Dungeon Siege II - A Review
Kristophe, 2005-09-02

The first impressions that came to my mind when I began playing Dungeon Siege II were both a sense of appreciation for Gas Powered Games' incomparable Chris Taylor (who showed - to me, at least - that he really does listen to what people want in his games), and a sense of gratitude that the finished game was even better than its preceding demo (of which I also highly enjoyed). Now I will give concessions here to those of you that may be "Die-Hard Diablo II" buffs - Dungeon Siege II, while still classified as a "Hack-n-Slash" RPG and still emulating to some varied degree the Blizzard classic, simply is in a class by itself - meaning that it is highly unlikely that DS2 will win any new converts from the ranks of those same "Die-Hard" Diablo 2 buffs any more than its predecessors did, though I can foresee that the ranks of the "Dungeon Siege buffs" will grow considerably.

This brings to mind my own brother, Keith, who is in the process of finishing up a rather long and very illustrious military career. Keith is a strategy gamer who has had very little exposure to (and literally no experience with) RPG's of any kind. Some little while back, he gave me a call and asked if I could possibly recommend something in the category of an "RPG-Lite" that he might enjoy. Quite frankly, I didn't have to think for very long before heartily recommending DS2 to him in which, I would assume, he has since added to his repertoire of gaming experiences. It is through such word-of-mouth that I should think will inspire many new people to play DS2 and, much like my brother, no doubt will thoroughly enjoy themselves. Be that as it may, let us now delve into the fascinating world of DS2 and Aranna!!

Let the Saga begin…

In the beginning, Aranna was ruled by the evil Zaramoth and his Dark Wizards. Into the chaos stepped the legendary hero, Azunai, and the epic struggle for the fate of Aranna began. In the ensuing battle, Zaramoth and Azunai met in hand-to-hand combat, with very unfortunate results for all of the participants involved in the battle. Zaramoth's magic sword of power struck Azunai's magic shield of power, causing a kind of magical short circuit that literally destroyed everyone present - though it did put an end to Zaramoth's reign of terror for once and for all in Aranna.

As the game begins, your hero (and his/her best friend, the Elven Friar, Drevin) starts as rather naive mercenaries in the employ of one very corrupt Prince Valdis, who has (somehow) managed to restore Zaramoth's magic sword, and now seeks to find all the pieces of Azunai's shattered shield in order to insure that no threat will exist to his tyrannical power. You are taking part in the siege of the Dryad Shrine at Greilun Beach in which, once you actually penetrate the shrine, Prince Valdis shows just how miserly he is by killing or wounding you and your fellow mercenaries rather than paying for the honest day's work - and he does contribute to your quest for vengeance by killing Drevin. And so your long trek though the lands of Aranna begins…

To be, or not to be…

To start out the game, you must pick from any one of the four playable races (i.e. Human, Elf, Dryad, or Half-Giant), each with its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses that may be best suited for one class of character over another - though none of the available races limits your choice of classes, skills, or powers (gender has no additional modifiers that I could see). As with the original game, the same four combat styles (i.e. melee, ranged, combat, and nature magic) are still prevalent - with your skill level progressing through your continued utilization of a given skill (or skills). What is new to DS2 is the usage of a "skill tree system" that allows you to take your character and specialize in any of the four combat styles as you may wish to take your character. Bear in mind that trying to branch your hero/heroine out into becoming a "Jack-of-all-Trades" is a risky proposition at best - so you will definitely want to concentrate on only one or two combat styles and develop these out to your best advantage (I finished DS2 as a level 32 Warlock, which is a combination of melee/combat magic styles - I have heard that level 36 is the maximum level you can go your first time through the game, and that levels of 100+ can be attainable dependent upon how many more times you play DS2, and at what difficulty you play).

You control a party of up to six (be it individual NPC's, "pets", or any combination thereof) as you wander about Aranna - so choose you party members wisely, basing what you might need upon how you have decided to configure your main hero/heroine (I might add that the NPC's you choose are also available for you to configure as you may wish). There are "teleporters" conveniently scattered throughout the land, thus allowing you and your party a fairly convenient means of offloading your loot in a town, and then quickly returning to where you were to begin looting again (and you'll need all that money just to keep your party in health potions so that everyone has a fair chance of surviving).

"Pets" in DS2 are very much a new innovation from the original. While pets are "fixed-class" party members, they are all bought as babies. As your pet matures, it will develop "maturity bonuses" and "attribute bonuses" based upon your pet's fixed class. Pets mature by feeding - to put it more accurately - by feeding upon inventory items (i.e. feeding a pet melee weapons & armor will increase its strength, feeding it ranged weapons & armor will increase dexterity, feeding it mage weapons & armor will increase intelligence - and the higher level/modifiers a weapon posses, the faster a pet matures). In the original, your only pet was the Pack Mule - in DS2, you have the following additional choices for pets: Scorpion Queen, Ice Elemental, Dire Wolf, Fire Elemental, Dark Naiad, Mythrilhorn, Necrolithid, or the Lap Dragon.

The technical side of adventuring…

Two of the improvements I noticed right away in DS2 over the original insofar as technical game play were in the improvements to the AI, and in the improvements to the path finding system. Ease of play is still very much in line with the original, meaning it is not really all that easy to kill off your entire party for a large part of your first progression through the game. Loot is also very plentiful, as it was in the original game - and a good thing too, as you will need all the loot you can get to purchase pets, max out your party, buy needed health and mana potions, etc.

Jeremy Soule did the soundtrack for DS2 - need I say more about that aspect of the game? Actually, the ambient sound throughout the game is also very well done, though I could have hoped for much better voice acting that what actually came with the finished product. The graphics are excellent at long range (though they do tend to get slightly "rough" when you zoom in to close range), character models look as they should, and your avatars reflect any changes in armor, weapons, etc. that are made. There are still some of the camera problems consistent with the original, but I rather suppose you can't expect to have everything perfect. All in all, I had no problem playing DS2, and did not notice any "glitches" or "bugs" (much less any crash at all) throughout my own game play. DS2 does have a viable and working multiplayer, courtesy of it's GameSpy software, that seems more than adequate (more than that I cannot comment on, as I am not an online gamer).

And as the sun slowly sinks to the West…

Beyond the innovations and improvements made, I'd definitely have to say that the storyline in DS2 is much richer, fuller, and more detailed by far when you compare it to the storyline of the original game. The title itself (i.e. Dungeon Siege) is hardly a misnomer either, as dungeons and the like can be found in such a quantity as to give great credence to the naming of this series. Overall, GPG admirably fulfilled the expectations of many a DS buff with their improvements, innovations, and obvious utilization of the changing technology in computer gaming.

While spending hours concentrating on running "Fed-Ex" side quests, delving in and out of dungeons on an almost constant basis, or exploring temples, towns, jungles and more - if this is the sort of thing you enjoy, then DS2 is easily bound to be just your cup of tea. For fans of the original game, as well as folks who are just making their first attempt at RPG gaming and want a starting fare that is "RPG-Lite" - you can't go wrong making the investment and adding Dungeon Siege II to your gaming inventory - I know I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game, and I am sure you will too!!