Dungeon Siege II continues the story of the series and offers plenty of improvements over the original Dungeon Siege game alongside familiar action role playing gameplay mechanics. Released in 2005 with a 2006 expansion (Broken World) it’s been 3 years since your first adventure into the fantasy game world with players once again fighting against evil with a party of adventurers.
The game revolves around the war against Valdis with players originally fighting for the evil Valdis as a mercenary in the opening cutscene and introductory tutorial. In this tutorial players are ordered to take over a temple in his great name which sees many die in the combat that ensues. This is just one of many battles that Valdis is starting across the land with his allegiance to a race of Dark Wizards leading to him consider himself a warlord with his magical Sword of Zaramoth.
After players capture the temple for Valdis though he refuses to pay for your mercenary services that have been rendered and instead he attacks your mercenary group which leave you knocked unconscious while your close friend Drevin is killed. Some time later players awake to find they are captive of the dryads who decide to let the player earn their freedom by fighting on the side of good against Valdis after hearing your story. From here the player unravels the mysteries of the game world and attempts to defeat Valdis for revenge which will save the world from chaos in turn.
Like the original Dungeon Siege adventure players need not adventure alone with the recruitment of NPCs with their own personalities, story, attributes and fighting styles joining the player to create an adventuring party. With a base party size of 4 that grows to 5 or 6 depending on your choice of difficulty level there is plenty of variation to how you develop your team and utilise their strengths in combat. This party can be NPCs that players meet in the storyline, hired NPCs or pets which have growth based on the items you feed them.
Party combat strength is derived from the four base game class specialties of melee, ranged, nature magic and combat magic that have their own skills that make each character optimised for a particular task. This was further expanded in the Broken World expansion with two additional classes that serve as hybrid combinations and allow players to unlock the power of multi-classing which while available in the base game was not particularly effective.
As a basic example your melee orientated character will have access to skills such as critical strike, fortitude, dual wield, toughness, reinforced armour, smite and deadly strike that as the names suggest ensure you have a durable melee fighter that is deadly in close combat. With your skills enhanced further with unique powers you’ll find the combat system of Dungeon Siege II similar to other games in the genre with a greater focus on active engagement compared to the original Dungeon Siege that automated much of combat. Because players can switch between their active party member at any time players can play every class at some point in their adventure which also means you’ll never get bored of your class again.
Summary:
- Builds on the original Dungeon Siege formula with a focus on refining the mechanics.
- Impressive class options with plenty of skill depth across 4 classes of melee, ranged, nature magic and combat magic.
- Create your own party and swap between party members as you see fi with larger party sizes for higher difficulty levels.
- Develop your party characters with a large range of equipment, powers and skill choices.
- A lengthy and interesting campaign to follow that has you fighting against evil across several fantasy locations.
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Review Platform: PC