The Least Original Sin

I've been giving Divinity: Original Sin a chance, just to see what all the hype's been a-hypin'. Not all too crazy about it so far. Interesting combat mechanics get held back by a goofy atmosphere, almost actively hostile towards roleplaying immersion. For now, one thing's bugging me.

The first Divinity games were mindless hack'n'slash ARPG Diablo clones set amongst generically Tolkienish fairy-tale medievalism. The Original Sin games seem to distance themselves from that, attempting some actual roleplaying mechanics beyond just racking up an orcish head count. This first of the new batch is supposedly set a thousand years before the old Divinity titles... yet it's still set in the same generically Tolkienish fairy-tale medievalism.

Why not ditch the Medieval Stasis? A game series spanning several titles could set each installment in a different stage of its imaginary world's development. Once you've established your "everybody knows what elves are like" fantasy baseline with its kings and mage guilds, expand upon it.

Set the next game before the elves and humans had met, so that nobody knows what elves are like. Take me to the time before kingdoms had coalesced and let me adventure as part of mammoth-chasing nomadic tribes just discovering the rudiments of magic. Fast-forward to when the kingdoms collapse and let me play Mad Max with magic wands. If one game's set among warring kingdoms worshipping various pantheons, then set the next one in a monolithic monotheistic theocracy. Real history has its Akhenatens and Alarics after all. Why not fake histories?

Allow magic to change. Let some schools die out, let some antediluvians get diablerized, let the light of the rings fade. You're probably going to make gameplay changes to those combat mechanics anyway, so why not incorporate them into your cosmology? Hell, give me a fantasy game set in the stone-age, with primitive humans scraping by in the shadow of elvish or draconic civilizations. Let me play as the first adan. Let me build the monuments which become ancient ruins in another game. Make a plot point out of minotaurs becoming extinct in between your games, or of vampirism being discovered. Show me the fire and water spells I tossed around in one game become entire academic disciplines five hundreds years later in the sequel, the basis of a steampunk revolution. Let me be an ancient astronaut invading the Earth in one game, and in the next an archaeologist trying to unravel the mysterious technology brought down during the invasion.

Just stop recycling the same quaint rustic medieval villages and the same swashbuckling at the orders of the same kings and the same robed clowns tossing the same fireballs around at the same kaleidoscopic dragons in thirty-one flavors.