: Breath of Death VII

Breath of Death VII is game by Zeboyd Games, released in 2011. It's a parody of old-school JRPG type games, particularly from the NES and SNES-era. The name itself is a reference to the Breath of Fire series, while the game-play is more similar to Dragon Quest (a series of games i unfortunately haven't played much, as I have never been able to find proper English versions of the games).

Story

Game World

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where there are no more living humans, and the undead have taken over and become civilized. Unlike what you'd expect from a world like that, the towns and such are actually real towns, and not just ruins from the "old world". It's a bit funny walking around a nice town, full of flowers and stuff, talking to ghost, ghouls and skeletons. I like it, though, it's different.

A nice little town, inhabited by the undead.

Main Quest

The thing about the main quest, is that you never really know what it is. You basically go through the game, just following the directions it gives you, and then the end comes and you're done. I mean, I got the feeling that I was getting to end, but there was no indications of it in the dialogue or anything. But to be quite honest, it doesn't matter. I will say, though, that the way it ended was rather unexpected.

Side Quests

There doesn't seem to be any real side-quests in this game, but there are several side-paths you can take, that will generally reward you with some sort of treasure. These side-paths can be easily overlooked, unless you're the type to explore every single nook and cranny of the game world. It's highly recommended to to that, as these treasures are usually very useful.

Presentation

Graphics

While I am generally a big fan of SNES-style graphics, this game looks very boring. There's way too little variation in the surroundings, which can be very disorienting at times when walking through long caves and such with multiple path choices. I know that this is an indie game, created by only two guys from what I can see... But it just looks very uninspired. Just a few variations here and there would've made a huge difference, but I guess that would've meant a lot more time spent designing sprites.

It just feels very bland and uninspired.

Sound

When it comes to sound, and particularly music, this game falls way short. The music, while initially very nice, at least for an indie title, quickly becomes very repetitive and boring. The fact that the same music is used over and over again for different areas doesn't make it any better. The sounds are very generic, but they're mostly there to have some audible hint of what's happening. I barely even notice them, though. But this is an indie game, so I guess you shouldn't expect too much.

Gameplay

Battle-screen, Dragon Quest vs Breath of Death VII.

There's not really much to say about the gameplay. The battle is what you'd expect from a JRPG, and if you've played Dragon Quest it'll seem very familiar. The battle is rather difficult, though. Not right away, the first few levels are rather easy, but then suddenly it turns rather difficult. By the time you get the third (of four) party member, each battle needs some real strategy. Either that or empty your mana pools completely. 

Or maybe I just needed to grind more, I don't know. =P 

The level-up system is rather interesting. All four characters have their specific roles, to a certain extent. But every time you gain a level, you get to choose between two "level-up packages". You get a default amount of HP and MP, then the game gives you a choice, which can be anything from choosing between two sets of extra stats, to choosing between different new spells, or even different variants of the same spell, or passive bonuses. It's a nice touch.

Two examples of level-up choices.

One other things to mention about the battles, is that you have a combo counter. Normal attacks and most offensive abilities will increase the combo counter based on the amount of hits they do. A select few abilities will get increased damage the higher the counter gets, but will also reset the counter when you used them. Other spells, like Heal, will reset the counter without gaining any benefit from it, which makes the battles even more strategic

Conclusion 

This game is... All right. It has some interesting mechanics in the combat that I like, that makes it interesting, but the battles get very repetitive very fast. Adding to that the fact that both the music and the graphics, while initially nice, also get very repetitive and boring very fast, I have to say that I'm not very impressed by this. I've enjoyed playing it, but it's not amazing in any way. The parody-humour isn't too much to talk about either.

I give this game a 4 out of 10. 

I wouldn't be either. =P

: Thoughts on Diablo III pre-launch.

Needless to say, the release of Diablo III is one of the biggest events when it comes to gaming this year. It's been so long waiting for this, and I can't wait to have the game in my hands. Or at least to be able to install and play it, as I'll hopefully have the game in my hands a day or two earlier. But there are a few things that sort of bother me about what I know about the game.

Always on DRM

That is what the need for constant connection to Battle.net to even play in single player actually is, and anyone trying to say otherwise is... Naive, at best. I mean, yes, there is the thing about cross-game chat and all that stuff, but that should really be optional. Needing to go online to activate the game and register the CD-key and all that, that's fine. But after that, there's really no point in them requiring you to be online to play in single player. I don't know what other features than cross-game chat that comes with being connected to Battle.net in single player, but I'm sure I can do fine without them. I did in Diablo II, so why not now?

Part of me really hopes that on release, the servers will crash so hard that they're forced to revert this, and allow single player without connection to Battle.net. This is highly unlikely, though, considering their experience with World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, which has the same type of DRM, but I can dream, can't I?

The other part of me just really wants to play the game. =P

Too simplified character development?

There has been some rumors lately that Blizzard has purposely gone in and simplified the gameplay in Diablo III because they're preparing for a port to consoles. I don't know if this is true, but from what I've heard and read from people who've actually played the game in different states of development, the game has actually become quite a lot more simplified since it was was first announced, particularly when it comes to skill management. I really don't know if this is a good or a bad thing.

On the positive side, the way things work now, you can basically switch your entire spec in just a few clicks. If you've played as a frost-specced wizard the entire game, you can just change a few things and suddenly you're fire-specced. No need to create an entirely new character to play another specialization. On the negative side, this means that there are few to none really meaningful choices when it comes to creating and developing your character. It's all just given to you, and you can just pick and choose what you want to use, and repick at no cost if you're not happy with what you've got. I'd like it better if they had used some sort of re-training system. Like in Titan Quest, where you need to go to an NPC and pay them to remove the unwanted skills.

Removal/postponing of features

It has also been said that quite a few features that was announced at some point, has later been removed from the game. I'm trying to find a comprehensive list of these features, but so far haven't been able to do so. I have, however, found a few featured that was once either announced or in the game, but has since been either scrapped entirely, or pushed back to post-release.

The first one I found was the Talisman. I hadn't heard about this one, but after reading a bit about it, it sounds really sweet. I can't really understand why they decided to remove it. Basically, this is what would have replaced the classic charms from Diablo II. The Talisman was a separate inventory that could only contain charms, which in this case looks like they're parts of enemies you've killed rather than... Whatever the charms in Diablo II were. You'd fill the available slots in the Talisman (I'm assuming the slots would unlock as you level up, or something, I've seen screenshots where some slots seem to be unavailable) with these charms, and they'd give you extra bonuses. But now it's gone. Bashiok has said that they want to bring it pack post-release, and I really hope they do, 'cause as I said, it sounds really sweet. I mean, the charms in Diablo II were nice, but I'd rather have something like this, that doesn't take up my regular inventory space.

Another removed feature, although it can't technically be called a "removed feature" from what I've read, is the brutal death animations. In case you don't know, or don't remember, what I'm talking about, when they first showed the game, the very first video released, they had a boss at the end that, instead of just knocking the players to the ground when they were killed, actually picked the player up and bit off its head. These animations will, unfortunately, not be in the game. And while I understand why, as all of these would have to be scripted very carefully to actually work, which would've taken quite a lot of time, it's a bit sad. I'd been looking a bit forward to seeing my character being brutally slaughtered when I fail. There's no word on whether these will be implemented at a later date, but somehow I doubt it.

One postponed featureg that I, personally, don't really care that is pushed back, is the PvP arena system. I am not a PvP player, and while the PvP system in Diablo III might be better than what it was in Diablo II (which was essentially non-existant (ear-gathering!?)), it's still utterly uninteresting to me, and I'm very glad they decided to postpone this to get the game out earlier.

The last removal I want to mention is one of the Artisans, the Mystic (the other two being the Blacksmith and the Jeweler). The Mystic was originally going to be the goto-NPC for scrolls, potions, magic weapons, runes, charms and enchantments, as well as being able to mass-identify. During the beta she lost the ability to create potions, scrolls (which has all been removed from the game or made into non-item functions), weapons, runes (which you now gain at levelups) and charms (which was removed with the removal of the Talisman). She was basically reduced to an enchanter, and they decided to remove her until they had given her more of a purpose. Which I can understand. I'm just curious how they will eventually re-introduce her.

Auction Houses (both gold and Real Money Transfer)

While having an Auction House in a games like World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's makes sense, I'm not so sure that having it in a game like this does, though. To be quite honest, I'm very conflicted about how I feel about this. On one hand, I feel like it will be a bit of "pay-to-win", only that you're restricted to stuff that other players have found and put up. On the other hand, I probably wont play with anyone who'll actually use this. At least not for buying items. I, and those I'll play with, might sell stuff for real money... But I'm pretty sure at least I don't want to buy anything for real money. I might buy stuff on the gold-AH, but I highly doubt I'll ever use the RMT-AH for buying anything. So... Yeah. I don't know.

They'll probably use the Action Houses as another excuse for the always online DRM as well. Bah.

Conclusion

As a result of all of this, my expectations for this game has been significantly lowered. I'm far from as enthusiastic about Diablo III as I was when it was first announced back in 2008. I'm still very much looking forward to it, but I'm not feeling it as much as I used to do. I hope I'll be proven wrong in the end, and that it'll be as epic it's supposed to be... But yeah, we'll see.

: Just an update.

This blog, unlike my now deleted music blog, is something I really want to work on. I really want to update this blog on a regular basis, write "reviews" of games, news about games, and such... But the problem is that there are very few games that I like. My taste in games is very narrow. This becomes painfully obvious when I'm at LANs, as there are no current games that I want to play, at all. There are several coming out this year, the first, and biggest, in little over a month, but at the moment there is absolutely nothing.

So, yeah, that's why this blog isn't updated too often. I guess I could have written reviews about older games in the mean time, but that really isn't very interesting. Which is partially why my review of Dungeon Siege 2 hasn't been released yet. I was probably more than halfway through, then I just lost interest in it, and in writing the review about it. It's still "in progress", though, so I might complete it at some point. Maybe during the next month, while I wait for Diablo III.

But yeah. I wish I had a broader taste in games, so I had more to write about, but that is not the case. I don't want to force myself to play games I don't like, much less pay for them. So updates on this blog might be few and far between. But unlike my music blog, I will keep this one.

: Terraria is dead... Long live... Starbound?

So, a few days ago I learned that Terraria is, well, dead. Redigit, the guy who, from what I understand, single-handedly programmed the game, has stopped working on the game, because he feel there's no more progression to be made. He says that everything he can do with the game now "feels like sideways progression", and that "nothing really excites (him)". So he considers the game finished, and has moved on to work on something new. No mention of what that is yet, though.

While I do understand his decision, and can't say I'm too affected by it, as I sort of lost interest in Terraria quite a while ago now, it is very sad to see Terraria "die" so soon. The game had massive potential, in my eyes, and while a lot of it has been fulfilled in one way or the other, I'm sure there's still quite a lot more that could be done. But yeah, if he doesn't feel it anymore, then there's really no point in him working on it anymore.

One other reason why the development of Terraria has stopped is because Tiyuri, the guy who created most, maybe all, of the graphics for the game, has moved on to form another game company called Chucklefish. There he's working on another, potentially competing, game, called Starbound. And to be quite honest, Starbound seems to be more of an actual game than Terraria can ever be.

There's not much known about Starbound yet, as it is still a relatively new project, but it will be a sandbox-type game, just like Terraria is, only with more of a purpose. There will be an actual "hub" in the game, a Space Station that you go back to, that is your base, and that you improve over time, conducting research and filling with people that, I'm guessing, you meet around the universe. And yes, that means that you're not limited to one world at a time, you can travel back and forth between planets that will be randomly generated the first time you visit them. But unlike Terraria, it seems these worlds will be generated with more care. They will not seem as empty and "chaotic". And there will be no artificial "edge" to the worlds; If you go far enough in one direction, you'll get back to where you started. 

There will also be "quests and story driven missions" in the game. And that is something that I really missed in Terraria; A purpose. I mean, Terraria does what it does really well, but after a while I just lose interest because there's no real point to it, no direction. While I do like the sandbox-style gameplay very much, it feels very hollow without some sort of quest or goal system.

The graphic style of Starbound will be sort of similar to Terraria, in that it's very much inspired by SNES-era graphics. It will be a lot more detailed than Terraria, though. To be quite honest, the graphics is a very big reason why I decided to play Terraria over Minecraft. I've always loved pixelart and particularly SNES-style graphics. And to me, Minecraft looks, well... Downright ugly. So, it was an easy choice. And Starbound just looks freaking sweet.

Looks quite nice, doesn't it?

Starbound will also have an actual combat system, it seems, something which both Terraria and Minecraft lacks. From what I understand, you don't get hurt just by touching an enemy. Any enemy, player or monster, will have to actually attack you, that means go through an attack animation, in order to hurt you. You can also block attacks, which will build up some sort of counter-attack charge. And probably a lot more, but they haven't talked too much about it yet. The main point is, there will be more to it than just randomly flailing your weapons. So, yeah. Vewt!

There's quite a lot more to the game as well, but most of it is just mentioned without giving much detail. And they say there's also quite a lot that they haven't announced yet. So, yeah. While it is very sad that Terraria has "died" so soon, I'm really looking forward to playing Starbound instead. Whenever it's released. It's not even in beta yet.

: My Top 5 Games of 2012.

My review of the Dungeon Siege series have been delayed a bit. I've been distracted by other things when I've been at home, and Dungeon Siege 2, which is the one I'm currently playing through, wont run on my laptop for some reason. So, in the meantime, I thought I'd write up some thoughts about the games I look the most forward to in 2012. 

1. Diablo III

Diablo III is, of course, the number one game I look forward to in 2012. Not just because I was such a fan of Diablo II (I never really played Diablo I), but also because this is just the type of game I really, really enjoy; Action RPG. I am a big fan of RPGs in general, but some of them get a bit too slow at times. In my opinion, games like Diablo, Torchlight, Titan Quest, etc, is the best kind of RPGs, as there is little to no "downtime", like there is in games like Neverwinter Nights, Skyrim and Dragon Age.

One of the main reasons why Diablo II was such a big success, to me at least, was the random maps with randomly spawned enemies. Even though the game was very linear when you really look at it closely, the random maps feature made up for it by making you have to explore the world anew with every playthrough, never knowing where the path to next area was or where a random mini-boss might show up. Another big reason was the random drops. You never knew what kind of equipment you would get. It could make the game very frustrating at time, but also very interesting.

Other features that will enhance replayability is the addition of random quests and events. Other features that will make Diablo III even more interesting is the Artisans; Different crafters that will join you on your journey and create things for you based on what recipes you discover, and the Followers; Slightly customizable companions that will follow you into the battlefield.

And last, but not least; Customizable skills. Every skill and ability has the option of having a runestone added to it which will change it in one way or the other, everything from simply increasing damage or reducing resource cost to completely changing the mechanic of it. A good example is the Wizard spell Hydra, which you might remember from Diablo II, that summons a three-headed Hydra who spits fireballs at your enemies. Depending on what type of gem you add to this skill, the element and attack of the Hydra will change.

All of this will ensure that every single playthrough will be different.

There's not much known about the story yet, as far as I know, other than that it will have something to do with at least one of the Lesser Evils, Azmodan, and something called the Black Soulstone. Also, only one of the classes from Diablo II will return; The Barbarian. The other four classes, the Wizard, the Witch Doctor, the Monk and the Demon Hunter, are completely new, although there will be some similarities to the old Diablo II classes, particularly the Wizard will have some spells that are very similar to the Sorceress' spells.

2. Torchlight II

In many ways, Torchlight and Torchlight II is very similar to the Diablo-series. Compared to Diablo III, it's almost the same. Despite that, I'm still looking forward to it. I enjoyed the first game, but felt it lacked real depth, and the lack of multiplayer was definitely a big drawback. Many of the skills weren't too interesting either, to be honest. But it was a decent game, and I got quite a lot of playtime out of it.

Torchlight I was very similar to Diablo I, in that the entire game took place beneath a single town, going deeper and deeper underground until you reached the final boss. And just like Diablo II, Torchlight II will expand on the first game by taking you out into the world of Torchlight. Torchlight II will also have the same type of random maps, monster and drops, and maybe even events and quests, as Diablo III has. And considering that the guys who founded Runic Games were the same guys who founded the no longer existing Blizzard North, who created the first two Diablo-games, this is not really a surprise.

As for game length, they estimate that the entirety of Torchlight I could fit within the first 2/3 of the first act of Torchlight II. Quite an improvement, particularly considering that the game will cost the same as the first one.

It has also been said that skills will be improved a lot from the first game. First of all, none of the old classes will return, there will be four entirely new classes. Second, Torchlight 1 had many passive skills that were shared by all classes, which were honestly quite boring. In Torchlight II these passive skills have been removed, the bonuses they provide might be in some way included into stat bonuses (kinda curious about how), leaving room for more active skills, none of which are shared between several classes. Spell scrolls will still work the same way, as in anyone can use them.

Pets will also be improved somehow, but I can't find any specifics about it.

3. Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

It hasn't been confirmed that Heart of the Swarm will actually be released in 2012, but it really should be. Part one, Wings of Liberty, was released in July 2010, and if it takes more than two and a half years before the expansion is released... That's just too long, particularly considering that there's also a part three, Legacy of the Void.

I am not interested in the multiplayer aspects of the Starcraft games, I play them for the campaign. The only multiplayer I'm really interested in is playing with friends against the computer. But it's mostly the campaign I'm interested in, so that's what I'm gonna talk about.

Heart of the Swarm starts off where Wings of Liberty ended, only this time you're controlling Kerrigan and the Zerg. Even though Kerrigan has regained her human form, at least partially, she still has some kind of power over the Zerg. It would seem it is no longer as strong as it used to be, as several Queens have taken control of smaller Zerg broods, and the first part of the game is apparently focused on Kerrigan defeating these Queens and uniting the Zerg.

Much like the Wings of Liberty campaign, there will be some sort of "hub" you go to between missions, where you can upgrade, or evolve, both Kerrigan herself and the different units. Unlike Wings of Liberty, however, Kerrigan will play a huge part in the missions themselves, being a playable unit in most, maybe even all, missions. Her skills will apparently vary according to which "battle focus" you choose before a mission. No information on what these battle focuses are, though.

All in all, I'm excited to play through it. I'm curious about the RPG-ish elements of Kerrigan, and very excited to see where the story goes.

4. Borderlands 2

When I first tried Borderlands, I didn't have high expectations. I didn't think it was a game for me, as I'm not really that big a fan of shooters, but I was pleasantly surprised by the RPG-ish elements in it, and particularly the random drops. All of this will return in Borderlands 2, and that is really enough for me to want to play it.

The characters from the first game will not be playable in Borderlands 2, but will show up as NPC's throughout the game. Instead there will be four new characters, of which two has been announced; Salvador the Gunzerker and the Maya the Siren. Salvador is very similar to Brick, except that he doesn't go berserk with his fists, he goes berserk with guns, allowing him to dual wield any two weapons for a short duration. There's no info on Maya's skills yet, only that she will not phase-walk like Lilith, the Siren in the first game.

One of the main features of Borderlands, the immense amount of randomly generated weapons, will of course return in Borderlands 2. And there's even more possible variations this time. Also, some of the weapon manufacturers from the first game are gone, as a direct result of the events in the game, and others have come to take their place.

One of the things that I didn't like about Borderlands, although not really too big an issue, was the colors of the environment. Everything was mostly brown or grey, which fits with the sort of post-apocalytic feel of the game, but is ultimately really boring to look at. Fortunately, in my opinion, it seems that things will be more colorful in Borderlands 2. And still in the same cartoony cellshaded style, of course.

Another things I didn't about the first game was the stupidity of the enemies. There was no real cooperation or tactics behind what they did. This has also been fixed in Borderlands 2. Enemies will take cover when wounded, work together by flanking you, interact with each other in order to heal or boost shields, be able to climb obstacles or traverse difficult terrain to get to you, etc... Which makes for a more interesting game.

5. Grim Dawn

To be honest, I didn't even know this game existed until I started doing research for this list, but after reading a bit about it, I gotta say I'm really looking forward to it. This is a game created by Crate Entertainment, which was founded by former members of Iron Lore, the people who created Titan Quest. It is also created with the Titan Quest engine, and has many of the same features, so it might be considered a form of sequel to Titan Quest.

Like Titan Quest, you will be able to combine two different classes in this game as well. They expect to have five classes to choose from at launch, with new classes being added with expansion packs, which they plan to release every six to ten months. Unlike Titan Quest, there will apparently be synergy modifiers between skills, not only within a single class, but also across classes, which means that upgrading a skill in one class, will also enhance skills in the other class.

Unlike Titan Quest, this game is not set in any variation of our world, or even based on any mythology. It's set in a dark, post-apocalyptic style world that is loosely based on the Victorian Era. There's no mention of whether the game world will be randomly generated or not, but as the game is created with the Titan Quest engine, I highly doubt it. I'm guessing that both the world and enemy locations will be static. Two major differences from Titan Quest is the addition of destructible objects, which can be used to fight your enemies, and weather effects.

There's no information about the story yet.

The loot will, of course, be random, and supposedly with a lot less junk loot than in Titan Quest. They have also made sure that boss-drops are more rewarding, probably by dropping higher level items. There will also be blueprints one can collect to combine "salvaged components" into usable items, although there's no mention of what "salvaged components" actually are.

As for quests, there will apparently be a system where you can choose between several quest paths and rewards through conversation choices. There's also a faction system, and gaining reputation with a faction will unlock new quests and stuff to buy. Of course, gaining reputation with one faction might reduce your reputation with another.

There's no release date on this game yet, so it might not be eligible for this list, but it's rumored to be released sometime in 2012.

: Star Wars: The Old Republic

I was invited to participate in the closed beta of Star Wars: The Old Republic this weekend. Unfortunately, I've been sick the past five days or something, so I haven't been able to play as much as I wanted. But I got to test out two of the classes. One I liked very much, and one I... Well, I didn't dislike it, it just wasn't as fun in my opinion.

Also; The non-disclosure part of the Game Testing Agreement has been lifted, so I'm free to write about the game and what I think about it. So, here I go.

Smuggler

The first class I tested was the Smuggler. I chose this class because I thought it was some kind of rogue-class, purely based on the name, and when it comes to games like this I am very  fond of rogue-classes. It also uses an energy system very similar to the one Rogues in World of Warcraft use. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The Smuggler seems to be a purely ranged class, mainly focused around taking cover behind stuff, as several of the skills can only be used while in cover-mode.

Cover-mode can be activated anywhere, but the Smuggler will merely crouch down unless there's a cover-point nearby. If there is a cover-point nearby, the Smuggler will leap to it when you press the cover-button. Cover-points aren't usually visible, but they will appear once you target an enemy.

This is the class I didn't like too much. I think the cover-based combat is a bit too much of a hassle, but that's maybe because I'm not used to playing games with cover-systems. I think this might've been my first? I can't really remember.

Jedi Knight

The second class I tested was the Jedi Knight. I chose this class only because I wanted to try a melee class, and this was, as far as I could tell, the best choice. Playing this class was a lot more satisfying to me, it felt much better to run (or rather leap, once you get the skill) into the midst of my enemies and cutting them down, than to shoot them from behind a rock.

This class seems to be focused around stances, but it's difficult to tell. I only got up to level 9 I think, and therefore only had one stance available. Aside from that, though, I got quite a few nice skills already at that low level, and using them was fun and felt good.

The Jedi Knight uses a resource system that is sort of similar to a Warrior in WoW, called focus. It's generated by regular attacks and certain skills, like the leap skill, and degenerates when out of combat. It's fun alternating between skills to generate and use this resource.

Other Classes

There are two more classes for the Republic, Jedi Consular and Trooper. The Empire has four other classes, though I didn't check them out. The only one I remember is the Bounty Hunter. I imagine they're not too dissimilar from the Republic classes, but I can't say. It seems there's also some kind of advanced classes, two for each base class, but I think you have to choose them at level 10, so I never got to do that.

Gameplay

The actual combat in this game is overall more satisfying than other similar games, like WoW, no matter which . There's no auto-attack in this game, you have to actively choose every single action you perform. It's not as extreme as Age of Conan, where you have to perform combos by attacking from different angles and stuff like that. That system was a bit too much if you ask me. I like this better, and the resource systems are rapid enough to prevent much "downtime" during fights.

There seems to be some kind of companion system in this game, where you get NPC's that follow you that you can control. While playing my Jedi Knight I got my own little R2-D2-clone, called T7-O1, to help me, and it seemed like I got to keep him as a permanent companion, and I'm guessing there's a system where you gain more companions and can choose which ones you want to bring with you at all times. I don't know for sure, though, but that's what it seemed like.

Presentation

The game looks and sounds good for an MMO, in my opinion. I had to turn down the graphics settings, even with my "super-laptop", but it still didn't look bad. Graphics and sound isn't what I focused on during my short play-time, though, so there's not much more I can say.

Conclusion

There's still a lot more to this game than what I experience in my short time playing it, but I only saw some hints at some of it, and I assume there's a lot more that I had no chance of seeing that early in the game. But the little I did experience left me wanting more. I'm very much considering getting this game when it's released. I might even pre-order it, to get an early start in hopefully not-as-laggy areas. And I'm not even really a fan of Star Wars.

: Dungeon Siege 1

This is the first in a three-part "review" of the Dungeon Siege series.

Dungeon Siege is a game by Gas Powered Games, released in 2002. The game is a sort of cross between Diablo, Morrowind and D&D-type games (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights); A party-based, loot-fest hack & slash with skill-progression based on usage. I used to love this game back when it was released, and I'm currently playing through it again to see if it's holding up.

(Sorry about the lack of pictures, all of my screenshots was somehow corrupted.)

Presentation

Graphics

This is a relatively old game, so the graphics aren't great. They're pretty decent for the time, though, particularly later in the game. You know what it is you're looking at, and while it doesn't look awesome in any way, it doesn't look awful either. For a game this old, that should be more than enough. My only real problem with the graphics is that there is sometimes too much of it. If you're walking through a forest of some kind, it's very difficult to see through all the trees and foliage.

This game does have one particular feature that I missed in other games at the time, and that I consider a plus; Visual effects for elemental properties on weapons. It might not be a big deal anymore, but back then I found it amazing. It's still neat, though.

Sound

There's not much to say about the sound either. The sound effects are generic, and the music is... Well, not very fitting, most of the time. It's always a very calm, ambient type of music. There's never any kind of battle-music in the field, not that I've noticed anyway. There's only battle-music the few timer there's some kind of real boss fight. And particularly at the end boss, there's some rather nice and fitting battle-music.

Camera

The camera controls feel very outdated and clumsy. The middle mouse-button can be used to move the camera, but it's very clumsy. You're better off using the arrow buttons, or, as I did, re-bind camera movement to the WASD buttons. It's not an ideal way to do it, but it's actually not too bad when you get used to it. The camera still isn't optimal, it never really feels like you can position it right.

Story

Main Quest

You start out as a farmer, there's an attack by a savage race called the Krug, aaand... Then you're off. I haven't really paid much attention to the actual story, it's such a small part of the game that it's difficult to remember what it is from town to town, particularly considering how few and far between they are, and how few NPC's there are out in the wilderness.

I've never actually played through the game before now, but I feel the end is a bit... Abrupt. At least when playing the Steam-version, which might be altered somehow, the game just cut to the game menu as soon as I had killed the end-boss. Why he dropped stuff if that's the way they game is supposed to end, which means I will never be able to actually use it, I have no idea. Oh well.

Side Quests

There are a few side quests in this game, a couple of them every chapter. They aren't very obvious, though. There are no indications where they are, or where you're supposed to go. There are quests that I haven't been able to complete because I didn't know what to do, or that there were more things to do. I can't really go back either, as there are no travel or way-point system like in Diablo II. Walking back to finish those quests would take an insane amount of time.

Game World

One of the problems with games like these, with big exceptions being Diablo II and Torchlight, is that the game world is always the same, and too linear. This game isn't any different in that department. Granted, there are several rather huge areas, and there are a few sidetracks that can make you question whether you're going the right way or not, but for the most part you just follow a rather straight path.

Gameplay

Skills

This skill-system in this game is very simple. There are no active skills like in other games. When you start out you're just a simple farmer, with no combat skills whatsoever. The very first thing you have to do in this game is to choose what kind of character you want to be by starting to use the associated weapons or spell scrolls; If you start using melee weapons, you'll gain levels in melee. If you use bows, you'll gain levels in ranged. If you use magic scrolls you'll gain levels in the associated magic school.

Leveling either melee or ranged will do... Nothing, actually. It seems weird, but leveling the actual skill doesn't really seem to do anything, other than change your class-name. There are no special skills or abilities within these skill-types, all characters with these skill-types can do is attack. But using melee weapons will also increase your strength, which increases health and melee damage. Using ranged weapons will increase your dexterity, which increases armor and enables you to use more powerful bows.

There are two different schools of magic; Nature and Combat. Nature is mostly ice, lightning and healing spells. Combat is mostly fire, with some random other stuff thrown in there. Spells come in the form of scrolls, that you can place in a spell-book. Gaining levels in the magic schools will increase the potency of most of the spells in that class, as well as allowing you to use better spell scrolls. The biggest problem with leveling spell-skills, particularly nature, is that using spells that doesn't do damage, like healing spells, doesn't seem to increase your skill in that school.

There's nothing stopping you from choosing more than one specialization, which opens up for more varied gameplay, but it can be risky. You will most likely have more total levels, but you're still more likely to be weaker than a single-spec character.

Party

You can have up to eight characters in your party. That might sound like a lot, but you can decide yourself who and how many party-members you will bring along. You will meet your potential party-members along the road, some are just mercenaries for hire, others are somewhat important to the story. No matter why they want to join up with you, though, they will almost always ask you to pay them for their services, which sometimes seem a bit weird.

If you choose to leave some character slots open, they can be filled with pack mules, that have greatly increased inventory, but run away from battle. I'd recommend always having at least one, maybe two, pack mules in your party, as the regular character's inventories gets filled up too quickly, and, as mentioned, there's usually a rather long trip between towns.

Controls

Just like the camera controls, the gameplay controls also feel outdated and clumsy. Both left and right mouse buttons are used to attack, however, only the left mouse-button is used for regular movement. The right button can also be used to move, but it's more about positioning formations, which I feel is a pointless feature in a game like this. When attacking, it's better to use the right mouse button, as the left button is used to select characters, and it's very easy to miss-click and deselect all but one character.

By default, every character is bound to the F-buttons. The first character in the character list is bound to F1, the second to F2, etc. These can be changed, though. You can rebind these keys to any character, or combination of characters, you want, just like control groups in RTS-games. This is particularly useful when dealing with pack mules.

You will always have four different attacks to choose from for each character, visualized by four quick-slots beside your characters portraits; One for your melee weapon, one for your ranged weapon, and two for spells. The number keys can be used to change attack configurations. By default they change attack mode for all characters to the same attack slots; 1 is melee, 2 is ranged, 3 and 4 is the two magic slots. But they can be re-bound to any attack mode configuration you want. Switching between these configurations is the most active part of combat besides choosing which enemy to focus attacks on. This can't change between spells that are in the rest of the spellbook, and not in the two quickslots, though.

Saving

There are no save points or checkpoints in this game, which means you can save anytime you want. And you'd better save often, 'cause this is not an easy game; You will die a lot.

You can also use the F9 button to quick-save and F11 to quick-load, but with this game I think it's better to create new saves every time.

Conclusion

The game itself isn't really as boring and monotonous as it might sound, it's actually pretty good in my opinion. But it's a bit too long considering the limited combat-system. Took me more than 26 hours to complete the game, and that's not including reloading over and over again. There's a reason why I never finished it 9 years ago.

I give this game a 4 out of 10.