Dungeon Siege

"Click....click....click again. Rinse and repeat."

I'm a big fan of RPGs, and as soon as I started playing Dungeon Siege, I thought for sure it was my kind of game. And it turned out it was...for the first two hours. After that it started to drag out, and while it still remained somewhat entertaining, I realized that there are better ways to use my time.

Story: 6/10
The story in Dungeon Siege is not really anything special. The game begins by showing a short cut scene introducing your created character as some farmer in the mountains. After a little backstory, you learn that the Krug are attacking and you're sent off to find a friend of a friend. The beginning part is quite possibly the best part of the story, as it really gives you a sense that you are in a land with rich history and secrets. The game is not really very story-driven, and you could play through it without ever being aware of who's in danger or what you're trying to do.

Gameplay: 7/10
Click where you want to walk. Click on what you want to attack. Watch you character swing his/her sword until it dies. That's basically the entire game. Your character, in typical RPG fashion, will grow stronger throughout the game, but as you progress the enemies get stronger too, mostly just making the battles drag out a little longer. You can gain other party members in various towns, and you'll need them because the game likes to send rooms full of little goblins at you. It's worth noting that even though the difficulty of the battles never really changes, you do get the sense that your character is going from wimpy farmer to hardened warrior. There are four classes to choose from: Melee, Ranged, Combat Magic, and Nature Magic. Your created character starts off as a blank slate, and you can be whatever you want. The farther you progress in the game, each potential recruit for your party will have more and more of a preference to a class, and by the time you've played through a quarter of the game it's to the point where you've got to take them for what they are. This isn't much of a problem because most towns will have more than one person to hire. The redeeming factor to this game, and all that really kept me playing, is the equipment. There are tons of different weapons and armour and shields and spells. The best feeling in the game is killing a tough enemy and then seeing powerful spell or weapon as the drop.

Graphics: 8/10
By today's standards, these graphics would be laughable. For when this game was made, the graphics are amazing. Even now, it's still a beautiful game. The snow on the pine trees, the hanging vines in the swamps, it's all great. The character models are pretty blocky, but nothing that gets in the way of gameplay. Attacking looks pretty good, especially when one of your party members is swinging a staff around, and the spells all look suitably damaging. An enemy dying engulfed in flames is pretty cool to watch.

Sound: 9/10
All of it's good. The music builds at the right times, building tension in dungeons, and in the towns it sounds relaxed, but at the same time there's a sense of urgency in the music, as if the world really were in danger. The noises the enemies make are repetitive, most notably the grunts of the Krug, which you will be tired of after 15 minutes of playing. The voice acting is decent, nothing that stands out. Some of the characters that aren't directly involved in the main quest sound pretty bad, but all the essential quest characters sound fine. It works for the game.

Replay Value: 2/10
I can't see why anyone would want to play through this game twice. It's so linear that even doing things with different character classes wouldn't be enough to make me play it again. All the exact same enemies in the exact same places...ugh.

Overall: 6/10
Borrow it from a friend, it's a fun game to play for a while, but don't expect to gets months of endless enjoyment from it. I guess I should compare it to Diablo, but I can't because unfortunately I've never played Diablo. I will say it's not the best RPG you'll find, but it's better than some.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/06