State of the Forums

Moderator: Stomper

This week I found myself rather busy, not only in my personal life but in my online and offline gaming life as well. The long awaited Dungeon Siege (Microsoft) game hit the stores last Friday. Although I did not reserve a copy, I did manage to buy one off of the shelves. This little event is what I would like to delve into today.

Pre-sales or Reserve Copy: What's the point? I live in a fairly large city (Portland, Oregon) and I have never had to reserve a copy of any game that's come out. There has always been more than enough on the shelves for me to walk down to the store and buy the evening that it comes out. I see this idea of pre-sales or reserve copies as a pure marketing strategy to insure a level of commitment by the public to purchase their software. Is this good or bad? Neither, in my opinion, but I do find it funny when people are urging me to reserve a copy as if I won't be able to actually buy it if I don't. Maybe I've just been lucky in where I live.

The second item I'd like to discuss is the actual game and my first weekend experience with it and a comparison of it with Diablo II.

• Characters: Pre-made character: You can choose various skins, which is kind of nice, but each person starts out the exact same way. However, where you go from there is up to you. Gender does not play a role. I found that I actually enjoyed this aspect versus Diablo, as I was not locked into one specific path, meaning I can choose to become a fighter-mage hybrid or just one of either. But, I'll get into class specifics in a second.
  
  
• Classes: Dungeon Siege really has no [concrete] classes. Instead, it opts to use four basic skill sets that you can become efficient in as you use them. So, Diablo and DS, in this aspect, really cannot be compared. One has them, the other doesn't.
  
  
• Skills: Dungeon Siege has four basic skills: Melee, Ranged, Nature Magic, and Combat Magic. How often you use various weapons or spells will determine on how quickly you will level in each of these areas. In this, Diablo definitely has the advantage. Diablo has a much wider variety of skill sets that can be chosen from and mingled to produce a variety of sub-classes, where DS is very bland. Yes, I said bland. There's no such thing as leveling up a particular spell; you find the spell and you are a level four Combat Mage, so you cast it, period. This will make for very little differentiation between actual characters in later stages of the game.
  
  
• Combat: Dungeon Siege uses a point and click methodology for combat, but nowhere near the interaction enjoyed by Diablo. DS has a greater story line that it follows, and much like Baldur's Gate; this is where it surpasses Diablo II. Once you click on an action, you can just sit back and watch the battle enfold without interacting at all (except maybe to push the hot key for drinking a potion). This lacks excitement. Diablo II has a much better combat system.
  
  
• Story Line: As mentioned above, the story line of Dungeon Siege (so far as I've gotten) is very good. It is very well thought out and applied, and very similar in feel to Baldur's Gate. In comparison to the Diablo series, I'd have to say that DS has done a much better job at the story line.
  
  
• NPCs: This is where I find that Dungeon Siege really adds value. The ability to meet NPCs (Non Player Characters) along the way and add [certain ones] to your party is great! They include not only the ones you can adventure with, but the ones you can meet in town, in the woods, in broke down farmsteads, and many other locations. They are all over the place and serve to really make the storyline good. The ones that can join your party are also a very nice touch. It allows you to specialize your skills and allow others to fill in the gaps. Overall, DS has much better NPC quality.
  
  
• Landscape: [Gas Powered Games] did a fantastic job of creating a good environment to adventure within. There are great changes in scenery with excellent interaction and movement, from the swaying of trees to the deer that run away if you get to close. I love the elevation differences and how you traverse from one area to the next. And, talk about cool screen changes: When going up or down into a building, the walls fade in and out around you seamlessly, giving you absolutely no load time between areas; it is very nice. In addition, it features much better graphics than Diablo II.
  
  
• Multiplayer: Dungeon Siege uses the [Microsoft] ZONE as its multi-player online network facilitator. I found that it is fairly easy to navigate, and provided a lot of nice features. You do need to actually log into a game to see the details behind that game, but that is very nice, as you can determine from the game options if it is to your liking.
  
  I do wish they would provide ping information, though. I am running on a 56K modem, so ping time information is very valuable. I found that I couldn't be effective in games that had more than four players; too much lag was produced and I frequently found myself stalled for periods that exceeded thirty seconds. I'd point and click, wait, move, point and click, wait, move, and so on. It was so frustrating that I eventually changed my melee character over to a ranged one just so I could actually participate in the combat a little.
  
  The best part of the multiplayer options is the ability to set up rules. For example, players drop equipped items, all items, or no items when they die. The best option, by far, is the ability to turn off or on Player vs. Player mode. For me, an advocate for the banishment of PKing, I love this option!
  
  How does the multiplayer compare overall? Diablo II still has my vote, since the lag on Battle.net was a lot better for me. If I can somehow reduce that lag issue, though, Dungeon Siege would get my vote because of the game options.