Dungeon Siege

"This is truly a BAD game"

First of all, I want to say that it is truly hard for me to find a fantasy-type role-playing game that I do not like. Believe me, I have played just about everything out there. When I bought Dungeon Siege, I thought I was up for some fun, just like every other time I’ve installed a game on my computer. . .

I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

Graphics (10/10)- I have no room to complain here, the graphics are very pretty. I guess if I had to criticize something it would have to be the character models, but they aren’t too bad. Overall very well done, at times it can get so pretty you just have to stand there and look at it for a while.

Story (2/10) - The story is pathetic, almost non-existent. If I wanted to I could wrap it up to “You are farming and an old guy tells you that evil is coming and you have to clear it out, draw your knife and good luck.” Dead serious, it is terrible. The whole point of the game is to walk down a path while you pointlessly murder ridiculous amounts of creatures that attack you.

Controls (7/10) - The controls pretty much consist of the mouse and the spacebar, whether or not you want to use other hotkeys is up to you. Now, having such a simple control system is not bad at all, but I did find a few flaws in it throughout the game. I found it particularly annoying when my party would fail to get into moving platforms together as well as going trough narrow passages having to deal with camera issues. It’s little things like that that get on your nerves. Another thing that I found particularly annoying was how hard it was to re-command your party while they are moving. The way the camera moves caused me to click around the enemy three to four times before I could actually click on him with the attack icon showing.

Sound (4/10) - The only reason this didn’t get a 1 is because the music is actually pretty good. However, when you are walking around anywhere all you’ll hear is the swinging of your weapons and the annoying sounds that monsters like to make. The voice acting is by far the worst I’ve ever seen on any game I have played. Everybody sounds miserable and I wouldn’t be surprised at ALL if someone told me that all the voices where done by one person messing with his voice when switching characters. You can’t go shopping for armor without hearing the annoying constant hammering of the blacksmith either. Nice music one side, annoying noise on the other.

Gameplay (3/10) - One word: Boring! I cannot stress how incredibly terrible it is. All you do is click where you want to move, then wait for your party to kill whatever comes and click a potion every now and then. Repetitive kill heal kill heal kill !! Oh yeah ad pick up items on the ground and um. . . upgrade your equipment !! Rinse and repeat.

Overall (4/10)- It’s been a while since I’ve told myself that the game I am playing is horrible and I need to stop. The more I played Dungeon Siege the more I hated it. If you are up for walking down a path killing hordes of monsters on your way, then by all means feel free to waste your time on this.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/11/02, Updated 05/11/02