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Dungeon Siege

Dungeon Siege

List Price: $19.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Just another hack and slash.
Review: After waiting over 2 years for this title, I was hoping for more than a typical hack and slash. If you like Diablo-isk games where you do nothing more than run around and hack at monsters, then this is the game for you. Personally, I enjoy a game with a little more sustenance and depth...I don't know even know if I'll bother to finish this disappointment. The only saving grace is that the graphics are nice, however the transparancy actually gets in the way as you rotate your view. I actually started getting motion sickness after playing for a half-hour, and I'm a TFC / Unreal / Quake veteran. Bottom line: save your money for a rainy day.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Gauntlet 2002... but much less fun than the original
Review: Only two things separate this game from the pack, really.

1: The score. The music in this game really adds to the immersion of the game. This, I suppose, doesn't mean all that much, since the immersion is not very compelling, but without the music it would be abysmal.

2: Graphics. DS is head and shoulders above Diablo 2 and Baldur's Gate (the two games it is most frequently compared to).

Another review on this site says something to the effect of "this game plays itself." I agree. Honestly, the only enjoyment I have gotten from it is listening to the music as my beautifully rendered character walks around a beautifully rendered landscape.

Trust me, though... that gets old quick, even with graphics and music as engaging as DS's.

My advice: Wait for NWN or Morrowind.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: You've Been Warned: Not a True RPG
Review: Let's cut to the chase. You've undoubtedly heard that "Dungeon Siege" is a game brimming with awesome graphics, "seamless" gameplay, and heralded sound. And that's all true. But Dungeon Siege lacks the one thing that it claims itself to be: role-playing. Don't get me wrong; it's still a fun game to play. But if you're a gamer who likes strong plots and powerful character development (as I am), then Dungeon Siege may not be the game for you. However, if you were enthralled with Diablo II's hack-and-slash mayhem, then this might be just your thing. Still, Dungeon Siege lacks any type of user-chosen skill development. Rather, Microsoft has taken the opportunity to present us with a new kind of "RPG" that makes your character excel in different areas, whether it be magic, bow, or weapon, depending on how much you use them. Although I understand this thinking and feel it's a novel approach to a game, I would rather decide myself where my character's strengths are. In addition, much of Dungeon Siege is run by smart AI, meaning that your party of adventurers will do what they're told, letting you sit back and watch the melee until it's time to heal with a potion or change somebody's attack scheme. This is all fine until you realize that the whole game can seemingly play itself!

I liked Dungeon Siege for its simplicity, as it presents a nice break to real time-stealers like "Baldur's Gate 2". But I can't help to feel a little let down by its elementary nature. The eye candy and sound are awesome, but everything else simply feels rushed. Quests are limited, as are social interactions with non-player characters. Too much of the game is simply walking into a field and left-clicking until everything is dead, with a random award of treasure.

If you're a Diablo fan, I have no doubt that Dungeon Siege will suit your taste. It's actually less of an RPG than Diablo II, but it's hack-and-slash nature will delight. It's hard to put down once you stop. For those into the epic storylines of Bioware's RPGs, then I urge you to play a copy of Dungeon Siege before making the full purchase. It's simplistic, unassuming tone will offend true "RPG'ers," so you've been warned.

All in all, Dungeon Siege is a fun game to play, regardless of its faults. And isn't that what gaming is all about?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Diablo II + Wizardry 8 = Dungeon Seige! Great Fun!
Review: Ok I got my copy on Thursday the 11th, spent all weekend playing, (Thanks tp my wife for being understanding) 45 hours of grueling fun and I finished last night at 10:30pm, just enough time to start a new game before bed. Graphics are great, clear story line, lots of quests and the AI combat engine is incredible. The character build up is fun, I am going to take a bit more time this time around so that I can actually use some of the great armor and weapons I found.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I would pass on this one
Review: One sunny afternoon, calmly hoeing your garden outside of your farmhouse, an old friend staggers up, dying from his wounds. "They've come," he utters, imploring you to make your way to the nearest town while you still can. As he dies, your face glows with the warms fires of burning barns and farmhouses just off your property. With just your trusty knife, you set off on an adventure that will take you not just to the nearest town, but also to the ends of the kingdom.

So starts the Dungeon Siege adventure. However, this game lacks what a true Role-Playing Game needs - the opportunity to "role-play."

What is Good About This Game:

This game has made many leaps forward in certain areas. First of all, the user interface is beautiful. With a simple roll of the mouse, you can be viewing in any direction, at multiple angles and distances. If you want an up-close, personal battle with a giant spider, you can scroll in and overlook your character's model for intense detail. If you want a tactical overview, you can scroll out and look from above, spinning 360 degrees to see any aspect of the battle.

Second, the game is very efficient at making dungeon crawls profitable. Inventory management is a piece of cake, with the ability to bring a pack-mule (although you will need to protect it) and an Auto-Arrange button to take the most efficient use of your space. Larger items take up more room than smaller, and potions that heal you or return your magic power are only used to the extent that you need it, with partial bottles retained for later use.

Third, I have to admire the way they set up character development. Choose the area you want to specialize in (magic, archery, melee), and your character will develop faster in those areas. You do not start out a magic-user, but become one because that is the way you choose to meet your foes.

What is Not Good

While the character development is nice, you can't develop into much. Want to be a sneaking, backstabbing rouge? Tough - you will be just a melee person. Want to be an axe-wielding berserker? Tough, if you do not occasionally use a bow, you're [out of luck].

The "story" is totally linear. Forget getting lost in a dungeon - there is only one path. It is very Diablo-ish, but with less flexibility. The only thing keeping you going is getting through the next dungeon or path.

Also, this is a turn-based game. The game was meant to pry away fans of Diablo, but there is virtually no action required. Your characters will attack automatically and even chase. You occasionally should switch their weapon or spell, but that is it.

Finally, beware your graphics card. This game requires a nice card to take advantage of its vistas. My friend running a Voodoo 2 was on a plain path with a couple of bushes while I (at the same location in a multiplayer game running on a GeForce) was in a dense forest. You'll need to have what it takes to make the game worth it.

The bottom line is that it is a nice game to play with friends for a while, but is not as fun as Diablo and pales in comparison with other Role Playing Games. If you like dungeon crawls, I would recommend Diablo II or Icewind Dale (still fund). If you like true role-playing, I would wait for Morrowind. This game just doesn't seem to have a niche.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cool game, but is it a Diablo2 killer?
Review: The following pertains to Gameplay, Controls and Interface, Power Management, Graphics, Sound, Multiplayer, and RPG aspect:

Gameplay:
A Diablo2 type of "hack and slash". Some hardcore RPG enthusiasts don't like this too much, but the game makes no secret about it. However, you don't get the same fighting feeling as you do in Diablo2. Even though the graphics are better in Dungeon Siege, Diablo2 models and animation looks more real and the action is more convincing. For instance, in Dungeon Siege, when a character takes a swing at a monster, it looks like he misses. You can't tell if he hit the mark or not unless you look at the energy meter (press x to activate energy meters) or listen closely to a subtly distinct sound. Most things react after the swing; there seems to be a split second delay.

Controls and Interface:
If the controls and interface are bad, it frustrates me to insanity and I retire the game (Baldur's Gate2, but that's another story). The controls are mostly Customizable. You can bind keys too many commands. However, I can't seem to bind a key to a specific magic item, for example. When I want "pestilence" and then quickly switch to "soul lance" I don't want to scroll, I want to use keys. Even when I try to save my weapon configurations, it seems to save it only when it feels like it. Another complaint is the camera movement. Sometimes I want to click on something, the walls are in the way and I get my butt whooped because the game fails to transparent the walls. Furthermore, sometimes the camera locks and I can't zoom in or out; this is typical when you are close to a mountain or some other form of a wall. Also, using the character icons, I click on one to select a character, the camera automatically centers the character on the screen, thus disorienting me and I have to quickly re-calibrate my vision. It throws me off my battle groove. The solution to this is to give the user a choice to center the selected character or not: maybe one click selects character, and two clicks centers him?
The interface is very friendly, so if you don't know the keys, you can search the screen and eventually find what you are looking for by way of interface. I love the way I have so many ways I can trade items with the shop and with my own characters. For example, I can open all 8 of my characters' inventory at the same time and just drag items back and forth into each of their inventories; heck I can even drag an item on their icons and it works the same. I REALLY appreciate the elasticity of the controls and interface.

Power Management:
My system:
-AMD Duron 750 CPU
-256MB RAM
-GeForce2 64MB MMX400 Video Card
Gas Powered Games claims that this game is a revolution by way of having the entire world load in one shot; therefore, there is no loading during the game. You know what? It's true and there are no claws about it. I am amazed. The Power Management for this game is quite impressive. You won't believe the load times for a new game or a saved game. It takes me about 5-10 seconds. Now that's impressive. I don't feel too much strain on my CPU during play. And even though the frame rates usually read low, say like 12-15fps, I don't feel it's that low, though it could be better. I can even ALT-TAB easy. I can do things like surf the web for example, while Dungeon Siege is waiting in the back, and I don't feel any strain on my web surfing.

Graphics:
What can I say? Amazing graphics. The environments are beautiful: the lighting, the shadows, the colours... oh the details. I'm sure you've heard it all.

Sound:
Sound is nice, but could be better. I think it is 3D (I never tested it with my headphones, just my speakers).

Multiplayer:
MP is okay. You can't save where you left off, you have to start back in town, and the "fog of war" comes back so you have to trek and explore... again - not fun. The game flamboyantly announces, "X has taken the lead with 56 kills". This discourages teamwork, and greedy players leave their teammates behind in experience. Dungeon Siege is best played in single player.

RPG aspect:
Many people see Dungeon Siege as a mix of Baldur's Gate2 and Diablo2. It is a mix, but it's more Diablo2. The story is not so complex and the NPCs really don't say much; well there aren't many for that matter. Only some NPCs have audio. I like voice acting and I think there should have been more; it gets you more into the story. One thing that frustrated me was the fact that every corner you turn there was a group of the same combination of monsters that you just fought off 30 seconds ago. It's not the action that bothers me, it's how boring it gets. It got repetitive as you just fight, drink health, fight, drink mana, collect useless items, and start the cycle again. To top it off, you can't warp back to town to trade; you just trek and trek and trek forward. There were no riddles to cross the bridge for instance, and there were no character developments (even if the character you hired was the one who gave you the mission in the first place; he doesn't say anything when you complete his mission). Heck, you don't get squat for completing missions.

Is it a Diablo2 killer? To hold the potential of being coined the Diablo2 killer is to challenge this aspect of RPG:
The straight up brutal "hack and slash" quality that is powered by its graphics, animation, and sound. Dungeon Siege does not equip itself to seriously challenge this.

Dungeon Siege is a great game and it is certainly a revolution for RPG. My true score is really 8/10.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too much hype
Review: Graphics are excellent. This is the extent of the positive comments I can make about the game.
The game is as linear as a game can be.
The automatic control of the camera can be annoying at times.
Red for health, blue for mana sound familiar? Having different colors for weapons descriptions depending on magical enhancements sound familiar?
...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Utima + Dialbo + steriods
Review: Wow,
What a cool game. Totally fun 3d game engine. it has a top down approach but a true 3d world. I love the combat, it is a lot of fun and pretty easy to get the hang of - you can play in real-time game or pause and issue orders. Spells are cool - party system is easy to use.

I can't tell you mush about the story yet beacause I havent got that far yet.

my only gripe is Max resolution is 1024X860 - I have a geforce4 4600 and a 21 inch monitor and I would like to crank it up more. But graphics are great at that res

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz
Review: Wake me up please when Neverwinter nights comes out, or leave me in my coma until Warcraft Worlds.

Sorry guys iam so so so disapointed ive played D&D since the days of pen and paper taking my buddies through a dungeon with graph paper. Now this was meant to play by the same rules yet no Map editor ?? and wheres the love and feel for your characters. I dont care if my jaw hit the floor with the graphics the gameplay is well err Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Diablo on steroids!!
Review: Man, I love this game. I can hardly stop playing it, in fact.

"Diablo" was the first realtime RPG I ever bothered to play right to the end, and "Dungeon Siege" will be the second.

The depth of gameplay is amazing, the environments detailed, the character and monster AI is very convincing and the maps are HUGE!

Surprisingly, there's also room for quite a bit of thought to go into this - whereas with Diablo you really just ran around and shot everything, with DS you can actually plan and execute co-ordinated attacks, using each character's abilities to the full. You can also spend a suprising amount of time moving armour and items between your party members to get the best out of everything, and it's very satisfying to find their abilities increasing over time so that you can equip them with better and better items :)

The excitement and dread in this game are palpable. In one very memorable battle that lasted over an hour, three of my party of five were either unconscious or dead and my magic user did not have a high enough magic level to use a resurrect spell, so using just two characters I had to fight a series of battles to get his magic skill up high enough that he could resurrect the other party members! On another occasion, he got knocked unconscious by a giant spider and every time he tried to get up the giant spider would knock him unconscious again. Problem was, two of my party were dead (again) so I had to battle the giant spider using just two people - they would run in, fire arrows at the spider, then run out again before their health ran out (did I mention I was out of health potions too?). It was nerve-wracking but in the end they killed the spider and rescued the magic user who was then able to revive the dead companions (and the pack mule!).

On top of that, the quests are challenging and interesting (and, most importantly, help to move the plot along), the NPC interactions varied and at times amusing, and the controls are very easy to learn and not fatiguing for those long gameplay sessions. Oh, and you can save your game anywhere, not just at predetermined points!

As they say in the classics, if you like Diablo, you'll LOVE Dungeon Siege!


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