Inspired by posts from gamers on Twitter, I sat down and came up with a list of five game series that I really enjoyed enough so that another entry in the series would be a must-buy. I’m considering a series as more than one game that shares a title, so even a two game collection would be a series (say, for instance, Red Dead Redemption). RDR isn’t on the list, though, but it’s close.
Number five on the list is Dungeon Siege. Dungeon Siege in almost all its incarnations is a party-based isometric dungeon crawler that subverted the Baldur’s Gate/Diablo formulas by giving you almost complete control over not only your own character, but up to eight other characters, each with their own personalities and storylines. The party abilities could be tuned for specific bosses or to support each other with synergies, such as freezing mobs before shattering them with a punishing melee attack.
You start out as a farmer (in some versions your name is literally Farmer) of either gender. After the destruction of your village, you and your mule are thrust into a world of war and ruin as your tale of revenge crosses over a hundred hours of gameplay.
Your mule is your only constant friend in your adventure. He is there to carry your loot and help out in the fighting with a well-placed kick or two. The Torchlight series took this idea and ran with it, but it started here.
Since party members you are not specifically controlling go ahead and fight on their own, Dungeon Siege was slammed for being an autobattle game. Dungeon Siege II took that to heart and required more clicking to get your companions to fight. Dungeon Siege III… we don’t talk about Dungeon Siege III.
Because DS3 got rid of your companions. Instead, you have one companion (chosen from a pool of two if I remember right), and I don’t remember if they even autobattled. DS3 was intended to be played by you and one other person, but this is not why I played the series.
I played for the sensation of being an integral member of a large team, all fighting against overwhelming odds for a great cause. No other game has given me the same excitement, though at least one other game on this list came close.
I’ve just re-downloaded the game. Once I’ve patched it for modern graphics cards, I think I’ll play the original one more time.
Dungeon Siege II was an incredible game. I loved it to pieces and essentially all of the design improvements it made over the first Dungeon Siege (which was just ‘alright’ in my opinion).
Despite how lack lustre DS1 was and how… well… Yes; as you mentioned, less said about DS3 the better… On the strength of Dungeon Siege II alone I would join you in being hyper interested should a DS IV ever see the light of day.
Dungeon Siege looks interesting! I actually always have been interested in the series but didn’t know whether or not I could deal with possible outdated and frustrating mechanics, just like I’ve struggled with the combat in the Witcher 1 (yep, that one’s newer and a completely different genre) or with the camera controls in one of the earlier DMC-games (yep, that one also is newer and also a completely different genre)… so uh… I never truly went for it but I may in the future!
I mean… I like Dungeon Keeper and that game is older! And Overlord and Asheron’s Call and Runescape and Fable… so maybe Dungeon Siege might be quite nice, too 馃檪 I’ll see!
Nice post, Tipa! Cheers!
Well, I’m not going to say anything bad about Dungeon Siege. DS1 and 2, anyway. 3 is something else. I’m really not sure what they were thinking.
I’ve re-downloaded DS1 and am going to apply the HD texture mod and maybe some of the other mods. I’ll let you know how it looks on modern computers 馃檪
Early Witchers… I’ve been looking into the Witcher games. I haven’t played any of them, but my BF is a huge fan. I’ve read one of the books (Blood of Elves) and watched the Netflix series, so I think I am ready to play and also understand the game.
Especially since I’m told I can mod Henry Cavill in for Geralt and have the bard sing “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher”, as long as I play it on Steam.
I play a lot of retro games — SNES, PS1, that era. Dungeon Siege looks way better than those 馃檪
I am old and my memory is not too good, but I seem to remember there were either really good modding tools for Dungeon Siege, or even that it came with some kind of editor?
Or maybe that was just me, I had a buddy, who worked at Gas Powered Games and maybe he gave me some inside info.
Or maybe my brain is just crossing wires since it came out about the same time Neverwinter Nights did, and that of course had amazing modding tools.
The mods for DS1 include a full game editor, supposedly the one used to actually make the game, so that could be fun.
I bought Dungeon Siege 1 when it was first released and I hated it. It was my first and to date only experience with what I think were then called “Action RPGs” although that term has morphed so much since I’m not sure any more if DS was supposed to be one.
I bought it because I’d enjoyed Baldur’s Gate so much and I was looking for something similar, which some of the marketing suggested Dungeon Siege was. It very much wasn’t. I wouldn’t have said it subverted BG. That might have been interesting. In fact I could barely see any similarity at all other than the generic fantasy setting. I certainly felt I’d been ripped off by the marketing though.
As far as I recall I lasted about an hour or so before I gave up and uninstalled it. I never saw or experienced anything like the multi-character play you describe. All I remember is that mule. I still have the game somewhere. Maybe I should reinstall it (assuming it would run under Win 10). My tastes have changed hugely in the last couple of decades. Maybe I’d enjoy it now.
It is superficially similar to Baldur’s Gate, I’d say, but much faster paced, and with less distinctive characters. I happy with a universe where both can exist, but I can definitely see how you would be disappointed in DS. I’m not really sure what attracted me to the game in the first place, but I definitely quickly became a fan.