Dungeon Siege II

Reviewed by Everett Fitzgerald
June 11, 2006

Developer: Gas Powered Games Publisher: Microsoft Website: Click Here Platform(s): PC Number of Players: 1-4 ESRB Rating: M for Mature Review Rating: 8 out of 10

Tower attack in Dungeon Siege II. Image courtesy of Gas Powered Games. Click on image to enlarge.

Dungeon Siege II is the sequel to the hit of the same name from 2002. A hack and slash RPG that takes elements from the D&D fantasy genre and comes up with a creative world of its own. At first glance when I stepped into the world of Aranna, I was reminded of many of the old school games I have taken a part of since my gaming career began. It reminded me of the times of Baldur's Gate, the D&D Gold Box games, Fallout, Diablo and many others. And this is a good thing, considering the direction RPG's are headed these days. The genre is turning into having worlds so big with so many things to do that the end user sometimes feels daunted. Not to say that Dungeon Siege isn't deep, it is; it's just that sometimes you just want to kill some monsters, and Dungeon Siege 2 has plenty of that to offer.

The first thing that hit me was that the graphics are gorgeous environmentally. The surroundings are immaculate, and detailed. Why is that? The player models look like they are from Dungeon Siege I. I say this because it is only your models that are at a low poly count, the mobs and npc's are way more detailed. Boggle. Once you get past that, and re-learn old school gaming movement, (*I can't tell you how many times I pushed the up arrow trying to get my guy to move), you are treated to some interesting gameplay. You have much more loot items that drop, even sets, a la Diablo 2, but even here you can fall to weird bugs. Namely how did I find two unique items, soon after another? You have skill, spell, and combat tuning that you can progress to come up with unique characters. Masterful melee combatant, powerful magic user, or jack of all trades. This type of variety works well since you can actually take your hero online, and not become cookie cutter mage template boy C. I can't say enough how much I love my pet Willie, who levels alongside me and carries my hard earned treasure. Yes, I call him Willie, so? Even though the action and storyline are linear, there are a multitude of side quests, and difficulty levels to make more than one run through the game. The ability to play maps also adds replay ability.

Dungeon Siege II gets a higher score here because of the new online features. Being able to run through the campaign with a buddy is priceless. Also item hunting becomes fun with a party of 4, but watch out for that online ninja. The unlocking of difficulty levels and access to more loot is a nice touch to make the game more than a one time adventure. The game has some flaws, as all games do (I couldn't even patch it, with their own patch), but has enough good things to warrant an expansion. The sounds, music, and special effects create an awesome world to travel in, even though at times I am reminded of some Guild Wars influences. If they can bring up the textures on my character, it might be just enough to make me forget the silly voice acting of the mercs.

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