Like most of the games that Blizzard has produced, the original Diablo laid down many of the rules for the hack and slash adventure genre. Followers of the Diablo design have been numerous, but few have been as well received as 2002's Dungeon Siege. The sequel, imaginatively named Dungeon Siege II, follows faithfully in the footsteps of the original fantasy RPG from Gas Powered Games. Solid, satisfying combat and a worthwhile storyline mark this solid genre title. Read on for my impressions of this medieval slasher.
- Title: Dungeon Siege II
- Developer: Gas Powered Games
- Publisher: Microsoft Games
- System: PC
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 7/10
If you've ever played a fantasy hack and slash game, you've played Dungeon Siege II. This double edged sword swings heavily. On the one hand, you'll be familiar with the tropes, the controls, and the expectations. On the other, if you know you don't like hack and slashers you can safely avoid DSII without missing out on content you might have otherwise appreciated. That said, if you do enjoy the genre there is a lot to like here.
The first Dungeon Siege was widely hailed for its combination of strategy elements and party based combat. Dungeon Siege II doesn't mess with a good thing. As a mercenary far from home, you begin the game working for a powerful evil force that is just starting to work its way across the land. As with the original title, characters develop abilities by using them. If you want your main character to be a melee fighter, you equip him with a sword and start him swinging. If you want him to be a combat mage you put a spellbook in his hands and let him blast away. During the course of the adventure, you can recruit other hearty travelers to round out other roles in your party. As with your main character, you control their inventory and can thus guide their ability development. Though this may initially seem like a system with possibilities to exploit you quickly realize the "multiclassing" capabilities are limited. While you can give a spellcaster a sword to swing around, you're going to want to focus each character on a particular set of abilities in order to maximize their power. Unlockable critical powers are revealed with higher levels of specialization as well, giving you very little incentive to have jacks-of-all-trades.
Those critical powers are used when your characters enter combat. Combat is a major focus of the game, and while there isn't a lot of innovation here the hacking and slashing is very satisfying. Holding down the mouse button on an opponent tells your main character to go to town. NPC allies can be given instructions to focus their attacks on your target, or put into a spree mode where they'll cut down anything that moves. Combat moves for both melee fighters and spellcasters have a lot of crunch to them. Opponents are dispatched with zeal, explosions of blood and body parts accompanying your victory. While the makers of the Dungeon Siege series have a background in RTS games, there isn't really a whole lot of strategy involved once the axes start falling. As long as you've got all the characters equipped with the best weapons and spells you could find or purchase, the chaos of battle will mostly run itself. The downside to this is that it's very hard to protect your weaker NPC allies. Magic users in particular fare badly, as the monsters all known the "geek the mage first" addage. In large combats you'll almost certainly be waiting on your spellcaster to regenerate from the large holes that have been ripped in his thinking parts. Additionally, while the entertainment value of new critters to kill is high, the combat mechanic never really changes and thus can get old in a hurry.
Combatting creatures, as always, nets you experience which eventually allows your party to level up. Depending on what they use in combat, you are given several options in a skill tree for ways to focus their advancement. While multi-classing is again not the best idea, each character has available all the different skill trees. Using the weapon type appropriate to each tree nets you skill points for that tree. For example, using a bow nets you a skill point for the Ranged Tree after a sufficient time spent in the field. Within the trees you are given several options to customize your adventurer's attacks. Melee fighters can specialize in one handed weapons with a shield, or can go the path of the strongman and wield a two handed weapon. Combat mages can focus on different elements (fire, electricity, etc.), while ranged combatants can focus on crossbows or throwing axes. Given the limited number of allies you can have, this ability to focus their abilities is crucial to ensuring that you have party roles fulfilled to your satisfaction.
Combat and mechanics are all well and good, but roleplaying games should be about storytelling. Questing and story are always important elements to a roleplaying game (though in this case I use the term lightly), and in this respect Dungeon Siege II manages to break a little ways out of the cookie cutter mold much of the rest of the game adheres to. Starting your career as an adventurer in a Dryad prison is hardly an auspicious start, but from there you are swept up into fight against your former employer, a wielder of a deadly dangerous artifact from an older era. Aside from the main quest pushing you ever outward into the world at large, folks you meet along the way have a series of errands and personal vendettas to settle up. While they're the usual "i can't be bothered to go five minutes down the road" type of RPG sidequests, the writing and voice acting are usually fairly well done. This adds a level of personality and polish to the experience that many other games can't touch. Additionally, the game isn't shy about giving you quests some time before you can complete them, giving you time to consider you objectives and watch out for the opportunity before you can actually fulfill the request. The only real frustration with the game's theming is the vanilla nature of your NPC allies. They occasionally stop to have prescripted interactions between themselves, and those are well done and usually amusing to listen to. You'll never grow that attached to your companions because they simply don't have a lot in the way of soul. The blank faces of DS II can't hold a candle to the likes of Minsc or HK-47.
The game is somewhat lacking in personality when it comes to visual presentation as well. Up close, characters and monsters have a likeable roughness, with interesting details and personality coming to the fore. Pul back to keep track of the action, however, and the somewhat dated graphical look of Dungeon Siege II is readily apparent. There are some blocky elements to characters which stand out at a distance, and environmental textures can become somewhat repetitive. On the positive side effects for special attacks and magical combat add the same visceral quality to the game that the melee combat movements do, with sparks of light and fire limning the field of battle during most engagements. The auditory experience has the same quality, grunts and cries adding a first person experience to what could otherwise be dry hacking and slashing. The musical accompaniment is as successful in augmenting the gaming experience without overwhelming the player with its presence. The music itself has a similarity to the musical experience from the first game, but somehow didn't come off as repetition. The orchestrations are different enough that the feeling evoked is one of remembrance rather than ripoff, and works well within the gameworld.
Dungeon Siege II, then, is a competent hack and slash RPG. Built on the Diablo 2 model and paying close attention to the lessons learned from the original title, the sequel to the 2002 hit is a satisfying gaming experience if you're a fan of spilling orc blood. Combat, story, and questing are all well executed, with an eye towards presentation and visceral feel. Even though the game hews very close to the genre standard, the entertaining and visceral combat gameplay can make this a worthwhile addition to your library. If you're looking for some mindless fantasy fun, Dungeon Siege II will provide.
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I'm not trying to troll here, so let's forget for a moment that the
article clearly wasn't spellchecked, that the grammar and
capitilzation are terrible, and that the poor punctuation makes many
of the sentences mean things that were clearly not intended (or at
least not correct).
The big problem here is that this review doesn't tell us anything
about the game! Sure, combat and graphics. Nice. What about the menus?
The story? It only had one word about the story. Items, and item
creation? Is the UI frustrating? Does the game crash? Does it have
multi-player? Co-op?
Please, Zonk, if you're reading these comments (seems dubious, but
if..), tell us what it's like to play this game!
You can download the demo from here a review the game for yourself.
Hopefully I can get it working under wine!
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
that this game is so close to being Diablo 2 that you always find something missing.Its the closest that come to D2 which in my opinion is the best RPG ever. People who have played D2 will like this game and find it very easy to play.Unlike Neverwinter Nights the DS I was very fast paced.So for everyone who like fast paced RPG(lots of spells n magic) go for this one!
Lord of the Binges.
the game plays a lot more like Diablo2 then Original Dungeon Siege. Although Dungeon Siege 1 copied some element from D2, Dungeon Siege 2 took A LOT MORE from D2.
Skill points, even the graphics and description looks like D2.
Teleporter system
Magical, Rare, Set, and Unique items
Town stash
game difficulty system
if you are D2 fan, you'll spot a lot of similarities..
of course, the game has put a lot more then just copying D2, the party fighting, enchantment system, summoning, and special powers are all pretty good.
Graphics is pretty good, but I like the , and I have decent framerate with my AMD 1700+ with ATI 9600XT. so hardware requirement isn't too bad.
the game do have a lot of bugs though, hopefully the next patch will solve the majority of the problem, such as adding party members and various scripting bug.
my most disappointment is the network play, which only allow maximum of 4 players to join a single game(I have more friends). and there's no way to play IP based game (to prevent pirated copy going online?). however LAN based game is possible, and I know you can trick the game to use Hamachi to play LAN over internet.
I have found that while DS1 was more like the SSI type DnD games, DS2 is *much* more like Diablo 2. The craziest lacking thing is the ability to control single characters. So you can't make a picket line and send one guy to pull the baddies in. It's either "everyone do what i click" (mirror mode) or "everyone kinda do what i click" (rampage mode).
It's taken almost ALL of the strategy away, but the result is much faster paced combat, including massive explosions and lots of gibs.
Instead of runes (ala D2), there are Reagents which an NPC can enchant into enchantable items. But these reagents are typically not so powerful compared to the set based and uniqe items. Some of which are pretty awe-inspiring.
One new feature (?) is the autocast section in the spellbooks. Each mage may have 2 spells (not direct fire ones, more like curses or monster summons) that automatically cast at appropriate times.
The super-linear plotline and map is kind of annoying after playing so much D2 with a more area-based (vs linear) approach, but the maps are nice.
However, I have not seen the same beautiful landscapes that actually sometimes wowed me in DS1.
Anyways, the game was a good buy. It's super long, and some of the sub-missions are pretty cool.
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I don't play fantasy games often. RPGs, MMORPGs, etc. Just has never been fun.
I did, however, LOVE Diablo2. I loved playing 8 hours straight with some friends in a LAN game. So much fun.
I recently was asked by one of those friends to try out Guild Wars, which I incorrectly thought at the time was a pay-to-play MMORPG. From what I've read, and since I've played the game for nearly 90 hours now as a complete novice, it's more of an online RPG that (a) doesn't cost you monthly to play but (b) doesn't include the limitless exploration and community building that you might expect from World of Warcraft.
DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
First off, you have to log in online to play Guild Wars -- kind of annoying if you're not used to online RPGs, but you do get instant updates. I hated having to keep up with updates in Diablo2 -- since I didn't play anything but LAN games, so I never did the Battle.net thing.
Secondly, you have total control over your PoV in Guild Wars. I love being able to go first person to see things up high and then pan around a raging battle.
Third, and this is why you want the PoV -- THE GRAPHICS ARE INCREDIBLE!!! The rendering isn't all that sophisticated from what I've read, but they use software anti-aliasing (???) to really add a "fantasy" look/feel to the game. The environments, although not limitless, are terrifically rendered. I probably spent my first 10 hours looking around at stuff. Waterfalls, leaves, etc. are all nice touches to the gaming world.
Fourth -- when you play online with folks, you cand do it 2 ways -- in a questing mode OR in a PvP mode. I haven't touched the PvP mode, but you always know it's going on. There are constant updates in the chat area of the screen indicating a win for Europe or a win for America. It's intriguing, but not really enough to interest me in trying it out yet.
Finally, when you online with folks, you don't have to "share" an entire world/area like you do with World of Warcraft (correct me if that's wrong). You instance out an area of the world and take you and your designated party with you. Basically, they've negated the chances of you entering, as in Diablo2, the world, stepping out of town, and having some high level player go hostile on you and kill you for your stuff. I think this also helps them keep server/hosting costs down -- and this means you DO NOT PAY MONTHLY FOR ACCESS TO THE GAME!
BIG DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
The BIGGEST aspect of this game that is different from me, since I've only played Diablo2 pretty religiously before, is the whole crafting of armor/weapons aspect.
Basically, if you had crap in Diablo2 that got dropped, you could sell it for armor and weapons.
In Guild Wars, you gotta salvage stuff you can't wear/use, make raw materials, and then you go to crafters who make stuff from the raw materials. Armor is crafted by default, I think -- you can't pick it up and use it normally on the battlefield.
Weapons can be crafted, but you have a better chance of getting weapons in battle -- I have only crafted like 1 weapon since I started playing.
What does this mean in terms of gameplay? You have to customize EVERYTHING you use. You can't sell armor (at all) and customized weapons. They only work for you.
I do like that they have RUNES in Guild Wars, and you can buy these when you advance to the REAL storyline after the intro quests. Unlike the runes in Diablo2, however, you can only insert runes you buy or find (from salvaged enemy armor) into your own customized armor. And the runes are specific to your primary character class. Thankfully, you can salvage runes you've used in armor whenever you go to upgrade -- as opposed to losing them in Diablo if you want to sell a weapon that's been "runed."
Character class, by the way, is a duality in Guild Wars. You pick from the standard classes and then choose a secondary profession (if you want) that gives you all the additional powers of the secondary class except th
Well, one of the things the review DIDN'T mention is that the netcode is terrible. You can't just connect to a friend's machine over the internet anymore (LAN you can, though), you are FORCED to "meet up" in the Gamespy/close variant chatrooms.
The problems arise, however, that at least with Linksys routers, the stupid game inserts a forwarding rule through uPNP that makes no sense. MS refuses to acknowledge the problem, but when you try to start the game and the rule is there, all you get is a black screen on ANY multiplayer DS2 game (even local). If you go in and delete this rule and restart DS2 (there's no way to cancel the "load" that is frozen) it works fine.
Turning off uPNP helps, but it took me 3 days to find this solution on some random forum. Even now, weeks later, there's nothing in the DS2 "knowledge base" about this problem, or the infrequent crashes to desktop that occur.
I'm still waiting on a return email from M$ on this problem. Their "24 hour response turnaround" is at about 2 weeks now.
The review is totally bogus. The voice acting is completely absurd... it appears to have been aimed at 10-year-olds. For a 1.5 gb game demo I expect some decent graphics, but they were basically crap. I think the graphics are even worse than the original; they certainly have had no improvement at all except for a few pixel shaders that look out of place with the 100-polygon models. Games from 2001 (like Giants Citizen Kabuto) had more detailed character models! Another annoying thing from the first game is not being able to pan the camera past 30-degrees (you can't ever look into the distance). This is ridiculously irritating, but it's a limitation imposed so you won't see that there is no 3rd world, just a 3d path.
What is really annoying about this game is that there is exactly one story. You participate in countless dialog, but you only have one thing to say. Sometimes you can say it two ways, or have choices that have zero bearing on anything (contrast to Neverwinter Nights where lots of your dialog choices have consequences later on). Then there's the one path you can take through the entire game (there's no exploring).
Also, of course they want you to specialize your party by class; then later in the game they have an 'ambush' where the dudes attack your weak mage, and that's basically the entire challenge of the game. This game blows, I wouldn't even recommend playing the demo because it's pretty sad.
- Shopkeepers: Talk to them to buy sell or try to calm them(ie: bribe them) if you robbed them in the past.
- Temple priests: Can give you buffs for money.
- The oracle: Will tell you many tricks useful to know in the game, and also will tell you an important part of the plot.
- The named demon lords: Some of them can ask you a bribe to let you through their domains(or you could just smite them).
- And of course the wizard of Yendor: He will be trash talking you from the moment you find him to the end game.
Though it doesn't appear in the game, your god also talks a fair bit to you, and when you fight demons and angels they often tease and taunt you.As for other quests, while they aren't explicitly "given" to you by a npc in a story like mode, you can find many special levels and entire branches of the dungeon with special properties and flavor, and a coherent structure. For example the gnomish mines, with a gnomish town in the middle, with all their citizens and shops, or of course the medusa level, croesus castle, or hell, which you reach crossing the valley of the dead.
Well I've only scratched the surface of the game but I hope it will be enough for you to see nethack has a very complex gameplay.
BTW maybe IHBT, I thought everybody knew at least that nethack was complicated and full of things, if not graphics, put it was a pretty good opportunity to evangelize it :P
Slightly off-topic.
I'm just waiting for Dungeon Keeper III. Yes, a completely different game from Dungeon Siege II, DKII was much better than DSI, in my opinion. For those not familiar, in Dungeon Keeper, you are in SimCity-like control of an underground area with a few imps to serve you. You tag rock for the imps to dig out. Relatively early, you find a gateway where creatures enter your dungeon. You build a lair, hatchery (chickens to feed your creatures), training room, library for your spellcasters etc to keep your creatures happy and trained. You then send them out to take over other Keepers' dungeons or protect your dungeon from do-gooders from the top-side. If you don't keep your creatures happy, they can rebel, damaging your dungeon, or just leaving. Fun game. The DKII disc had a preview movie for DKIII. I just hope they actually make it someday.
But why is the rum gone?
Not quite, but there's falcon's eye:
http://falconseye.sourceforge.net/
enjoy.
I'd second the Fallout/Fallout 2 recommendation. If you're willing to go old school, look at Darklands, Realms of Arkania, Daggerfall, or even the Quest for Glory series.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Oh -- and a while back, there was someone who had a ranking system for computer games, based on 'crates'. Basically, the more crates (or sooner you ran across them in a game), the greater the lack of originality in the game. I want to say it was done about the time of C&C2
That would be Old Man Murray's Crate Review System - arguably the finest metric of game originality ever devised:
"To test our theory, we installed and played the twenty-six games we had within easy reach of where we were sitting. To our scientific delight, all exhibited crates within the first one hundred and twenty seconds of play. Please note that by crates, we mean both crates proper and the circular crate, the barrel."
It's a shame that Old Man Murray stopped updating a while ago - the site possessed a unique sense of humour. I still can't help thinking about the Death of Adenture Games whenever I hear the name "Gabriel Knight".
What makes the game good:
- Neat (not too special) story line
- Tons of nice side quests
- Quite nice voice acting
- Some neat puzzels
- Rememberable locations (the old but pepped up engine put to good use)
- Few loading screens (teleporting)
- Enjoyable difficulty
- Pets!
The major drawbacks are:
- Linearity
- Lack of strategic combat handling.
- Buggy pathfinding
- Stupid AI
- Badly scaling engine (got a gforce 6800gt, amd64 3500, 1gb ram and it lags like hell on large scale battles)
- Ugly textures on closeup and the heroes look like shit most of the time, especially casters.
- Total ripoff of known titles (diablo, nwn)
- Teleporter animation: YEARGH!!!
- Music featured by the usually genious Jeremy Soule tends to be annyoing in times, especially in the town Aman'lu.