Before Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios Tried to Create Its Own XCOM. Divinity: Fallen Heroes Was Supposed to Be a „Compact” Title
After the release of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and before the launch of Baldur's Gate 3, the Larian Studios team worked on other projects. One of them was Divinity: Fallen Heroes, being developed with the Logic Artists team. It would be closer to the XCOM series than to a classic RPG.
The team at Larian Studios had to work hard to ensure that the Divinity series entered the pantheon of RPGs. The brand's position in the market was sealed by the great success of Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel, Divinity: Original Sin II. After the premiere of the latter, the team led by Swen Vincke decided to try something different and started working on a spin-off of their flagship series. Let's check what Divinity: Fallen Heroes was supposed to be.
Not only Larian Studios
The story of Divinity: Fallen Heroes should be started with the fact that Larian Studios did not work on this project alone. The Belgians started cooperation with their colleagues from Denmark, and more precisely – with the Logic Artists team, which previously delivered the warmly received games Expeditions: Conquistador and Expeditions: Viking. The team assembled for the needs of the described project was therefore quite strong. What could have gone wrong?
Almost like Divinity: Original Sin 3
Divinity: Fallen Heroes was announced in March 2019. Unlike the previous works of Larian Studios, which were pure RPGs, this time we were to receive a tactical game in the vein of the XCOM series from Firaxis Games.
The action of the game was supposed to be set after the events depicted in the second installment of the Divinity: Original Sin sub-series. The axis of the story was a journey through Rivellon, specifically - the sun-scorched territories of the Lizard Empire and the snow-covered Dwarf Kingdom. Our party would carry it out over the course of more than 60 missions aboard The Lady Vengeance.
Among the eight characters that could join our party, old friends like Ifan, Lohse, the Red Prince and Malady would be prominent. Interestingly, this would be the first playable appearance for the latter; in Original Sin II she was “only” one of the key NPCs.
Almost like Divinity: Enemy Unknown
Divinity: Fallen Heroes would stand out the most from the Divinity: Original Sin sub-series due to the greater emphasis on turn-based battles and a different idea for the combat system. The latter would not feature initiative mechanics, based on which the order of actions performed by individual characters was determined in earlier works of Larian Studios. Instead, the units would alternate their movements.
In addition, before starting the mission, the game would enable us to choose one of the available characters and up to five soldiers who would accompany him/her on the battlefield. Apart from the usual units representing various classes, such as warrior, healer, or rogue, common but veteran helpers could also stand by our side, placing themselves between ordinary "cannon fodder" and heroes. Similar to the others, they would have names, as well as individual sets of weapons and skills.
The matter would be complicated by the fact that the deaths of units on the battlefield would be permanent, so the loss of one of the veterans could hurt. Another thing is that the heroes could also die, and although it would be possible to resurrect them, it would be much more difficult than in Divinity: Original Sin II.
In addition to over 200 abilities that would be bestowed upon individual units, we could use various artifacts on the battlefield. In addition, the game described would be the first under the Divinity banner, which would feature gunpowder, as well as a new element called Sulfurium.
Almost like classic Divinity
Nevertheless, Divinity: Fallen Heroes would still be an RPG. During the game, we would continue to have conversations with NPCs, and make choices that would affect the further course of the story. Besides, our decisions would affect the morale of our subordinates - the mistakes we made would negatively affect their moods (in extreme cases leading to them leaving the party), on the other hand, when things went their way, they would be more willing to go on further expeditions and fight by our side.
Despite that, this time the devs would've offered us a more "compact" production. In a conversation with PCGamesN, the producer of Divinity: Fallen Heroes, Kieron Kelly, stated that Fallen Heroes was supposed to give us...
...really great narration and opportunity for role-playing, but in a tactical game. (...) instead of an 80-hour RPG like Original Sin 2, it's more of an experience lasting from 20 to 25 hours.
Moreover, as befits a Divinity game, Fallen Heroes would not condemn us to a solitary journey. The devs promised that they would allow each task to be completed in cooperative mode with a second player controlling their own character and their subordinates.
Failed venture
Divinity: Fallen Heroes was supposed to debut in 2019. In September, Michael Douse, publishing director of the Divinity series, presented players with a vision of an "extended universe" (EDU). for the series, of which the described game was supposed to be a part. Fate, however, had other plans in store.
Unexpectedly, in mid-October it was announced that work on Divinity: Fallen Heroes have been suspended. Both teams standing behind it decided that they wanted to focus on their individual ventures. While Larian Studios was to devote itself to creating Baldur's Gate 3, Logic Artistis promised the players to make the third installment of Expeditions and a representative of an entirely new IP.
Although Larian claimed that "players excited about Fallen Heroes will have to wait for an indefinite period of time", at that time no one had yet mentioned the cancellation of this project. On the contrary - there were statements that it needs "solid refinement", and "will eventually reach the people waiting for it".
However, things turned out differently, and in July 2023 Swen Vincke confirmed in an interview for GamesRadar+ that the project had been canceled. Interestingly, at the same time, the developer revealed that in the meantime a game was being developed with the code name Soul for Frost Island . We are talking about yet another spin-off to Divinity: Original Sin II, referred to as " DOS2 with new mechanics". What kind of mechanic is this? Vincke held his tongue here, as Larian intended to "use it for something else at some point."
What came next?
Next, Larian Studios actually focused on Baldur's Gate 3, which achieved spectacular artistic and commercial success, permanently leaving its mark on the history of video games. Logic Artists delivered Expeditions: Rome, which debuted on PC in January 2022.
While Larian Studios is doing better than ever at the time of writing, things have taken a different turn for the other team. Shortly after the release of the third installment of their series, the studio was shut down, and in its place grew Dynasty Studios, aiming to... create video games using blockchain technology. The new-old studio intends to develop an economic strategy and survival game, in which non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be implemented.
