Dungeon Siege II

A decade after you saved the kingdom of Ehb from the hands of evil (If you beat the original Dungeon Siege), a new power rises and threatens the land of Aranna once again. This time around, Gas Powered Games (GPG) has revamped the whole title with a beautiful new graphics engine and wonderfully cinematic gameplay. In Dungeon Siege II, the sequel to the best selling RPG from GPG, you’re once again called to take up arms against evil and save the kingdom of Aranna from certain doom.

Besides being a great hack-n-slash, Dungeon Siege II brings some unique things to the table. Rather than focusing all your energies on a single character, you create a band of six heros, each with their own unique powers and abilities. With four different areas to train each of your characters in, there’s a wide array of tactics and strategies you can pursue. You can choose to train in either melee, ranged, combat magic, or nature magic. The first two are self-explanatory, combat magic deals with large damage attacks such as fireballs, and nature magic consists mostly of healing spells and buffs. The unique part about this is that instead of choosing a class, you simply train in the area you are interested in. If you want to be an archer, grab a bow and poke some eyes out; if you want to be a mage, buy some spells and burn some orcs - there is no limit to what you can learn. You can train a character in more than one school of combat, but it’s best to have each of them specialize in a different area. A party with a large range of abilities will be far more powerful than a group of, say six archers. One new addition to DSII is the Hero Powers. When one of your heros reaches certain prerequisites, they receive a powerful attack that can easily turn the tide of any large battle. Hero powers take time to recharge, but make up for it with large amounts of damage dealt instantly. Another features is the ability to purchase pets to accompany you through your travels such as a pack mule to carry all your heavy loot or a scorpion to sting the snapple out of any villains that try to do you in.

As you gain experience and level up, you will encounter thousands of in-game items, including more powerful weapons, armor, potions, spell scrolls, etc. There are even a few rare armor sets that can be found throughout your travels. With these, the more pieces of the set you possess, the more powerful the set itself becomes. Players who are lucky enough to find magical reagents can have their weapons enchanted with special powers and stat increases for a price. Tougher opponents usually drop rare items or spells when defeated, and in some instances may even drop a piece to an armor set. Secret areas are hidden all throughout Aranna and players who keep a sharp eye are often rewarded with some pretty phat loot.

Player models and NPCs are well rendered but the real eye candy of the game is the environment. Dungeon Siege II has a beautifully rendered new world for you to explore. The thick forests have articulate foliage and trees swaying in the wind, which would almost be serene if orcs weren’t constantly trying to murder you. Dark, steaming, frozen caverns wind endlessly though the mountains filled with bloodthirsty enemies, impeding your journey. Clearing them out, you will notice the amazing particle effects that emanate from all of your spells, accompanied by hearty crackles of fire as monsters drop dead all around you. Each spell feels truly powerful, adding to the depth of the game, and each with its own custom animation.  Monsters are very well drawn and move and attack fluidly. You will encounter everything ranging from wasps, orcs, goblins, to three-headed chimera’s and dragons. They come packed with their own unique spells and abilities, and each creature has a unique attack strategy, making for an intensely unique experience. NPCs also have incredibly good voice acting. While this might not seem important to the casual gamer, it’s an important aspect of any game, as it helps with immersion, and making the game seem more “life like.” Of course there are a few exceptions to the voice acting, like the giant warrior who sounds like he’s always incredibly depressed, but overall the voice acting was satisfying.

The single-player mode of DSII is incredible, but if playing through the game with 5 computer controlled buddies isn’t your idea of fun, you can choose to play online. DSII has support for online and LAN gameplay and you may choose to play the game cooperatively or competitively. The connection screen is flawless and easy to use. You can defeat the whole game with a friend or a stranger, or you can destroy them (I prefer the friend destruction, but its nice to know you have an option). A nice bonus is you can play the multi-player game with your single-player heros or you may create a new hero. The upshot of this is you can trade with people online to get rare and powerful weapons to use in your single-player story and vice-versa, or you can jump online to get help with a particular quest that’s giving you trouble. The only possible downfall with this features is that the game balances the difficulty based on the number of player in the game. Nonetheless, the ability to instantly change between single- and multi-player is intriguing, as it seems to blur the lines between the two types of gameplay.

If you didn’t enjoy the first Dungeon Siege, chances are you won’t like this one. However if you simply loved the original like I did, you will find yourself in similar waters…only better. Dungeon Siege 2 does what a sequel should do, fix the things that were broken, improve the things that weren’t, and add content that fans of the first Dungeon Siege will enjoy. This time around there are less load times and pathing issues have been fixed. The world is more beautiful and everything sounds much better. Not to mention the large amount of content that has been added. With three acts, and several chapters per act, Dungeon Siege II seems a bit easy at times, but it should keep you pointing, clicking, and smiling for hours. Final Verdict: <3 Pack Mules