Game News Dungeon Siege 2 single player demo

[Kratos]

well it has an auto-patcher that checks for updates when you startup so it may have been that

 

[merry andrew]

Thanks. Now, to clarify, are there any special attacks to avoid the boredom of hold the button until the monster is dead routine? Is there any need for such attacks or can you easily kill anything you see? What about skill trees? Are they interesting and deep enough to give you a reason to try different skills combinations and classes?

I'm just gonna play through the whole demo, but I just played farther than I did the first time, so here's some answers:

Special attacks take time to charge up, depending on how many things you've killed. At best, they're something to use on small enemies for kicks, and something to use on large enemies to survive the fight. Some of them have stats like +903% damage (LOL). I just got a thrown weapon power that's supposed to do AOE damage, but I haven't found any throwing weapons yet so yeah. Since I only have one power that I can use, my current power and my companion's power are shown at the bottom of the screen. When they're charged, I just press the corresponding key (1 for me, 2 for him), and then the next attack will use that power. So at least there's a sense with the "hold the button" repetition that if you just keep at it, you'll get to use a power!!11 They can be pretty necessary for difficult enemies, so I guess it's all about how/when you use your powers.

The tutorial reminds you that if you spread yourself too thin (skill wise, dependent on how often you use one of the four classes' given weapon), you'll significantly weaken yourself. I don't know if this is a warning for the average player, or a warning to everyone (i.e. the game is designed to be rough if you don't specialize). So 4 classes (melee, ranged, combat magic, nature magic) with 7 powers and 12 skills for each class. I think you can only equip 4 powers to your toolbar at once. A single skill can gain several ranks, providing greater effects... I'm assuming that each power can do the same?

As for formations, there only appear to be two for now (free for all aka Rampage and single target aka Mirror).

I'm currently trying to adjust to the controls by using the mouse for actions and WASD for camera movement (circle left or right, position from ground level to overhead). It seems that I need a pretty overhead, zoomed-out view to get a good view of the playfield.

Ew voice acting. The camera locks during dialogue, so you sometimes end up with a zoomed in view of your lower body and the ground, with the box covering the rest of you. The game doesn't (always?) pause during dialog, so while I was talking to an injured lady during my last session, enemies were coming in from the corner of the screen, but my companion just took care of them. I tried to attack but was unable to, not sure if that was just me not finding them with my mouse well enough, or a feature of the dialogue.

I mostly just want to find some throwing knives now.

 

[Shagnak]

Ew voice acting.

For some reason that guy that is with you at the beginning reminds me of a SouthPark character in some of his dialogue.

Edit:
Some savegame weirdness.
After returning to a savegame I was placed nowhere near where I saved the game. I was several areas earlier, with the same characters spouting the same dialog as though they had never seen me, yet my character's level ups and loot were correct, and the areas I had to travel through again were still clear of the creatures I had killed.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I just got it. It's a HUGE improvement over the first game. Notably, the game doesn't play itself, and when you level up you're alotted some points to put into special skills and perks on your characters.

You can also upgrade Minions, and they stick with you throughout the game. Minions level up differently than you do - they don't take exp to level up. Rather, they take loot to level up. You feed loot to them, and it levels them up, and they get stats based on the kind of loot you fed them. Feed them a lot of magical staffs and they have Intelligence. Feed them lots of clubs and they'll have a lot of Strength.

They're separate from your packmules, too. Oh, and they get skills of their own.

 

[vazquez595654]

The voice acting is a joke.

The game is similar to the first one except a lot more linear. It kind of feels like Crash Bandicoot as far as traveling in the world. Meaning that you go in one direction all the time with the occasional diversion.

The skill system is better but still weak and not nearly as good as Diablo 2. The skills mostly deal with adding some type of bonus as oppossed to Diablo 2 where different skills actually did different things and looked different (poison nova, wearwolf, summoning).

The graphics are blurry(low res textures) compared to today's games. They are not that much better then the original (just more junk on the screen at a time). The menus seem worse and use low quality textures.

Overall the game is not worth getting regardless of the fact that we're starving for CRPG's.

The fighting requires you to hold down the right mouse button which makes it feel a little more intimate but the camera and character movements are cumbersome. You never feel like your character goes exactly where you click on the screen. And you have to click every time unlike Diablo where you can just leave it pressed. Although the first game was like that I believe.

While I find the use it to increase it style of character development intuitive it's just as boring in this game as it was in Morrowind.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Yay! Another Diablo clone! Just what I always wanted!!

Oh wait...

 

[merry andrew]

Um, I still haven't finished the demo... seems pretty long. I did get some throwing knives, or axes rather, which I'm very happy with. Had some fun exploring the map after I had completed a portion of the main quest.

You're only allowed to charge one power at a time, although if you have a power fully charged and you switch to another power, that power is also fully charged.

edit: Got to the end. I dunno, could be worth buying

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I played it for a couple of hours. It's a little better than the first one, but honestly I don't care much for what I've seen in terms of the level design. The whole bit about destroying the four towers was really boring in that I don't ever want to have to do this again way.

I really don't like the respawn thing either. I think it would be much more fitting to lose your inventory as opposed to your equipment. It makes little sense that everything in your backpack respawns with you, but every bit or armor you were wearing and the weapon you were holding doesn't. If you want a penalty, switch those two.

 

[merry andrew]

I really don't like the respawn thing either. I think it would be much more fitting to lose your inventory as opposed to your equipment. It makes little sense that everything in your backpack respawns with you, but every bit or armor you were wearing and the weapon you were holding doesn't. If you want a penalty, switch those two.

Ha, I didn't even notice that. I kept having the necromancer (?) bring my stuff back to me and allowed him to 'keep all the money I had on me', but once I got my stuff back, I noticed that there wasn't much if any money missing.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Ha, I didn't even notice that. I kept having the necromancer (?) bring my stuff back to me and allowed him to 'keep all the money I had on me', but once I got my stuff back, I noticed that there wasn't much if any money missing.

I never noticed the necromancer. The second time I died, I just got annoyed and quit.

 

[Whipporowill]

This gets my seal of approval. I liked the first real dungeon - the elven shrine. Nothing major, but during the mp demo I had missed a quest and a whole puzzle sequence there - there's way to few puzzle dungeons since Eye of the Beholder... heh.

And dying in this game is neigh impossible if you have a party - just run away and heal up as long as you have one guy standing. He can go back and nibble at the hostiles until the others recover and auto-drinks potion.

 

[merry andrew]

I liked the first real dungeon - the elven shrine. Nothing major, but during the mp demo I had missed a quest and a whole puzzle sequence there - there's way to few puzzle dungeons since Eye of the Beholder... heh.

Some lady in town asked me to find a secret passage in there... I still haven't found it. Once I got the holy water or whatever it was, the passage leading back into the dungeon seemed to disappear, eh.

And dying in this game is neigh impossible if you have a party - just run away and heal up as long as you have one guy standing. He can go back and nibble at the hostiles until the others recover and auto-drinks potion.

I did that a few times, still managed to die a lot though.

 

[Whipporowill]

Some lady in town asked me to find a secret passage in there... I still haven't found it. Once I got the holy water or whatever it was, the passage leading back into the dungeon seemed to disappear, eh.

It's just by the round lift in the ruins. Look for blue dots on the minimap or smallish panels on the walls. The puzzle is related to switches and stone blocks (it's not as annoying as it sounds - just about looking for the right things). About the ruins closing after the fountain - I simply don't know, try going back from the front via the teleporter in Erulain?

 

[fizzelopeguss]

How do i load a game up? heh i died, but i don't wanna do the whole corpserun shit (i'll play an MMO if i wanted that bollocks)

 

[Whipporowill]

There's a popup autosavish kind of thing after every quest - and if you've saved anytime there's a nifty resume (Journey Onward!) option from the main menu...


... otherwise you're pretty much fucked.

 

[merry andrew]

About the ruins closing after the fountain - I simply don't know, try going back from the front via the teleporter in Erulain?

Thanks, I'll try that.

How do i load a game up? heh i died, but i don't wanna do the whole corpserun shit (i'll play an MMO if i wanted that bollocks)

Talk to the necromancer guy standing next to where you respawned to get your stuff back instantly. Then you can use the teleporter to get somewhere near where you were when you died... unless you haven't found any teleporters in the jungle yet, then you're fucked.

 

[Atrokkus]

A'right, but is there at least some RPGishness?

Does it resemble Icewind Dale 1?
If so, then I guess it's worth playing, from where i'm standing.

 

[obediah]

So with the hold to attack, does that mean you party can only attack one target at a time?

i.e. Can I have two guys hack on one enemy while my archer shoots at a caster?

 

[Gwendo]

Meh... Boring and repetitive.

 

[merry andrew]

So with the hold to attack, does that mean you party can only attack one target at a time?

i.e. Can I have two guys hack on one enemy while my archer shoots at a caster?

I could only see two modes. In rampage mode, everone attacks whoever they want. In mirror mode, everyone attacks the same target.

 

[Shagnak]

I'm still in "meh" land as well.
Im around about where Saint got up to I guess (you know, "destroy the towers"), which is to say - not far. I'll try andget further later today.

Please tell me it gets better?

 

[Whipporowill]

So with the hold to attack, does that mean you party can only attack one target at a time?

i.e. Can I have two guys hack on one enemy while my archer shoots at a caster?

I could only see two modes. In rampage mode, everone attacks whoever they want. In mirror mode, everyone attacks the same target.

Pausing and issuing orders in rampage might work - didn't really try it though.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

And dying in this game is neigh impossible if you have a party - just run away and heal up as long as you have one guy standing. He can go back and nibble at the hostiles until the others recover and auto-drinks potion.

Well, you do run in to problems around lifts, especially when lift exits are surrounded by monsters.. Which is like all non-town lift exits.

Even then, it gets REALLY OLD doing that.

 

[obediah]

So with the hold to attack, does that mean you party can only attack one target at a time?

i.e. Can I have two guys hack on one enemy while my archer shoots at a caster?

I could only see two modes. In rampage mode, everone attacks whoever they want. In mirror mode, everyone attacks the same target.

Pausing and issuing orders in rampage might work - didn't really try it though.

Doesn't sound so great. I guess I'll download the demo and see for myself, and see if I can get any interesting party interaction out of it before completely giving up. The fun of a party is figuring out how they can best work together, not having 6 barbies to dress up instead of 1.

 

[Whipporowill]

Well, it can't bloody well work in any other way in realtime - unless you have behavioural scripts (attack spellcasters priority et c), so I don't see what's so bad about it? I believe you could shut of ai in the original - so there should probably be some way of doing it here too.

Combat is waaay to fast and frenetic for any pause and plan battles a la BG. Suits me just fine...

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

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.