Preview Dungeon Siege 2 preview at Techspot

[Fez]

Tags: Dungeon Siege 2; Gas Powered Games

There is a preview of <a href="http://www.techspot.com/reviews/games/dungeonsiege2_preview/">Dungeon Siege 2</a> over at <a href="http://www.techspot.com">Techspot</a>. Here's a taste of what they have to tell:
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<blockquote>The quest system has been upgraded this time around, to ensure that players always have something to do during the game. The quest system will show why the Non-Playing Characters (NPCs) are in town, and the NPCs will also give out quests. In the beta, certain parts of the town were made inaccessible in the beginning until specific quests were completed. Although this is meant to add to the gaming experience, there will most likely be a number of people that won't like this modification.
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NPCs with colored exclamation points over their heads have quests for venturers. NPCs with colored marks have a new quest to hand out. The NPCs that have gray question marks over their heads also have new quest information to give out, but may be waiting for players to complete a previous quest.</blockquote>
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While I am pleased to hear they are going to improve the quest system and make NPCs more relevant, I'm not sure if I like the idea of pandering to idiots with big floating exclamation marks, I've tried games with it before and I'd rather stick to the more 'natural' systems. Worth a read to see what horrors/delights are due in the game soon.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Actually, I thought the exclamation marks and simple quest system worked quite well in Sacred.

 

[Saran]

Story.

Thats all im interested in, i bought the expansion for DS1 a few months ago and i couldnt bring myself to finish it, it was just too boring.

If they come close to IWD (or even IWD II) Ill be happy.

And when the combat is so simplistic it is a bit silly to complain about the exclamation marks over the heads of NPC's, the DS series is the CRPG equivalent of Serious Sam, you switch off your brain and kill anything that isnt human.

Im keeping an eye on DS2, while i doubt it will be head and shoulders above the original, i hope it will have enough "meat" to provide atleast a few hours of entertainment.

 

[Fez]

Actually, I thought the exclamation marks and simple quest system worked quite well in Sacred.

I suppose it was not too bad for a randomly generated, dungeon crawler or hack game. It's not a game breaker, but I'd rather not see it. If the game is good enough in the other areas to make up for it, I'll not condemn it.

 

[Spazmo]

If they come close to IWD (or even IWD II) Ill be happy.

The IWD games had quite decent stories. It's just the gameplay that got painful after a while.

 

[Saran]

If they come close to IWD (or even IWD II) Ill be happy.

The IWD games had quite decent stories. It's just the gameplay that got painful after a while.

I agree, in fact they were the first Action RPG's that i enjoyed. (I played diablo for about 20 minutes on a friends computer before i was bored shitless.)

What i mean by "If they come close....." is ill be perfectly happy with the game if they craft a story as good as the IWD games, it wasnt really meant as a slight against IWD, its just that most of the game revolved around "Kill this, then you kill that.", however unlike most ARPG's (at least the ones ive tried.) they managed to make a story that was enticing enough to make all of the Hack n' Slash worthwhile.

I still consider the end of IWD to be one of the best. (When the friendly sounding narrator revealed his true identity.)

 

[Sol Invictus]

Floating exclamation points aren't a bother. I think they're necessary in action RPGs like Dungeon Siege 2. If a character's got something to say besides the usual banter, you should know about it. Having him shout at you "Hey, adventurer, over here!" would be a nice touch.

Diablo and Diablo 2 had those floating exclamation marks over their heads too. I didn't mind them then, so I won't mind them now.

They'd just look wrong in a game like Baldur's Gate or IWD.