Dungeon Siege II

"It delivers the bare minimum, if that"

A long awaited sequel to one of the last true hack-and-slash RPGs, Dungeon Siege II tries to fill the holes of its parent game (which there are many) and increase the parts where Dungeon Siege was good. For those who remember playing Dungeon Siege, you probably remember the seamless world, epic weapons and spells, and several party combinations. What you don't remember is the mindless slaughter that you needed to get through to get there, which a five year old could do as well as a veteran gamer. Dungeon Siege II returns this, but with a much duller plot.

Graphics 10/10: This is Dungeon Siege II's strong point. The sequel, which keeps the endless and beautiful world, now also improves the look of characters, monsters, weapons, armor and special effects like fire and lighting. The grey, flat, metallic look of equipment in Dungeon Siege is improved, and the special effects are beautiful, realistic, and effective.

Sound 6.6/10: The reason I give this game a 6.6/10 on sound is because a game's sound rating consists of three things: music, effects, and voice acting. Each one is worth 3.3 points. Now, the music and effects get full credit, but the voice acting… well, do the math.

Gameplay 7/10: It's fun to find that nice powerful set item, and it feels satisfying to finally smack that boss one last time and hear his death yell. But most of the game is clicking your mouse, holding the right mouse button down, pressing the space bar to pause, targeting the rest of the monsters, watching them die (sometimes more gory than others) and then pressing the z button to autoloot everything. There's some bosses or massive hoards that require some strategy and you might actually die once or twice! But most of the game is like watching a long, mindless death and gore movie with no plot. The real mastery of this game is gathering a good, effective party, which is actually harder in the easiest mode (mercenary) since you can only have four party members. Veteran allows five, and elite lets you have six. The different difficulties aren't exactly harder, more like the monsters and hoards getting more beefed up to supplement for your gain of power. Because of the epic items and extra party slots, these modes can be entertaining, but the game gets more and more boring as you go along.

Replay 6/10: The veteran and elite difficulties that allow more party variety and better items add to the replayability content, and there are several combinations of parties that can change the style of play. For example, mage based parties require a lot more attention from the player, and are usually much more entertaining. But the story is dull and the game gets very repetitive, so replays are even more boring than the first time around.

Story 5/10: The plot is pretty dull and so unoriginal, and the story elements rarely appear during the game. Sometimes you feel like you're just slaughtering like a zombie for no real reason. Each time you spot the Azunite Scholar ahead (some old guy who tells you something important every time you see him) you do get a sense of interest in what he's going to say. But overall, the storyline is pretty poor.

AI 9/10: The AI in this game, although it doesn't see as much use as in, say, a strategy or shooting game, is quite excellent. Monsters have an aggro radius, and they will attack you only if you get into it. Monster AI does its job in this game well, and that's not very hard. The AI gets the most use in your non-active party members. Basically, you have one active character in your party, and you can control who he or she attacks and where he or she moves. The rest of the party is controlled by the AI. They'll follow you and attack the swarms you attack, but what they do when they attack is basically up to them. With warriors and rangers, there's only one thing to do: hack or shoot. But mages and healers have several options, and the AI handles them pretty well. If you put a damage spell and a healing/summon spell in the autocast slot, the AI will cast accordingly.

Final 7/10: This isn't a bad game. It just doesn't deliver what was expected. It's still too linear and not very user-oriented. There's almost no challenge and very little strategy involved. If you're looking for a game that isn't too complicated, and a game that maybe doesn't excite you too much but has amazing graphics, this game might be for you. But the boring and linear slaughter Gameplay gets really old, really fast. If you're looking to be stimulated, this is not a game for you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/05