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Dungeon SiegePreviewed By: Kirk Hiner Preview Computer: 867MHz G4, 640MB RAM, ATI RADEON 8500, Mac OS X v10.2.5 Preview Date: April 13, 2003
I've been playing Dungeon Siege pretty solidly for a couple weeks now, and I have yet to see a Dungeon or pull off a siege. I suppose that'll come. Dungeon Siege, due to be released this month by the newly reorganized MacSoft (now underneath the Destineer umbrella), is an RPG on a fairly grand scale. Numerous reviews have compared it to Diablo, but, since I've never actually played Diablo, you won't get that here. The most accurate comparison I can make as far as style and gameplay go would be to Summoner, but I'll save such comments for the actual review. In Dungeon Siege, you are just a poor boy with your story seldom told. You have squandered your existence for a pocket full of...oh, no wait. That's not Dungeon Siege, that's "The Boxer." I always confuse fantasy RPGs with Simon and Garfunkle songs.
More importantly, the 3D engine in Dungeon Siege provides some of the best graphics I've seen to date. It's not just that the trees sway gently in the wind, it's that they're so tall and sway gently in the wind. You can zoom back from the action to see a good chunk of the forest, or you can zoom in tight to see just a trunk. Either way, the graphics in Dungeon Siege lose little of their detail. Things look right no matter how close you are to the action, and that's quite feat. Beyond the detail and motion of the environment, Dungeon Siege also makes good use of what I suppose we should call ambient creatures. Again, this is not the first time we've seen this, but it is perhaps the first to this degree. The forests and dungeons are full of creatures such as deer and mice, most of whom react to your characters in a realistic manner even though you can't interact with them. Between the galloping deer and the flowing streams, the game would seem like a relaxation video were it not for all the krug trying to kill you.
Now, I started with the graphics because that's one of the elements upon which MacSoft is focusing with this game. They're also pushing the "seamless world," which means that there's no loading between levels. Me? I don't so much mind loading between levels. It's like a break between chapters or a commercial. However, there's also something to be said for fluidity. In Dungeon Siege, you do get the idea that you're exploring one big area. The world seems a little more unified. There are brief pauses between some scenes (usually between indoor and outdoor scenes or between levels of the various caverns), but they were never more than a few seconds. In other words, you'll have to be fairly disciplined to quit this game since it doesn't really give you a good spot at which to do so. Of course, we also have to talk about the combat. Dungeon Siege allows you to amass and control up to eight characters, one of which can even be a pack mule if you like. You have full control over all of them, and each can be assigned to behave differently in battle situations. Hold ground, attack freely, be aggressive, be defensive, attack strongest, attack closest...it's the usual fare, but Dungeon Siege makes the best use of it I've seen. It's easy to set up the characters, and they actually seem to behave as they should. Unlike most RPGs, there has rarely been an occasion in Dungeon Siege where I've had to yell, "What the $@*% are you doing?" as one of my characters charged headlong into a pack of dark mucosa.
Working with a large party is surprisingly easy here, due mainly to the aforementioned intelligent AI along with the ability to assign different members into smaller groups. Also, it's surprisingly easy to transfer equipment from one member to another; you can open all eight inventories side by side and just drag and drop. If the two characters aren't standing close together, one will automatically run up to the other. Now, there are two other main elements that need to be addressed, but I'll save them for the full review in a month or so. First, there's the story. As I mentioned above, you play a common farmer who ends up having to save the kingdom, or something like that. So far, it's the usual fare. I haven't yet finished the game, though, so we'll see where that goes. All I can say for sure is that, at the moment, the fun of exploring the lush environments of Ehb is driving me ahead moreso than the story being told within that world.
How does that all work out? We'll let you know in our review of the retail version. The beta I've been playing has been very stable; not one crash. I've experienced some stuttering--even at more modest graphics settings--so we'll see if that's not smoothened out by the time it's released. The problem is, it'll be difficult for me to wait that long. I'm having a bit too much fun with Dungeon Siege, and I'm finding it difficult to stop playing it to wait for the retail version. But hey, that would give me more time to focus on the multiplayer component, so perhaps that would be a good thing. After all, I really should hurry up and find myself a dungeon to seize.
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In Dungeon Siege, you play a common farm hand in the world of Ehb. Ehb is the kind of place that's beautiful to explore and is just chock full of strategic points from which to launch mini-battles. When people think of medieval landscapes, they're thinking of Ehb, even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense geographically. What makes this work is that Ehb is lushly laid out, with dense forests, cramped caves, and towering keeps.
You'd think with the density of these trees and such that it might be difficult to find your way about. It is, and it isn't. It is because the worlds are vast, and there's not much to distinguish one area of a forest from another. It's not because the trees become transparent as you zoom in close, allowing you to see your character, enemies, or any goodies that may be lying behind them. All of this comes at a price in terms of system requirements, but there are the usual options for getting the game to run well on your system. Dungeon Siege will even display the frame rate for you so you can more accurately gauge how your system is doing.
The most interesting thing here, although it was a bit disconcerting at first, is that you don't roll up a character at the beginning of the game as you do in most other RPGs. In fact, all you can do to customize your character is choose the sex, name and appearance. I thought I'd missed something at first, but the reason soon became clear. Throughout the game, there are four classes of weapons you can use: melee, ranged, combat magic and nature magic. The more you use a weapon in a specific class, the better at that you become. If you want your character to excel in combat magic, simply have him or her use combat magic more often. If you want him or her to be more balanced, alter the weapons your character uses. The same deal applies to the other characters you add to your party throughout the game, although most of them have obvious strengths upon which you'll want to build. Likewise, characteristics such as intelligence, dexterity and strength (elements that determine which weapons, armor, etc. you can use), increase accordingly with your experience.
Second, there's the multiplayer component. This feature is working in the beta I've been testing, but, because it's a beta, there aren't many other Macintosh Dungeon Siege players out there waiting to go on quests with me. So, instead of offering my own thoughts, I'll offer MacSoft's: