Imagine, if you will... you are a noble paladin-esque warrior who journeys for the good of man. You awaken in a dungeon cell far from anything you know. Worse yet, you are being held captive by a crazed legion of Death Knights - your polar opposites. This is the opening to Beyond Divinity, and things don't get much better for quite a while. Within the first several minutes of play, you are soul-forged to a Death Knight, meaning you must remain within a relatively close proximity to him, and worse yet - if either of you fails to draw breath, the other suffocates as well. The only option is to go on a far-reaching, nearly impossible quest to master "rift running." As you can surmise, this set up leave both characters in a position they didn't ask for and certainly don't like. This character dynamic provides some very good entertainment and a great basis for an involving plot.

This story unfolds in four extremely long (and progressively longer) chapters, bringing these two opposite personalities to see a bit of themselves in each other. Think cop-buddy movies. This is the fantasy RPG equivalent of the early Lethal Weapon or Rush Hour series. While Joe Pesci never shows up to raise (or lower) the humor bar, Beyond Divinity is not a game without a sense of humor.

Despite having a healthy dose of laughter, Beyond Divinity is quite a serious game. With an average clock-in at 70 hours, playing is a serious endeavor. Expect a minimum of 50 play hours, and that's just to beat the primary quest; 50 hours won't include a tenth of the side-quests. Moreover, there are enough alternate routes, opposing character builds, and side-quests to warrant a second and possibly even third play-through.

The character building starts initially with three options for your hero: Fighter, Wizard, or Survivalist (think of a traditional Rogue). Once you choose this profession, however, the game allows you to buy abilities and skills that can be widespread and specific to the point of annoyance. Some of the skills see no use whatsoever (One-Handed Fighting), and some are problematic (Lock Picking: a single point will allow a 90% chance to open any lock).

At every level you get the chance to buy one or more new abilities, any of which can cross the profession boundary. Therefore, your Wizard may wield a two-handed sword and pick the pockets of every stranger he meets. This doesn't mean that your choice of profession is a useless one, just that you can branch beyond the abilities traditionally allotted to that stereotype.

The environments in Beyond Divinity are intricate and fully developed. The lands are widespread and detailed with culture and icons abound. Cities teem with a deadly mix of reality and fantasy, dungeons are filled with creatures that would make Gary Gygax drop chin, and NPCs have personalities enough to equate that of most other games' combined. The piercing musical overtone is just as engrossing as the physical environment. The music put to this game deserves a medal all its own. Every time I started the game I wanted to get into a big fight so that the combat music would play, or rush to a new story development in the hopes I would hear a new piece.

Graphics are the biggest weakness of this RPG. The game is overhead two-dimensional, much like classics of the genre such as the Baldur's Gate series. However, graphics have far progressed since the end of the 20th century; why must our RPGs ignore this? The graphics aren't bad enough to make the game unbearable, but they could definitely use the number of a good plastic surgeon. The other big weakness in Beyond Divinity is the sheer amount of bugs. It seems Larian Studios decided to forego playtesting, thereby passing the buck onto you, the consumer. It seems they are quick in patching these mistakes, though; several patches have already been released, correcting every big issue I had with the game.

Intriguing story, interesting characters, and involving combat makes this an RPG worth a shot. Fans of Black Isle games will find enjoyment here, and fans of Morrowind may enjoy the free-roaming and mountain of quests. The sheer depth of the game will scare many off, but those who can disconnect from their world to join this one a while will have one of the best role-playing experiences of their life.