Dungeon Siege II (PC)

For those that knock DS - any version - as a slash'n'hack, it certainly is: don't get this if that's not the sort of game you like. It's also true that battles can involve just holding down the right-mouse key and sitting back: but a few hours in, that way of playing will get you killed quickly and frequently.

DS1, then, was a very pretty and easy to play slash'n'hack, that proved addictive to many, despite its many faults: It wasn't complex, it was mostly very linear, and the 3D engine had one annoying quirk - you couldn't look 'up', or even straight ahead - the view was always, at best, slightly down.

LoA was a very bad move. I didn't improve on the 3D problem, and although it was probably even prettier than the original, it was desperately easy to play - and utterly saturated with giveaways. Not a good game.

Far better was the freebie download, LoH. Not the easiest install, and initially quite boring to play, after a while it starts to grip far more than the original game. It's very big, far less linear, and far more intelligent; and the storyline matters. Also, the engine was tweeked to allow a close to horizontal view.

So to DS2. I think the makers have played LoH and tried to introduce elements from it: the folklore is much to the fore in the opening scenes. What's also evident is that they hope you won't just play it once: first time through, you have to select the easiest level and go through a training section.

First impressions? It's pretty, but I don't tend to notice that very often. After several hours all I've seen is very green forest and a few caves, which look quite like the original's except that if you zoom in you can see there's more detail. However standing around admiring it can get you killed: as can playing with the volume off, which I had to do for some of the time - stop to look at your inventory, and sound can be the only clue that you're being attacked. Your players will happily stand around until they're dead if you don't instruct them...

The 3D engine view hasn't been improved - you still look down. Also, I've set everything to max on my relatively modest system - AMD 1800+, 1GB memory, Radeon 9800 video, the sort of box that the average £400 box would thrash nowadays, and although I haven't turned the frame rate on as an objective measure, I'm happy with the result.

Initially I was concerned that DS2 was more LoA than LoH - hold a button down and the enemies drop dead. Also, you don't even get to complete the first quest - reach a certain point, and the last bit is played for you, which I found both irritating and confusing. Thankfully that hasn't happened since. It was a surprise, then, part way into the first non-training quest, to find not just one party member dead, but both; something that has happened many times since, even with 4 characters including a quite advanced one 'on loan' (Play it to see.what I mean). In fact I've never been able to resurrect a character, because I've always survived each battle with everyone still alive, or lost the whole party.

Losing the whole party has disadvantages mentioned above. So far I've adopted the policy of restarting the game from the last save point, rather than respawning - they both take you back to the last town you visited, but one keeps all your kit and money.

Do the mods improve on the original or detract from it? That'll depend on your point of view. I find it more interesting, and in the harder battles I have to know how and when to use the new 'powers', and when to keep them ready, rather than just clicking. Like LoH, there seems to be an element of respawning of creatures - try to retreat and sometimes not only will creatures follow you en masse, but you'll run back into a crowd you killed a few minutes earlier. So far my impression is that unlike LoH this is location- rather than monster- dependent, but I'm not sure. The result is that you spend less time poking around your inventory, and more time frantically trying not to get killed - which, being more exciting, is better.

Final thoughts for now, then: gameplay 1 hour, what the hell were these guys thinking? Gameplay 2 hours, is it worth continuing? Gameplay 5 hours, wish I didn't have to go to work for the next week. It takes a while to kick in, and I've yet to see whether it's any better than LoA should have been, but I do like it. However LoH2 will probably be better...

This is most definitely only for those wanting a hack and slash type of game as nearly all of the fighting involves clicking on a monster holding down the mouse button and occasionally using a special power for maximum damage.

While this may appear very one-dimensional a degree of strategy is added by the selection of what party members you take. The combination of Melee, Ranged, Combat Mage and Nature Mage (a.k.a. cleric/druid with all the healing and buffing spells). Each class can further specialise in a number of paths. Do you wish a Melee tank then specialise in Shields, a destructive powerhouse, then two-handed weapons, or a whirling tornado of death, then use of two weapons. Likewise the Combat mage can specialise in Death, Lightening or Fire magic.

Although like the first Dungeon Siege you are forced along a predefined path meeting hoards of monsters at every turn a degree of questing has been added to allow a little diversity in the trip. There are definitely enough pieces of armour etc to keep anyone happy. These have been fun collecting as whenever you believe you have found the best combination another piece comes along shortly after that is better.

There are some problems however most notably with the path finding of your companions and the annoying ability of some to stand there while you are trying to survive another onslaught.
That aside however the action is intense with the continual spawning of monsters ensuring that you are always in combat. A clever system of experience point reduction if the monsters are more than 5 levels away from your base ensures that 'camping' for those extra experience points becomes pointless and results in your only real way to gain levels is to progress through the game.

I have enjoyed the game as a break from my normal fair and would recommend this to others. It is however most definitely only for those who enjoy the hack and slash type games as all other facets of the game are a distant second. (Although the makers have made an effort to bring these in.)

The original Dungeon Siege was a highly polished but flawed presentation. And unfortuanetly Dungeion Siege contains most of these flaws. The camera views are too forced - it's pretty much always a top down view - at least the textures have been changed they are rendered in very high detail if you zoom in far enough.

People always complain that Dungeion Siege involves too much clicking - well yes it does BUT you can assign actions to your main character now so they actually repond to being attacked and other party members being attacked (as an RSI suffered I find this a massive blessing).

I haven't completed the game yet - I think I'm about half way through at present - but it is highly enjoyable. The graphics as mentioned earlier are pretty, the game play is smooth (but I do have a very high spec machine) and the action just romps along. The monsters are pretty much the level of difficuly that you need, i.e. not a complete push over, and the respawing of monsters means that if you wander around for a bit you will continue to find monsters in old areas.

I do enjoy this type of game, and I do enjoy looking for the missions and Dungeon Siege 2 IS a good game. However whilst I play it I constantly have the phrase "Follow the yellow brick road" running through my head, if you follow the road you will complete the main quest - but only the main quest.

Good enjoyable game with less clicking than you would think 7/10 rounding up to 4 stars.