Like most of the games that Blizzard has produced, the original Diablo laid down many of the rules for the hack and slash adventure genre. Followers of the Diablo design have been numerous, but few have been as well received as 2002's Dungeon Siege. The sequel, imaginatively named Dungeon Siege II, follows faithfully in the footsteps of the original fantasy RPG from Gas Powered Games. Solid, satisfying combat and a worthwhile storyline mark this solid genre title. Read on for my impressions of this medieval slasher.
- Title: Dungeon Siege II
- Developer: Gas Powered Games
- Publisher: Microsoft Games
- System: PC
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 7/10
If you've ever played a fantasy hack and slash game, you've played Dungeon Siege II. This double edged sword swings heavily. On the one hand, you'll be familiar with the tropes, the controls, and the expectations. On the other, if you know you don't like hack and slashers you can safely avoid DSII without missing out on content you might have otherwise appreciated. That said, if you do enjoy the genre there is a lot to like here. 
The first Dungeon Siege was widely hailed for its combination of strategy elements and party based combat. Dungeon Siege II doesn't mess with a good thing. As a mercenary far from home, you begin the game working for a powerful evil force that is just starting to work its way across the land. As with the original title, characters develop abilities by using them. If you want your main character to be a melee fighter, you equip him with a sword and start him swinging. If you want him to be a combat mage you put a spellbook in his hands and let him blast away. During the course of the adventure, you can recruit other hearty travelers to round out other roles in your party. As with your main character, you control their inventory and can thus guide their ability development. Though this may initially seem like a system with possibilities to exploit you quickly realize the "multiclassing" capabilities are limited. While you can give a spellcaster a sword to swing around, you're going to want to focus each character on a particular set of abilities in order to maximize their power. Unlockable critical powers are revealed with higher levels of specialization as well, giving you very little incentive to have jacks-of-all-trades. 
Those critical powers are used when your characters enter combat. Combat is a major focus of the game, and while there isn't a lot of innovation here the hacking and slashing is very satisfying. Holding down the mouse button on an opponent tells your main character to go to town. NPC allies can be given instructions to focus their attacks on your target, or put into a spree mode where they'll cut down anything that moves. Combat moves for both melee fighters and spellcasters have a lot of crunch to them. Opponents are dispatched with zeal, explosions of blood and body parts accompanying your victory. While the makers of the Dungeon Siege series have a background in RTS games, there isn't really a whole lot of strategy involved once the axes start falling. As long as you've got all the characters equipped with the best weapons and spells you could find or purchase, the chaos of battle will mostly run itself. The downside to this is that it's very hard to protect your weaker NPC allies. Magic users in particular fare badly, as the monsters all known the "geek the mage first" addage. In large combats you'll almost certainly be waiting on your spellcaster to regenerate from the large holes that have been ripped in his thinking parts. Additionally, while the entertainment value of new critters to kill is high, the combat mechanic never really changes and thus can get old in a hurry. 
Combatting creatures, as always, nets you experience which eventually allows your party to level up. Depending on what they use in combat, you are given several options in a skill tree for ways to focus their advancement. While multi-classing is again not the best idea, each character has available all the different skill trees. Using the weapon type appropriate to each tree nets you skill points for that tree. For example, using a bow nets you a skill point for the Ranged Tree after a sufficient time spent in the field. Within the trees you are given several options to customize your adventurer's attacks. Melee fighters can specialize in one handed weapons with a shield, or can go the path of the strongman and wield a two handed weapon. Combat mages can focus on different elements (fire, electricity, etc.), while ranged combatants can focus on crossbows or throwing axes. Given the limited number of allies you can have, this ability to focus their abilities is crucial to ensuring that you have party roles fulfilled to your satisfaction.
Combat and mechanics are all well and good, but roleplaying games should be about storytelling. Questing and story are always important elements to a roleplaying game (though in this case I use the term lightly), and in this respect Dungeon Siege II manages to break a little ways out of the cookie cutter mold much of the rest of the game adheres to. Starting your career as an adventurer in a Dryad prison is hardly an auspicious start, but from there you are swept up into fight against your former employer, a wielder of a deadly dangerous artifact from an older era. Aside from the main quest pushing you ever outward into the world at large, folks you meet along the way have a series of errands and personal vendettas to settle up. While they're the usual "i can't be bothered to go five minutes down the road" type of RPG sidequests, the writing and voice acting are usually fairly well done. This adds a level of personality and polish to the experience that many other games can't touch. Additionally, the game isn't shy about giving you quests some time before you can complete them, giving you time to consider you objectives and watch out for the opportunity before you can actually fulfill the request. The only real frustration with the game's theming is the vanilla nature of your NPC allies. They occasionally stop to have prescripted interactions between themselves, and those are well done and usually amusing to listen to. You'll never grow that attached to your companions because they simply don't have a lot in the way of soul. The blank faces of DS II can't hold a candle to the likes of Minsc or HK-47.
The game is somewhat lacking in personality when it comes to visual presentation as well. Up close, characters and monsters have a likeable roughness, with interesting details and personality coming to the fore. Pul back to keep track of the action, however, and the somewhat dated graphical look of Dungeon Siege II is readily apparent. There are some blocky elements to characters which stand out at a distance, and environmental textures can become somewhat repetitive. On the positive side effects for special attacks and magical combat add the same visceral quality to the game that the melee combat movements do, with sparks of light and fire limning the field of battle during most engagements. The auditory experience has the same quality, grunts and cries adding a first person experience to what could otherwise be dry hacking and slashing. The musical accompaniment is as successful in augmenting the gaming experience without overwhelming the player with its presence. The music itself has a similarity to the musical experience from the first game, but somehow didn't come off as repetition. The orchestrations are different enough that the feeling evoked is one of remembrance rather than ripoff, and works well within the gameworld.
Dungeon Siege II, then, is a competent hack and slash RPG. Built on the Diablo 2 model and paying close attention to the lessons learned from the original title, the sequel to the 2002 hit is a satisfying gaming experience if you're a fan of spilling orc blood. Combat, story, and questing are all well executed, with an eye towards presentation and visceral feel. Even though the game hews very close to the genre standard, the entertaining and visceral combat gameplay can make this a worthwhile addition to your library. If you're looking for some mindless fantasy fun, Dungeon Siege II will provide.
Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:5, Insightful)
DS1 was a very easy game. You don't have to aim or exercise much skill, you just have to follow along as the game more or less plays itself. As long as you don't stray too far outside of the realm that you are supposed to be in at any given point in your character's development, the creatures around you will be easy to kill and will provide more than enough experience to quickly level up and move on to harder creatures (which aren't really harder at all since your character is now more capable). It's repetitive but satisfying.
By far the most fun I had with DS1 was when playing multiplayer with my friend, when we would purposefully move early out into harder areas and try to figure out how to, using cooperation, kill creatures that would be far too difficult for either one of us to kill on our own. Usually the strategy involved having one character be chased around while the other laid into the creature, and then switching roles, until the creature was dead. Sometimes we could lure creatures into spots where they couldn't hit us but we could hit them (like from a ledge above them), which was fun too.
I personally much prefer games where you have to aim and dodge to games where you don't, but the DS series is still fun. I just wish these games didn't cost $50, or take so long (years) to drop down to lower prices.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:3, Interesting)
I played the original hoping it would fill in the blanks of Diablo 2. I found it extremely boring. The character develop as a consequence of what action they happen to be ordered to repeat. Shoot a bow, become better at shooting a bow. Swing a sword, etc.
Well I downloaded the demo and found the game really hasn't changed much. You walk down a predetermined path fighting, casting, and drinking potions over and over again. The leveling doesn't feel special. Just a ++ to your weapon or skills. And speaking o
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:5, Insightful)
1. move forward a little bit along the predefined path until the hiding monsters run out at you.
2. kill the monsters.
3. goto 1.
If you strayed from this (say by moving forward too fast) you activate too many hiding monsters, and they kill you.
Why does *every* monster have to be hiding [in the bushes|behind a boulder|in a crevasse] waiting to ambush you?
The only reason I played DS1 to the end was because I couldn't believe that they'd actually make a game *that* boring - exactly the same pattern over and over, and I was hoping that things would change. I got to the final boss (a dragon, IIRC) I couldn't believe that the game was over.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2)
Diablo2 never really had anywhere for them to hide - except for being able to see you before you could see them (off screen) - which wasn't always the case.
In DS, the monsters would be *hiding* in the bushes. As you walked along, you would get close to them, then they'd just "appear", along with some bushes rustling.
Diablo2 was a lot less linear than DS1 (if you can believe that!) and at least offered something to the "Monte Haul" type players.. in DS1 ther
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2)
DS 1 is one of a handful of games I have actually fallen asleep while playing.
I really WANTED to enjoy the game as I am a big fan of the genre, having spent countless hours with games such as Sword of Fargoal, Rogue, Diablo and Neverwinter Nights.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:5, Interesting)
I bought Dungeon Siege 1, and found it to be tedious and dull beyond believe. I never finished it. I doubt I even made it half-way. I've never had any desire to pick it up again.
Quite unlike Diablo 2, which I still play from time to time.
I doubt I'll be giving Dungeon Siege 2 much of a look, given this review.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2)
And when it came to playing a single character, DS1 felt like a crappy, feature limited version of Diablo. I don't remember exactly what it was that made it feel like that, but I remember feeling like there was very little to do in combat compared to D2.
I hope they've done something interesting with DS2's multiplayer.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2)
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2, Interesting)
When I play a game, I don't care what the "Winning (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:When I play a game, I don't care what the "Winn (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2)
I got a copy at Fry's for $35 - within a week of it hitting the shelves. I saw one other ad for a $35 copy.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:5, Informative)
What is really annoying about this game is that there is exactly one story. You participate in countless dialog, but you only have one thing to say. Sometimes you can say it two ways, or have choices that have zero bearing on anything (contrast to Neverwinter Nights where lots of your dialog choices have consequences later on). Then there's the one path you can take through the entire game (there's no exploring).
Also, of course they want you to specialize your party by class; then later in the game they have an 'ambush' where the dudes attack your weak mage, and that's basically the entire challenge of the game. This game blows, I wouldn't even recommend playing the demo because it's pretty sad.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2, Funny)
That and I'd really like to know why my 'Pack Mule' pet has 156 intelligence and I only have 154.
Re:Sounds just like Dungeon Siege I (Score:2)
First off, the game didn't scale well to 6 players. It seems that the only thing which changes is the Hit Points of the enemies. e.g. Every enemy had a zillion HP. This was fine for the fighter types, as they could just put their character in attack mode and wait while they chopped down the enemy. For those of us who went the magic user route, it was an
What a terrible review. (Score:5, Informative)
article clearly wasn't spellchecked, that the grammar and
capitilzation are terrible, and that the poor punctuation makes many
of the sentences mean things that were clearly not intended (or at
least not correct).
The big problem here is that this review doesn't tell us anything
about the game! Sure, combat and graphics. Nice. What about the menus?
The story? It only had one word about the story. Items, and item
creation? Is the UI frustrating? Does the game crash? Does it have
multi-player? Co-op?
Please, Zonk, if you're reading these comments (seems dubious, but
if..), tell us what it's like to play this game!
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:3, Funny)
Teleport ... +bushsux-oluaowr ... +iraqsux-eszaryz
Silver ring
Some folks may decide this sort of thing is worth rewarding, some may decide it's worth avoiding, and some may decide it's not important either way. I merely report for the edification of potential purchasers.
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:2)
But like I said.. I wouldn't even care about the spelling if it was a good review. If you're going to do a half assed job at getting paid to review though... Spell check it. If you're going to write a review with quality content, I'll let the spelling slide.
Why isn't there spell checking in these
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:2)
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:3, Informative)
It's inevitable that I'll spell something incorrectly in a post that mentions somebody else's spelling.
Re:What a terrible review. (Score:2)
What you guys want to use is capitalization. The original poster left out the I between L and Z and both you and he replaced the A with an I. Being European has nothing to do with it as you'll notice nobody said anything about an S.
It's interesting to watch people correct the correction of the correcting post and still get it wrong. Heh.
multiplayer? (Score:2)
Re:multiplayer? (Score:2)
Re:multiplayer? (Score:2)
Re:multiplayer? (Score:2)
2 Player, where you can have 3 party members.
3 Player, where you can have 2 party members.
and 6 player, where you can have 1 party member, your main hero.
The multiplayer experience is almost identical to the single player experience, it's just that you all share quests and quest items. Lots of fun at LANs, but I doubt it'd be very entertaining online with people you don't know.
Re:multiplayer? (Score:2)
Blizzard games that will not allow more than one instance from a single IP (starcraft).
-nB
Whoa (Score:2)
Yawn (Score:3, Insightful)
This review tries to make it sound like the game is good... but I can't help noticing that it succeeds in exactly the opposite.
"Diablo model"? (How old is Diablo now?)
"Very close to Dungeon Seige I"? (DS I was good but that was years ago.)
Those games are both archaic at this point when we have WOW and other MMORPGS, the game needs to offer something that those other games don't. Storyline? NPC's? FMV Cutscenes? Depth of character development? Thousands of rare items a la BGII?
I don't know if it was this review, but the game sounds positively retro.
Re:Yawn (Score:2, Interesting)
Sadly, Dungeon Seige I wasn't that great, and it had major problems scaling well at high levels. XP rewards were totally off, spells were messed up, etc. Totally unacceptable from a single-player game.
Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is totally incorrect. Diablo is a direct rip-off of Rogue and its many clones including NetHack. All Diablo brought to the table was evolutionary graphics.
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:2)
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:2)
The Internet was released to the public around 1992/3, and the first thing that companies like Compuserve did was ignore it. Sad but true. It took the small ISPs making money hand over fist to actually make the larger s
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:2)
And clicking! Can't forget the clicking!
OH! A pallette shifted *BLUE* skeleton! That's new; I've only killed the Red, Yellow, and Brown skeletons up till now!
CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK.
Take that Blue skeleton!
In all seriousness, I find diablo's interface a little easier to use than NetHack's. Did Rogue/Nethack even have plot much less quests and
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:5, Insightful)
As a long time fan of Nethack, Angband and even Rogue, I'd like to point out the most critical difference. Rogue, Nethack, and all it's ilk are turn-based. Diablo is real time. It makes a huge difference. In Nethack you can spend a long time sitting in one spot debating whether you're going to try an unknown potion or scroll and possibly die. In Diablo if you spend a long time thinking, you *will* die.
Not to mention the multiplayer... I have yet to see a Roguelike with decent multiplayer.
Also, it' snot really fair to call Diablo a "ripoff" as the grandparent does. The designers of Diablo give a LOT of credit to Nethack for their inspiration. I think they did a great job.
I still play Nethack more though.
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:2)
Rogue, aside from the overall quest to get the Amulet of Yendor, didn't have any of the above as far as I can recall. It's been a long time.
Diablo is a Gauntlet clone (Score:2)
Earlier real time games (Score:3, Insightful)
Another early attempt that com
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:3, Interesting)
There are two features of Rogue-like games I'd like to see implemented in modern hack-and-slashes:
(1) The ability to die without being a moron.
Seriously, unless you try to screw up, most hack n slash games are a breeze. I haven't played a single one where there is fear of what's behind the corner, the difficulty is always tailored to the strength of your character. There's nothing quite like worrying about y
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why do you keep talking about Diablo? (Score:3, Interesting)
You can download the demo.... (Score:5, Informative)
Hopefully I can get it working under wine!
the only bad thing is.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:the only bad thing is.. (Score:2)
Actually, I didn't, and the same goes for the majority of the community of 9,757 registered members that I'm part of.
It just feels like a game lacking spirit and attention to detail to me. It doesn't even look good for being a game of 2005. Compare DS2 to Guild Wars in that department. And when you dig deeper in its actual gameplay, it's DS1 all over with a few tweaks
Re:Are you nuts? (Score:3, Informative)
I'd second the Fallout/Fallout 2 recommendation. If you're willing to go old school, look at Darklands, Realms of Arkania, Daggerfall, or even the Quest for Glory series.
I'm a nerd (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I'm a nerd (Score:2)
I dont' know who they are... (Score:2)
Oh well, screw minsc and hk-47!
Re:I dont' know who they are... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I'm a nerd (Score:2)
I called it Diablo 2.5 (Score:4, Informative)
Skill points, even the graphics and description looks like D2.
Teleporter system
Magical, Rare, Set, and Unique items
Town stash
game difficulty system
if you are D2 fan, you'll spot a lot of similarities..
of course, the game has put a lot more then just copying D2, the party fighting, enchantment system, summoning, and special powers are all pretty good.
Graphics is pretty good, but I like the , and I have decent framerate with my AMD 1700+ with ATI 9600XT. so hardware requirement isn't too bad.
the game do have a lot of bugs though, hopefully the next patch will solve the majority of the problem, such as adding party members and various scripting bug.
my most disappointment is the network play, which only allow maximum of 4 players to join a single game(I have more friends). and there's no way to play IP based game (to prevent pirated copy going online?). however LAN based game is possible, and I know you can trick the game to use Hamachi to play LAN over internet.
My own mini-review (Score:3, Informative)
It's taken almost ALL of the strategy away, but the result is much faster paced combat, including massive explosions and lots of gibs.
Instead of runes (ala D2), there are Reagents which an NPC can enchant into enchantable items. But these reagents are typically not so powerful compared to the set based and uniqe items. Some of which are pretty awe-inspiring.
One new feature (?) is the autocast section in the spellbooks. Each mage may have 2 spells (not direct fire ones, more like curses or monster summons) that automatically cast at appropriate times.
The super-linear plotline and map is kind of annoying after playing so much D2 with a more area-based (vs linear) approach, but the maps are nice.
However, I have not seen the same beautiful landscapes that actually sometimes wowed me in DS1.
Anyways, the game was a good buy. It's super long, and some of the sub-missions are pretty cool.
m
Re:My own mini-review (Score:2)
The lack of single PC control got annoying at times. There is a certain point in the game where one party member has to run into a room to activate something and another member has to stay near another control. Doing this in DS2 required "Rampage" mode and directly clicking the items in question so that peopl
Tedium ad nausium (Score:3, Interesting)
BUT...
After 20 hours it gets damn annoying to smash every crate and check the loot to find the good upgrades. I would have preferred fewer crates with more 'valuable' goods in them. After finding my 200th Robe of Defence +1 it gets annoying.
Advancing your character: one fun trick that I found at later levels;
Set your healer to auto-heal himself & you, never attack. Have your character start roaming in an area of low-power bad-guys auto-attacking everything he sees with the weapon you want to increase in power.
Let the game play itself for a few days, and your player & healer have both leveled up 10+ levels.
Better trick -- (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Better trick -- (Score:3, Insightful)
reviewed the wrong game (Score:2, Funny)
Guild Wars -- a better alternative to DS2? (Score:5, Informative)
I did, however, LOVE Diablo2. I loved playing 8 hours straight with some friends in a LAN game. So much fun.
I recently was asked by one of those friends to try out Guild Wars, which I incorrectly thought at the time was a pay-to-play MMORPG. From what I've read, and since I've played the game for nearly 90 hours now as a complete novice, it's more of an online RPG that (a) doesn't cost you monthly to play but (b) doesn't include the limitless exploration and community building that you might expect from World of Warcraft.
DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
First off, you have to log in online to play Guild Wars -- kind of annoying if you're not used to online RPGs, but you do get instant updates. I hated having to keep up with updates in Diablo2 -- since I didn't play anything but LAN games, so I never did the Battle.net thing.
Secondly, you have total control over your PoV in Guild Wars. I love being able to go first person to see things up high and then pan around a raging battle.
Third, and this is why you want the PoV -- THE GRAPHICS ARE INCREDIBLE!!! The rendering isn't all that sophisticated from what I've read, but they use software anti-aliasing (???) to really add a "fantasy" look/feel to the game. The environments, although not limitless, are terrifically rendered. I probably spent my first 10 hours looking around at stuff. Waterfalls, leaves, etc. are all nice touches to the gaming world.
Fourth -- when you play online with folks, you cand do it 2 ways -- in a questing mode OR in a PvP mode. I haven't touched the PvP mode, but you always know it's going on. There are constant updates in the chat area of the screen indicating a win for Europe or a win for America. It's intriguing, but not really enough to interest me in trying it out yet.
Finally, when you online with folks, you don't have to "share" an entire world/area like you do with World of Warcraft (correct me if that's wrong). You instance out an area of the world and take you and your designated party with you. Basically, they've negated the chances of you entering, as in Diablo2, the world, stepping out of town, and having some high level player go hostile on you and kill you for your stuff. I think this also helps them keep server/hosting costs down -- and this means you DO NOT PAY MONTHLY FOR ACCESS TO THE GAME!
BIG DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
The BIGGEST aspect of this game that is different from me, since I've only played Diablo2 pretty religiously before, is the whole crafting of armor/weapons aspect.
Basically, if you had crap in Diablo2 that got dropped, you could sell it for armor and weapons.
In Guild Wars, you gotta salvage stuff you can't wear/use, make raw materials, and then you go to crafters who make stuff from the raw materials. Armor is crafted by default, I think -- you can't pick it up and use it normally on the battlefield.
Weapons can be crafted, but you have a better chance of getting weapons in battle -- I have only crafted like 1 weapon since I started playing.
What does this mean in terms of gameplay? You have to customize EVERYTHING you use. You can't sell armor (at all) and customized weapons. They only work for you.
I do like that they have RUNES in Guild Wars, and you can buy these when you advance to the REAL storyline after the intro quests. Unlike the runes in Diablo2, however, you can only insert runes you buy or find (from salvaged enemy armor) into your own customized armor. And the runes are specific to your primary character class. Thankfully, you can salvage runes you've used in armor whenever you go to upgrade -- as opposed to losing them in Diablo if you want to sell a weapon that's been "runed."
Character class, by the way, is a duality in Guild Wars. You pick from the standard classes and then choose a secondary profession (if you want) that gives you all the additional powers of the secondary class except th
Re:Guild Wars -- a better alternative to DS2? (Score:2)
Re:Guild Wars -- a better alternative to DS2? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Guild Wars -- a better alternative to DS2? (Score:3, Informative)
A seeming contradiction (Score:2)
"Combat and mechanics are all well and good, but roleplaying games should be about storytelling." Fair enough. A matter of taste and not objective assessment, but it's your review.
But then you end with, "Even though the game hews very close to the genre standard, the entertaining and visceral combat gameplay can make this a worthwhile addition to your library." (Emphasis mine)
So what kind of game is this? Is an action RPG, against which you are, respectfully, biased? Or
Here's a better, shorter review: (Score:5, Insightful)
DS2 focuses more on story than its predecessor, but has the usual array of predictable plot twists and subpar voice acting, all implimented by dialogue boxes, similar to Neverwinter Nights.
The crippling multiplayer problem that prevents just about anyone with a firewall (regardless of port forwarding) from playing online that was around in the original still exists, and although multiplayer has been improved, it's still impossibly shallow.
DS2 would be great... if it was an expansion pack. It's entirely unworthy of being a standalone game though. For Dungeon Crawler fans, I'd recommend picking it up, but only after it hits the $15 dollar bin.
DSII Problems and bugs (Score:2, Informative)
The problems arise, however, that at least with Linksys routers, the stupid game inserts a forwarding rule through uPNP that makes no sense. MS refuses to acknowledge the problem, but when you try to start the game and the rule is there, all you get is a black scr
DS1 was ok (Score:2)
magic users (Score:3, Funny)
Slashdot editors in particular fare badly, as the posters all pwn the "badmouth the editor first" subtractage.
Seriously, I do have to say that this is important for Hack n Slash games. If your magic-user is a tank, what fun is that? Without the risk of dying, hack n slash loses my interest very easily...
DS1 was *boring* (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, what's this about Diablo 3 on the drawing board?
Damien
Sounds like a flawed interface to me (Score:4, Funny)
Holding down the mouse button on an opponent tells your main character to go to town.
No no no no no.... clicking the mouse button on an opponent should tell your character to kick the opponent's ass. If I want to go to town, then I'll click on the town...
Chris Taylor Won't Sign "Copy" Of DS2 (Score:2, Funny)
Dungeon Keeper III (Score:3, Informative)
I'm just waiting for Dungeon Keeper III. Yes, a completely different game from Dungeon Siege II, DKII was much better than DSI, in my opinion. For those not familiar, in Dungeon Keeper, you are in SimCity-like control of an underground area with a few imps to serve you. You tag rock for the imps to dig out. Relatively early, you find a gateway where creatures enter your dungeon. You build a lair, hatchery (chickens to feed your creatures), training room, library for your spellcasters etc to keep your creatures happy and trained. You then send them out to take over other Keepers' dungeons or protect your dungeon from do-gooders from the top-side. If you don't keep your creatures happy, they can rebel, damaging your dungeon, or just leaving. Fun game. The DKII disc had a preview movie for DKIII. I just hope they actually make it someday.
Re:Dungeon Keeper III (Score:2)
I also believe that EA did away with bullfrog. If you go to bullfrog.com it forwards to europe.ea.com which isnt resolved. I guess the whole franchise is long forgotten. On a positive note, it may still ship before duke nukem forever.
Just beat it today. (Score:2)
Where have all the indies gone? (Score:3, Interesting)
laid down the rules? not hardly (Score:3, Insightful)
Diablo, and every other game remotely similar to it, really drew their inspiration in terms of computer game heritage from the rogue-like text adventures, of which Nethack is the most shining example. While they've tacked on nifty stuff like shiny graphics and networked multiplayer, they have still completely and utterly failed to capture even 5% of the depth and complexity of gameplay that Nethack has enjoyed for years.
Wow, no mention of the best feature of the game (Score:3, Interesting)
It's 2005. Computers are fast enough to load the surrounding landscape's data in the background when you get near the edge of an area. If you want to know what good those up-and-coming dual-core CPUs will be for games, well, there's one answer.
Game developers: My gaming money will go to a game with a lower frame rate and no annoying interruptions in gameplay before it'll go to a silky-smooth game that makes me twiddle my thumbs on a regular basis. I bought DS2 specifically to show my support for no-loading-screen games -- and (I hope) it won't be the last game I buy for that reason.
Re:Wow, no mention of the best feature of the game (Score:2)
DS1 and DS2 are good examples of writing a scene manager that loads and unloads resources (textures, scenery, sounds, NPC geometry, etc.) effectively.
I got it when it was released... (Score:3, Interesting)
Zonk never did mention the pet owning, which might be in DS1 (again, never played it) and I thought it was facinating to actually have to FEED your pet. Granted my wolf must have an iron gut because I fed his ass armor, swords, spears, magic crap, and now fully grown, is a rather badass beast and very useful. I haven't had too much complaint of another user's post of "collecting my 200th cloak of protection +1" and the loot I pick up actually makes you think about what to equip. Does this ring which raises armor X points over what I have now beset the ring that has some armor upgrade but also some secondary or tertiary benefits. Choices, Choices... in NWN, everything was more absolute that This Ring Is Better Than This Other Ring.
I have yet to play it online and am happy to hear that one copy will suffice for LAN'ing since that's about as Multiplayer as I'd get with it(if I want to play against people, BF2 does the job)
For what I paid for the game, I feel I'm getting my money's worth, however I do trully miss "HERE COMES HALFLING DEATH and NO ONE WALKS AWAY"
Here's to waiting for NWN2.
Finished it. Don't recommend. Play BG2 instead.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Here is my take on Dungeon Siege 2: They tried to figure out what worked in Diablo and failed. It has all the mechanics copied to the point of annoyance. Three play throughs (same story monsters have more HP each time), town portal, teleport locations, skill trees, saves now only save your state, not where you are. Done because I think they can't figure out what actually made Diablo fun. It doesn't work. Throw in some side quests on the linear road to try to inject more Roll play and that does work either. Candy coat it so it is so warm and fuzzy that you 5 year old will be comfy. Pablum RPG.
Action RPG fans of Diablo: No comparison. Diablo 2 is a much better action oriented RPG. This is boring and slow.
Story or hard core RPG: Nothing here. A few pointless sidequest departer from the strict linear game that you couldn't not make it to the end if you tried to get lost. Has nothing on Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment or any good single player games.
It feels like a comitee sat down and picked some elements from succesful RPGs. The result is nothing but a monster/treasure treadmill. For those folks who just want to level up and find more elite weapons endlessly. It is the "spinal tap" of RPG games, with the treasure output cranked to "11". If some treasure is good, heaping piles of it must be great. Somehow the concept of less is more never registers. If you always have tons of crap, it just plain doesn't matter. The value of something is in direct relation to it's scarcity. The best PnP games I played, you might find one magic item during a days play. But when you did find it, it was amazing.
Graphics look pretty much identical, to DS1, which is fine by me, heck they are better than Neverwinter Nights, but NWN is actually a fun game.
Bottom line, there is just a hollow shell again. They just dont' grok action RPG and they don't grok story RPG.
I think you can still buy Neverwinter Nights, or Diablo Gold if action is more your thing. Both cheaper and better.
Re:I'm tired (Score:2)
Just don't expect too much because you'll find one where you like the story, and the gameplay isn't too annoying, and you'll be happy again... Then they'll go and make the gameplay more obnoxious (usually by "improving" combat) when they come out with a new story.
Games with in-depth story lines are few and far between these days, but it sounds exactly like what you're looking for. That, or a book...
Re:I'm tired (Score:3, Funny)
Given your ennui, I suggest Russian Roullet. Some suggest, if you loose, you move to another level, up or down.
enjoy
Re:I'm tired (Score:2)
Re:I'm tired (Score:2)
I've been playing for 15 years or so and am still not tired of it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I'm tired (Score:2)
Droidquest (Score:2)
Re:I'm tired (Score:3, Funny)
Is this review about a WoW patch or update or something?
*drools incoherently from lack of sleep*
Must not be.
*Goes back to using PC for what it was intended: a WoW terminal*
Solution (Score:2)
You are guaranteed to be totally psyched no matter WHAT comes out.
Re:Nethack and Slash? (Score:2)
Re:Nethack and Slash? (Score:2)
Re:Nethack and Slash? (Score:2)
There are NPCs! The Oracle! Like in Matrix! Bizarre dream sequences (the Rogue level)! Moral choices! (You don the helmet! You feel changed! Hey, that Incubus is hot!)
Re:Nethack and Slash? (Score:2)
Re:Neverwinter Nights is still the king (Score:2)
Re:Blizzard (Score:2)
Re:Blizzard (Score:2)
"Like most of the games that Blizzard has produced...."
If it's not a Blizzard game, then I may change my mind.
Re:Linux (Score:2)
If you're lamenting MS not publishing Linux software, I bet you're also saddened that Fox doesn't produce any french-language sitcoms.