Dungeon Siege

"One of the better expansion packs around."

Released over eighteen months ago, Dungeon Siege caught the eye of many PC gamers with it's impressive graphics and intuitive RPG gameplay. Now, after a reasonable wait, Mad-Doc Software have released the first official expansion pack for the title - Dunegon Siege: Legends of Aranna. Legends of Aranna brings in several new gameplay ideas, revamped visuals and is generally a handsome update for anyone who enjoyed the original. The best part is that the upgrade pack comes with the full version of the original Dungeon Siege, thats is to say, it's a stand alone game. It's also dead cheap. Low price point aside, Legends of Aranna is a great RPG title and even though I'm not really into the genre myself I still enjoyed working my way through the game especially in the extensive online modes.

It all begins about a generation after the original Dungeon Siege and as players begin their journey in the Kingdom of Ehb at a small town known as Arhok. At the start players will design their own character and this person is the last in a long line of heroes who have defended Arhok for centuries. However, twenty years ago your custom characters parents left on an adventure and never returned. Now it's time for your character to find their true self and unfold what happened to their family all those years ago. The opportunity to do this arises when an mysterious creature steals a powerful artifact in an attempt to destroy the world. Yes it does sound a little cliché but there are plenty of twists and turns that keep the action moving and they also keep the story reasonably fresh.

Like Diablo Dungeon Siege delves heavily into heart racing battles and one could consider it more of an action title as opposed to an RPG. The game throws you right into the thick of it from the get go and you'll be taking on some pretty ugly enemies in no time. While it may seem wrong for a game as big as Dungeon Siege to put you in the deep end immediately it helps players grasp a lot of the concepts and through the initial stages there are plenty of opportunities to read up on aspects of the game. As you discover the games 'rules' it will allow you to test out that certain element straight away. It's awfully satisfying to be able to put things into action straight away without having to sit through over the top cut-scenes and pointless dialogue that can put many off other RPG games.

As well as your original character you can have up to seven other different people in your party and they are guided around a map in a point and click style. With eight people to control it takes a big of micro-management to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be and the interface has been reworked after a few niggles with the original. For example if one of your party is attacked off the screen an icon will flash and if you click on it you'll be taken straight to that character to keep an eye on things. Every person in the party can be assigned different roles and you can control how aggressive each is and this helps to synchronise in with the rest of the party and plan out your moves more carefully without random party members running off into battle unordered.

Another inclusion is warp pads that will allow players to quickly move between areas. Legends of Aranna has covers a huge area and the ability to move between players without having to trek for hours on end is welcomed. Item management has also been streamlined allowing health and mana potions to be equally distributed between party members in the click of a button. You can also sell groups of items together rather than one by one. Playing the game with a friend online is also made more inviting as your characters state journals are now saved each time you exit the game. It's all simple stuff but the improvements make the game better to play and you'll spend more time in the think of the action rather than dealing with tedious tasks like item distribution.

There are plenty of additions to the original sets of characters, items and weapons. With new spells like diminution, animal rage and zorkon's bonecrusher you can vary offensive tactics a lot more and because with eight characters at your disposal you can real lay down the pain. Spellcasting characters can also use transformation to turn into enemy creatures and this is one of the more enjoyable offensive moves in the game. Five new races (Droc, Hassat, Half Giants, Utraeans, Zaurask) have been included and this adds to the impressive variety that the original Dungeon Siege included. Players can also carrybackpacks that increase the amount of items anyone person can carry by about 70%.

The visuals are still running on the original engine that was released in 2002 and, much to my surprise, they still look good as we come into 2004. Most of the game is played from a high angle camera and the rich textures, detailed lighting and dynamic shadowing still look good. It should be noted if you zoom in on a character the graphics begin to show their age with a low polygon counts on some models. The environments are well detailed though and there is plenty of variation although the themes seem to be reminiscent of RPG titles we've seen before. However the lush jungles of Aranna, the focal point of the game, look wonderful and the enemies that fill it are also well detailed. With an extensive cast of new baddies the developers have come up with some fairly unique creatures scattered across the lands of Aranna

Mad-Doc Software have done a great job with this expansion dishing out plenty of new enemies, weapons and monsters as well as a lengthy new campaign. The multiplayer has also undergone a revamp and this has certainly thrown out some of the problems with the unbalanced online play in the original. Production values are solid throughout the game and it's nice to play a great looking title that doesn't get to smart for itself with flashy effects and over the top story telling. This also means the system requirements are relatively low only requiring an 8MB video card, 333MHZ processor and 128MB of RAM although it eats up a fair bit of hard drive space – 1.5GB to be precise. Most computers bought in the last couple of years should handle that no problems and if you have a more powerful rig the visuals can be 'turned' up a little. It's a tough call to buy an expansion because you never know if the additions are worth it but Legends of Aranna is a safe bet and will certainly keep you busy if you are waiting for Dungeon Siege II.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/03