After some unusual teases and a trademark inadvertently showing Larian Studios’ hand, the Baldur’s Gate 3 developer’s next game has been officially revealed at The Game Awards with one heck of a disturbing trailer. It’s Divinity. Just Divinity.
We don’t have any details on the game itself, but we can glean some from the very cinematic trailer. We saw a medieval-looking festival with all sorts of revelry, and a giant wicker man ready for burning. Inside the man, an actual man is chained and tortured as they burn the effigy down. But as he melts away (it’s gross, okay?), his blood (?) drips into the soil, weird screaming plants come up, the wicker man goes nuts, there’s a lot of screaming, and then we see the statue that’s had everyone guessing for the last couple of weeks. Divinity!
We did get a press release coming through following the announcement, which gives a few more clues. “The gods are silent. Rivellon bleeds. New powers stir,” it reads. “Built by the team who brought you Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios unchains its ambitions to bring you an RPG with greater breadth and depth than ever before.”
It goes on to state that Divinity is “a brand new game” that doesn’t require knowledge of other Larian games, but players of Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2 might “be able to enjoy greater understanding and continuity.”
“Despite our long history with the series, this is our first game entitled ‘Divinity.’” said Larian head Swen Vincke. “We’re ready to bring everything we’ve done previously into one place. This marks the beginning of something with more breadth, depth, and intimacy than anything we’ve created before. We’ve been building toward this moment ever since we took our fate into our own hands. This is the Divinity we’ve always wanted to make and you’re going to have loads of fun with it.”
Larian first released Divine Divinity in 2002, followed by Beyond Divinity in 2004, Divinity 2 in 2009, and Divinity: Dragon Commander in 2013. Divinity: Original Sin came out in 2014, with Original Sin 2 as a direct follow-up. Unlike Original Sin, the other Divinity games are action RPGs rather than turn-based. With far more eyes on the studio after the successes of Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3, it makes sense that Larian would want to return to its roots a bit and show off its own IP.
Larian’s hit a series of home runs with its RPGs. We gave Divinity: Original Sin 2 a 9.6/10, saying, “Divinity: Original Sin 2 may have been designed in the spirit of decades-old RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 2, but that legacy serves only as a foundation for the expansive game Larian has built on top of it.” More recently, we gave Baldur’s Gate 3 a 10/10, saying, “I don’t want to say every CRPG going forward should aspire to be like Baldur’s Gate 3. Not everything needs to be nearly this big and ambitious, or even this dense. But it is a landmark moment in the genre, and if I had to point to one paragon that I would like everyone else making these to take inspiration from, this is absolutely it.”
For those wondering why Larian’s not working on a Baldur’s Gate 4, sorry, they’ve already explained themselves and Baldur’s Gate’s future remains in the hands of Hasbro.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
