Dungeon Siege II Review

8.0

Format PC

Developer Gas Powered Games

Publisher Microsoft

Genre Role Playing

Go anywhere in the business world and someone's guaranteed to have a great hook: "We're going to bring the Japanese Sushi experience to England"; "The Internet. Honest, it's going to be huge"; "Gonzo porn". Come to games and it gets a bit tougher: "Plot. We're all about the plot"; "Characters. Because if you don't care about the characters what's the point?"; "Real-time graphics and sound"; "Tits. And bush".

And pretty much to a man (aside from the third, and he was new and his head was saying things that made no sense), they fail to deliver. Not the original Dungeon Siege. Because it aimed low. "No story!" Check. "Donkeys that carry your possessions so you don't have to pretend that you can fit six shields, 27 potions of plenty, a staff of giving, and a cloak of prettiness into your tiny backpack." Check. "Pretty things to hit with your sword and a huge f***-off dragon." Check.

And that's why we liked it. But it's also the reason that it never rose to the rank of the unmissable. It was, in three words, good shallow fun. So, Dungeon Siege II then? More of the same? Yes and no...

From small seeds...
Despite it seeming pretty obvious at the time, Gas Powered Games has finally cottoned onto the fact that an RPG needs a decent backdrop. It's not enough to wander through beautifully rendered 3D environments, right-clicking various bad things into submission. You need to care. So Dungeon Siege II has a story. One that develops as you progress through the game. It's not a great story, but it's a story nonetheless, and it's actually enough to make you want to carry on playing. (It revolves around a big sword, a big shield, some nasty guys, some good guys, and you and your party of exotic adventurers. Damn, that's just about given it all away. Sorry).

And as well as adding a story, it looks like Gas Powered has taken inspiration from some of the top WWII FPSs for its intro and ease-in tutorial, which puts you in the middle of a big battle - complete with trenches - as a sword for hire. It quickly becomes apparent that you're not just a run-of-the-mill merc though, and it also transpires that you've chosen to fight for the wrong side. Drevin, your mate, is killed, you're badly wounded by the bloke who hired you (Valdis) and you wake up, and the game starts proper with you locked up like a dirty criminal. After proving you're not as bad as you seem, and getting a few far-from-cryptic nods of support from those with foresight (would you believe that you're actually the direct descendant of Azunai the Defender? Well blow me, what a coincidence...), you're freed and ready to start levelling up.

But there are no EverQuest rats in Dungeon Siege II. In a cunning twist, you spend the first few hours tackling walking seafood and gaining cash, experience and the ability to equip fantastic new powers via a skill tree that you can add to when you've been particularly fearsome in battle. These add spectacularly awesome firepower to your arsenal, and it's one of the highlights of the game, with the likes of Brutal Attack (a Ronseal), Chain Lightning, and nicer Nature Magic like Healing and Resurrection. You're not going to get far without using these so it's worth spending a bit of time poring over the different options and specialising in a couple of big 'uns.

Party Time
You don't need a crowd to have a party. But it helps. Size is limited by cash (up to an eventual maximum of six). For some unknown reason (and if we had the option of killing NPCs he would have eaten it by now) you have to pay the landlord of the inn to get permission to recruit others. So choose wisely. And make sure you've got a good balance of melee, ranged and magic users if you want to make mincemeat of some of the nastier opponents.

Unlike the first DS, you get to choose from four basic classes at the start of the game - Human, Half-Giant, Elf and Dryad, each with different strengths and weaknesses, and your choice here obviously impacts the recruits you'll make. You can also buy yourself a pet, an extension of the pack mule from the original.

OK, it's about time for the first niggle. Party formations are too simple. To set up you just drag the portrait of the character you want at the front to the top, and vice versa. It works but it doesn't give you much scope for proper tactical fighting. You can also bark out two commands - Mirror and Rampage - which tell your party to focus on one strong adversary, or just run amok if you're faced with a bunch of crabs (DSII's equivalent of EQ's rats).

Giant Game
But let's not get too bogged down in the minutiae. DSII is a supposed epic and although it's not far removed from its predecessor in terms of being an out-and-out action RPG (the right button on your mouse will take a pounding), there are a few puzzles and the odd bit of NPC interaction to drag you through to the bitter end. And it's hu-uge; it'll take you about 60-70 hours to get through the whole thing. But for some reason it doesn't particularly gel and it leaves you feeling a bit bewildered. Yes, it draws you back and makes you want to carry on playing but you are never quite sure why. The story's ok. The missions are fair to average. The dialogue's nothing to get in a lather about. It just doesn't feel particularly inspiring. At least not until you've played through a good ten hours of pretty mundane stuff.

Where's the hook? The first one had donkeys. And superb flashy graphics that made you go 'Ooh'. Dungeon Siege II doesn't seem to think it needs one as long as it delivers a solid experience in every area. Unfortunately it leaves you feeling like you're running through the motions, playing a game you've played a few hundred times before, only with different characters.

Sympathy Shag
Although it seems trite these days to castigate a game for not looking good, it's not going to stop me having a pop. Frankly, DSII looks old, worn, and a bit ragged round the edges; the sort of game Wayne Rooney might fancy his chances with. Credit where it's due, the interface itself is a dream - it's something Gas Powered has always bragged about, and not without reason. You can swivel the camera by moving your cursor to the edge of the screen, zoom in, zoom out, arrange crane shots (we the made the last one up, but you get the point) and generally look at things exactly how you want. But, however you look at things, they don't look good. In fact, make use of the zoom function and you can see just how messy things really are (and there's no playing the game at that level anyway).

In fact, it doesn't look much better than the original which, at the time, was pretty in a "Wow, look down at that path underneath the rope bridge I'm standing on" sort of way. And we were expecting more of the same in the sequel, but jazzed up to celebrate the fact that we're living in the year 2005. Instead we get this.

Maybe we were expecting too much, but when you've got the likes of the new Age of Empires winning Best Graphics In The World awards left and right, and the new Elder Scrolls game on the horizon, this just doesn't cut it. Hell, even World of Warcraft looks better than this, and that's an online game. There's no excuse, so we're not going to hang around waiting for one. And yes, we think it does impact on the game itself. An RPG like this is all about exploration. You want to round a corner and be hit in the face with an awe-inspiring vista, not a few crummy hills and the odd fairly impressive-looking dragon. Shame. On. You.

And that, as they say, is that. What you get for your money is an exceptionally solid RPG with plenty of life in it, but one that doesn't do anything particularly different to anything else on the market, and for that reason alone it guarantees one of our shiny new Recommended awards, but nothing more.

PC Zone Staff