Reviewed: September 4, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Microsoft
Developer
Gas Powered Games
Released: August 16, 2005
Genre: RPG
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Mature
9
8
8
8
8.6
System Requirements
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
The original Dungeon Siege in 2002 and subsequent expansion the following year brought the RPG genre back to the forefront of PC gaming after nearly a half-decade of drought since epic sagas like Ultima, Elder Scrolls, and the legendary Diablo. Dungeon Siege brought several new concepts to the genre, at least in the “way” we played the game, but not necessarily changing the reasons why or the ultimate goals.
Dungeon Siege II comes along during a unique time in the evolution of role-playing games. RPG’s are now far more playable and available on console systems, so the PC can no longer stake an exclusive claim to the genre. Plus, with the overabundance of MMO’s, most of which are RPG in nature, competition has never been stiffer for what used to be a struggling genre.
But for those willing to tear themselves away from World of Warcraft or EverQuest they might just find an invigorating RPG experience for solo and online adventuring that they won’t have to pay to play each month.
The first thing you may or may not notice about Dungeon Siege II is the pacing and flow of the game, which is basically non-stop. Aside from the initial load screen when you first start the game you’ll never see another. The game masks its load with cool transitional effects that create seamless switches between levels and areas.
Dungeon Siege II offers up the standard character selection with races and classes along with a nice skill tree to further specialize your character class with unique attacks and abilities. As new abilities are unlocked you can then increase their power by assigning skill points. It's an endless process that carries through to the end of the game.
Combat is the meat of Dungeon Siege II and there have been some major enhancements to the original style of play from the first game. Previously you could simply equip the party and let them fight their own battles, but now you have the option to micromanage every last bit of every party member’s attack. You can even individually click for each swing of a sword. Of course this might be just a bit too much for a lot of RPG gamers.
Allowing the combat to run on “autopilot” comes with its own collection of issues. Ranged fighters tend to put themselves unnecessarily in harm’s way when they could just hang back and lob arrows and spells. There are also some LOS (line of sight) issues. While I enjoy the fact that the landscapes and environments are complex enough to allow for LOS tactics, I really wish they would have programmed the AI to take it into account. As it is, if left on their own, your ranged fighters will target and fire at enemies who “you” can see, but they cannot. I don’t mind the loss of the occasional arrow but when my special attacks are hitting a wall it gets annoying.
In nearly all encounters you will be outnumbered to some degree, so you will need to prioritize your targets and often try to pull them apart and slay them one on one. This is especially the case with boss and mini-boss fights who often travel with their own posse. You can issue Rampage orders which is basically a “fire at will” command or use the Mirror command to have the party attack a single target of your choosing.
As to be expected, there is a lot of the traditional RPG level grinding as you make your way across this massive adventure. The game itself is divided into three acts and each of those is broken down into defined sections with their own quests and missions and yes…the expected boss battles.
Dungeon Siege II is nicely balanced in that as long as you fight everything between you and your destination you and your party should be well equipped in stats and booty to get the job done once you arrive. If you rush to your destination you will likely be under-equipped and if you go out of your way to kill extra monsters you might find yourself a bit too powerful. I usually found the significant encounters (boss battles) to be fairly even matched.
As always, managing a massive inventory is usually a greater challenge than the combat. If you are a packrat like me you won’t want to leave anything behind, but just how many pairs of leather boots do you really need. There are storage vaults in the towns where you can stash excess baggage and inns where you can manage your party.
New to Dungeon Siege II are pets, animal party members that offer their own unique style of combat, but at the expense of a party member slot. Pets grow both in size and power based on their own development as well as their master’s. You can also feed them special food to give them new abilities.
There isn’t much of a dedicated tutorial; it’s more pop-up hints during the first level. The 90-page manual, about two-thirds of which is encyclopedic knowledge, is excellent and much appreciated in these days of single-sheet inserts and links to download your own PDF manual.
Dungeon Siege II doesn’t look all that different from the original, at least at casual first glance, but once you start studying the screen and playing with the increased zoom levels that can take you down to almost “action game” vantage points, you can start to see the detailed models, high-res textures, and vastly improved lighting effects.
Of course, playing the game from these close-range camera views is virtually impossible, at least from a tactical position. You really need the luxury of seeing the entire battle area to plan your strategy and attacks. Thankfully, the graphics scale nicely to whatever zoom level you find yourself playing at and framerates are smooth and consistent.
There are nice subtle touches to the special effects. Naturally there are some gorgeous spell effects for the magic users, but even the interface makes use of colors and sound to categorize weapons and treasure. This gives you the ability to look at a spread of treasure and pick out the “good stuff” by simply looking at the color of its label. The game also color-codes enemies indicating the level spread between you and them.
The cutscenes are an odd mix of live game-engine movies and pre-rendered movies that also use the game engine. The recorded ones look distinctively different and slightly lower in quality. There are some visual oddities during the movies like characters who don’t move their mouths when they speak or gesture properly.
The interface is flawless and the HUD keeps to the borders of the screen allowing you the best view of the gameplay. When screens do pop-up to manage inventory or equip your character or party these screens are quite legible and fit the overall theme of the game in their design.
Dungeon Siege II has a very subdued soundtrack that is more ambient and environmental than anything else. Most of the time you might not even hear it, at least until there is a lull in the action, which isn’t often. The various musical pieces are themed to the environments and are more subliminal than anything else.
The sound effects are excellent, both for weapons and spell based combat. You have the clash of swords and the whacks of steel on armor and shield, and the spells all have sounds to match their stunning visual effects. The most interesting element is the use of sound as an identifier for objects dropped in the battlefield. If you hear a “louder than usual” thump when somebody drops something you might want to pay extra attention. It’s probably a rare item.
The voice acting is solid with a few flawed or exaggerated performances but that is to be expected in a game with this much spoken dialogue. The good news is that you can read the dialogue (usually faster than they can say it) and skip ahead at your own pace. Unlike most games, the script and story don’t really enhance the experience in Dungeon Siege II; it merely services it.
Dungeon Siege II was about a 30-hour adventure; about half the size of the first and a lot more linear. It’s still a fantastic RPG experience and there are so many ways to approach each encounter and the entire game that you might want to replay it once or twice more, possibly increasing the difficulty. You’ll probably want to mix things up with your party selection on future trips, since there are a few quests that are only available when certain characters have joined your group.
For those who enjoy the ultimate challenge, Dungeon Siege II offers three skill levels. You are forced to play at Mercenary level the first time but once completed you can replay at Veteran, and when that is completed, you can tackle the Elite mode. These new modes offer a far greater challenge but also give you access to weapons, skills, and spells you will never see in the default game.
The game also offers a significant online multiplayer component using a LAN, Internet, or GameSpy. Sure, it’s no WoW, but it is really fun to tackle this game with up to three friends. You have the Classic mode where four players use their primary hero. Couples mode allows for three players using their hero and one other party member or pet, and Party mode allows for two players with one hero and two party members or pets each. So as the number of human players goes down the party size goes up. Interesting.
Dungeon Siege II is an excellent hybrid of systematic dungeon crawls and traditional RPG gameplay that will reward most any RPG fan with quality hack-n-slash gameplay, strategic inventory management, and thoughtful character advancement.
It might not offer an epic story or grand vision, but the sum of its parts is worthy of your investment in time and gaming dollar. The graphics and sound draw you in and the complex gameplay keeps you coming back for more. There aren’t many RPG games that hold my interest through to the closing credits, but Dungeon Siege II has made the short list and I recommend it highly.