Iain's blog: PC - Dungeon Siege review

Dungeon Siege

March 14, 2003

| GAME FEATURES |

A.) one gigantic universe of in game scenery (an almost endless game)

B.) ability to create maps using the Siege Editor

C.) Many many people to talk too on the way to make the game look interesting

D.) Free Downloadable maps including Yesterhaven, the official expansion pack.

C.) 2 full maps, Kingdom of Erb, and Ultraean Peninsula each worth 10 to 20 hours of game play each. Depending on your skill level.

Dungeon Siege is the popular game from Gas Powered Games which has 100s of thousands of people hooked because if it's incredibly simple combat system. Yes you would have to be a fan of of either Warcraft, StarCraft, Everquest or Diablo to qualify. But what you want to hear is that Dungeon Siege is a better game then Diablo 2. Dungeon Siege what I am playing now on my PC. Diablo 2 being my second favorite online game. I can't really say how much detail graphically went in this game because my PC (Even with a Nvidia Geforce 2) slows down to a craw during my single player game playing one of six people in my party. Take that Diablo 2 single player mode. With a few mods and and trainer the game couldn't be more fun. I spent 3 hours and not even seeing 1/5 of the whole game.

Hacking enemies to death is not boring due to the party's ability to handle most enemies. I defeat a small army and go onto the next. This is the heart and soul of Dungeon Siege. P.S. I find that any sorceress's in the game is the worst. Having a sorceress join the party the first time slows the party down some what because sorceresses have a hard time leveling up using spells. The character's intelligence is hardest to gain. There are so many pipe sized army ranging from moderate to very hard. Again the game is graphically demanding, even a 1.3 GHz machine can get a heavy work out. At 800/600 there is a lot going on. The capacity of the game can even go up 3 resolutions.

Besides the fact that having a LAN running the game with a trainer would, to me, be the best thing that could happen to me. Not being able to join games on the network with out satelight internet or broadband would this kill the enjoyment of the game. The only possible way around this is joining a 2 person game with a modem in the same town. That way it won't cost you 30 dollars in long distance bills. Even though it would lag a bit it would be about the same as any FPS direct connection out there.

At the most basic level, it takes no thinking or standardizing to get what you want to happen in this game. If your party isn't able to take on a variety of enemies. You'll know it very fast. If you want you can try to "find ways of living longer" or most commonly known as "out thinking your opponent." To me however "out thinking your opponent" would be the same as me being a deer against a man with a rifle. So it is really a waste of brain power. Even though I like warcraft too. I have a very hard time with it because I have to think and rely on myself which gets me killed 10 times over. So I really appreciate ability to choice party members in single player mode.

I know it, everyone else playing this game knows it. Buying basic supplies is cheap. Most the time that's all you need. I find all my armor and weapons on the battle field. Because the elves destroyed and took suppiles from these towns, most of the humble towns people this want to get by so they sell you stuff really cheap. I like this because one of the essentials, the pack mule, only cost me a little bit. I can't recall what town it was - I don't remember names.

Dungeon Siege Quests, I have to say I enjoy questing as much as doing nothing in the whole game. Part of the game is knowing where to go to complete the chapter. If that makes a whole lot of sense. Characters in the game ask you to do things that are impossible. For an example in chapter one the town's blacksmith asks me to find his brother when perhaps I couldn't find him any ways because he was killed by a ugly orc.

Hmm. If you take notice in this game you'll realize that you can be playing it all day without looking at the clock. This includes picking items off the ground and adding the better ones to our party. The rest of the time hacking and slashing enemies. Spending all my time doing quests covering large amounts of land doing each one is hard work. It makes me want to drink a lot of pop.

Want to level up really fast in Dungeon Siege? There is a favorite that every likes to call the Chicken Level. With the use of the trainer your character will level up 3 times faster then he normally would with out dieing. Sadly this level can not be played in single player mode. Unless you want to import your story mode (aka single player mode) character over to your LAN party using the transfer option. Neat-O.

I'd also advise people to build up a multiplayer character. In single player you only get to play the Kingdom of Erb. Which is still long, and top notch as role playing is concerned. The Ultraean Peninsula is also a huge map with all new characters, and landscape. Playing the maps from the beginning is no fun so Gas Powered Games came up with the idea of opening progress points throughout the game. You gain access through the muiliplayer setup and going to game settings, clicking on the map. Then selecting what town you wish to travel though. Online there are extra downloadable files that will make Ultraean Peninsula a Single Player Mode option. Download it some where at Siegenetwork.com.

If you have a computer fast enough I hope you buy this game. Its my best gaming experience I had since a friend of mine introduced me to Diablo I. If you plan to play alone and don't have access to broadband, the story mode far outceeds the online experience. The patch really doesn't do much good. The game still runs good without it.

YESTERHAVEN EXPANSION

As many Dungeon Siege players know, this file is not only the most fun map, but also the only expansion pack made by Gas Powered Games. Some people can't download this huge file. Once downloaded, it is well worth the time. The size of Yesterhaven is maybe 1/3 size of Kingdom of Erb. This map isn't the longest map available to download, but it does comes with a decent story. You transfer to a location of a town called Yesterhaven. You and your character defeat wolves, snowmen, fire demons, necromancers, and such in 3 levels Ice, Dark and Fire. In the ice stage, I see a lot of trees. The landscape is smooth. You'll find a lot of reflections off ice in the cave, coming later in the stage. In my opinion I like the one with the skeletons the best of all of them. You have the best looking demons that I came across. Low level characters can level up here. In fact, because the stages can be completed with in 10 or 20 minutes. You character can buy extraordinary items from a skeleton dude which appears in all three levels. On my computer, Yesterhaven runs at a reasonable 40 frames per second. I am sure that the frame rate will rise on faster computers. The frame rate does drop when dealing with a lot of enemies on screen at one time. When I finished Yesterhaven, I like it a lot. I give Yesterhaven a 5 out of 5 in level design. This map isn't too hard, but not overly easy. To bad this map couldn't of been longer. Not that it was short, Yesterhaven is plenty long, and will take you atleast 2 1/2 to 3 hours to complete. In the end, you'll be awarded with better armor.

Chicken Level

Attack of the killer chicken is a prime example of this level. The small chickens that once were afraid of you, start flocking at you. In the latest build, chickens can easily peck low level characters to death. You must have 400 health and 300 defensive body armor if you even stand a chance out lasting the giant pecking mother fu__. As you go on, the chickens double in size. The hit points increase even more and their attack is stronger. If your character can get past those chickens (I advise retreating to more able ground) you go past this dragon that takes up the entire width of your monitor. In the end, you get to defeat "Diablo" That's what I call him. He's an exact duplicate of Diablo. He's not a chicken, he's red meanie and in charge! He does mega damage! The final boss does more damage then a large size chicken. I never tried defeating him alone before. Thus, the chicken level is purposely made for a group of players. For that reason I give it a 3/5.

Hyperbora v2.0

Hyperbora is a independent map made by a development team in Holland. I seriously doubt these people got payed for putting this game out. On the site, the publisher said that he and his development team spent 5 months on creating this level. (building, debugging, stabilizing the level for deleting unneeded scenery, etc) I haven't got much into it. However, I do know that this level is really long. Hyperbora has towns like Kingdom of Erb did. Except that all towns sell shit for items. It is also tougher then either Kingdom of Erb and Ultraean Peninsula. Some say that the map sucks. I say it doesn't. The majority of people will agree with me. I tried it out with my high level character and it works fine in the beginning. I would suggest downloaded this map at Siegenetwork.com. I guess I'm giving this game a 3.5 out of 5 cause it's an above average map from start to finish.

Cheat Codes (press Enter during the game)