Oh mah gawd. Dungeon Siege 2 > you.

[Humodour]

If the demo is anything to judge by, and all indicators suggest it is (by virtue of the nature of why it is better than number 1), DS 2 > DS1.

 

I think that where DS1's genre was ambiguous, DS2 should certainly be classified an RPG. It is by no account a Planescape: Torment or Fallout, but in its own way it is certainly neat.

 

I think my one complaint is that the graphics have actually taken a small step backwards. Though they are still quite nice.

 

The interface is more intuitive, the story is more complex.

 

1) The game world doesn't revolve around you.

 

In DS 1, it felt like everything revolved around your character and nothing would change without you. I did not have this feeling when I was playing the DS 2 demo.

 

2) Quests actually exist now.

 

There are more quests and they are less fed-ex-y. They can't all be solved at once, but are solved as you progress in the game (with new areas of the town opening up, and certain events triggering people to talk to you in different ways or whatever).

 

3) A bit of non-linearity.

 

Interestingly, I had the option of working for the orc-equivalent enemy, or working for the good guys. I don't know what would have changed if I worked for the baddies, but the option existed.

 

4) Pets.

 

You can buy a pet and feed it and watch it grow and stuff. Mine is an ice elemental. They can gain spells and skills and things depending on how you treat them.

 

5) Which leads to leveling up.

 

Variety is the spice of life. The original dungeon siege system exists, but now there is also a skill tree and you can invest points in certain skills, depending on your class. Depending on what skills you invest in, you get certain 'powers'. Powers are superstrong spells or abilities which can be used only rarely. They don't cost anything to use, but can only be recharged through a special device you might find in the game, or through killing enemies.

 

6) Party interaction. The party members talk to you! And you can talk back. You actually have dialogue, now, and you can choose what to say. The party feels better now, too - more emphasis on small, managable parties rather than hiring 10 people and just setting them all to auto-attack. On that note, the AI options have been dumbed down. There's basically two modes as far as I can figure: mirror and rampage. Mirror means that other party members follow your actions, rampage means they will attack on their own, leaving you to control your own character. I think this is for the best.

 

Ummm... there's more, but just in general the whole game has been augmented. The final version should be great. I certainly found it more interesting and enjoyable than, NWN (any part of it)!

[EnderAndrew]

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=36136&hl=

 

This is another topic on Dungeon Siege that is only a few days old.

 

I'm glad you liked the demo however. You may also want to delete the second copy of this, since you actually created two new threads.

[SteveThaiBinh]

That's quite a big demo.

 

It's going to take hours to download, even with broadband.

[EnderAndrew]

Maybe the intend to primarily distribute it via DVDs with gaming magazines.

[SteveThaiBinh]

OK, no problem. Found a UK server and the download will only be 90 minutes, which is better than 13 hours(!).

 

I borrowed Dungeon Siege (the original) hoping that it would be decent, but I don't think I ever made it past the first town. It was probably the first modern hack'n'slash I'd ever played, having taken a long break from gaming and returned via Arcanum. I wasn't impressed. I'm now prepared to be more tolerant of them provided they have a decent story, so I hope this demo brings out some of the story and characters a bit.

 

Soon find out. :D

[EnderAndrew]

The original bored me as well though some contend the game has a good story if you really play it.

[Humodour]

People who make that contention must be delusional. The story was shallow, with little background.

 

Luckily this is not true for DS2.

[Child of Flame]

You know guys, you really don't want to make my preempt you all by digging up my thread about the preview for Dungeon Siege 2 in an issue of CGW before the demo was even realeased...

 

Y'know what, the temptation, and protocols of board tradition are too frikkin' great.

 

OH SNAP! Old'd

[Humodour]

Um, it still hasn't been released. It's the demo we're playing...

[Child of Flame]

BUT I SAID IT WOULD BE GOOD!

 

And where did I say it was released Karzack?

 

...I thought you were banned.

[EnderAndrew]

Karzack loves Feargie too much to stay away.

[Child of Flame]

I'd be scared if I were Feargie.

[Jumjalum]

That's Krezack, not Karzak.

[Humodour]

An easy mistake to make, I suppose. When did Crackhead get banned? I do remember him trolling about these boards with me at the start of last year. Hmm, it's been almost 2 years. I can barely remember the BIS boards.

 

Ah, nostalgia.

[Musopticon?]

Dammit, I liked DS 2 too. Made me feel very BGey again. The funny thing is; it's actually more rpg-like than some of the recently released "true" rpgs. I mean; DS 2 doesn't try to be anything else than a clickfest, but it damn well succeeds my expectations. I especially like the party banter, however meager it is.

 

I might buy this.

[mkreku]

Embarrassingly enough, I too liked the demo of Dungeon Siege 2. Maybe because they let me play it for more than 10 minutes (F.E.A.R.) or maybe because it actually had a RPG feel to it now? I'm not sure. I'll be on the look-out for it though.

[Cantousent]

I'm definitely buying the game.

 

A few remarks, your interview is months old, Servant.

 

Krezak is buckethead, Karzak is crazy, although I miss the guy.

 

I hope they've redone experience in Dungeon Siege 2. The way experience worked in Dungeon Siege 1 was ridiculous. The fact that you can allocate skills, perhaps mixed with the whole use and gain theory of the first one might work very well.

 

Note: it wasn't the fact that the player increased skills by using them that bothered me. It was the complex and idiotic way DS1 calculated exp.

[Yst]

Dammit, I liked DS 2 too. Made me feel very BGey again. The funny thing is; it's actually more rpg-like than some of the recently released "true" rpgs. I mean; DS 2 doesn't try to be anything else than a clickfest, but it damn well succeeds my expectations. I especially like the party banter, however meager it is.

 

I might buy this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Party banter, eh? And reminiscent of BG? This is good. On both counts. I shall have to download this. It's a weird world, where Microsoft quickly becomes a publisher of choice and reputation in the RPG market. But things look to be going that way.

[Musopticon?]

The personalities aren't exaclty the most original ones, however. Although, there's quite a lot of choice when choosing members. This doesn't show very well from the demo, though. There's only 3 members and 3 pets available.

[BattleCookiee]

I also like DS2, but that was already certain after the closed Beta "

 

All my defenses to the game are here

 

And yes, they have redone experience.

Now it is:

Guy dead. XP gained

XP / Amount of team members- Pets

(where XP is pumped in the active weapon)

 

Heh, you can even keep a char stay 100 miles from the fight and still gain levels in whatever he has assigned as weapon...

[Cantousent]

Good, while that's not perfect, it's better than a dedicated healer suffering because he's actually healing instead of frying his enemy.

 

I think the idea of just dividing the experience is quite good.

[BattleCookiee]

Some of the flaws mentioned;

 

Unlike DS you can't use Spawned creatures for NM/CM skill, unless you spawn them and then get that spell attached as current weapon.

 

As said points gained even if far far away

 

Some plusses:

 

Pets do not take a bit of the XP gainage, so all damage done/XP gained by a pet goes right to your PC (if only pets, or with Hero/Pet)

 

Healers

[mkreku]

One thing they DIDN'T fix (at least in the demo) is how confined the maps feels. I hate how I'm looking more at the mini-map to see where the edges of the map are, than the actual window portraying the landscape. Also, it's too easy to find anything hidden as it shows up on the mini-map long before you'd find it in the game world. With that super-nice streaming map loading mechanism they have, why not make the maps somewhat more complex? And larger? And less boxed in? I read that they were adressing that problem (a long time ago, after people had complained about it in Dungeon Siege) but the demo showed none of that.

[Musopticon?]

True. But at least there's some reason to travel between already quested areas. The first game was just a long pipe going one way.

[BattleCookiee]

Yep. You have to get back here later for additional quest.

Some examples:

 

The wall at the Northern Teleporter

Hak'u Ritual Camp

Hak'u Fortress

Ghosts