So that weird monolith that appeared in the desert? It’s not for Lords of the Fallen 2. And it’s not for a FromSoftware game. It’s for Larian Studio’s upcoming Divinity. At The Game Awards last night, Larian unveiled its first game after Baldur’s Gate 3 with a trailer and a cast of performers flying into the air in a high wire act a la Peter Pan.
The trailer begins with a crowd of revelers celebrating some kind of festival. Almost everyone appears to be having a good time. I say almost everyone as one man, trapped in a Wicker Man-like wooden figure, most assuredly is not. When the jeering crowd lights him on fire, some kind of celestial event envelopes the crowd, Wicker Man and all. And what does this unholy amalgamation result in? Why, our monolith, of course.
While this isn’t Larian’s first Divinity game, this one will just be entitled Divinity. Larian notes while players won’t need any prior experience with the series, those who have will appreciate the continuity.
In a press release, Larian founder and game director Swen Vincke explained a bit more about this iteration’s relation to the series as a whole:
“Despite our long history with the series, this is our first game entitled ‘Divinity.’ 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 also shared that this will be the studio’s most ambitious title yet. During The Game Awards, host Geoff Keighley noted that it will prove “even larger than Baldur’s Gate 3.”
Larian is an independent RPG developer originally known for the Divinity universe. They kicked it off with Divine Divinity in 2002, and launched Divinity: Original Sin in 2014 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 in 2017. The RPGs received critical acclaim.
However, many players today know Larian from their most recent game, 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3. The RPG received a number of awards from the BAFTA Game Awards, Gold Joysticks, and, of course, The Game Awards, among others. It also sold incredibly well.
Whether you know Larian from Divinity or Baldur’s Gate 3, the announcement of this new Divinity may pique your interest. There’s no release date yet, but we at least know that the monolith has a name. It’s called The Hellstone.
Source: Press Release
