Game News Dungeon Siege 2 single player demo

I think the problem with Dungeon Siege 2 is that it's an action CRPG made by people who don't really understand what makes action CRPGs good. It feels more interactive now, but the interface feels a bit clumsy. For example, left click to move, right click to attack. I'm not sure what was wrong with the Diablo 2 method of having the left click being a "smart click", which frees up the right click for firing off a different attack. They could have done it that way and still had it so you used the numbers for other party members to do their specials. they could have also done it like Prince of Qin where the right click triggers special attacks from the entire party.

The character system is a little better, but.. As someone else pointed out, the skills are really just +n% to something you already have rather than a variety of interesting new attacks. Though, adding points to skills can unlock a special attack here and there. It just seems like it would be better to tell the player what they're getting rather than the unlock system.

The +n% system is really odd when you consider that's basically what items are for. Sure, Diablo 2 had passive skills which did just that, but everything was up front in Diablo 2. Also, Diablo 2's classes offered way more than Dungeon Siege 2. Each class in Diablo 2 offered three skill trees whereas in Dungeon Siege 2 you only get one tiny tree for ranged, one tiny tree for melee, and so on. Diablo 2 shipped with 15 skill trees. Dungeon Siege 2 only has four.

It would have been nice if they made some synergy trees which offered some more wicked options rather than just saying that jack of all trades are puny and weak. If I'm an archer mage warrior, there should be some outlets to balance me out with the pure mage. It just seems silly to have a wide open system that's that simple and not adding something that makes multi-rolers more powerful. You CAN do it, but you'll be screwed. Why?

Also, I don't really care much for the story. It's just fairly crappy. You're a merc for Valdis, he tries to kill you once he gets what he wants during the campaign he hired you for.. Then suddenly you're a noble good guy? Cheezy... and doesn't make sense. Hell, it doesn't really make much sense why the guy needs mercenaries in the first place, let alone why he'd try to kill you rather than pay you. Well, I guess that's why he's the BIG BAD EVIL or something.

That said, the siege engine is pretty damned incredible. It was pretty incredible in the first game. I'm not sure why no one has tried to license it instead of the NWN engine. Just the way it handles moving doors, lifts, levers, and so forth makes it a hell of a lot nicer than NWN's engine. Factor in the whole seemless world thing, and there you go.

 

How dare you? Always so negative about games! Dungeon Siege 2 is like the best and "the highest density experience" you are lucky to have in your life, so stop being so ignorant! It's also "the very highest quality of product in terms of craftsmanship and polish that Chris Taylor has ever been involved with".

You are such a noob, Saint. Clearly, "this new concentration on active combat is bolstered by enhanced skill trees that let you customise your characters' abilities more than ever". You hear that? More than EVAR!!!

Show some respect! The dude had to go through some personal growth to come up with a "really interesting backstory and fictional universe", so don't you dare! "So it's a cliché, but we've worked really hard to pull it off in a fresh and satisfying way."

 

If you hover over the special attack icons over the skill tabs, you pretty much get the prereqs for getting them - so I'd say that's a non-issue.

And while most skills don't get you fancy attacks, it's not just +n% in this and that - you can unlock dualwield, thrown weapons, xbows et c, being able to harvest mana and health potions. On the other hand I didn't make it past say - step 2 of the skills, since prereq lvl is 12 for the next tiers or something.

Agreed on the engine b t w - DSI was the only game in history that made me stop to check out the view when crossing a canyon on a rope bridge. And being able to actually move while on an elevator instead of doing it as a cutscene or load isworth mentioning.

 

The best action-"rpg" i've ever played is Diablo II.
Nothing has surpassed it yet.
Damn, its system was kinda simple, but at teh same time so complex and interesting. Actually, I always had an idea of making an RPG-mod of Diablo (adding some social skills to the trees). It would rock.

 

Why would you add social skills to it? It would take away all the fun of diablo and co.: Mindlessly killing shit.

 

Divine Divinity style? It still sucked.

 

Hey, Divine Divinity kicked serious ass, okay?

 

Crappy Crap. I couldn't get pass the horrible translation, awkward animations, and diablo gameplay. But hey, to each his own.

 

Diablo is da king.
Nobody fucks with Diablo, kk?

Berks!

 

The first DivDiv was pretty fun. Voice acting sucked, but some of the conversations were absolutely priceless. Too bad Beyond Divinity got panned mercilessly, but maybe Divinity 2 will revive things.

 

Another cool thing Divine Divinity had going for it was the Ultima-like world exploration and interaction. I had a helluva lot of fun exploring Rivertown and coming across cool scripted stuff (The cart crash, haunted battleground, etc).

 

Wow, this game is terribly dated with low, low production values. Its quite literally a 'visual cacophony', made up of arbitrary textures and arbitrary lighting with nothing specific to really see, assuming for a second you COULD see anything in the flat, lifeless world. Actually the only cool thing was that dead dragon laying over the landscape at the very begining...

The writing is absolutely terrible.

The animation is mediocre.

The best thing about the game seems to be the feedback tips to what everything is, but thats about it.

All in all, I'm still searching where I actually begin to play the game...so far all I've done was click where to walk, hold down over what to attack, and slapped the H and M keys as once in a while as necessary...or...essentially everything you did in DS 1.

Just to say, I'm NOT a Diablo fan on any level, so if that skews my judgement of gameplay, so be it, but the actual assets in the game, genre being irrelevent, are pretty poor.


Cheers

 

Divine Divinity is only a shitty Diablo clone.

I agree with Saint_Proverbius. Chris Taylor does not know anything about action crpgs. I would rather Chris made some good rts.

 

Holy crap, EvoG didn't like something! It must really be crap.

 

Well, it's a definite improvement over the first... haha. I'm sure multiplayer is fun though - you control a party of characters and not a single one.

Chris Taylor is making Supreme Commander. Submit!

 

Dude, it really is...

 

But seriously, the human ranged specialist that I had looked totally badass with leaf armor (complete with hood) and a throwing axe.

 

I have never got far into this game, but I have always intended to. There was something about it that made me want to return.
The good news is - there is nothing about DS2 that makes me want to buy it, so it looks like DD is gonna get another chance with me!


PS. Lunchie, I like your old cow better

PPS: If neither EvoG nor me think much of this game (don't get me wrong, I don't hate it as such, just think it could be a shit load better), then that should be a warning to you all.
It makes me feel...empty...

 

It's high time! :wink:

 

Well - I certainly fancy the game, and I'm not a twitch player... so opinions are differing. Voice acting is the pretty lame (especially on your companions, hah), but that's more of a minor annoyance as DSII isn't about immersion but more akin to exploration and combat. I'd expect the game to open up some more after the demo part - but I can't be sure, of course. It's very linear, but after having played through the tower part twice, I still don't feel that bothered about it.

Loot is a lot better this time around, lots more rare and unique drops that feel interesting. Also sets are more common - esp during earlier parts of the game. I LIKE finding those hidden places that was littering Dungeon Siege... anyone been behind the waterfall? Done the stone puzzle in the elven shrine?

There's a lot more optional quests (and reason for going back to town other than to restock). Thus far there's two quests I haven't been able to finish in the demo - they're set as lvl 3 quests, so they should be pretty early I'd imagine. The salve one - haven't found any nettle clusters and the one where I need an Aman'lu keepsake... then there's the quests I know are on the other side of the south gate, but that's a different story all together.

B t w - there ARE (option menu, in-game) ways to supposedly turn off autoattack and defend on a selected hero which should make BG-style pause and play available. Unless unenabling autoattack only means that the character takes one attack and stops after that - since they made the change between DSI and II...

 

You know, I felt the same way with Beyond Divnity. I found the world interesting, and I loved the stat system. It was one of those games where you had to force yourself to sit down and play it, hoping you missed something that would instantly make the game more fun.

Anyways, good luck getting into Divine Divinity, hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did

Back by popular demand....

 

Did anyone encounter the "item thief"? A little fella that might[/] pop in during large battles and start scooping up the loot - but if you get any hits in on him he drops rare, set or unique items. Nice random little touch!

 

Ha, I wondered about that. Its description was just a bunch of question marks or something, it happened so fast, and then I couldn't find it in the bestiary, so I just forgot about it. Did drop some rare stuff, though.

 

Yeah, I have found both of them. But it is prety much expected to find a cave behind a waterfall these days .

I don't think that you could possibly finish them in the demo. The south gate area is restricted to you for different reasons - priosoner status, plague, end of the demo.

 

You can finish the nettle cluster one by bying them from the reagents vendor by the shops - not how it's supposed to be solved though, I expect.