After the respectable success of its Kickstarter campaign for Divinity: Original Sin, which raised over $944,000, Belgian game company Larian Studios is once again turning to the crowdfunding model for a sequel that it promises will “focus on maintaining everything that made its predecessor so much fun, while still adding new types of tactical opportunities and challenges.”

Like its predecessor, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a retro callback to computer RPG games like Baldur’s Gate, featuring top-down action with a heavy focus on character customization and strategy.

“The theme of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is how your origins affect who you are and what chances you get in life,” the studio wrote on the sequel’s Kickstarter campaign page. “At the start of the game, you pick a single character and determine your starting stats, race, and origin story.

“You’ll be able to recruit up to three companions, each of whom is just as detailed as the character you’re playing, with their own origin story and motivation to help you in your quest. This makes it possible for each companion to become a player character in multiplayer mode; every party member is equally important to the whole.”

Four-player co-op will be returning in the sequel, but the developers are also including a new competitive multiplayer mode. Rather than fighting head to head, the new competitive mode will have teams of players race against each other to complete quests, and from the description it sounds like individual team members may also have their own personal objectives to complete.

“There’s no obligation to compete, of course,” the developers said. “Many party members will manage to balance their own interests with those of the party. Should you find yourself in conflict, know that it’s always possible to make up afterwards. The important thing here is that it’s you who gets to make that choice.”

The Kickstarter campaign is asking for an initial goal of $500,000, and at the time of writing, it is already halfway there with more than a month left in the campaign. As with the original game, Larian is only partially funding Divinity: Original Sin 2 through Kickstarter.

“We are financing Divinity: Original Sin 2 ourselves, but the ideas that we have can be stretched a lot further than what our current budget allows for,” the developers said. “Our hope is that your pledges will enable us to increase the freedom and depth that will be present in the final game.”

Image credit: Larian Studios