Dungeon Siege

aka: Di Lao Wei Gong
Moby ID: 6088
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/29 4:05 AM )

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 +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

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)

Hack and slash RPG brilliance but at a cost.

The Good
I love RPG's. But I hate turn based, or as I like to call them, luck based RPG's. Many would say that I'm not a true RPG fan if I don't enjoy the fundamental elements of 12 sided dice, pen and paper battles and didn't spend my school lunch times hunched over a table surrounded by statistics but so what? I like my action realtime and my fighting furious and as such games like Dungeon Siege were made for RPG fans like me. An epic quest played out in realtime with beautiful lush graphics and a stirring orchestral score sounds like a dream come true, and in many ways it is. I'm a big fan of Diablo but the thing that always bugged me about it was that I never really felt like I was going anywhere. Even in the sequel, the different locations were more like several separate versions of Diablo 1. Dungeon Siege has the answer to this because the journey is all there is. Going from place to place you really feel like you're in a huge world and with over 40 hours of game time there's no question that you are abiet a virtual one. The outdoor areas are stunning to look at. Light filters through the trees, bushes rustle and critters scamper. Of course there are loads of dungeons as well which also look very nice but it's the outdoor areas which really shine. Game play is very Diablo-esque. Controlled primarily with the mouse and a smattering of hotkeys you guide yourself and up to seven companion characters through the world hacking, shooting and blasting every enemy in sight. Every now and again you'll encounter a boss creature that takes a lot of hacking to kill and there are items and weapons etc to find along the way in droves. Characters can be leveled up however you see fit so anyone can become an archer, warrior or magician if you train them in that direction. This is done as simply as using a character in the profession you'd like them to choose making stats and so on very easy to manage. Towns are of course here too and contain all the expected places to buy equipment, listen to gossip or recruit more companions. You can even buy a pack mule to carry all your stuff, adding even further to the adventurous feel of the game.

The Bad
The story is basic and horribly under-developed. Your characters have no character. They just are, while any vague story elements are usually conveyed in books which makes the whole world seem almost optional. The traveling element has been over done I must admit. You never find yourself stopping for more than a few moments and once you leave somewhere you never return making it impossible to form any kind of attachment to the world and its inhabitants. Control at times can be awkward thanks to the lack of any kind of running keys to control your characters. You have to click on the ground where you want your party to go and you can't just hold the button to keep them running ala Summoner. This often leads you to click on the wrong thing and have half your party go the wrong way.

The Bottom Line
A very good hack and slash RPG but with little more than consistent fighting involved. Old school hardcore RPG'ers may find it a bit basic.

Windows · by Sycada (177) · 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

It could've been better....

The Good
Well where to start? The environments are beautiful and colorful. When you walk into a town you actually feel like your in this town. And the armor and weapons are in one word,wonderful. Awesome design and texture and cool names. The ability to gain followers is awesome and the sure fact it supports multiplayer is amazing. Play online and just show how much you rock. And the most fun I had was buying a donkey and overloading him.

The Bad
The things I thought could be better are that the shops sell armor so expensive that you have to kill for hours just to get armor to learn you can't even wear it. And sometimes they put high leveled enemies for when your only low level.

The Bottom Line
An overall awesome gaming experience. All fans of these kind of RPGs should definitely try it. Though I found it a little time consuming and not fun enough.

Windows · by Lord Dayin (9) · 2007

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

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

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Dungeon Siege II
Released 2005 on Windows
Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna
Released 2003 on Windows
Besiege
Released 2015 on Windows, 2022 on Xbox One, Xbox Series...
Space Siege
Released 2008 on Windows
Siege Survival: Gloria Victis
Released 2021 on Windows
Square Dungeon
Released 2021 on Windows
Steel Dungeon
Released 2018 on Windows
Darkest Dungeon
Released 2015 on Windows, 2015 on Macintosh, 2016 on Linux...
Dungeon Lords
Released 2005 on Windows

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 6088
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

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.