Preview CVG Previews Dungeon Siege 2

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Dungeon Siege 2; Gas Powered Games

Computer & Video Games has written up a <a href=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/?page=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/previews/previews_story.php(que)id=113882>preview</a> of Chris Taylor's upcoming title Dungeon Siege 2.
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<blockquote>One of the ways in which Gas Powered Games has improved on the party system is by adding in skill trees to give you more choice in the disciplines of your characters. "They give you more options for customising characters, more choices to make during combat, and the satisfaction of doing some serious damage when it really counts," emphasises Kevin.
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So you've got your trees, but what you really need is some plump and juicy abilities to rain down upon your hapless enemies. Kevin explains that these fruits of righteous ass-kicking come in the form of hero powers, which are gained as you level up your characters. "They provide an additional layer of moment-to-moment decision-making and excitement to the game. You can use them alone or in combination with other party members' powers to turn the tides of battle, but powers take time to recharge, so using them strategically yields the biggest advantage."</blockquote>
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I hope that the rest of the game has been upgraded as much as the character generation. Dungeon Siege's biggest flaw was that it felt like a screensaver attached to a 50 dollar price tag.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Dungeon Siege's biggest flaw was that it WAS a screensaver with a fifty dollar price tag.

 

[suibhne]

One of the biggest steps forward is that they've apparently ditched the "skill development through use" paradigm. Thank heavens, as it removed any interesting character possibilities from the first DS. The lack of character construction and the mind-numbingly tedious combat system - those are the big evils as far as I'm concerned. And I waded through almost 2 whole hours of the game, so I obviously Know Something.

What's funny is that I dimly recall the DS design promising revolutionary divergence from the old Diablo model through elegant streamlining. Now it turns out the streamlining is being ditched in favor of a return to the old Diablo model. That's about as close as we'll ever get to a full retraction from Chris Taylor.

 

[Shagnak]

Dungeon Siege's biggest flaw was that it WAS a screensaver with a fifty dollar price tag.

Heh.
At least with my screensaver, if I wiggle my mouse it turns OFF!

 

[FireWolf]

Hey, man. Don't underestimate DS. Don't forget about the loot. It was sooo all about the loot. I mean, hell, they even had a dang donkey so you could carry more totally surplus items to cart back to a settlement. Surely that's what RPGs are made for.

 

[Sol Invictus]

DS would have been a much better game if the loot was better. The problem with DS was that the loot sucked and by the time you reached the steam-powered goblin robots, they would fuck you up because your equipment was totally crap.

The game was much more balanced in multiplayer because you could just play the early areas until you levelled up and had good equipment to go to the next area, but in single player, it was pretty imbalanced in terms of difficulty and advancement.

 

[Kamaz]

Well, I had to direct my party where I want them to go. If that feature was removed, it would be real screen-saver and I wouldnt mind. Think of it as some kind of advanced Progress Quest with fancy graphics and sound, I'd with plaisure spend all the 50 bucks to get such.

Plus, you must admit, asses that carry your loot is a nice idea and I would love to see that in more cRPGs, especially action ones.