Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna Impressions

We stopped by Microsoft's booth at Gen Con Indy 2003 for a look at Legends of Aranna, the upcoming expansion pack for Dungeon Siege. The expansion pack will continue to use the 3D graphics engine that Gas Powered Games put together for the original Dungeon Siege, and it will add new gameplay options and additional content to the original game rather than seriously improving on any of the game's technical features.

The expansion will add nine new areas to the original game and should offer about 15 hours of additional gameplay. Though you'll start the game as an inexperienced adventurer, you'll be able to pick up some new items and skills early on in the game that will make sure you don't have too much trouble playing relatively weak beginner characters. For instance, the expansion pack will offer a new line of magic spells called orb spells, which summon a glowing magical orb that floats around your character and provides temporary bonuses of varying kinds. The expansion will also offer two new major enemy types, a race of humanoid reptilians and a fierce race of cat-people, and it will also offer a new player race, the half-giant. Mad Doc will also implement a few other features that should further simplify the already highly streamlined RPG, such as an "auto-distribute potions" button that will automatically distribute potions carried by your pack mule so that melee combat characters will automatically receive most of the health potions, while magic-user characters will automatically receive most of the magic potions. The expansion pack will also have a new "auto-sell" button, which will let you quickly and easily filter out which groups of objects you'd like to instantly sell.

Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna is scheduled for release this Christmas.