Dungeon Seige

Dis · April 10, 2002, 21:11

Does anyone have it?

Recommend it?

Dis · April 10, 2002, 21:32

I played a little bit over my brother's house.

The graphics are unbelievable. What else can I say. But do graphics make a game?

The gameplay looks a little bit weak. And I'm not sure I like the skill system, I wish it was a bit more complex. 4 different areas seems to little.

The sound is excellent, although a little cluttered during combat. There is all sorts of things going on.

But the game looks amazing.

General Ludd · April 10, 2002, 21:50

1) It's a hack'n'slash, don't get it if you are looking for an RPG with substance - heck, it's got less story then Diablo.

2) As you said, it has good graphics.

3) I didn't try multiplayer, but I personally think the single player game stinks, once you get more then one person combat becomes a real pain in the ass - there is next to no AI at all for your party members.

The combat can be fun when you only have one person to control, though.

Dis · April 10, 2002, 22:50

well I do enjoy Diablo. So a game doesn't have to have that much story if it makes up for it in other areas.

combat did seem difficult to control. but the AI seemed pretty good actually. All my characters were healed when they reached 1/2 hit points, as long as I stayed within a tight group. but controlling combat yourself seemed silly. The best I could do is control one character and have the others on auto. They did a pretty good job dispatching the monsters. But then it seemed kind of boring, just watching your guys kill everything without lifting a finger. It is like a RTS in that regards. Not enough direct interaction. Multiplayer may be better in that regards.

I don't think I'll get it now, maybe if it gets discounted in a year or two.

Grumbold · April 11, 2002, 06:47

Maybe I'm misremembering this, but wasn't Dungeon Seige supposed to emphasise dungeon construction, so you were supposed to be designing a place then in real time marshalling your defences as other players tried to break in and steal your riches? I.e. Dungeon Keeper done differently with the option of becoming the attackers of someone elses design? Now that its firmly focussing on attacking other peoples work and only promising a tool that will eventually allow you to design a new dungeon offline before anyone plays it, it sounds like the feature cutters have ripped its guts out in order to get anything releasable on the market.

Grumbold · April 16, 2002, 05:16

Its getting great reviews but all the screenshots make it look like Gauntlet with masses of eye candy graphics for those with the hardware to support it. Anyone tried it yet?

Dis · April 16, 2002, 14:47

yeah like I said I played it on my brother's computer. But only for about 15 minutes.

Amazingly the hardware recomendations on the box aren't all that high. The highest requirement is a 8 MG 3D video card. The processor req. was only like 300 MHZ. 1 Gig hard drive space

and 128 megs of Ram. My brother's computer isn't all that impressive except he does have a Voodoo 5 video card. The game worked flawlessly on his system.

So that is a good testiment to the graphics. They designed the graphics so well that it doesn't take a high end computer to run.

But the depth didn't look all that great. And the combat wasn't all that interesting. Most of the characters had to be on auto for single player because you have like 6 characters. It really only seems feasible to control one mage (I use that term loosely as there are no classes in this game- but I mean combat magic caster).

Multiplayer could be more interesting, I didn't try it out. In fact multiplayer probably is the best thing about this game.

But again the graphics are amazing. The reviews don't give the ai high marks. But compared to other RPG's the ai is decent. They stage ambushes all the time, and sometimes they retreat and get more of their buddies to help them in battles.

I do love the pack mule though. I think that is a cool addition for a rpg. Too bad it doesn't make noises. Maybe have a donkey that kicks your characters

. But the mule will kick to defend itself if it is cornered by monsters. But usually it will try to run away.

Grumbold · April 17, 2002, 06:59

Is there anything to do except click'n'kill, loot, level, repeat? All these high review scores yet you and Jeff Morris seem to be the only Apolytoners to voice an opinion and neither seem impressed. Anyone else tried it?

I am quite a fan of the Majesty game where you only influence your heroes, never actively control them, but you are placing the buildings, hiring the troops and casting the sovereign spells so its still involving.

Mike Breitkreutz FIRAXIS · April 17, 2002, 10:03

I haven't played single-player at all but I've played quite a bit of the multiplayer and I like it a lot. The multiplayer "campaign" doesn't work as well as a single-player campaign because when you quit out, it doesn't save the state of the world. Also, you can't have packmules in multiplayer which isn't so good. The experience point system is really well done. You gain experience in the skill you are using, so if you kill a monster with a sword, you gain melee experience. If you use a bow, you gain ranged experience. You don't choose a character class in the normal manner and instead grow into the class that suits your play-style. I like being able to mix a magic class with a fighter class. I also like the 3D interface. They did a good job making the camera control intuitive.

I believe the gameplay is quite similar to Diablo but I never played Diablo. And Dungeon Siege looks a lot nicer than Diablo.

Dis · April 17, 2002, 18:13

unfortunately I didn't have time to get into the meat of the game and see how the quests were. I'll have to check on that. All I did was move around and fight monsters

.

Urban Ranger · April 17, 2002, 22:58

I imagine it'd kinda hard to have a multiplayer campaign as all those players must be present whether the campaign is restored.

General Ludd · April 17, 2002, 23:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I imagine it'd kinda hard to have a multiplayer campaign as all those players must be present whether the campaign is restored.

Nah, there's no roleplaying involved so you just go from game to game killing stuff, geting items, and gaining levels - like diablo.

I don't think there are any randomly generated levels, though.

Imran Siddiqui · April 19, 2002, 19:21

I'm playing the demo.

It is like Diablo... but you control a party. That gets unwieldy and thankfully you can pause, but the combat has much less strategy than say Baldur's Gate.

It almost seems like an interactive movie, sometimes. A lot of the game (with a party) you watch the fighting until it is over. Some of it can be interesting, and there are some quests.

The graphics are great, and there is no loading between levels... which is utterly amazing.

All in all, enjoyable for a bit, but not worth $50.

Urban Ranger · April 20, 2002, 03:00

Just like Diablo? I might as well go for a game of Quake instead.

Imran Siddiqui · April 20, 2002, 04:49

Basically, UR.

Hell, it was a fun demo... but I'll wait until it falls to $20.00 (US) or something. Hopefully the demo of Jedi Knight II comes out soon. I've only bought 1 FPS (No One Lives Forever), but if JK2 is good, perhaps I'll get a 2nd one... er, maybe not (just though about Morrowind coming out

).

ravagon · April 22, 2002, 01:05

Its just been released here (for a cool $100

) and I was interested in knowing exactly how big the thing is - in comparison to say D2 or BG2 for example? Anyone finished it yet?
Also are there (present or scheduled for the future) any editor-type thingummies for player maps/characters/beasties/items, etc?
cheers

Grumbold · April 22, 2002, 08:32

It *seems* pretty big and the reviews have noted as much, so I would expect it to be on a par with D2. Its not worth comparing to Baldurs Gate because the playing emphasis is totally different. The character interaction is minimal, your party never speak, never rest, just swig down a potion and keep on smiting. "Quests" are simply provided as reasons to keep going in the only direction provided. The only times you stop fighting are to sell your loot (to get cash to hire more members or buy maybe one or two things you haven't found already) or to run away because you pulled too many monsters at once.

Its a good-looking dungeon bashing experience, but once your team gets big you can't afford to zoom in and do the graphics justice. My only other complaint so far is that the party will get fragmented if you try to run back to town at any speed. You can't go more than 20 paces forward without meeting another horde of monsters, so its only a problem when running home to sell loot....but its very annoying to discover when your leader gets to the shop that the mule and a couple of slow walkers are stranded halfway over the mountain pass because they stopped following. If you thought Diablo was great then this is probably even better. If you prefer some role play in your RPG then you will be disappointed. There's the occasional lever or exploding chest (doesn't seem to do damage) but otherwise its entirely puzzle free, conversation free slashing.

No editor tools are available or coming to the best of my knowledge.

Dis · April 23, 2002, 02:39

just an update:

my brother said they are supposed to release an editor. So there might be some interesting mods that come about.

ravagon · April 23, 2002, 05:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Dissident
my brother said they are supposed to release an editor. So there might be some interesting mods that come about.

(Dissident's brother's word being sacrosanct of course

)

And thank you Grumbold. In most cases I tend to prefer character interactions/storylines (the lack of which was one thing I disliked about TA) but every so often a D2-like hack'n'slash is quite appealing.

Jethro83 · April 28, 2002, 02:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Dissident
my brother said they are supposed to release an editor. So there might be some interesting mods that come about.

There are some excellent Ultima remakes being made as mods for Dungeon Siege. I'd get Dungeon Siege just to be able to play them, being a huge Ultima fan.

OT: Whoohoo! WARLORD! Only 400 posts before I get my custom avatar!!!

Asher · April 28, 2002, 02:53

I love Dungeon Siege. Looks great and is one of those GREAT games to play with a bunch of friends into the wee hours of the morning. Hack-n-slash ala D2.

I can't wait till lots of games coming out for the Siege Editor, which is supposed to be amazing.

Asher · April 28, 2002, 02:59

Oh, and I don't think this was mentioned.
DS is a very different game in SP and MP.

There's an entirely different world available for MP games. You can play through the original SP world in both SP and MP, but the MP world is just as large, completely different (new story line too). Not to mention all of the new maps and mods that'll come out when the Siege Editor gets released.

Dis · April 29, 2002, 04:40

I just don't like the spell system, or the melee skill system for that matter. The graphics are unbelievable though.

FrustratedPoet · April 29, 2002, 04:54

Yeah, the graphics are pretty nice.

The thing that really bugs me about the spell system is that there are only two slots for spells to go in the quick-bar.
How hard would it have been to make the four quick-bar slots customisable? That way I wouldn't have my pure-nature mage being forced to reserve two slots for a ranged and melee weapon he'll never use...

Dis · April 29, 2002, 04:56

yeah that 2 slot thing looks annoying.

Hot Keys dammit!!!

who knows, maybe they will fix that.

ravagon · April 29, 2002, 05:20

Quote:

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
The thing that really bugs me about the spell system is that there are only two slots for spells to go in the quick-bar.
How hard would it have been to make the four quick-bar slots customisable?

Still though, with the pause you can swap your spells at will. A bit of a nuisance sure but not game-breaking.

I haven't been able to get any sounds working as yet and in spite of this I'm rather enjoying it anyway.

FrustratedPoet · April 29, 2002, 05:28

yeah ... that's true, but i always forget to pause it ...
that's what happens if you play 1000 hours of Diablo II and only 2 hours of Baldur's Gate i suppose. i just can't get rid of my hack'n'slash mentality.

dunk · May 3, 2002, 13:54

Quote:

Originally posted by LordAzreal
There are some excellent Ultima remakes being made as mods for Dungeon Siege. I'd get Dungeon Siege just to be able to play them, being a huge Ultima fan.

I ordered DS the other day because of these. WOO HOO!! I know of a U5 remake and a U6 remake with Dungeon Siege, a U1 remake that's a total custom project and looks spectacular, and of course Exult for U7 and SI. Are there others out there?

Quote:

Originally posted by LordAzreal
OT: Whoohoo! WARLORD! Only 400 posts before I get my custom avatar!!!

I just got bumped up with 300 total posts to Prince.

Now I get a custom avatar. Yay. Now, I have to find one to use.

dunk · May 3, 2002, 14:07

Oh, you need 500 posts.