The computer-game RPG has evolved into an archetypical game in it's own right, its roots stemming from chess and other individual-piece battle strategy games - games like "Battleship" and "Stratego". Dungeon Siege isn't anything new, by any means. However, it has come as close as possible to perfecting the genre.
This is the first time I've dropped $50 on a game outside of Everquest in over three years, but the reviews and the look and description of the game indicated it was exactly what I wanted to play. I enjoy games of battle-piece strategy, where you take a collection of individual pieces that have different characteristics and try to win a battle with them. Dungeon Siege takes this simple concept and has turned out what is, to this writer, the game that defines the genre, much as "Doom" defined the FPS.
The advancemnt of the "pieces" -- the character you begin with, and the additional advancements of other characters you pick up along the way, how you outfit them, and how you place them in combat -- is all determined by the strategy of the player. The "board" is a lush, deep, beautifully rendered and seamless 3D world these pieces inhabit. The graphics are excellent. However, graphics are meaningless unless the game itself is worthy.
You won't find anything new here at all; you'll only find it better than you've experienced it anywhere else. If you have your character swinging axes in battle; their strength rises faster than other qualities. If they spend their time casting spells, then it is their intelligence which moves ahead of their physical skills. What equipment they can use, and what spells they can cast, are directly related to their three main characteristics: strength, dexterity, and intelligence.
The ease of play in the game is a startling example of thoughtful design ... it is so easy, it makes you look at the bulky, clumsy interfaces of other games with disdain. This interface is full of intuitive shortcuts and pleasurably logical connection. I haven't even ready the instruction book, and I've found several interface shortcuts simply by thinking ... "it would be easier if ..." and then trying it, and finding out to my delight that it worked.
One of the best features of the game is the ability to slow it down and pause it any time you want; then you can use the camera to swing around and figure out what is going on, where everyone is, etc. It allows you to watch the 3D action in great detail without having to concern yourself overmuch with party health issues. You get to play the game, AND look at the game, at the same time, at your leisure.
There is some well-written, and well-voiced story and interaction to the game, but this is just frosting on the cake. The meat of the game is the strategy of how you place your formations, the commands you give your pieces (characters), the method by which you advance the overall strength of your party. Currently, I'm advancing one main character as a melee, and another as a combat magic specialist.
There is great diversity in the game; diversity of landscape, of opponents, of weapons, armor, and spells; the special effects and battle motions are beautiful, and the ability to slow it all down and swing the camera around, zoom in, pan out, while the game is going on, is just the best eye candy option ever.
My only gripes so far is the inability to pan the camera down to eye level (but I suppose this is to eliminate sky graphics) and the overall glitchiness when one attempts to play multi-player. I would have liked to have had a broader diversity in the orginal character construction, but as the game has gone on I've found that to be unimportant.
The people that created this game are to be congratulated - they have created a genre-defining game that stands as a shining example of brilliant design, layout, and user interface. If you want so
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