Dungeon Siege

"An excellent dungeon crawler."

Dungeon Siege caught me by surprise. I hadn't noticed it at all during its development--mainly because I'm not much of a PC gamer--and I have an annoying tendency to download every new game demo announced on Gamespot (and thus, GameFAQs). I happened to download the 180 MB demo of Dungeon Siege, and now I have the game. I have to say, it's well worth it.

GAMEPLAY

Dungeon Siege is a party-based ''dungeon crawler'', which actually bears similarity to some MMORPG's like Asheron's Call or Everquest. You control a party of up to eight characters and a packmule, each character with four action slots: a melee weapon, a ranged weapon and two spells. Each character can be switched from one slot to another by clicking on the appropriate action slot button on the character's status window. You can also change the orders for each party member in the lower right of the screen, as well as order them all to drink a health or mana potion if their health or mana (respectively) is below %50.

Characters level up based on a their specialty. If they use melee weapons, they become better melee fighters. If they use ranged weapons, they become better at using ranged weapons. If they use Nature Magic, they become better at it, and the same holds true for Combat Magic. In other words, you need only to pick a specialty for each party member, and the appropriate stats and level will increase as the character uses them.

Equipment also plays an important role. Characters will find gold and items very often on dead enemies and in chests in dungeons, which can be picked up or placed on a packmule. Of course, inventory space is limited, even though each character has his/her own inventory. Thus, equipment has to be carefully kept track of. To help you, equipment that is more powerful than normal equipment by the same name will have a label of a different color.

And then, there's the multiplayer. Players can import their single player characters and use them in multiplayer games, via Microsoft's Zone service or via standard TCP/IP connection. (There's also a LAN option for those who have it.) Multiplayer is fun, both when players are against each other and with each other. It's a very nice feeling to actually be playing with characters who don't need your commands.

DS's gameplay is exceedingly fun. The only problem I have is that occasionally, there are problems with balance that cause you to die very suddenly and unexpectedly--even after you've been killing the same enemies in the same numbers over and over again before. It's nothing that frequent quick saves won't fix, of course, but it is a problem nonetheless.

OVERALL GAMEPLAY RATING: 9/10

GRAPHICS

DS' graphics aren't bad for a PC game. The player can rotate the camera around the currently-selected party member (or the entire party), as well as zoom in and out to see the action. It's one of the few games that actually responds well to Alt-Tabbing on my nVIDIA TNT2 card, which is always a plus for me. The framerate drops frequently, but only because of complex battles with a lot to render at the same time. The textures are many and varied, and are actually quite nice to look at.

OVERALL GRAPHICS RATING: 8/10

SOUND

There is no music in DS, which lets you use your own music with Winamp in the background. The sound effects are great, very pleasing to the ear and set the scene of battle very well. The voice overs, however, are bad. The narrator's voice that you hear very often throughout the story is very overdramatic and annoying, and most people you speak to who have voice overs have exaggerated accents that are more annoying than helpful to set the scene. There are no voice overs for battle, besides screams for party member deaths.

OVERALL SOUND RATING: 6/10

STORY

The story of DS is straightforward and generic, as neither the main character or any party member will ever speak besides the first time you speak to them. The hero, designed upon the start of the game, is a farmer whose home is ravaged by the Krug, a local inhabitant gone mad. The hero fights his or her way through the Krug to Stonebridge, where he or she goes on a very long quest through the kingdom of Ehb to put a stop to the enemies. This is not a story-driven RPG. It's driven by the gameplay, as you fight your way through the plains and dungeons of Ehb. Of course, a few plot twists and complexities could have helped the game a great deal.

OVERALL STORY RATING: 4/10

REPLAY VALUE

This game will last you for at least 30 hours on single player, and then you have the multiplayer. In terms of this, it's a great buy. Not to mention all of the mods and alternate campaigns you can download, and the infinite party combinations and different types of character combinations you could acquire.

OVERALL REPLAY VALUE: 9/10

FINAL SCORES:
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
GRAPHICS: 8/10
SOUND: 6/10
STORY: 4/10
REPLAY VALUE: 9/10
OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

Comments: Dungeon Siege really shines in its gameplay. I just wish it had a real story instead of the sad excuse it has for one. If you're not into stories and liked Diablo, GET THIS GAME. NOW. I guarantee you, you will love it. While I've never played Diablo, I'm told that DS is very similar to it, and better in that it lets you have eight characters. And hey, if you don't believe me, download the demo.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/02, Updated 05/14/02