Dungeon Siege 2 is a one in a million game, with a few drawbacks and disappointments. Know why?
RELEASE DATE : August 16 2005
COMPANY : Microsoft Game Studios, Gas Powered Games
LEARNING CURVE : Beginner ~ Novice ~ Expert
Dungeon Siege 2, another product from the Microsoft stables, is exactly the kind of game that you'd expect from the biggest computer name in history. Microsoft Game Studios, with Gas Powered Games, released this Action RPG on August 16, 2005, and let me tell you, this game is worth your resources...
The game, in effect, is pretty similar to Diablo and Neverwinter Nights. There is the standard save-the-world-from-all-evil storyline, there is a "plague" that you have to save the people from, and there are the myriad weapons and spells and potions, and even the combat classes are pretty much the same, but the similarity ends there...
Unlike pervious RPGs, DS2 offers you something different: character class flexibility. Normally, you would choose from the four standard classes - Fighter, Ranger, Combat Magic, Nature Magic - and stick to those throughout the game. Meaning that if you were a Fighter, you couldn't know what the other classes are all about. DS2 ends this insane injustice...
You don't even have to select a primary class. Throughout the game, you can use the basic Melee and Ranger weapons, and the basic Combat or Nature spells. But as you choose one discipline over the other, you eventually get better at it. This is very practical; Microsoft is very smart like that. Eventually, if you become a Level 40 Fighter, then you can still start using spells and take your character to a, say, a Level 10 Combat Mage. This is really interesting. You don't have to stick to a class and follow it, but you can change your class dynamically during the course of the game. DS2 provides many opportunities for you to do this. Obviously, as you get better at a particular character class, you can upgrade your character and use better weapons/spells. But, again, it's not advised to choose multiple disciplines unless you want an "average" character that's good enough at everything, but "the best" at nothing...
One more thing that DS2 brings for your gaming pleasure: pets! You can choose from around 8 to 10 pets, from a Lap Dragon to a Dire Wolf, and various others, and these pets upgrade with your main character! And get this: if you feed your pet lots of fighter weapons and shields, it's strength and hit points increase. When you first buy a pet, it's character level is the same as yours, and whatever you feed it, it will benefit from that. Different pets have different disciplines. For example, the Scorpian Queen is good at Ranged attacks, the Dire Wolf is good at Melee fighting. Here's a list of pets:
Dark Naiad (Nature Mage)
Dire Wolf (Fighter)
Fire Elemental (Combat Mage)
Ice Elemental (Nature Mage)
Lap Dragon (Nature Mage)
Light Naiad (Nature Mage)
Mythrilhorn (Fighter)
Necrolithid (Combat Mage)
Pack Mule (Fighter)
Scorpion Queen (Ranger)
A review of this game won't be complete without mentioning... the cut-scenes! They're exquisite. They will slow your game down if you have a PC that just meets the system requirements, but not that much. The graphics are astonishing, the game play is smooth, the interface is unbelievably convenient. The only down side of this game is the voice acting, which could have been better. All through the game, you think that a character with such and such capabilities will have a voice like this or like that, and in the end, you're terribly disappointed. The worst voice actings were for, unfortunately, the most important characters of the game, namely, the Archmage of Valdis, and Valdis himself.
Here's an overall rating, just to help you out:
GAME PLAY : 9/10
VOICE ACTING : 9/10
CUT SCENES : 9/10
INTERFACE : 8/10
One warning: Fighters will be disappointed as far as the weapons go. They're all really good, but I still haven't found a weapon that can match Neverwinter Nights' Dagger of Chaos. The only weapons that does beat the Dagger is the Sword of Zaramoth in DS2, but you don't get to use it.
What's my overall advice? Play this game at least once. Microsoft doesn't leave much scope for Multiplayer because, as far as I've heard, DS2 doesn't have any new maps for Multiplayer, but there are a lot of good mods out there that are really good...