78 MA XIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2005
reviewsTESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
T
he original Dungeon Siege was essen-
tially a Diablo 2 clone with a few handy
special features and a more interesting
character development scheme. But it was
poorly balanced—a killer flaw. You, the play-
er, really didn’t need to do much in order to
succeed. Your primary concern was to move
your characters down the path and mash
the health or mana potion button occasion-
ally. The little guys would automatically
handle all the actual fighting.
The follow-up title fixes that glaring
weakness by making the game signifi-
cantly more difficult. First, instead of find-
ing enemies in clumps of one or two, you’ll
find them grouped in the dozens, around
a boss monster or two (or three). The boss
monsters are stronger and have more
health than the other monsters, so you’ll
need to make decisions at each battle—do
you kill the weak enemies first, or the big
baddie? Indeed, you’ll need to make split-
second decisions in every battle or your
party will be wiped out.
Gas Powered also limits the size of your
party to increase the difficulty. In the original,
your party could have up to eight charac-
ters. But you rarely needed them. Character
development options were so limited in the
first game that there were only four basic
types of character you could play. Ironically,
in DS II you can create a wider variety of
toons, but you’re limited to only four char-
acters at normal difficulty (at the unlockable
higher-difficulty settings you can have fiveor six party mem-
bers). This limita-
tion means the
choices you make
as your characters
develop are more
significant.
In the original
Dungeon Siege,
character advance-
ment was deter-
mined by the skills
you used. At the
lowest levels, all
characters have
access to the four
basic skill trees—melee combat, ranged
combat, nature magic, and combat magic.
In DS II you also receive points every time
you level that you can apply to different
specialties. With these points, you can
either slightly improve all aspects of your
character, or you can hone and supercharge
a specific aspect of your character. You
need to develop your characters to fill fairly
standard roles in the game—you’ll need a
tank, a healer, and some damage dealers.
Without the tank and the healer, you’ll have
difficulty taking down large groups of ene-
mies. Unfortunately, the limit on party size
prevents you from really exploring some of
the more interesting areas of the melee and
nature magic trees.
Also new in DS II are pets. Instead of
simply buying a pack mule to haul around
your excess gear,
you’ll need to
take time in this
game to raise
your pet, from
baby to a fully
grown adult.
You’ll advance
through the pet’s
lifecycle by feed-
ing it extra items
and potions. The
more powerful
the items you
feed it, the more
powerful your
pet will become.
As your pet
grows, it will gain
more skills and
special attacks itcan use to aid your party. There are a ton
of pets in the game, ranging from elemen-
tals to tamed beasts, each with its own
strengths and weaknesses.
Despite its flaws, we really liked the
original Dungeon Siege, and the sequel
doesn’t disappoint. The single-player
campaign is perfectly balanced, delivering
enough difficulty that we weren’t bored,
without ever getting frustrating.
—WILL SMITH$unGeon SieGe ))
! toP-notch action 20' that doesnt Play itself
This time, you’ll need to use all your special abilities if you want to
survive. Dungeon Siege II is much harder than the original.You’ll fight thousands of strange and polygonal characters as you
explore the jungles and dungeons of Aranna. $50, http://www.dungeonsiege.com, ESRB: MDUNGEON SIEGE IIMAGIC
Great single-player cam-
paign, lots of character
development options.
TECHNOLOGY^9
No VOIP in multiplayer, small
party-size limit, no stand-alone multiplayer.The spell effects in Dungeon Siege II are
absolutely breathtaking—the ground rip-
ples as your powerful strikes disintegrate
your opponents.