Dungeon Siege II

Format PC

Developer Gas Powered Games

Publisher Microsoft

Genre Role Playing

Frankly, it was rather a shock to find that although I completed the original Dungeon Siege and thought it was all very pretty with great gameplay and the donkeys were quite cute, I couldn't remember what on earth it was about. There was some enormous and terrible evil blighting the land, but that's pretty much a given in a fantasy game, and there was some business with an imp in a giant robot suit, although possibly I dreamt that. But on the whole it was distinctly unmemorable.

I wasn't alone. Fans of the original game clamoured for something more substantial in the sequel - a great story that would complement the great gameplay and keep them chalking up the hours just to see what would happen next. Thankfully, Gas Powered Games actually listened, and it's come back with a follow-up that promises to be decidedly meatier and much more fulfilling than its predecessor.

SEETING THE SCENE
From first impressions it appears that Dungeon Siege II has been put through some kind of giant plot-o-matic machine to create the sequel - there's a storyline, backgrounds and characters you actually give a monkey's about. But to be fair,
this isn't merely due to the dialogue, cut-scenes and story text in the game, as the actual level designs themselves add to the immersive experience.

Here's a little example. You start the game as a mercenary on the
side of the usual nefarious bad guy - basically, a sword for hire with no real comprehension of why you're doing what you're doing, only a single-minded focus on the pay cheque at the end of a hard day's killing. You get unceremoniously dumped onto a foreign shore in the midst of a furious battle that appears to have been designed as if you're part of a WWII military unit sent in to relieve your comrades on the front line.

The initial part of the game is rather like trench warfare, with your character running up and down guarded lines trying to find someone who knows what you should be doing, while fireballs scream overhead, the sounds of battle rage in your ears and the charred remains of creatures litter the ground. It's a pretty nice way to heat up what to all intents an purposes amounts to the tutorial section of the game.

PARTY HEARTY
But don't worry, it's not just modern warfare with a sword instead of a machine gun. The spirit of the original game is still very much alive and kicking. You're still in the business of creating a formidable fighting party based around the four basic fighting styles: range, melee, combat magic and nature magic. However, you'll find that these disciplines are a lot more flexible this time around.

The use of new skill trees gives the character development more of a Diablo-esque feel and each class has access to its own rechargeable hero powers. Rangers, for example, get a new Repulse power that enables them to push away and hold back a group of encircling enemies, so your character isn't trying to fire an arrow directly up a monster's nose the whole time. However, the hectic nature of some of the battles means that learning when and where to use these powers take a fair bit of practise.

LITTLE THINGS COUNT
There's also a lots of little additional features to Dungeon Siege II that add to the overall gameplay. You can now harvest Mana and Health from the environment around you, as long if you have a party member with the right skill (OK, so health potions flying out of a bush is a tad unrealistic, but we'll let GPG off). And there's also the ability to learn chants, which you literally type in when you're at the appropriate shrine, to boost your entire party. On top of that, you also have things like pets that can level up with you and the ability to gather resurgents and enchant items. Again, when it comes to the graphics engine it's the details GPG has focused on, such as shadows, beams of sunlight, dynamic weather effects and battles that look like an explosion in a fireworks factory.

It just goes to prove that having someone tell you all the great things they've put in their game while you sit round a table in a cardboard room at the E3 videogames expo has no real relevance to how the game feels when you play it yourself. Last year it seemed as though Gas Powered Games had simply taken a long time to do a nice spit-and-polish job on the original game, but hands-on experience is proving it to be a lot more than that. Suffice to say, there are a lot of tiny elements that are making a hell of a difference. As with every game at the preview stage, there are still a few rough edges to be sanded off, but Dungeon Siege II could prove to be the underground hit (ho ho) role-playing gamers have been looking for.

PC Zone Staff