Beyond Divinity could have been a contender. The premise was excellent, an rpg odd couple trapped together and fighting for their freedom in a world a long way away from lush green fields and hobbit holes. Whilst i enjoyed the game it stumbles too many times for me to reconmmend without reservation. 'Cos what might be right for me, just might not be right for some.
The game is spilt into several acts and the game starts with that happy old chestnut of a plot device..the prison breakout. In gameplay terms this is the games opening dungeon crawl and boy is it bad. One of my issues with Divine Divinity was that some of the crypts and dungeons were just plain tedious and unfortunately that is still the case. There are no multi coloured crystal caverns in this prison, or genies with strange questions, no bubbling life chambers or a shrine to a dead wife. It may not be fair to compare Beyond to Baldur's Gate 2, but for a game that wants to desperately shake it's action rpg tag and tell a story then creating an atmospheric backdrop for your questing characters and side quests that add depth to it's characters and story is what i want to see. Not level after level of rooms and corridors that all look the same Its gameplay like this that does not take long at all to drag my idiot smile into a grumpy frown. And then their is Beyond Divinity's difficulty.
It's hard. A challenging rpg is great. Boss fights, tough loot filled locations, tricky side quests. That first spider fight in TOEE. But at the games beginning, Beyond is difficult in an unfair way. As a player you have two characters with no equipment, no stock of health potions or skills to fall back on; yet you run into guards that can demolish a full red health in a few swings. And there are a lot of guards. Having to deal with a combat situation by running around Benny Hill style with a hoarde of bad guys in pursuit or enter combat and hope the game scores enough 'hits' to let you win is just bad gameplay. And it ain't much fun either. However once you gain access to your first Battleground you can at least even the odds.
The battlegrounds are a central hub of merchants, who will buy all that scrap metal stored in your backpack and sell you everything and anything you may want. You can unlock one battleground per act and not only are they a one stop shop but a place to recieve random quests. The greedy merchants want stuff, you know the kind of dark eldrich items one can only find at the bottom level of a dungeon say. What this amounts to is more rough and ready dungeon crawling, where the goal really is to grind out a level or two and grab more loot to sell. In small doses this is actually pretty fun, but given the strength of your opposition in the 'main' world, the need to keep returning can start to feel disruptive and more like the designers wanted to pad their game out.
One of the biggest changes from the original is the character leveling system. Larian Studios obviously wanted to build on what was successful and enjoyable. There are more skills and abilities to spend those character points on this time around, although it can be a bit of a jumble sale as you sort the useful from the useless. Some of the skills just seem weak and no matter how many points you plow into them they never become something you can rely on. Take the summoning dolls; for a time you can add a third fighter to your party and with experience you can improve their stats, yet they stubbornly refuse to be anything other than a bit rubbish. The freedom to choose the skill direction of your character is also whipped from your hands by the need to find masters who will train you in the appropriate skill. These guys are scattered in the main world and hang out at battlegrounds and its a change i really don't like. Adding restrictions on a game that previously had none is just annoying. On the tail-end of that game change another which i think is just cheap, for a price you can redistribute your stat points and create another build during the game. You can do this as often as you can afford it. Some players will enjoy being able to check out different types and correct mistakes, theres just something about it i don't like.

The games plot is really pretty good, but it does take a long old time to come downstairs and join the party. Given that the game is split into acts, the pacing should have been much tighter. It will take a fair few gaming hours to see the plot develop into something worth paying attention to. And then there is the voice acting. One of the most vocal and important characters of the game is the deathknight. The guy who hired not one, but two voice actors for the character needs to be kindly lead away from a career in casting. Preferably to the moon. In the cut-scenes the deathknight kinda sounds like an old surfer dude who smokes way too much. In the game however that voice becomes something of a cross between Fozzy Bear and Yoda with a head cold. Its horrible and across the board the voice acting is pretty awful. It really lets down the work Larian Studios put in to creating all the npc's.
Beyond Divinity is an uneven game without a doubt. Above ground the detail and exploration is still fun and the soundtrack is simply fantastic. The game contains a lot of humor, some of it works and some of it falls flat, but i appreciate the effort. And when i compare it to Divine Divinity, it certainly lacks the solid workmanship of that title and it has some of old issues and some brand new ones for me to chew on and grumble over. Yet i prefer Beyond Divinity. I prefer the story, the side quests and the setting. Hopefully all the bugs have been patched for GOG's version, and i really would suggest tracking down a demo before parting with your ten bucks; if i knew for a fact this version was bug free and it cost six bucks i would rate 5 stars.