Sunday, July 24, 2005

Dungeon Siege Demo

So I've been tinkering with the Dungeon Siege Demo over the last few hours, and I think I'm near the end of it. It's alright and certainly looks great for a 2002 PC game, however it's just so dang repative that I'm really bored with it.

It is very heavily Diablo based, however it seems to lack the innovative mindless gameplay of Diablo. The concepts and building blocks are pretty much the same [kill monster(s), pick up item(s), if item is better than what you have equip it, if not toss it on the ground], but I think the problem is the pacing.

In the Diablo series, you spend your time in forests, dungeons, tombs, etc., but you'd generally move quickly from place to place and each new area would generally have different styles of monsters to fight. In these style of games, all you do is massively click the left mouse button for hours on end, mindless but addictive. Diablo kept the pace fresh and changing while Dungeon Siege seems to throw the same old baddies at you again and again and again.

Essentially I've spent the whole game fighting through legions of Krugs, which seem to me as though they're wannabe Orcs.

One other problem I have is that your player character in Dungeon Siege is a simple farmer, who can immediately hack and slash creatures and even cast spells (like fire balls). Now that's some farmer! At least in Diablo you are a Warrior, Mage, Paladin, etc. You're a hero from the get go instead of peasant guy/gal.

The Party system in Dungeon Siege is interesting, though I found it needed a little more refining as my Party members would often stand around stupidly when I was attacked, even when I changed their AI settings to be more aggresive.

At this point, unless my opinions change, I won't bother picking the game up and'll just stick to the Diablo series for any hack and slash needs.

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