"Applied Theology": A Review of the Divinity Anthology

Divinity has always been close to the Russian player. This was facilitated by the "Arian" Kirill Pokrovsky, the unwavering composer of the series, but the main reason lies elsewhere: the games of Larian are built on a familiar Russian soul scenario of "cramming as much as possible into one game." This is how the main domestic games were created, and this was the case for [Divine Divinity](/games?search=Divine Divinity) ten years ago. In honor of the series' anniversary, the Divinity Anthology was released, which includes this collectible edition.

A stylish black cover with a glossy logo, a noticeable weight, and a solid size for a collectible from 1C-Softclub – by appearance, you would never guess that this edition costs 799 rubles. Maybe five years ago, but now even for more modest editions, they are accustomed to asking for a thousand. But the Divinity Anthology is something special for many reasons.

[Divine Divinity](/games?search=Divine Divinity), [Beyond Divinity](/games?search=Beyond Divinity), and Divinity 2: Director’s Cut – all three games of the series, developed by Belgian Larian Studios. Moreover, this anthology is their first experience in publishing, and certainly not the last: upcoming releases like Divinity Original Sin and Dragon Commander will also be published independently by the studio. Therefore, firstly, the goal of the publication is not only to delight fans of the "divine" series but also to attract as many new people as possible; and secondly, Larian can talk [about everything](/games?search=обо всем) without fear of publishing censorship.

The Russian edition does not differ in content from the global one. However, there are external differences: developer diaries in a soft cover, and instead of two DVD-boxes – a beautiful digipak ribbon with four discs.

The two discs on the right are the game's soundtrack (selected pieces and those that did not make it into the games). On the left are the actual games, without copy protection. On the first disc, [Divine Divinity](/games?search=Divine Divinity) with localization by 1С/Snowball and [Beyond Divinity](/games?search=Beyond Divinity) by Buki are sewn together with a simple launcher with beautiful music...

...And on the second one – a new assembly of Divinity 2, which received the subtitle Developer’s Cut. The disc menu clearly hints that here we will find not only the game, even though nothing about this is stated on the cover:

The developer mode will allow you to fully control the game world at your own risk, just as the developers could (the description suggests spawning a hundred goblins around you or trying on a troll's skin), while the Larian treasure chest is a repository of materials about the series. Design documents from various years, early versions of location maps, artworks, and most interestingly – report videos that developers sent to the publisher.

The main section is dedicated to Divinity 2, but you can also find, for example, the official novellas for [Divine Divinity](/games?search=Divine Divinity) and [Beyond Divinity](/games?search=Beyond Divinity). All these materials are in English, except for the most interesting – the film about the development of Divinity 2, which is translated into subtitles. The film lasts 18 minutes and starts with a story about the collectible edition, describing both the studio and the game creation process. Including things you wouldn’t expect in such materials: for example, how they looked for a publisher and fought at all costs to ensure the project wasn't shut down.

The film is made for the Divinity Anthology and wonderfully complements the developer diaries. By the way, in this same folder, you can find the English version of the book and confirm that the Russian printed version matches it page for page. You can get all these digital goodies by purchasing Divinity 2: Developer’s Cut on Steam. If you already own Ego Draconis or Dragon Knight Saga, the new version should have automatically added itself to your library overnight.

Besides the actual discs, the edition includes stickers, two double-sided posters, DLC keys for upcoming games, and a printed developer diary. The first two items are straightforward:

DLC keys are more interesting. Firstly, why send them to different websites for activation if they all ultimately activate on larianvault.com? Secondly, why make them 33(!) characters long?! Not only are they long, but the input field accommodates only 15 characters, and if you make a mistake somewhere, you’ll have to scroll through the key to read it. And if we’re nitpicking – this is already the second DLC for Dragon Commander, the first can still be obtained for free right here. Yes, on a completely different website with a completely different registration. Surely there is some special meaning in all this madness. By the way, the items seem quite useful based on the description:

And finally, the Developer Diary. The dates on the cover (2002-2012) refer to the Divinity series. However, the pages describe another range: 1996-2010.

And it starts, as you can see, not with Divinity. The first game for Larian was supposed to be another role-playing game, larger in scale, which never saw the light of day. This book honestly tells what happened to The Lady, The Mage and The Knight and where Divinity ultimately came from. It honestly shares many other things that are usually not discussed in typical artbooks and developer diaries. And it would be one thing if it were stories about the crazy last days before release – that is still common.

But Larian shares absolutely [everything](/games?search=обо всем). How they hid from the publisher, how they lied in press releases – a plethora of incredibly interesting details that are usually omitted. For instance, there’s a story about how they fought against the dragon DRM in [Beyond Divinity](/games?search=Beyond Divinity):

The developer diary is an amazing piece, interesting not only to fans of Divinity but to everyone curious about the industry. The history of Larian may resemble other stories from small developer companies, but I have not seen such depth and adaptation for a wide audience anywhere else. It’s a pity that the narrative ends at the release of Dragon Knight Saga two years ago, and nothing is said about the newer history which should be even more intriguing. Well, we wish Larian another decade of life, so we can read about this in the second anthology. At the end of the diary is a small artbook with sketches for all the studio's games.

The edition can also be purchased directly on Steam for a laughable 499 with the Russian language and all digital bonuses of Developer's Cut (however, without DLC for upcoming games), but for that price it would be a crime not to get a full collectible: it's not stated on the packaging, but inside there is also a Steam key for all three games. The Steam version is also with the Russian language, yes!

A flawless gift for everyone who considers themselves gamers.