Preview Divinity: Fallen Heroes – A tactical role-playing game full of promises in the world of Divinity for PC

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In addition to its rich universe with a neat script, the combat system of the saga. Divinity: original sin It is undoubtedly one of his best qualities. Through an ingenious interaction between the elements, combined with a range of original capabilities for real synergy, each crash is an opportunity to shine your sense of tactics and positioning in the field. And it is in this aspect that Larian Studio accompanied for the occasion in which the team of Logic Artists has relied on the development of a new spin-off of the series, Divinity: Fallen Heroes, a tactical role-playing game full of promises in which we lay our hands during a first game session. Take a bit of XCOM, A little bit of Divinity: Dragon Commander, spray some elements of RPG and on the way to a series of battles as strategic as pleasurable, alone or in cooperation.

Heroes of the Source

The construction of this Divinity Fallen Heroes is divided into two parts, all of which could be somewhat reminiscent of the split Dragon Commander launched in 2013 by Larian. But STR’s point of view here, the battles from the sky and the administration of buildings give way to direct confrontations on the ground in the way of fighting an original sin. The other side of the title takes us on board Lady Vengeance, the ship recovered during the second episode of the saga, which has become for the occasion in a HUB where the player will launch their various missions and display the narrative aspect of the title. The flying boat is gradually called to populate the different heroes of Original Sin 2, back here to lead our troops on land..

Rivellon is again the target of a new threat led by Lucian. It does not take more for Lohse, Ifan, Fane, Sebille or Maladie and Fauve to take the arms and get on board the ship to try to go and kick his ass. We are also promised the arrival of new characters in the cast, a beautiful team composed ultimately by eight characters that populate the various pieces of Lady Vengeance.. These moments of play aboard the ship adopt a fixed internal vision of the Dragon Commander to interact with the members of your team to advance the plot. Here is the narrative and RPG aspect of the title, which insists on the impact of our decisions on the development of the scenario of a campaign divided into sixty missions in total for all the characters. But be careful, as some heroes will even leave the squad if our decisions do not please them.

These moments of life on board the ship also represent an opportunity to manage the recruitment of our different troops to send ashore. Such a decision can lead, for example, to the arrival of archers to our ranks, another will strengthen the power of our warriors, while some elections will lead to the recruitment of veteran characters, called, much more powerful than our basic soldiers, but whose death combat will be final. Each main narrative branch of Fallen Heroes should take us to a series of 25 missions (of the sixty available), all created by hand on specific terrains to guarantee repetition based on our different narrative choices.

The fight !

Before going to the castagne, the player selects his troops at the mission table and decides if he wants to surround himself with warriors, wizards, healers, archers and other special units, with a limit of six units in the field. Each class archetype has skills known to the regular users of the Original Sins saga : cargo to the shield, whirlwind, ice armor, tactical withdrawal, etc. Only the heroes have at the moment new specific techniques for this spin-off. We will also select two powerful consumable items to eliminate in combat and use them (if possible) at the best time to exploit their full potential. For example, we chose an apple that could give a good boost to the health and armor of a character, a Molotov cocktail with non-negligible area damage or a talisman to recharge the initiative points. A unit. The mode of cooperation, not available in this version, should divide the troops fairly and place each player at the head of a hero.

Field battles have the same focus as the original two Sins. If the skills of the character are, of course, crucial to their success, it is above all in the good use of the terrain, the different reactive surfaces and the objects that have our greatest chance of victory. Fallen Heroes, however, abandons the system of initiative bars of its model to operate in the shift-based model in XCOM, but does not involve boxes in the ground. The player is free to move wherever he wants, within the limits of his action points. You play all your units in the order of your choice during your turn, and the opponent does the same. Each troop of this demonstration had a maximum of four initiative points to be used in the election in a more or less distant displacement, in a basic attack or a special ability. The characters recover three action points after each turn and can save their resources if they wish to align more abilities in the next turn.

The three missions of our game session ended in bitter faults. The guilt of the skill is probably a bit rusty from your servant, but also the level of stuttering difficulty of this pre-alpha. This, however, was an opportunity to Observe the diversity of objectives proposed in the field and the vision of the developers for the project.. It was not just about eliminating all the opposing team, but also protecting civilians, destroying the ballistars before they showed Lady Vengeance or driving Fane to retrieve her research on Sulfur, new reactive element of these Fallen Heroes.. Represented by yellow surfaces in the soil, the sulfur reacts a quarter of a turn to kinetic type damages, such as those caused by arrows or shots. The characters present in the area of ​​effect are projected strongly at a distance by the generated explosion.

The title also marks the arrival of firearms, powerful remote tools that each successful shot has the ability to push back the opponent. What to prepare some well-felt strategies on earth that still favor the chain reaction between the different surfaces applied to the ground. Coming from Divinity Original Sin 2, the system of physical and magical armor points of the characters is back and adds an additional layer of tactics. The fighting system of the Divine saga demonstrates once again the scope of its possibilities and the pleasure it provides once it has been mastered. Let’s hope now that the arrival of new skills and heroes brings even more diversity and pleasure in combat.