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What happens when a dragon slayer is cursed with the ability to turn into a dragon himself? My guess is a rip in the time-space continuum and the end of the universe, but to find out what developers Larian Studios think you'll have to play Divinity 2: Ego Draconis when releases on Xbox 360 and PC in the second quarter of 2009. The action-RPG from the makers of Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity are gearing up to release a game filled with fast-paced combat, high-flying dragons, and choices that have far-reaching consequences. We got our first look at the title in Germany at the annual Games Convention.
Ego Draconis begins with your main character being initiated into the role of a dragon slayer. There's a dire need for his kind since those pesky flying lizards are pure evil in this world and cause quite a commotion when they come around. This makes things interesting later in the game when a curse causes you to be able to switch back and forth between human and dragon forms. Aside from moral problems, this ability allows you to access new areas both by flying, and by going places where the opposite being isn't welcome.
Like many role-playing games, Ego Draconis features a deep class and skill system, which you can pick and choose from to craft your character to your liking. Where it gets more interesting is in the dragon slayer's special skills. This character can read minds, something that will become quite important given the branching quests this game features. How you choose to complete quests can have long reaching rewards…or consequences.
We saw a very basic example of this in a standard goblin hunting quest. Richard of Aleroth offers up this little mission, saying he'll pay you for each goblin heart you bring back. You can simply accept the quest and get paid for your work, or you can read Richard's mind. It turns out he isn't going to pay you a fair price for the hearts. You can then cut out the middle man and go direct to the person he was going to sell them to or refuse the quest outright. Refusing a quest doesn't end it. If you're not going to do it, Richard will take off to do it himself. Later you might bump into him out in the forest, surrounded by goblins. From there, you have a few more decisions to make and the chain of quests continues.
We saw another quest that started as with a simple request to deliver a letter. Depending upon how you choose to complete the quest, people could end up dead, you could end up with a powerful amulet, families could be destroyed, or you might even end up having the blacksmith permanently jack up prices on you for stabbing him in the back. Sounds a lot more interesting than some of the simplistic events we've grown used to in most RPGs.
We also got a look at some combat which is pretty much exactly how you'd expect it to play. It's all in the third-person with the dragon slayer capable of flips and rolls to get the jump on various monsters. With spiky armor, rolling through a bush looks rather painful, but this guy can take a few hits and keep chugging along. Along with simple sword swings and arrow shots, you can also do things like summons, charms, fire balls – the typical range of standard RPG special skills.
With almost a year left in development time, Ego Draconis already looks pretty good. The game still suffers from a few bugs and the animations could use some cleaning up, but the engine runs at a pretty steady state. There's plenty of time to put some polish on the game and ensure the whole game gets the effort the side quests have been given, which should make for quite an interesting game.
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