Dungeon Siege
Description official descriptions
Located in the corner of the Aranna continent, the Kingdom of Ehb has recently gained independence following a prolonged war. One day, a small farming community is attacked by a band of wild creatures known as Krug. One of the farmers has to venture to the neighboring town of Stonebridge to seek help. During his travels he finds out that an even greater peril is threatening the land, and must find a way to stop it.
Dungeon Siege is a role-playing game sharing many similarities with Diablo. It is heavily combat-oriented and emphasizes item-gathering and gradual building up of the protagonist for purely battle-related purposes. The game's linear progression is determined by quests that send the protagonist to newer areas. Combat is handled in a point-and-click fashion; when the player character fights alone, it resembles the action-based fights of Diablo. However, other characters may join the party as well, at which point combat flows in real time, somewhat similarly to the semi-automated party battles of Ultima VII. It is possible to build formations and assign basic tactics to the party as well. When a character's health drops to zero, it becomes unconscious, and if left alone it will regenerate back to life. Other party members can speed up the healing process with spells. On the other hand if the enemies keep attacking the character will eventually die, and only resurrection spells can bring it back from the dead.
Unlike other role-playing games, there are no classes, but characters can improve up to four skills: melee, ranged, nature magic and combat magic. Advancing in a skill is done by simply using it. The characters become better at melee attacks if they fight with melee weapons, they can master nature magic if they cast nature spells, and so on. Using a skill will automatically improve one of three attributes: strength (necessary for melee), dexterity (ranged) or intelligence (magic).
Spellings
- 地牢围攻 - Simplified Chinese spelling
- 末日危城 - Traditional Chinese spelling
Groups +
- Diablo variants
- Dungeon Siege series
- Fantasy creatures: Dragons
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Goblins
- Fantasy creatures: Trolls
- Gameplay feature: Armor / weapon sets
- Games made into comics
- Games made into movies
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Software Pyramide releases
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
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Credits (Windows version)
220 People (179 developers, 41 thanks) · View all
Designer and Project Leader | |
Producer and Designer | |
Technical Lead | |
Art Director | |
Engineering | |
Network Admin. and Assistant Producer | |
Concept Artist | |
Terrain and World Modelling | |
Animation, Modelling and Texturing | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 84% (based on 52 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 111 ratings with 11 reviews)
Diablo hack and slash fun - for a while
The Good
DS is good hack and slash fun. The graphics are done very well; pathing is reasonable; sounds and music are done well. I like the 'classless' system, whereby any character can become strong in any skill just by using it.
The Bad
...but after a while, this game just gets really repetitious and boring. Yeah, Diablo did as well... but Diablo (1) was breaking new ground, and this isn't. Perhaps my tolerance for this sort of thing is just lower now.
An additional problem is that after playing MMPORGs like EverQuest, the monsters in DS seem like automatons. In EQ terms, everything is a static spawn with a fixed aggro radius. This means that the monsters just stand there until you get within a certain distance or attack them, then they come after you. This makes it easy to inch forward and kill them a few at a time... but is inching through a huge dungeon for hours on end really fun?
The Bottom Line
Diablo with improved graphics, a better character development system, and the same repetitious gameplay.
Windows · by Doug Walker (35) · 2002
Doesn't quite live up to potential.
The Good
The graphics are pretty, not quite as good as I would have hoped, but still nice. The gameplay has that nice "familiar" feel to it so you never really are at a loss of what to do. The Hack 'n Slash, get reward formula is alive and well.
The Bad
Very bland if almost non existent plot. Character development is absolutely uninvolving. The character/NPC's have no personality at all. The gameplay gets dull way too quickly. That same "familiar" feel that makes the gameplay comfortable initially is also a negative because it offers nothing new to the game.
The Bottom Line
I hate to make the reference, but it's Diabloesque gaming to a somewhat enjoyable degree.
Windows · by gilgamex (120) · 2002
Diablo meets Hexplore. Stunning looks, simple and fun - just don't take it too seriously.
The Good
Firstly, it looks absolutely superb. Personally, I'm more interested in how it plays than how it looks, but this game is simply breath-taking. Sure, if you get close you'll notice that the characters and critters are a little simplistic, and some of the textures are a little repetitive, but the overall look of the game is stunning. The transitions between outside and cellar actually took my breath away - honestly. Plus you also get gently falling snow, sunbeams in the caverns, accurate shadows of the characters, and so on. I love the way the trees fade away to let you see through them when your guys get close.
After you get over the look of it, you'll find that there's a competent if simplistic hack 'n slash underneath. Most reviewers seem to like comparing it to Diablo and Baldur's Gate, but I think Hexplore is a better comparison. BG is a little too involved, a little too serious. This is far simpler, like Hexplore with less puzzles.
The story-line is not too involving, in fact you could describe it as optional. You collect books on the way which you can read to flesh out the story. Or you can just charge through and hit everything that moves. A nice touch.
I can't really comment on the sound and music. I always turn music off in games, and I have the sounds low enough so I can still hear the TV. Yeah, that's right, it's one of those games. Wind down after a hard days work with Dungeon Siege and endless repeats of The Simpsons.
The Bad
It's very linear. You start the story on your farm and head off to the nearest town. You naturally follow the path, but if try to wander off you'll realise that you can't get very far at all. There is the occasional small area/dungeon to explore and loot, but you can complete the game fine without ever leaving the straight and narrow. If you imagine the third area of Diablo II (the swamps) and you'll get the picture. Also, even if you read the "optional" story-line, you'll see it isn't up to much. It's there, but it's not why you play the game.
Another thing I didn't like was the lack of an overall map. There is a map function, but it's really only a top-down view at far zoom. While this is fine for basic navigation, if you get lost (very hard to do) or think you've missed something (quite easy) there's not much you can do about it - you'll just have to wander round or re-walk everywhere and hope.
The Bottom Line
If you liked Diablo, then you'll probably like this. The same goes for Hexplore. Forget the comparisons to Baldur's Gate and other RPGs. This is not an RPG game. It's a pretty-but-dumb-hack-'n-slash-adventure. And that's all. Don't take it too seriously and you'll have a lot of fun!
Windows · by Steve Hall (329) · 2002
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Dungeon Siege appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Awards
- GameSpy
- 2002 – Tech W'd Like To See More Of Award (for its missing loading times)
Online servers
The game's online servers (which were hosted on MSN Gaming Zone) were shut down on 19 June 2006 in the wake of MSN Games' shift from "CD-ROM matchmaking service" to casual online games.
For unknown reasons, the Steam and GOG.com releases of the game has the multiplayer menu entirely disabled, despite LAN functionality not being affected. Running the game with the zonematch=true command-line argument bypasses this.
Analytics
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Related Sites +
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Building a Better RPG
An Apple Games article about the Mac version of Dungeon Siege, with commentary provided by Writer Neal Hallford (March, 2003). -
Dungeon Siege Planet
English fansite. -
Hints for Dungeon Siege
Designed to give you just as much information as you need, these hints will help you solve the game without spoiling it. -
Planet Dungeon Siege
All things Dungeon Siege.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by phlux.
Macintosh added by Corn Popper.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Apogee IV, Dave Mednick, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.
Game added March 31, 2002. Last modified March 6, 2024.