Coming to PC later this year, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the much hyped sequel to 2014’s Divinity: Original Sin and it raised over $2 million on Kickstarter. While the game’s plot sees players take on Bishop Alexander, who has declared all sorcerers criminals, the big theme for the upcoming game is “how your origins affect who you are and what chances you get in life,” says developer Larian Studios.

The game may be a fantasy RPG but there are obvious parallels to be drawn between that core concept and the very real privilege that people may have over others in the real world. It seems that the game may touch on this, as Larian has revealed more information about Divinity: Original Sin 2’s character creation, saying that characters will treat players differently based on gender.



Divinity: Original Sin 2 Character Creation Update via LarianStudios

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Character Creation

In a Kickstarter update, Larian Studios explains that Divinity: Original Sin 2 players won’t just be choosing their class or hairstyle but they’ll “choose a life” for their character. This includes: origin stories (players may meet old friends and enemies), tags (“give your characters depth and variety”), race (there are undead warriors and Imperial dwarves are just two examples), personalised music for your character and skills (essentially allowing players to create their own character classes).

On gender, though, Larian says that “as with everything in Divinity: Original Sin 2, people’s views of your chosen gender will affect how they interact with you.” “Will their expectations clash with your own? How will other cultures view you? How will you view them?” are a few examples of how others may treat you differently based on whether your character is male or female.

Unfortunately, the video doesn’t offer any details on this but it will be interesting to see whether the game looks at sexism in any way or whether NPC reactions to the player character (based on gender) are completely different to what we might expect. As the recent Deus Ex Aug Lives Matter controversy showed, game developers can slip up when it comes to making parallels to real-world issues, so if Larian is going this route, hopefully it has thought carefully about how to implement it.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be released on PC in 2016.