"Much better than its ancestor."

All of us have known the infamous Dungeon Siege. Now we are presented with Dungeon Siege 2. Is this sequel worth taking?

Graphics >>[9/10]
Like the prequel, Dungeon Siege 2 features beautiful graphics for a hack and slash RPG. The graphics have met some improvement from the previous game with the most noticeable being the special effects and environment details. I must say I'm impressed. Adventuring have never been this real.

Take for example the jungle area at the beginning of the game. With all the trees, tents, campfire, tree houses, waterfalls, rivers, and stuffs. It has a real "roaming" feeling into it. And just look at the monsters. All of them look vicious and fitting to their environment. Does indeed makes you want to slay them or something.

It's worth mentioning that you will see a considerable number of movies, cutscenes, and special FMVs in this game. All in 3D and very fitting to the environment. Just like in the promo, "it takes you deeper into the game, not pulling you away from it".

The special effects are no laughing matter. Magic, special power, even weapons have some sort of cool effects around. It's really quite the eye candy, pretty good to look at. In short, I think Dungeon Siege 2 has put a really high standard in graphic for this kind of game. Impressive.

Sound >>[9/10]
Never have I expected to actually enjoy the sound in this kind of game. Most hack and slash RPG feature just fitting sound but nothing special. This is not the case with Dungeon Siege 2.

The background music is actually very good to listen to. Take for example the background music in the jungle area. There's the jungle-type music with a lot of drums in it, the kind of music you expect to hear in the jungle. It's very fitting, and it's strangely enjoyable. Makes your already fun adventure even more fun.

It's worth mentioning that there is a vast number of background music in this game. It's like every town and every dungeon (and every section of it) has different background music. My personal favorite is the Kalrathia's town music. It's really good. I actually stop playing just to listen to it.

As for the sound effects, all the standard sounds, like, the bashing sound, whoop, bang, and stuffs are fitting and good to hear. It really gives quite the "menacing" feeling into it. For example, the sound effect of Thunderous Strike. It gives a loud sound of thunder, and followed shortly by the destruction of a bunch of enemies. Totally makes you happy. The sound is pretty impressive.

Story >>[8/10]
Although not as deep as other RPG (then again, this type of RPG always have a simple story), Dungeon Siege 2 gives us a pretty effective story. It's not deep, but quite involving. It's like we have a motive to pursue the story (and the game) all the way to the end. You'll want to know how it's finished, especially for the unexpected ending.

It's quite hard to retell the story since it's pretty big and complex. Lord-of-The-Ring style of story. Pretty hard I say, to fit Lord of The Ring into one small paragraph.

Anyway, Dungeon Siege 2 told us a story about the destruction, the devastation, of the world and all in it, by a catastrophic calamity. That's the beginning anyway. After some hundreds or thousands of years, an ancient artifact which suppose to cause the great calamity, was found. An ancient sword. Now, it's wielded by a mad man, who for some reason, wish to search for its counterpart. A shield. If these two artifacts meet again, there's no telling of what will happen to the planet.

This is where you come in. I won't tell you the rest of the story, caused it will spoil it greatly. Don't think that this is just a typical, short, uninteresting story, cause along the way, you will find a lot of twist, legend, and other stuffs, which will make you feel like you're learning history itself. Every end is unexpected, and you can't guess what will come next. That's good.

What's new in the game is the "race". You'll find Dryad, Elves, and Half-Giants, beside Humans. They all possess unique powers and plus-minuses.

In short, take the core of Lord of The Ring, alter it heavily, and now you're like, playing it. Impressive.

Gameplay >>[8/10]
The biggest improvement in the sequel. The gameplay of Dungeon Siege 2 has been improved all around, making a relatively new style of playing available for us.

Remember the horrid gameplay of Dungeon Siege? Where endless battle, least character customization, and heavy shopping are the only things you need to finish the game? Well, not in Dungeon Siege 2.

Let's start with the level system. Like in the prequel, you level up by constantly using the weapon of your choice. For example, use bow and you'll level up in ranged skill. And only in ranged skill. This will also determine what type of fighter your character will be. If you use magic a lot, you'll be a wizard automatically.

The biggest improvement in the game, maybe, is the level upgrade system. While your HP, mana, power, and other stats rise automatically, you can assigned a number of skill points to the skill slot of your choosing. Kinda like Diablo 2. For example, melee fighters will be able to assign some skill points to melee skill slots (only).

There's a lot of skill slots and what they do. They ranged from rising your defense, attack, or stats (permanently), to enable special defense, benefits, and even the range of ranged weapons. You can assign those skill points in any way you like, making a variable style of playing as you see fit. Do you want to be a heavy caster, or a super defensive fighter? Do you want your arrows to shoot powerful, or far? It's your own choice and really adds some strategy into the game.

Along with those skill stuffs, there's also some special power which you can gain by allocating skill points in a certain skill slot(s). They give a heavy boost in battle, quickly dispatch enemies, boost your stats greatly, or stuffs. This special power will recharge over time by killing enemies. This is a rather unique feature. Every type of fighter has a different set of special powers.

Another great addition to Dungeon Siege 2 is the pet system. In the prequel, you can hire some helpers to bring your items and fight -if needed- namely the "mule" and the "saurus". In Dungeon Siege 2, you'll be able to employ special monsters to help you fight and bring your items -if needed-. See the difference?

These monsters are "pets". What's so unique about them is that you can "grow" 'em. Treat them kindly by giving crappy armor, no-good weapons, or other metal scraps (for them to eat) and you'll raise their stats. As they develop from infant to full grown adult, they will have new special powers, new attacks, and new auras (which boost your stats when you're near, like Paladin Aura in Diablo 2). You can grow them as you see fit, adding another strategy to the game. They can easily match your main fighters in term of power, defense, and usefulness.

There's also a new "enchant" shrines. You can cast various chants in it (by typing it), which can be found scattered all over the world. For example, try casting "Multus Adeptus" and your party's special power will be completely recharge. These chants can offer various benefits from boosting your stats to improving the percentage of gold and magic items dropped by enemies. It's really a cool feature.

The ones I describe above are the new, very improved features in the game. As usual you can find the standard, older features which can be found in the first Dungeon Siege. You know the game, click where you wanna go, click enemies you wanna strike (and hold it till he's dead) and click (drag and then drop) to shop around. Actually you can play the whole game with just one little mouse.

Multiple weapons equipping, multiple magic casting, auto AI for characters you don't use, and other stuffs you can found in the first game. If you've play Dungeon Siege first, you'll be able to master the basic in no time.

It's worth mentioning that there's a prodigious number of sidequest in this game. Really. So much of them. Take all the sidequest here and put it in a new game, you'll have another 20 hours of gameplay. The sidequest, by the way, is pretty fun to do. They're really challenging, interesting, and funny (especially that Morden Riders sidequest). Not to mention that they'll give you a lot of good weapons and armors and stuffs.

To sum it up, the gameplay has met some significant improvement from the previous game. And a good one at that. Impressive.

Controls >>[N/A]
If you have a good set of keyboard and (at least) mouse, you'll have nothing to complain from the controls. They are very easy to master and like, easy to use. Oh, and did I mentioned that they are settable?

Replay Ability >>[10/10]
This game has a very high replay value. Not to mention that the main game itself is pretty long. There's a lot of sidequests to complete, a lot of set equipments to collect, and a lot of places to search around. And after you finish the game, you can play in the veteran and elite level (harder), with a whole set of strong enemies, equipments, magic, and stuffs. And to boost the replay ability, there's the totally fun multi-player mode. Impressive.

Fun Factor >>[9/10]
This game is really fun to play. You can play it bits by bits, or you can play the whole nine yards of them. The graphics is pleasing to the eyes, the music is good to hear, and the amount of strategy which can be implemented in the game is just overwhelming. And of course, watching enemies got obliterated by special powers is just so soul-soothing. A very good game to free your mind. Impressive.

Overall >>[9/10]
A totally improved Dungeon Siege, resulting in a very fun game to play. Great graphics, great music, great gameplay, much replay ability, and a lot of fun. Very impressive. All in all, a totally addictive game which will keep you coming back for more.

Buy or Rent?
Well, you can't rent this game. So if you want to play it, just buy it. Trust me, it's worth your bucks. Especially if you like RPG. Dungeon Siege is one of the best RPG these days, so go ahead and have fun with it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/06, Updated 03/16/07