Divinity: Fallen Heroes Preview

Logic Artists, the team behind the Expeditions series, is currently working on Divinity: Fallen Heroes in collaboration with Larian Studios. Having greatly enjoyed the Expeditions games, I'm fairly curious about this tactical Divinity: Original Sin II spin-off, and if you are too, you might want to check out this recent GamesRadar+ preview of the game that happens to be peppered with numerous quotes from Kieron Kelly, one of Larian's producers.

Here's an excerpt:

"A lot of Original Sin 2's combat was trying to make it as tactical as possible anyway, only in the RPG setting," Kelly says. "So all we're doing is condensing that into a more refined, tighter experience." Fallen Heroes is tightly linked to its predecessor, in a lot of ways. While over 1,000 years passed between the first and second Original Sin games, this story picks up just two years later from one of Original Sin 2's multiple endings. "This game is not Original Sin 3, it’s very much a spin-off, but it is using a canon ending of Original Sin 2 and building a story from there," says Kelly. Under said canon, the magical Source has left the world and all of the 'origins' – Original Sin 2's term for the pre-rolled characters who could either be your playable protagonist or members of your wider party – survived the events of the game.

The game casts you as the captain of the Lady Vengeance, a flying ship first glimpsed in Original Sin 2, staffed with a crew made up of those familiar faces. We get our hands on Ifan, Lohse and Fane, but all six 'origins' will be available to recruit, as well as Malady – who appeared in the last game as an NPC – and one as-yet-unnamed character.

On board the ship, you’ll have conversations with each character and make decisions that guide the flow of the story. Larian is crafting over 60 missions, but one playthrough will see less than half of those, depending on the path you choose. This is all very much the stuff of RPGs, although the structure is intended to be a lot more concentrated, offering a half-hour loop of mission and story rather than the lengthy sessions needed to advance the plot of something like Original Sin 2.