Dungeon Siege

Developer:Gas Powered Games Legends of Aranna by Mad Doc Software Publisher:Microsoft Games System Requirements: OS: Win98/ME/2k/XP Processor: 333Mhz or higher Memory: 128mb of RAM Video: 8MB 3D grapics card Disk Space: 1 gigabyte Multiplayer: 56k modem or higher required

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Dungeon Siege runs fine on my system with a medium graphics level as it can get somewhat laggy when there are many enemies on the screen. I prefer smooth gameplay over graphics any day regardless. I wanted to try dungeon siege the day I heard about it, as it was compared heavily to diablo 2. Dungeon Siege is quite different in many ways and is actually quite a different experience all together and shouldn't really be compared to anything.

The first thing I was excited about in Dungeon Siege is the classless system. You can take full control over your character and the NPCs in the game and adjust their development in any of four fields: melee, ranged, nature magic and combat magic. You gain experience when you use one of these four types of combat and can switch between them to build up your stats. These stats are strength, dexterity and intelligence. Each stat will raise your hp or mana by an amount based on the stat - str will focus mainly on hp with little mana while intelligence is just the opposite and dex in between the two. Strength will improve your character's melee damage and dexterity will give an armor class boost as well.

Equipment in Dungeon Siege is stat based, to use that heavy axe you will need high strength. Magically enchanted robes may require a high intelligence to use and a ranged weapon (bow, crossbow) will require dexterity. A nice variety of weapons and armor are available to each of the stats. Unfortunately, DS seems to undermine the usefulness of multi-classing in a way, as the stat requirements for items will generally be high and you will need to choose a primary stat/class to focus on if you want to use the higher equipment.

Dungeon Siege has nice environmental graphics and, despite these beautiful graphics, the game has virtually no load times. I'm not entirely sure how this works, but the only time I had load times was when I switched areas like when I entered a dungeon from the overland map. These maps are huge, so it's really quite impressive how smoothly the gameplay goes after the initial load. The maps are very well designed and finding your way around is none too difficult with the automap feature which shows unexplored areas on the map. Generally you will not be required to explore to find your way as most of your destinations will have a convenient road to follow and signs to guide you on your way.

Every time I play Dungeon Siege I tend to use magic for my primary character. Yeah, I love magic. And DS has lots of it. There are several types of spells to each of the magic schools. You can of course cast offensive magic spells which will increase in damage with your abilities but the ability to cast spells to weaken your oppenent, slow him down, etc. remind me of console-style rpgs. Buffup type spells can be used to improve your characters' stats from raising strength to summoning a fireball around your character to automatically attack enemies. You can also summon different types of creatures to aid you and their strength in combat will be determined by your skill in the magic school

The story really isn't the shining point for DS but there are plenty of subquests to complete on your adventure. The quests will send you from one town to another with dungeons of different types in between. Shops in these towns will have all the supplies you need and many npcs will have something to say or a new quest for you.

You have freedom in the DS combat system. You can pause the game at will to issue orders to your npcs, set a different formation for combat or just get a good look at your tactical situation. With the large groups of monsters you will be facing and the number of NPCs you can command (max 7) you should use this option often. The camera can be rotated and zoomed easily with the mouse and hotkeys are present to make things easier for you in combat. You can even assign your entire group's weapons to a hotkey. Say, a buff ice drake is flying toward you. You could set all of your npcs to use a ranged weapon and they will fire when the drake is in range. With the easily accessible AI commands set you can then switch to another setup you've configured and tell all of your melee fighters to draw their weapons and they will automatically attack the oncoming drake. The game puts many other shortcuts at your disposal.

The expansion pack, Legends of Aranna adds an entirely new quest and many new spells and items to the game. Also, new features to make it easier for the player are implemented. I enjoyed DS much more with Legends of Aranna installed and I'd say most everyone would.

The lack of a solid story is my only real problem with Dungeon Siege. The nice graphics, multiplayer options, cool music and kickass gameplay far outweigh this weakness. The Legends of Aranna expansion pack includes the original Dungeon Siege. But it here.