Hack, slash, repeat.
The first thing that leapt into my head when I started playing this was, "Hey, it's Diablo II but pretty!" Superficially, yes, it's very similar. An action-RPG with the emphasis very much on the action, with plenty of skill-tree climbing and item hoarding to be had. It's not Diablo, though. After a while the repetitive hack 'n' slash combat wears thin, mainly because of the total lack of challenge. This is a pretty easy game: just click on the monster you want to bash, keep another finger poised over the health potion key, and eventually your foe will go down along with his waves and waves of minions. The skill system and the vast numbers of items to be found allow for the vague RPG aspect of the game, and to be fair it does add a further dimension to the gameplay despite it's simplicity. All in all, Dungeon Siege II is good at what it does and doesn't try to be fancy.
Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are reasonable. The world and it's characters are fully 3D, and there are enough graphics options that can be bumped up to make it fairly pretty. There's nothing that makes this game sit atop the shiny pile though; even when it was released a couple of years back there were much better graphics available. But it does the job.
Sound: 6/10
Oooh, nasty. Well, to be specific: the voice acting is nasty. Terrible, even. Nay, it is abysmal. I've heard some bad readings in my time but this may just take the prize. Not that the lines spoken are any Shakespeare, but hiring a group of bored-sounding daytime soap rejects would drag even Hamlet into the murky depths of mediocrity found here. On the other hand, the music isn't bad: a nice orchestrated epic score that is certainly better than average.
Value: 7/10
There's nothing here that can't be found elsewhere, whether in the first Dungeon Siege game or in any number of Diablo-clone hack 'n' slashers. It does everything well, though, and it's fun enough to play through once. The campaign is fairly lengthy, which makes up for it's lack of difficulty.
Tilt: 7/10
Good.
Pros:
Dungeon Siege II is an enjoyable action-RPG that gets the job done, looks good and will keep at least two of your fingers occupied if not your brain.
Cons:
The repetitive combat gets old after a while and there isn't really much of a challenge to be found anywhere - you have to play through the campaign at least once on the default cakewalk setting to even access the higher difficulties. Also, the voice acting is simply poor.
Conclusion:
If you've played Diablo II to death or if you absolutely have to have another hack 'n' slash action RPG, this is probably the best of the current crop, but it's no classic.