A cntury has passed since evil threatened the kingsom of Ehb. However, the peace is only short-lived, since a new evil has arrived. Again, it will be your task to make an end to this evil. That, or the Earth as we know it will be no more. It all started thousands of years ago. Zaramoth's armies clashed with the warriors of Azunai. For centuries the had fought an endless war, in which Zaramoth's sword and Azunai's shield were destined to clash with each other. Both weapons had tremendous powers, but in the end, Zaramoth's sword smashed Azunai's shield. The magical energy embedded in the shield thus escaped, and made a great chasm in the earth. Thus, the magical river trough which the souls of the dead flow is revealed, and as a result the souls of the warriors on the battlefield escape from their hosts and enter the river. Few are spared... but everything has changed. The desolate battlefield remaining marks the end of the first Age of men. From that time onward, the shield's magic has been spreading across the world. Everyone willing to could use the magic. But the supply is coming at an end. Almost every bit of magic that's left is being absorbed by the heir of a legend from the past. For the time being, he resides on the Plain of Tears, and everyone coöperating is being absorbed by his powers, and anyone who persists has no chance of survival. Thus, the circle shall close, and history will repeat itself -unless this evil is halted. If and how it is halted you will learn in Dungeon Siege II. Dungeon Siege II has been built on a special effects engine made in-house by Gas Powered Games. The rendering engine also got a facelift, and is now entirely compatible with DirectX 9.0. The first impressions are good: the graphics breath an atmosphere of old-school RPG's, and still are of a very high quality, but not in a manner you need a state-of-the-art computer to run it all smoothly. The sound is of no less quality: Gas Powered Games has tried to retain the atmosphere of a classic RPG. Dungeon Siege II will breath this atmosphere on several levels, but does not neglect typical elements from todays' games. An excellent combination -provided it will be developed well. The game is mainly controlled woth the mouse. This gives one the idea it is a point&click game, but that hasn't necessarily to be a negative point. It is still an RPG, so no building of houses or selecting armies to move them. Movement occurs by left clicking on the place where you want to send your character to. So you will never see more than your character can. The left mouse-button is used to move and talk to NPCs, the right one is used to attack your enemies. So the keyboard is only used for In order to start the game, you need to design your main character first. First thing to do is to choose between the four different races: Human, Dryad, Elf, Half-Giant. Each of the four races has distinct features. Humans are renowned for their adaptability, but also tend to be agressive: they get extra Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. Dryads, being more of a mystery, are creatures that originate from the times following the battle between Zaramoth and Azunai. Dryads have several physiological features that point their bond with nature. Down side of this is they are very impulsive. Dryad get extra Intelligence and even more Dexterity, but as a result have less Strength. Elves are, as they always were, busy with acquiring knowledge. Lore masters are the leaders of their communities, and thus elves are creatures with a large ammount of knowledge. Elves get as well more Dexterity as Intelligence. Last -but not least- are the Half-Giants, a race of large strong and sturdy beings. Their main advantage is the fact that they can grow much older than any of the other races, although no-one will notice: symptoms of old age become only prevalent a few months before death occurs. Beside the race, there are other things you can adjust your character: sex, face, hair (style and color) are all adjustable. Character ready? Then only thing left to do before you can start, is to choose the difficulty level: Mercenary for newbies to the game (level 0-39); Veteran for the experienced player (level 40-69); and Elite for the best of the best (level 70-100). Whichever fighting style suits you, it doesn't Nature Magic differs from Combat Magic by the fact that Nature Magic focuses on one enemy at a time. Accordingly, the power of the respective spell is less than a Combat Magic spell. An example of Nature Magic is the so-calles Ice Spell, which allows you to fire a shard of ice towards an enemy. As has been stated, Combat Magic is used to attack more enemies at a time, and is much more powerful than Nature Magic is. Example is the Earthquake Spell, which allows you to create a small earthquake -litterally. By fighting the array of monsters you encounter, you will gain experience. The more experience, the higher your level will get. The higher your level, the more powers you can learn. The best way to play is choose one of the several fighting styles, so you can become a master in that style. Ofcourse, you could also try to use a second style, as a means to create a more versatile character. While fighting, not only your experience will increase: your Power Bar will do like-wise. The Power Bar is used to recharge your specoal powers. A power is some special movement, trick or force, which can only be attained if you have acquired a certain level. The higher your level, the more and the better your powers. Once a power has been used, you need to fight those monsters again to recharge it. Keep this in mind, since those powers can turn the tide of a battle. You also have a Health Bar and a Mana Bar. The Health Bar is used to check on your health, and alert you when you are about to faint. Characters cannot die, only faint when their health reaches zero. In the case all party-members are unconscious, you have to start anew from your last checkpoint. The Mana Bar is used when casting spells: upon casting a spell, you lose some mana. When your Mana Bar becomes empty (or in case there isn't enough mana left to cast a spell), you need to wait until you have attained enough mana to cast spells again. Both bars can be refilled with potions you find on your way trough the world. A singleplayer campaign always guarantees alot of fun -up to the moment you have finish it. Granted, you could try to play the game again, although we advise you to go for the multiplayer: Dungeon Siege II has a better multiplayer than its predecessor, with a total of three new features added to the original. First of all you now can control your own party: so this time you can also control more characters in multiplayer. Second feature is the fact that every player gets his or her own distinct bonuses for a quest, so no more arguing over who should get which rare item. Last feature is the fact that this time around, you can also save and reload games within multiplayer. Teamply is very important in the different parts of the world. In some parts of the world you can smash the monsters with your own party, in other part however, such is well-nigh impossible. As a result, you have much more to micromanage as a player: the Invemtory and your Spellbook for example have become far more extensive since the last game. [This message has been edited by Theris264 (edited 04-18-2005 @ 07:25 PM).]
Theris264
former Age of Mythology Heaven and Age of Empires III Heaven forumer||former member of Ambition Designs
"An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind" -Gandhi