It is 2019: Larian is announcing its new RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3. The studio releases a short, cinematic teaser with an emphasis on body horror—the ceremorphosis of an unwitting guard rendered in horrible, gory detail. Teeth tumble out of his mouth like popcorn, cheekbones snap, and his thumb goes at all sorts of weird angles while hair sloughs off his head.
It was a pretty evocative trailer but, a couple years on, after multiple Baldur’s Gate 3 playthroughs—was it really the vibe? I mean, sure, it was a game about mind flayers, and there are plenty of grisly scenes in it. In one part of the game, you delve into a nest stitched together out of pulsing human flesh.
But on the whole, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a bright heroic fantasy with bloody dark spots—it’s a colourful, lively game that (unless you kill everybody) is about troubled people overcoming their worst nature and horrifying fates to save the realm. The body horror in that original trailer is a theme, but it’s only one of many. Evil endings that matched the tone one for one didn’t come out until several patches later.
Outside of that? You’ve got a worm in your brain, sure, but aside from a menu where you plug tadpoles into upgrades and the option to maybe turn squid, if you want, the ticking pressure of cereomorphosis isn’t really an issue at all. Even Larian knew this—just look at the actual launch trailer: Sweeping, orchestral, heroic scores! Devils playing chess! And, like, maybe a few cumulative seconds of body horror, as a treat.
Skip to 2025: Larian is announcing its new RPG, Divinity. The studio releases a short, cinematic teaser with an emphasis on body horror, and—are we starting to sense a pattern, here?
And hey, I’m certain the events in the announcement trailer will have plenty of impact on the full game: That big ol’ flesh obelisk will probably be an inciting incident or location of some sort, and we’re likely dealing with demons—but if your first trailer can be considered an elevator pitch, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a Diablo-style descent into Hell here.
Once we’re out of the elevator and being shown the full game, though, I strongly suspect we’re all going to go: “Hey, so, what was that pitch about? You guys got really into describing how that guy’s arm got pulled apart, there.”
I’m reasonably confident I’m right, because unless Larian’s taking a right turn into survival horror or something, I don’t think we’re actually in for what the trailer promises as a persistent, pervasive theme. I’m gonna call this now: We’ll be fighting great evils, sure. There’ll be bloody fortresses and flesh pillars and whatever. Divinity’s gonna be an adult game.
But if you watched that trailer and went ‘maybe this is a bit dark for me’, you’re probably going to be okay when the actual game arrives. I’d bet two nickels on the fact that this has happened twice. I will happily put money down on the fact that Divinity will, ostensibly, be a high-magic fantasy adventure with some moderate blood splatter, brief bouts of body horror, sex, and some cartoonishly-rendered meat obelisks.
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Which begs the question: Why is this the second time in a row one of Larian’s cinematic reveal trailers hasn’t really captured an accurate vibe? Again, could be wrong—this could be Divinity’s dark, gritty, grimy horror-RPG reboot—but like, with as little assumption as I can muster, I have to ask:
Hey, Larian cinematic designers, do you guys wanna like, talk to somebody? You okay over there? They’re not feeding you mindflayer tadpoles? Swen doesn’t have a monolith in the basement that’s making you think xenomorph thoughts? You want some orange juice or something? Snacks, maybe?
In all seriousness, I’m not clutching pearls here. The trailer rules from an artistic standpoint, just not really an advertising one—Larian hasn’t set the tone as much as it’s gone “ooga booga!” and run away. And don’t get me wrong! It was a pretty good ooga booga. Very lovingly rendered, very scary.
I’m interested in whatever background event or persistent plot thread the “Burning Man gone wrong (sexual)” cinematic is setting up, and I’m convinced it’s going to be great fun. But, respectfully, I’ll be waiting keenly to see the actual videogame before I cement an idea of what it’ll actually be like in my head.
… The lizard sex orgy is probably indicative, though.
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