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JadeDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 21 Apr 2002
Posts: 19
Location: Netherlands |
| A view on Dungeon Siege: Sweet or Simple? |
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Hi there! I'm new on this Forum (but not with forums in general, some of you may know me from Volition's Summoner-Forum), and to start off I like to give my opinion on DS.
I've been waiting for DS since the time I first heared of it, about a year ago, and three days ago I finally got my hands on it. Overjoyed, I ripped off the plastic, installed, and started playing shortly after. It was going to be great, I finally got my hands on the best RPG ever! That's what I thought at the time. But now.... I just can't help being disappointed.
Before you lot start gathering torches and pitchforks, let me finish:
Dungeon Siege has clearly been "over-hyped". It isn't as grand as people said it was going to be, and though fairly good in some departments, it lacks an "in-depth" feel.
Let me make a list here:
Graphics:
DS's graphics were said to be incredibly detailled, but in fact they're blurry. This is fine concerning the environment, but it simply won't do for buildings or characters. The facial features are very poor, as is the animation for hair and armor. Everything is incredibly blurry, even when every graphical option is at its highest value. Lighteffects are nice too.
Sound:
DS's music is good, and even beautiful at certain times, just like the soundeffects. Two negative aspects however, are that not every character you talk to actually speaks (you either implement speach in all characters, or none, in which case you use text for all of them.)
Gameplay:
DS's controls are easy to use and require only little practice to get to know them. Doing battle when you're alone is easy, doing battle with a party of eight however tend to become a bit chaotic, one can't help but feel a bit lost in the action. You can hardly see who performs a certain attack.
The use of formations when using a large party is a useful tool, but doesn't really matter when the heat is on, it's easily broken, and archers and mages are as easily attackd as if there were no warriors in front of them whatsoever. (I use warriors in the front line of a double rowed formation.)
Special Features:
No loading screens, this is a major improvement, and I'm sure everyone agrees with this. It truly gives the player the feeling that he or she can freely wander wherever he or she may want to go.
The Mule, this is another handy improvement. Having a couple of mules around is fun to watch, and greatly increases your storing capability
Weather and a day-and-night cycle: graphically very sweet and adds a lot of atmosphere.
So far, things aren't too bad (apart from the blurry graphics). The one thing I'm truly annoyed with is that DS's world is so linear. The player is forced to follow a certain route, that takes him or her from the farm where everything starts to the castle. The idea that you can venture of the path and explore is an illusion, sure, there may be a hidden cave or dungeon a few hundred meters away from the route you're supposed to take, but that's not the freedom that had been promised.
In Summoner (by Volition) the player also needed to complete certain tasks, and was forced along a storyline, but there were a lot more side-quests and the player was also able to linger as long as he or she liked, never being forced to continue because there was nothing more to do in a certain area: Random Encounters on the worldmap provided a means of taking a break from "questing" so one could work on upgrading certain characters.
Theoretically, in DS, you can go all the way back to your farm, but there really is no need to do this: secrets are few and far between, and monsters don't respawn, leaving you with a boring world that pushes you forward because there's nothing more to do in area's you've already been to.
In my opinion, there should have been a slight respawn concerning monsters, so the player had a reason to go back and fight to upgrade his or her characters, just for fun. Also, the game would have been much more interesting if there were alternate/multiple routes to certain towns or places, and so being able to choose how to get to your destination. this would have added a great feeling of freedom that DS is lacking at the moment.
Well, this is about all I had on my mind at the moment, I'd really appreciate the insights of the people here, so don't hesitate to respond. I'd really like to read your opinions!
"Sometimes, the one thing more powerful than a ruler, is the voice whispering in his ear..."
-From the Books of D'Chen, third Mage of the Dark Circle. |
Sun Apr 21, 2002 12:10 pm |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Hello JadeDragon,
thanks for your article, we always like to read wise articles (not this is piece of shit etc.).
However I have some other opinions:
- I was waiting for DS, but I was sure it will not be best RPG ever, I was waiting for graphicly perfect action game with RPG element (or we can say very action RPG) and now I am not dissapointend because it is what I thought it will be
- I do not think that graphic is blurry. It is nice, very nice, nearly perfect. But there are two bad things: 1) it requieres very strong PC 2) artificial shadow of war (however it is possible to remove it, but then should be number one bold  .) |
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Sun Apr 21, 2002 12:33 pm |
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Guest
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I'm not saying Dungeon Siege sucks, but I'm surprised you said it's graphics are nearly perfect. I guess you've never played Ground Control, Myth 3, Deus Ex, Summoner or Jedi Knight 2. Now those games have nice graphics. It's not that DS's graphics are bad, it's just that the textures are blurry, even at the highest resolution. And in my opinion, graphics make up around 50% of a game's chance of succes (the rest of the % made up by gameplay, sound and lastability). |
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Sun Apr 21, 2002 6:17 pm |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
I played Myth 3, Deus Ex, Summoner, tried Jedi Knight2.
I do not know, I really think graphics is perfect and I am not alone. Look at all reviews. Even if they do not like game (not story, not RPG etc.), they give highest scores to graphics 4/5, 5/5, 95 - 100%. |
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Sun Apr 21, 2002 6:20 pm |
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