Dungeon Siege 2
While I'll reserve comment on the movie until it's released, I'm pleased to inform all of you that Boll had no hand in the creation of Dungeon Siege II. For those of you not in the know, that means that the game does not suck. In fact, it proves to be a worthy successor of the original, though really not a "great improvement". Several ideas are worked upon from the first game and some more are introduced, but overall it feels more like a true sequel instead of another expansion like most franchises seem to do.
Christ Taylor's newest adventure takes place a hundred years after the events of the Legends of Aranna. You start off as a mercenary working for the wrong side as you and your Elvish buddy eventually find out. Your employer Valdis is one mean guy and as all mean guys eventually do, he double crosses you. No sooner do you wake up a prisoner of the Dryads and are set out into the world to redeem and prove yourself. I won't spoil the rest for you, but let's just say that while it's standard RPG-fare; it's good stuff.
Gameplay:
Some complaints regarding the first Dungeon Siege involved the gameplay being too simplistic and minimalist in interaction. You could pretty much go through the game just clicking one button and once your party got right down to things, you really didn't have to do a whole lot. You also couldn't really customize characters an awful lot when you got right down to it. So with this in mind does the sequel address these issues and try to create a more involved experience? For the most part, yes.
You still command a party of warriors and you still jump from enemy to enemy in hopes of bludgeoning them and picking up the items that they drop. That's the core of the series and isn't about to change. The same relative experience system is still around as well and the more your fighter swings that sword, the stronger (and dumber) he'll get. Vice-versa, if your wizard cast spells more than using melee, his physical strength will lag while his intelligence will soar.
The real kicker is that the more proficient a character becomes the more abilities they learn. That means as you earn skill points, your character will gain special powers and talents that can unleash a devastating effect. This adds a lot of reward to a system that for lack of a better analogy rewards repetitiveness. It's a blast to experiment what kinds of skills a character will earn and it adds a great level of customization and personality to your party. This especially comes in handy at later points in the game when you are outnumbered five to one and one character can level the playing field with a mighty blow.
Along the same lines as this system is a skill tree that follows the development of your characters. Since everyone in the party shares experience you get a pretty even playing field and can branch certain skill patterns in other directions depending what you want to learn. Pooling six party members together and tinkering with all of their juices is a rewarding system that feels great when combined with the automation feature. In addition to building a character you also have greater control over their actions and can basically be as involved as you want to be with their combat. The party gets even more interesting thanks to a lengthy list of heroes to sign on board for your cause.
Another addition to the sequel is a multiplayer feature that allows you to use your customized party/characters over the net (or LAN). Depending how many people are playing in your game governs how many characters you can port over. The game remains pretty much the same and you will still be exploring the world of Aranna, but as you know, with a buddy online play can be a ton of fun.
There are plenty of quests to undertake and sub-quests to track down, but in the end Dungeon Siege II is a very linear game. The story doesn't offer a lot of surprises and your objectives remain pretty clear from start to finish. The customizable character features add a lot of extra stat-building though and really extend the life of the game, as does the multiplayer. In the end though you can expect this sequel to last quite a few hours and even though the experience will become droll at times, it's a worthwhile adventure for anyone that appreciated the first go around. There's just not as much innovation as one would have hoped, but even so this game proves to be a relatively worthy follow-up in terms of gameplay.
Graphics:
Taking a quick glance at the game will leave you extremely under-whelmed thanks to some relatively lo-res character models and blocky graphics. Once you put them in motion and realize the staggering amount of detail but into their design you'll appreciate the visuals more and more. The graphics are helped by some very fluid animation and cool effects thanks to the new powerhouse attacks. The environments are another thing of beauty and are richly diverse and detailed with a lot of subtle nuances. Overall though, Dungeon Siege II is a step up from the first game but not really where the series needs to be if it wants to seriously contend for a slice of the RPG pie.
Audio:
A great soundtrack is featured front and center in the game and much of the music here is a real treat for the ears. Dramatic tones and adrenaline pumping scores are just what the action needed, though sometimes background music is practically non-existent. Sound effects are relatively generic and many sound like they came from the first Dungeon Siege. Voice acting is a mixed bag as well with a blend of fine voiceovers and atrocious ones combined. The good far outweighs the bad when it comes to the audio, though it's nothing that will blow your socks off.
Conclusion:
Dungeon Siege II is a worthy sequel in the sense that it takes the ideas of the original and expands upon them slightly. Fans of the first game will appreciate the minor changes to the party customization and overall involvement in the combat. The series still has an overall generic feel though and the cookie cutter story doesn't help that matter at all. Aesthetics in the game are pleasing enough despite the graphics needing to be updated a bit to bring the series to the next level. If you're looking for a hack and slash RPG with plenty of stuff to do and time to kill then you can't go wrong with this one. Recommended
Dungeon Siege II Requires: XP SP1 or newer, 1.0Ghz-256MB RAM, 4GB HD, ATI Radeon series 7000 or better, Quad-Speed or higher CD-ROM drive.