Bruce Von Stiers
In the last couple of years there has been a huge influx of wizard and warrior types of games hitting the PC marker. Some have been RTS and others RPG. One of the latest RPG games in this genre is from Microsoft. The title of the game is Dungeon Siege and was developed by Chris Taylor’s Gas Powered Games.
In this game you are an adventurer who is seeking to rid the kingdom of Ehb from the dark forces that have besieged it. Your character will travel the many paths of the kingdom to restore the kingdom back to its glory. You will have minimal skills to begin with and build them as the game progresses.
Dungeon Siege is like most of the others in the genre, it makes extensive use of swords and spells. Man, there are more spells than you could possibly need. Or maybe you might, depending on how hairy the fighting becomes. The game comes with an extensive arrangement of armor and weapons. The inventory is fairly easy to keep track of and things can be added to it. As with similar games, you can only hold so much in your inventory, so be careful what you carry there.
The graphics in the game are superb. The textures seem extremely good and the characters themselves move fairly fluently. I do know that on slower machines, the character movements seem less fluid. My son tried the game on his PC and found that it was too slow to accommodate the graphics and character movements. The specs say that the game can be played on a 333 MHz processor PC, but it would be a lot better on a 450 MHz or better machine.
One thing about this game that I liked right away was that it only carried a Teen ESRB rating. Too many of these game developers are going for the gore factor and not good, quality character and story development. Even though Dungeon Siege is extremely violent, it’s gore factor is pretty minimal.
Another thing I liked abut the game is the camera rotation. You can just about get a 360 degree panoramic view of the character and surroundings by choosing a different camera angle. That is extremely helpful when coming upon a fighting situation.
The game characters all have basic skills to begin with. The more the game progresses and your character gains experience, the skill level becomes higher and the weapons more advanced. The Melee Skill has your character use weapons like axes and maces. The Ranged Skill lets you use items like bows to perfect your skill at distance fighting. There are two magic spell skills, the Nature Magic Skill and the Combat Magic Skill. Each of these have specific advantages in battle. There are supposed to be over 100 spells that can be conjured up during the course of the game.
You start with one adventurer but during gameplay pick up people to fight alongside you. There can be up to 8 characters in one band of warriors. If you use the multiplayer option, the game can handle 7 other players.
Getting back to the characters a moment, I found that if I wasn’t careful, my character got killed off. But not to worry. If one of the other members of your group has a resurrection spell, they can use it to bring you back to life. You can only be wounded and have your health restored by a potion or spell. If you fall unconscious, then you will have to be healed by another member of your party or wait until your strength recovers.
I mentioned earlier that the game has a multiplayer option. With high speed Internet access becoming more readily available, a Multiplayer option is essential for any game that expects to sell well. With Dungeon Siege, you can have a ZoneMatch, Internet or Network multiplayer games. In ZoneMatch (which is the option my son uses all of the time) you connect to a server that hosts the game. With Internet play, you will connect to someone’s else’s computer by gaining their IP address and using it as the host. Network play is done over a local or peer to peer network.
Dungeon Siege has been referred to by some gamers as the successor to Diablo. I’m not too sure in the hardcore Diablo fans would agree. But the look and feel of Dungeon Siege makes it seem like it could be Diablo IV (without the extra blood and gore).
For a gamer looking for more than a few hours of delightful RPG action, Dungeon Siege should fill the bill. It has plenty of action and adventure. The graphics are excellent and , if you have a powerful enough computer, the character movements are fluid.
System Requirements:
Windows 98 / 2000 / ME or XP
128 MB RAM
1GB free hard drive space
8 MB/ 3D video card
56kps modem or high speed Internet modem (for multiplayer options)