27-Mar-2002 It's not often we come across a game that throws the technology rulebook out of the window and breaks new ground. Dungeon Siege, as Chris Anderson has discovered, does exactly that
Sit down a while and think about what you would really like to see in a computer role-playing title if you were designing your own game. Think about all the games you have played that made you think 'if only they had done it this way' and think about all the times you've cursed a user interface that appeared to be designed to hinder your progress in every way possible rather than making the game easier to play. Just about every new RPG that comes along supposedly having learned from the mistakes of its competition has flaws in character management, inventory handling, camera placement, you name it, they know how to break it. All of this is about to change. Dungeon Siege is a classic example of how to make a game which helps the player at every turn instead of making the most simple things frustratingly difficult. It is no exaggeration to say the user interface is a masterpiece of design in itself. Picture the scene: you have a party of four characters who spend their time exploring a new land and killing things in the face as they go along (in time-honoured RPG tradition), and of course, looting the corpses of everything they kill. As always, before you know it you have more stuff than you know what to do with. You want to know what all this stuff is, you want to know what it does and which members of your party can use it, and you want to know now. Dungeon Siege addresses the problem thus: select your party members with a hotkey, and press 'i'. Each party member's inventory screen appears showing everything they have in their possession, and their base statistics. Highlight an item and you can see immediately who can use it and who can't, and how much damage it does, and which skills you need to improve before your characters can use it. Exchanging items between characters is as simple as dragging them from one inventory window to another. Even looting all the corpses after a battle is a simple matter of pressing the 'z' key at which point your party members will automatically loot all the gold and items in the immediate area without you having to painstakingly pick up every item and find a character with enough space to hold it. It's a work of art I tell you, and you can be pretty damned sure that every RPG that comes along after this one will be judged, in terms of interface design at least, by the awesome standards set by Dungeon Siege. This is all the more convenient since Dungeon Siege is all about one thing and one thing only: non-stop action.
The fun never stops It's worth pointing out right now that Dungeon Siege is by no stretch of the imagination a ponderous, relaxed RPG like many of you will no doubt be accustomed to. Combat is relentless, even at the beginning when you start with just one character in your party the enemies never stop coming. They are all over the place. You start the game in farmland and can't even move outside without tons of things trying to make a huge dent in your health bar. This is a little daunting at first, as you can't so much as take in your surroundings without being leapt upon by creatures of all types and sizes, but once you get used to the pace of the game, combat is fairly easy to get through, and later in the game when you have a full party of characters you can prepare for any eventuality with the use of effective formations, and by assigning your characters to specific roles during battle. However, combat could have been nigh on impossible to deal with if it were not for the excellent 3D camera which lets you control the action from literally any angle you choose. Moving your mouse left and right or up and down rotates and tilts the camera view so you can always see what's going on very easily. Along with the excellent interface, the 3D camera is another innovation which will set standards that we expect will be difficult to beat, and we can confidently say it's the first game of this type that we've seen which uses a 3D camera that helps players instead of confusing them. You constantly get the feeling that Gas Powered Games has taken a long hard look at the competition thus far and thrown all previous examples of 3D in-game technology in the bin and instead designed their own engine from the ground up, and it's as impressive to observe as it is effective in combat. A zoom feature enables you to get a close-up view of the action at any time, and while this won't particularly help you in battle, you will find yourself using it often just to get a better look at some of the most detailed and impressive character and monster designs ever seen in a game of this type. The visuals in Dungeon Siege are breathtaking in places, and always impressive no matter where you are in the game, be it inside a new town or traversing a new dungeon or outdoor area, the level of detail is staggering. It has to be said though, that standing about taking in the beautiful surroundings can often prove disastrous, with countless hordes intent on ending your virtual existence. You can, however, make life a lot easier for yourself in the face of such overwhelming opposition, through another of Dungeon Siege's innovative features: flexible character development.
Wizards, warriors... who needs 'em? Dungeon Siege does not feature standard RPG class types such as wizards, rogues etc, instead it encourages you to develop your characters in any way you see fit. Each character has four skills available to them: melee, ranged combat, and two schools of magic – combat and nature. The more you use a skill, the more experience you gain in this particular skill, and repeated use of the same skill will bring your characters up in level. For example, a character that always uses melee weapons will go up in melee skill and his levels will be raised accordingly in this type of combat. You can switch between the skills at any time, so it's possible to have a character who's mediocre in all four skills and doesn't excel in any one department, but it makes a lot more sense to focus your character's skills on one area. Using a party of four, we developed two very strong melee types to stand up front and take a beating, with a combat mage at the back raining down a heavy area of effect spells, and another character skilled in range combat striking from a distance and doubling up as a healer through the use of nature magic. Formations help a lot in these situations (it's always wise to keep your healer and magic user at the back) and you can choose from one of many formations simply by right clicking the mouse and moving it till you find the shape you want your party to stand in. This emphasises the constant attention to user friendliness which is prevalent throughout the game. Another advantage of this method of character development is that all the spells and weapons and items are available to all your characters providing they meet the base requirement for the spell or item in question. For example, it's not possible to wear certain armour types unless your strength rating is high enough, and many spells cannot be cast unless your combat or nature magic rating is sufficient, but you can 'train' any character in another skillset very quickly if you wish to change their role in the party.
Stats? You can keep them too... Dungeon Siege's unique method of character improvement negates the need for the myriad of statistics you will see in most role-playing games. There is no need for a long list of statistics going into meticulous detail for each character, since you can see very clearly at a glance where your strengths and weaknesses are for each party member and improve them accordingly if necessary. This may alienate those of you who like nothing better than to sit for hours staring at long reams of statistics and trying to work out what the hell they all mean and what benefit you will get by tweaking them (or what you will cock up if it all goes horribly wrong), but spend a little time experimenting with different combinations of skillsets and you will soon see that all the tools you need to fine-tune your characters are right there at your fingertips. It all makes for a very fast-paced, no-nonsense, no-holds barred action-packed RPG. This was the goal of Gas Powered Games when it set out to make Dungeon Siege, and it has certainly achieved it. But for all its innovation and superb presentation, when all is said and done it's just another RPG, albeit a very polished one, and for this reason it's not Classic material. Dungeon Siege's remarkable innovations all relate to game interface and design as opposed to the gameplay itself which doesn't stray far from standard RPG action-based shenanigans. This in itself is nothing to scoff at, if you've ever dreamed of playing Diablo II in full 3D with vastly improved graphics and presentation, you will find Dungeon Siege an absolute joy to play. You will want to get to the end of the game just for the immense satisfaction of exploring the beautiful game-world and discovering new spells and items as you go, both of which are plentiful and varied. In summary then, Dungeon Siege is a technological triumph and one of the most enjoyable games we have played in a long time, and if you like your RPGs to place more emphasis on action and combat than stats, there is currently no better choice on the market.
Chris Anderson
// Overview
Verdict
Flawless presentation and relentless action. Diablo begone
Uppers
Revolutionary interface design Spectacular graphics and character models Flexible character development
Downers
Uninspiring storyline Constant hack and slash can get repetitive in later chapters Minimal interaction with non-player characters
There are many different types of enemies in the world of Dungeon Siege, and some of them hit a lot harder than others. Here are a few we came across along the way.
One of the more visually impressive beasties, mine worms fight alone but can take some beating without heavy damage spells.
A great example of the imaginative enemy design in Dungeon Siege, the Horrid is one of those monsters you zoom in on to get a closer look.
A frost drake has a lot of hitpoints but very little sense so despatching them quickly is no great task.
// Story Bored
Dungeon Siege's ongoing storyline involves nasty behaviour from the Krugs which you obviously need to get to the bottom of since they're killing everything in sight. While the intro sets the scene nicely, the rest of the game fails to capitalise on this and non-player character interaction is as minimalist as it could possibly be. There are very few NPCs who are put in place purely to drag you into the storyline or act as plot devices, and you will most likely forget completely what the plot is until you reach a new game chapter and you are reminded with a small paragraph from an NPC that something bad is going on. Lack of story development is the only genuinely bad thing about an otherwise very polished game.
The game features too few NPCs.
// It's Magic
The way forward for rpg spell systems...
Dungeon Siege employs a magic system which is as clever and easy to use as the rest of the games' impressive interface features. There are two schools of magic: combat and nature, and you can find spells by killing enemies or buying them at shops throughout the game. The real beauty of the magic system is you can equip any spell you find, even if you can't use it, and freely distribute spells between any character, or even sell them if you find you no longer have a use for them. This is another one of Dungeon Siege's 'why didn't anyone else think of that?' features which makes the game such a joy to play. No more wading through spell books cluttered with spells you don't want or need, you equip only the spells you want to use, and similarly, get rid of the ones you no longer need. This is a great idea in theory, and even better in practice. If any developers out there are in the midst of designing a new RPG, they would do well to take note of this feature.
// Yes, you can have it all
A donkey's life is never easy
You surely must have played many role-playing titles where you had to leave behind most of the good loot you find in dungeons because your party simply couldn't carry it all. Dungeon Siege introduces the concept of pack mules to get around this problem. Buy one of these handy beasts and you can store everything you find on your travels and then sell it when you get to the next town or merchant. You are advised to buy one of these creatures as soon as you can. While decent armour and most items can be found through killing things and taking what they drop, higher level spells, and new party members can not. You will meet new characters as you progress through the game who will join your party, but their services are by no means cheap, so don't leave home without your pack mule or you'll find the money you get from what you sell at each town will not cover your costs by a long shot.
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Revolutionary interface design
