Quickly besting its predecessor, and with a goal of $500,000, Larian Studios’ Kickstarter for Divinity: Original Sin 2 has crossed $1 million in a little over four days.
That’s compared to Larian Studio’s Ultima-inspired, turn based PC RPG Divinity: Original Sin, the fourth game in the Divinity series, which racked up $944,282 in Kickstarter money in 2013 from 19,541 backers over the course of its run. Divinity: Original Sin 2 has already crossed that number of total Kickstarter backers, with 22,163 contributing $1,000,000 and rising following its launch on August 26.
The original goal of $500,000 was crossed in just under 12 hours, according to GamesIndustry.biz – fast enough that stretch goals were not even prepared yet. The original required 12 days.
“Who would’ve predicted that a pitch built around adding extra dialog options & origin stories to a complex RPG would be capable of mobilizing so many people so fast?”, the company glowingly said in a statement on Kickstarter after their goal was reached.
The Kickstarter pitch for Divinity: Original Sin 2 indeed revolves around player choice and complex character dynamics. With a promised theme of how your origins affect the choices you are offered later in life, the game follows four “sourcerers” from around the realm on a quest to stop the Bishop Alexander the Innocent from exterminating sourcerers from the world and claiming the Source for his Divine Order. Promising a more “grounded and serious narrative” and heavy investing in the writing department, players will be asked to create a custom origin story for their character that will impact how they are perceived in the world. They will then be paired with four other characters with equally complex origin stories, and in a world that reacts to which character is taking action; the Kickstarter claims, “nearly all dialogues in the game are different depending on who is talking.”
Included with the four other characters are four-player co-op with “competitive questing,” where the different players will pursue opposing goals with different personal motivations. This mode is not mandatory, and players will be able to make nice afterwards.
Other additions to Divinity: Original Sin 2 promised in their project pitch include more dynamic skill trees with a “skill crafting” system that allows you mix spells, a cover system, and powerful “Source Skills.”
The stretch goals since added include a “Strategist Mode” akin to Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition‘s Tactical Mode for added difficulty, a backer-created skill tree, a unique skill system for each race (these three have been achieved), the ability to play as an undead sourcerer, a second backer skill tree, and the “Hall of Echoes” at $1.5 million, where you will meet people you have lost and killed and functions as a home base.
Divinity: Original Sin 2‘s Kickstarter ends on September 30, and Larian Studios estimates a release date in December 2016.
