Beyond Divinity
Developer Larian Studios
Beyond Divinity is an action role-playing game by Larian Studios released in 2004. It is a sequel to Divine Divinity. A Deluxe Edition was also released that same year, containing copies of both Beyond Divinity and Divine Divinity. In 2009 a digital download version was released, equivalent to the updated disc version. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
213 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74 positive · 108 negative
95% range 34–48%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 74 | 108 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 1 | 3 | 21 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 5 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
What players are saying
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 183 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (436 of 893 positive).
Many players find Beyond Divinity a downgrade from Divine Divinity, citing bugs and poor optimization. [1][2][3] Some reviewers praise the story and unique mechanics, despite technical issues. [4][5][6] Several posters describe the game as claustrophobic and linear, with repetitive dungeon crawling. [2][7][8]
- [1]
This game is basically DIvine DIvinity except worse in almost every way despite being the sequel. Almost every system that was ported from DD is significantly worse, if not borderline unusable. The game runs very poorly and crashes very often as it wasnt designed for modern hardware (and seems to be riddled with bugs, cut content, and an overall massive drop in polish and completion compared to DD) and fixes for …
- [4]
I think this might just be a hidden gem of a game for me. Not sure why this gets Mixed reviews when it’s clearly superior to the first game, albeit with its own quirks. Beyond Divinity introduces gameplay elements I’ve never seen before in an RPG, the most fascinating of which being the ability to essentially create your own abilities, tailoring them all the way down to what icon represents them. It does have its …
- [2]
I tried to like it but I can't. After Divine Divinity it feels like huge downgrade. - No open world like in older game. Same dungeons over and over, repetitive dungeon crawling. - Need to grind in auto generated dungeons (battlefields), bland and boring experience - Skills make no sense (skill itself and ways to learn it). - No balance for loot (every enemy drops bags of loot, everyone drops arrows), no sense of …
- [15]
I've been playing CRPGs regularly for about 45 years. This is the worst game I've ever been crazy enough to have the displeasure of completing! In a last, valiant attempt to sabotage me, it even managed to completely bork my final few saves and I had to back up to an earlier one and replay the ending. For some reason, the final boss is 2 or 3 orders of magnitude more difficult than anything else in the game …
- [7]
One of the other reviews on here described Beyond Divinity as 'claustrophobic' and I would have to say that's a pretty fitting description. Whereas Divine Divinity felt very open and allowed whatever objective you wished from the get-go, Beyond Divinity immediately made me feel confined and trapped on one path - one very brown and ugly path. So much so that I couldn't push very far in to the game. I enjoyed the …
Summarised from 34 of the 213 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
42% of the 183 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Beyond Divinity. The complaint that keeps coming up: the game is buggy and crashes frequently. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 213 · most liked firstI love Larian and am ride or die with Swen et al. Have been ever since Divine Divinity was "we have Diablo at home" but ended up being a shockingly good (for its time) hybrid ARPG/CRPG. But Larian are very much not the example of "how to do business". Like Digital Extremes, they are a "legacy" studio that is INCREDIBLY lucky to have survived. Larian themselves had to deal with really shitty publisher deals (Beyond Divinity and I think also Divinity 2?) and games so bad it almost killed the…
neutral · AI labelView post →TL; DR Beyond Divinity is not irredeemable, but it is uninteresting, it is completely playable but not engaging, so there are plenty of better ways to spend your time. I would only recommend this game for die-hard fans of the series that have nothing better to do or to those who are deathly curious, such as myself. Story As a Paladin of the Divine, you have fought against many evil creatures, necromancers, demons, the Black Ring, but now you have been dragged into Nemesis, and your soul has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Divine Divinity is better
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is basically DIvine DIvinity except worse in almost every way despite being the sequel. Almost every system that was ported from DD is significantly worse, if not borderline unusable. The game runs very poorly and crashes very often as it wasnt designed for modern hardware (and seems to be riddled with bugs, cut content, and an overall massive drop in polish and completion compared to DD) and fixes for this title are lacking compared to DD. Overall, the game is pretty unplayable from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As one of the like 10 people who made it all the way through Beyond Divinity at release, and has played through basically every other Larian game as well, I feel a responsibility to write at least a brief review of this title for anyone interested in this piece from the now-ancient history of one of the predominant CRPG companies of all time. If you played Divine Divinity, you already know most everything you need to know about this game's mechanics. It uses either actually or nearly the same…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried to like it but I can't. After Divine Divinity it feels like huge downgrade. - No open world like in older game. Same dungeons over and over, repetitive dungeon crawling. - Need to grind in auto generated dungeons (battlefields), bland and boring experience - Skills make no sense (skill itself and ways to learn it). - No balance for loot (every enemy drops bags of loot, everyone drops arrows), no sense of accomplishment for getting rare item when you're getting too much loot from…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really tried to like this game, because I LOVED DOS and DOS2, and enjoyed DD despite its outdated mechanics because it had a decent storyline and there was weight to the plotline. But the story in BD feels like a hastily-written fanfic spinoff. It's not engaging at all. You can read others' reviews for a list of the game mechanics faults, which I would have tolerated with a good story/plotline, but even with the wealth of dialogue and flavor text, it failed to make it feel like anything…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been playing CRPGs regularly for about 45 years. This is the worst game I've ever been crazy enough to have the displeasure of completing! In a last, valiant attempt to sabotage me, it even managed to completely bork my final few saves and I had to back up to an earlier one and replay the ending. For some reason, the final boss is 2 or 3 orders of magnitude more difficult than anything else in the game (Tactical difficulty, was level 29, 2H melee). Fortunately, I was adequately OP. More…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love Larian. But I can't recommend this if you just simply wanted to know the continuation from Divine Divinity. Yes, I agreed with most people, Divine Divinity is a lot better than Beyond Divinity. Still, the now Larian shows how far they had become. The gameplay is a slog. Keeping your 'companion' alive at the beginning is a tall task. He's so puny. And you'll die if he died. Many broken quests and bugs I encountered, but nothing that made me not able to proceed. The only good thing I can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game has too many bugs Bug number 1, game sometimes randomly decides not to take keyboard inputs. Like when naming character. Bug number 2, game sometimes randomly decides not to take keyboard inputs, like when I alt tab. Bug number 3, game sometimes randomly decides not to take keyboard inputs, like when I try to quicksave, pause or open menu. Bug number 4, game sometimes randomly decides not to take keyboard inputs. In retropsect the game only has one bug. It sometimes…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd say it's mostly good. This is an adventure game with a heavy RPG element. The graphics are old. The music is OK. The story is decent. It's a little hard to follow, but you eventually get to know the plot. There are several bugs. A couple of those can potentially be game-breaking, so you really should save often. The rest are just cosmetic stuff. There have been no crashes. Overall, entertaining but repetitive. This is kinda the same thing as Divine Divinity. Nowadays it could be labeled a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think this might just be a hidden gem of a game for me. Not sure why this gets Mixed reviews when it’s clearly superior to the first game, albeit with its own quirks. Beyond Divinity introduces gameplay elements I’ve never seen before in an RPG, the most fascinating of which being the ability to essentially create your own abilities, tailoring them all the way down to what icon represents them. It does have its difficulty spikes so I recommend saving regularly and/or lowering the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A buggy yet intriguing game that shows its age.. Not great, not terrible, but be aware of the instability.. If you, like me, got here from Divinity: Original Sin or its sequel, be warned. This one is quite rough around the edges and very different in both tone and atmosphere.. The game revolves around two characters, one a death knight, the other your flavor of pesky adventurer, that choose to interlink with each other and thus embark on a quest that is both frustrating, joyful and charming!…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yeah, first two games Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity were awesome!
positive · AI labelView post →So I guess there is Divine Divinity (2002), Beyond Divinity (2004), and Divinity II: Developer's Cut (2012), which will have more in common with the new Divinity game than the Divinity Original Sin games. 👀 I've got my work (play) cut out for me.
neutral · AI labelView post →CRPG list I stole and condensed from Reddit. cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/57203969 > Credit where credit is due: [MEGA CRPG RECOMMENDATION LIST](https://old.reddit.com/r/CRPG/comments/136zqua/mega_crpg_recommendation_list_work_in_progress/). Tasty comments full of people disagreeing on the OP's categorization. Seems to have deleted their account, so no u/ I can direct you to. I left all the recommendations and categorization alone, but took out some of the color commentary (which…
neutral · AI labelView post →The one positive thing I can say is that the sprites are large and, surprisingly, the rats are neutral. Yes, for once in an RPG, rats don’t immediately attack you. Unfortunately, that’s about where the good news ends. Beyond Divinity is, frankly, a very frustrating game to play. The interface is a mess windows stack endlessly without closing, the minimap shifts aren’t tracked by the camera, and there are countless other irritations that make the whole experience clunky. The story doesn’t fare…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the game, don't get me wrong, but having to verify the files every time I want to play on Windows is about dumb.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →-The voice acting of the death knight deserves an oscar, 10/10 performance -Imps were the best part -The game wasn't that bad until the last act. The academy made me want to alt f4 -Not as bad as people say but definitely not as good as the first game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay wise it's the same as Divine Divinity. It works well enough but just has some problems purely because of how old it is, but none of those problems are unfixable. The reason I'm leaving this negative review though is purely just because of how boring and drawn out the story is. I'm almost 12 hours into the game and almost nothing has happened story wise. You wake up in a dungeon with the task "escape" and then you spend the next few hours just running around a labyrinth with no story…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Larian is love. The Bad: This game is really rough and is a little bit of a hassle to go through it, even playing with a guide. I really prefer the first one (Divine Divinity) in al aspects. Runs better, doesn't crash, single character allows for better control. The Good: Story... the story is amazing and in the end they give a great plot twist. Also they add the games full lore in a summary video. Recommend if you can be patient
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I literally celebrated when i finished this games. will not be playing again that was torture!!!!!!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the other reviews on here described Beyond Divinity as 'claustrophobic' and I would have to say that's a pretty fitting description. Whereas Divine Divinity felt very open and allowed whatever objective you wished from the get-go, Beyond Divinity immediately made me feel confined and trapped on one path - one very brown and ugly path. So much so that I couldn't push very far in to the game. I enjoyed the original game but this sequel is a pass from me. Although I will defend the voice…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →no. there is a weird thing about this game's graphics that hurts your eyes. my dad, brother and i hung out and played this game at the same time years ago when we were on a divinity kick and we ALL had issues with our eyes hurting during and after playing. i don't know why this is but this is the only game where i have ever experienced something crazy like this before. the gameplay is a lot like divine divinity but somehow worse, and also the story is not crucial to the other games. i would…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like downgrade to Divine Divinity in almost every aspect. Has many bugs, crashes often, has boring writing and feels unfinished
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CRPG list I stole and condensed from Reddit. Credit where credit is due: [MEGA CRPG RECOMMENDATION LIST](https://old.reddit.com/r/CRPG/comments/136zqua/mega_crpg_recommendation_list_work_in_progress/). Tasty comments full of people disagreeing on the OP's categorization. Seems to have deleted their account, so no u/ I can direct you to. I left all the recommendations and categorization alone, but took out some of the color commentary (which to some might just be blandifying it, lol). # "Where…
neutral · AI labelView post →I absolutely love this game. The general consensus is that this game is lacking and considered the weak link in the series, but I believe this game is fantastic. There are problems due to the game being old and poorly optimized, for example, I have an issue with npcs shifting when I alt-tab and sometimes they appear "out of bounds" and become unable to interact with, this glitch prevented me from finishing an early quest with an important reward. The combat can be a little rough. Magic is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sven the man, i was there from 2004 in my case (but bought the first DD). I bought all Larian games but one in pysical copies and different platforms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6tdoeKbiiY Teach the publishers, the big corps, the greedy tvrds and the financial vampires what PASSION means, not only in videogames but ANY industry. From me just deep respect to you all at Larian, and a farewell to the great Kyrill who filled what couldnt be achieved with graphics in your early games with his…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed the gameplay in Beyond Divinity more than in Divine Divinity, however, the story is very lacking. I also encountered a game breaking bug at the end of act III because I returned an amulet to a merchant which for some reason corrupts save files.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look. It's buggy as hell---er, I mean Nemesis. One quest near the end of the game can corrupt your saves if you aren't aware of it. The skill system was a neat idea but it's a bit confusing and too expensive to respec to experiment like the system demands. Magic is useless at the start but broken by the end. The voice acting is bad (and the captures of the voice acting very rough). And yet. It's funny. Even the bad voice acting gives the game some charm. It's a nice little adventure about…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game isn't necessarily BAD from what I've played but it's not fun, definitely not fun. While the first game plays like Diablo 1.5 and has pretty good build variety and lots of tools from the outset, interesting locales and tons of sidequests of varying types. This game is very linear, real time with pause, which isn't a flaw in and of itself but I'll get to that, and basically a straight up hack and slash. From the outset you don't have a lot of tools for making builds and you're…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond Divinity really shows the roots to the foundation of the Divinity series but really lacks proper voice acting, engaging gameplay, and really struggles with the story it is trying to tell. Given I am playing this for the first time many years later I am not 100% sure if this is an game age issue or if the game is simply bad but I really found myself viewing my game time as a chore versus a proper and enjoyable experience. If you love the Divinity series you might enjoy this game but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A step down from the first game. The demon companion concept is interesting but the game feels more constrained and less inspired.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you loved Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity might feel like a step down in almost every way. The game shifts from the charming 2D isometric style to bland, undetailed 3D models, and unfortunately, the rest of the experience follows suit. Combat, which already leaned on click-to-attack in the original, is even shallower now-- unless you feel like spamming mostly useless spells. Character builds don’t feel distinct, so pumping points into different stats barely changes how you play. The story…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Listen, I've been playing Larian Studio Games for the better part of a decade. And I love their work. This one is bad. ...but perhaps in the best way possible. So what do I recommend? Getting a group of friends to have play/watch the game with you and just... GO AT IT. My friend got me the anthology as a gift and we've been going through each game and having a great time. If nothing else I recommend this for just seeing how far Larian has come as a studio. Have fun with it! If that's not for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a huge mixed bag but the final nail in the coffin for me was after 17 hours of game time, I completed a certain quest in act IV (The amulet and the merchant on level 3) and turns out any save made after that quest becomes corrupted. I have no save from before that quest. The game is just a step down from divine divinity and has more technical issues (I have had other saves be corrupted but luckily had saves just before them). It's hard to recommend this game but if you are willing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I play series from the beginning, and here I am at the 2nd Divinity game, Beyond Divinity, due to a friend's recommendation of Divinity Original Sin. While the first one was a single player dungeon looter rpg like Diablo 2, this one is closer to Baldur's Gate in terms of gameplay style, with a live action rpg battle system that can be paused at any time to drink potions, retarget enemies, repair equipment, or queue up abilities. The story starts out with you, the new vessel for the divine…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having now played every game in the Divinity series, I can now conclude that Divine Divinity is the only one worth playing. I loved Divine Divinity, and one might think that Beyond Divinity is just more of the same. It's not. It's a severe downgrade. All of the things that made Divine Divinity really good, they are mostly missing from this second entry. The environments are bad. Instead of these mysterious forests and villages, you're plopped in some stereotypical Diablo-style hell dungeon…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buggy, had to use hex editor to get to npc behind a wall, replace save file components to fix corrupted saves in act4. Glad it's over, just wanted to get through the series, but would not recommend to any sane person to go through that at this day and age.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond divinity is a follow up to Divine Divinity. It's released on year 2004. Action - RPG with non respawning enemies, re-skill with money, you control 2 characters and summons, has four acts and optional random dungeons in each act. Finished the game in action difficulty to not to waste too much time, it turned out too easy, rarely used potions and strategy. You can easily go tactical and hardcore if you read/try/learn skills and damage types, do battlegrounds when you can.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond Divinity: holy shit i managed an hour of that before i had to stop. Bad game. Divine Divinity is a historical curiosity for rpg enthusiasts, Beyond is an overly ambitious mess
negative · AI labelView post →"Beyond Divinity is an action role-playing game by Larian Studios released in 2004-" We don't talk enough about how queer-coded the premise of that whole game was, and it's Pride Month, so,
neutral · AI labelView post →Absolute piece of ♥♥♥♥ compared to the first one, REALLY strange gameplay design. But slaps regardless, just give it time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nobody deserves to suffer this utterly tedious and retarded gameplay. If you care about your precious free time then just avoid playing this and go find a walkthrough video or just read up all the story on the internet. It is a shame that i like every other aspects of the game, even the voice acting. I kind of understand why people dislike them because they sound like your average American trying their hardest to talk in English accent.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was hopeful for the game, since Divine Divinity was a masterpiece, that I always loved, just as I replayed it before this game, I still enjoyed it.... but, this game is a shame on the series name... Controls are terrible, game mechanics are terrible... story was okeyish, but nothing good... lore was fine, since we got some extension for the massive and great lore of its predecessor. A suggestion... avoid this game and check a lore video, if you want to know, what is happened in it... there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Death Knight kept calling me a weakling. I turned him Pink. Then a female Imp made fun of him. Hehehe. The game however wasn't good enough to be recommended. The story and the ending is just mediocre. It takes almost all the same elements as Divine Divinity (which I, for the most part, liked) and falls short in almost every aspect, The only thing that I can truly say that I liked were the mean comments from the Death Knight to any and everyone who appeared before his eyes. Besides…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Falls incredibly short of it's predecessor. Somehow runs worse than Divine Divinity and is plagued with graphical errors. Suffers from poor controls. Barely playable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am down voting this game because of how poorly it was released by the devs and how little they've done to fix it in the last 20 years or so. This game has caused me more frustration than any game I've ever played. This is mainly due to playing DIVINE DIVINITY first and enjoying it immensely. In Divine Divinity I was able to run the game at 250+ FPS (nvidia control panel capped it at 120). In this game, the FPS is locked at 40. It uses an almost identical game engine as Divine Divinity.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I wish it was possible to give this game a neutral score because of the age of this game, I do not advise people who are used to somewhat modern UI to even try this game. Divine Divinity and its sequel Beyond Divinity are 20+ years old and it definitely shows. The UI is so clunky and unpleasant to use that it is the main reason why I cannot recommend it. If you are a die hard Divinity fan and want to support Larian a bit, then you can pick this game up but I think it would honestly be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game runs alright on Linux with Proton, but you have to set it at an older version (I used 4.11-13 or something like that) and you have to have a resolution lower than 1080 or experience stuttering (at least I did until I lowered it and it ran smoothly from there). I only had 2 or 3 crashes in the 46 hours I played though I don't know if that's from being on Linux or simply because it's an old game. There were also several times where the screen went dark though it seem like things were still…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I honestly had high hopes for this. But to me it just plain sucks. from the very start trying to find a key to open the door. and god help you if you use the only two keys that you find for anything other than the main door. I just reinstalled it to give it a second chance and no it still sucks IMHO
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond divinity? More like beyond boredom. Feels like a step sideways at best and a step backwards at worst from divine divinity, taking what worked and somehow making it more awkward. The dual character system sounds interesting at first but then everything turns into micromanagement central. It is not completely without ideas but playing it now feels like doing extra work for less reward.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's worse than the first game in basically all aspects. First thing is the voice acting on the death knight is the most atrocious thing I've ever heard, think of the English dubs for old kung-fu movies and those are Oscar performances compared to the death knight. The skill system is really weird. Instead of being able to see the entire skill tree like in the first one, you have to find skill books to unlock skills before you can level them. To then learn a skill you pick an open skill…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beyond Divinity is a classic isometric RPG that leans heavily into deep systems, dark fantasy storytelling, and old-school challenge. You control two bound characters, switching between them to solve puzzles and survive tough, tactical combat. The mechanics can feel unforgiving and dated, but the rich lore and complex gameplay reward patient players. ⭐ Rating: 7.5/10 — deep, challenging, and atmospheric — a demanding RPG best suited for fans of hardcore, old-school role-playing. Evolution of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Definitely not as Good as Divine Divinity
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very outdated gameplay even for its time game of a cool RPG series
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i review games on steam after i 100% complete them! check out my reviews to see all the games i have completed! beyond divinity is a 2004 action-rpg developed by larian studios. it is the sequel to divine divinity (2002), but adds the ability to control two characters, each with their own separate stats and equipment. while it's not a total disaster deserving of a bad review, beyond divinity is a huge step back from what divine divinity was and leaves a lot to be desired. there are large…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly this one couldn't grab me like the original... While the original was quirky and had that feeling of aged CRPG feeling.. this one had more of a feeling of constant struggle with the system itself.. Stamina running out when just running down a hall caused me to constantly have to stop and rest.. then start up again.. or be forced to walk at an insanely slow pace to conserve it. Which was made even worse by the fact that my main character had more constituation and my DK was much lower...…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, Your Honor, I am guilty of liking this game...😔 okay, sure, it has several terrible decisions, taking a huge step backwards compared to Divine Divinity, the biggest imo, being the UI. However, this game has quite some interesting features, like the ability to play as a child beating up demons, the super goofy Imps, and let's face it, the story is really cool, with an interesting plot twist at the end. The only parts that gave me a headache were the beginning, while I was trying to get…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →> …I’m just saying. Making a modern engine from scratch is hard. There are just too many things to worry about. And the record of “RPG studios rolling a new in house engine” is not great. Larian's track record is good. They used an [in-house engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_Engine) for Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and Baldur's Gate 3. They also made their own game engine for their older Divinity titles (Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity). And Vincke…
neutral · AI labelView post →
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