations of poorly-executed melee attacks (the probabilities of which occurring based on battle experience/training) would be a better system.

      Overall I’m pleased because it appears they’re taking many cues from Ultima Online. I think UO is a natural progression from the single player games in terms of mechanics and world interactivity. I do think UO implemented many of its systems haphazardly and that dropping the virtual ecology was a serious misstep, so I hope Shroud is better thought out and more forward-looking in terms of its initial design.

  3. mark says:

    yeah. still, you have to admit, pretty peculiar gameplay decisions for what should be a AAA, relatively straight forward, but masterfully designed and executed RPG. This thing isn’t going to even nip at the heels of Skyrim. Sad.
    Also, i wholeheartedly believe that Chris Roberts got so much money because they put effort and thought into their launch. You could tell from the trailer that this guy was going to make the Wing Commander to end all Wing Commanders. He was committed, and ballsy, and ambitious.

    I am sorry, Shroud just didn’t do any of that. Its almost like Garriott was counting on his name. Jeez, when I saw NPC schedules as like a 6th or 7th stretch goal I knew the writing was on the wall.

    • Sanctimonia says:

      We’ll have to wait and see. If it turns out to be crap (by my skewed definition, anyway), I’ll be pretty upset about it. Garriott’s been an inspiration and a bit of a hero for me since I was a teenager. Real life isn’t so picturesque as my teenage imagination envisioned of course, as I learned with later Ultimas and Tabula Rasa. So in that light all I can say at this point is may the Virtues be with him, and time will tell.

    • Micro Magic says:

      From what I’ve seen, SotA looks quite a bit like the old Ultima games. Aside from killing all the npcs, it looks like all the staple points of the games are intact. Complex dialogue system much like u6, complex crafting relating to job role playing system, persistent economy and player driven world, dungeons, questing, etc.

      What do you mean by peculiar gameplay decisions? Like how you have to cut down a tree, to get the wood, to saw up the wood, to make a chair? Kinda like how in Ultima 7 you had to go to talk to the logger to get the log, then go to the saw mill, to saw up the wood, to make the pan pipes? It just looks like, in SotA, you can be a craftsmen and build many different items out of wood than just panpipes. Or like in Ultima 7 how you can bake bread or make two handed swords/black sword. It just looks like in this game you can make more than just bread and one type of sword, you can make anything.

      Original Sin and SotA are going for quite different things. Original Sin stating they want to make an Ultima 7 type world with Fallout 1-2 combat. While SotA is an -Ultima- spiritual successor. It’s a F2P mmo type of game more akin to UO or Eve online than Skyrim. And quite frankly, I’d be seriously surprised if the writing for SotA wasn’t light years ahead of anything Bethesda’s ever done.