Dungeon Siege Graduate

[D.A.Lewis]

Alrighty then, I started this over at GG when I had just finished the first DS.

Now, I just finished Dungeon Siege LOA. just a tad better than the first one but while in a certain sense both games are fun to play the overall experience is blah. The game has no soul. The game has absolutely no emotional impact. Basically you just fight and grab gobs and gobs of loot. Occasionally you do things with the equipment to make your party stronger, but that about it.

There was a very loose plot there but finishing the game actually had nothing to do with the plot. Simply, Fight, advance, restock, fight, advance. restock. Repeat as needed.

This game was very much like Diabol but at least Diablo had atmosphere. DS was a pretty game but they never really used the great graphics to heighten player involvement.  

Oh well, I'm glad I played D.S. becasue so many gamers talk about this game. At least now I can be in on the joke (s).

[Blackadar]

So, did you enjoy watching the game play itself?



The only reason I'm keeping the game is for the U5 and U6 projects.

[Thin_J]

No matter how many times I read something about this game, I seem to always come away glad that I skipped it entirely.

[D.A.Lewis]

Yup, a common complaint. Tthe game does have elements that make the game somewhat play itself. Of course there are ways to contol this but ultimately the game was designed that way. Both DS games can be had for 19 bucks which is about right. Plus there are some interesting mods out there (Ultima 5,6,7?) that might make Dungeon Siege a good buy during this RPG drought.

NOTE: I know DS is more an action game with RPG elements, but,  I was just saying . . .

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

Yup, a common complaint. Tthe game does have elements that make the game somewhat play itself. Of course there are ways to contol this but ultimately the game was designed that way. Both DS games can be had for 19 bucks which is about right. Plus there are some interesting mods out there (Ultima 5,6,7?) that might make Dungeon Siege a good buy during this RPG drought.

NOTE: I know DS is more an action game with RPG elements, but,  I was just saying . . .

Personally, I'd go with NWN Platinum instead of DS.

NWN Platinum can be salvaged through user modules.  DS is so intrinsically flawed, that I doubt it can.

[D.A.Lewis]

And see LE, that's where we differ.

I say get both games. I've been gaming for at least 20 years and I think it's going to be a lifelong hobby.  I say if you're an RPGer get both. They both can be had for reasonable prices. And while DS will never get a sniff of any of my top 10 lists it was an okay diversion.

THe DS engine has promise and in the hands of a good game designer, we may see a splendid game come out of that code yet.

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

Get both is usually my method of choice too, but when it comes to DS, I recommend trying the demo first.  Really, the gameplay doesn't change much at all from the demo to the full version... and hell, if it's not your cup of tea, you just saved yourself $19, no?

[D.A.Lewis]

Good point. Good demos are always an alternative.

But there are some interesting Ultima Mods being worked up with the DS engine. And that is the reason I finally broke down and got the game. And since it was just sitting on my shelf I decided to go ahead and play the game.

[gameoverman]

I liked DS alot. It had tons of nonstop action, no wasted 'game time' waiting for levels to load OR having to run back to town to sell all the loot you found, because of the cool packmules. Fantastic visuals AND you got to control the camera- as all games of this type should allow you to do.  The ability to play with one character in your party or multiple characters AND the ability to remove or add characters during the game- as all games of this type should allow you to do.  Complete configurablity, really there weren't any options I found lacking in that game in terms of customizing the experience to the way I wanted to play it.  It had that 'I'll play a little longer JUST to see the next area" appeal to me, few games do that for me.

I guess if I was looking for an rpg, a story, or deep character development, I would have been disappointed.

I do agree that one flaw was that alot of times your characters weren't powerful enough to use items you found, that happened to me alot. Alot of times I'd carry something around, hoping that soon at least one of my characters could use it. I prefer a system where I can use stuff right away, BUT the trick would be to make the right decision as to which item is worth keeping, and which ones should be traded or sold.

[Juntei]

I really liked DS a lot as well. Had lots of loot, a large world and didn't rehash the same models for monsters too badly.

[QP]

I really liked DS also - the only thing I didn't like was trying to keep track of which loot was going to which character later on - if this was handled just a little bit better it really would have helped things for me.

[Falator]

I guess if I was looking for an rpg, a story, or deep character development, I would have been disappointed.

umm, if i am not mistaken, and i doubt i am, dungeon siege was sold as an rpg... The character development stunk even for an action rpg too.

[gameoverman]

I remember it being sold as a hack n slash, with RTS type interface(formations and such).

[EngineNo9]

Slightly off-topic, but I've found the screenshots for Dungeon Siege 2 to be pretty disappointing.  To me it looks almost the exact same as the original, which came out what, like 3 years ago? Not so cutting edge now.  The models look far too low res for something that won't be out until next year and it appears they are pretty much just re-using the same textures and such (or else everything just looks the same).  

Maybe there will be some additional effects and more detailed textures and models added, but you'd think they would only release shots of things that demonstrated the best of the next game.

[gameoverman]

I watched the last couple of movies they released showing gameplay. It looked pretty good, those graphics might be the 'you have to see it in motion' type.  Then again, they don't have any competition in terms of graphics for this type of game(that I know of), so maybe they are slacking a little.

[whiteboyskim]

Weren't the Ultima mods called off due to copyright infringement or something?

[Laner]

Both the Ultima V and VI projects still seems to be alive and kicking:

http://www.u5lazarus.com/

http://www.planetdungeonsiege.com/archon/