Dungeon Siege II

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Dungeon Siege II
Publication Information
Developer	Gas Powered Games
Publisher	Microsoft Game Studios
Release date	August 16th, 2005, available on Compact Disk and digitally on Steam, GOG.com
Genre	Action-RPG
Modes	Single-player and Multiplayer
Rating(s)	80 on Metacritic.
Platform(s)	PC   Microsoft Windows, Macintosh
Game Information
Setting	Aranna
Time Period	1243

Dungeon Siege II is a computer role-playing game and is the sequel to the 2002's popular game Dungeon Siege.

It was developed by Gas Powered Games and released on August 16, 2005, one year delayed from original projections. The story is a continuation of the Dungeon Siege storyline. On August 2006, the expansion Broken World was released.

The game was favorably received upon release, scoring an 80 on Metacritic and winning PC Gamer US's Best Roleplaying Game 2005" award.

In the development of Dungeon Siege II, Gas Powered Games brought in professional writer Susan O'Connor, who has experience in writing story lines for games. That addressed the complains people had about the story of the original Dungeon Siege, which, fairly enough, was seen as lacking.

Dungeon Siege II takes place between 100 and 200 years after Dungeon Siege, and reveals some very important history from as much as 1000 years before. Just like the original game it takes place on the continent of Aranna, in the middle of a war. You will start out as a mercenary fighting for the tyrant Valdis, but what will happen then is up to you!

Plot

The game begins with the player-controlled protagonist and his friend, Drevin, serving as mercenaries in the army of Valdis, a warlord who has aligned himself with a race of Dark Wizards and wields the magical Sword of Zaramoth. The player character and Drevin are ordered to capture a temple held by dryads. After the temple is captured, however, Valdis attacks the mercenaries. Drevin is killed, but the player character is only knocked unconscious.

The player character regains consciousness in the custody of the Dryads. Rather than execute him, the dryads allow the player to earn his freedom by helping them in the war against Valdis. After he earns his freedom, he discovers that he is infected with the Plague, a mysterious disease created by the Dark Wizards that drives its victims to insanity. After being cured by the water from an Elven shrine, he returns to his hometown.

On the way home, the player character rescues an old man from Plague-maddened dryads. The old man then describes an event called the Great Cataclysm, caused when the Sword of Zaramoth that Valdis wields struck a magical shield called the Shield of Azunai. The blow shattered the shield, causing a catastrophe that ended the First Age. Valdis hopes to cause another such catastrophe by gathering the shards of the Shield of Azunai so he can shatter it again. The old man then explains the Plague, saying that it is caused by crystals created during the Great Cataclysm that give license to the souls of Zaramoth’s army to possess the living.

After the player character returns home, he begins to gather the pieces of the shield himself so he can use it against Valdis. After he gathers all of the pieces, he takes them to the Agallan giants so that they can re-forge the shield. As they re-forge it, they place a medallion in the center of it for added durability. This medallion had previously been worn by Drevin; he gave it to the player character before he died.

With the shield re-forged, the player character travels to Valdis’ stronghold known as Zaramoth's Horns. The shield protects him from the Dark Wizards, but the battle with Valdis himself proves to be a stalemate until the old man appears and takes the shield from the player character. He gives the shield to Valdis, revealing that he is a Dark Wizard. Valdis tries to destroy the shield with the Sword of Zaramoth, but when he strikes the shield, his sword shatters instead. Valdis and the player character resume the battle, in which Valdis is killed.

Setting

A thousand years ago, the crusaders of Azunai crossed swords with the legions of Zaramoth in the final battle of a century-long rebellion. As the tyrannical god Zaramoth struck the final blow through Azunai's trembling shield, the earth shook. In that moment, the forces of magic were unchained, and both armies were consumed in a brilliant cataclysm that stretched for leagues across the Plain of Tears. Only a scarred wasteland remained as final testament to the First Age of Man.

And for a millennium, magic has continued to spread to the farthest corners of the world, freely flowing to any who would command it. But the tide of magic has begun to wane, heeding instead the call of an ancient legacy. From the Plain of Tears a new heir beckons, and with each day his strength grows. Consuming those who submit, eradicating those who resist. With none to oppose his ascendance, the circle will be complete, and an ancient age will begin anew.

What fate will befall the Second Age of Man? The time for judgment is nigh.

Gameplay

Unlike Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege II takes a more varied approach to its gameplay. The original game was criticized for being too automated and lacking replay value. Developer Gas Powered Games improved the old system into a more versatile one that incorporates additional elements of strategy.

Combat automation

By default, the new system turns off much of the original game's combat automation and requires players to click once for each individual attack of their selected character.

Fortunately for people who liked the combat system of the previous version, the new system can be made to behave more like it. Clicking on a monster and holding the right mouse button makes the character continuously attack until the monster dies; this is similar to the attack system in another game, Diablo II. There are also options that allow the player's characters to automatically defend themselves and/or automatically continue to attack their targets, much like in the old system.

Leveling up, classes, and customization

For the classes and attributes, see Classes (Dungeon Siege II) and Attributes (Dungeon Siege II).

For the passive skills, see Skills (Dungeon Siege II).

In the original Dungeon Siege, the four character specialities (also known as classes) differed only in the items and spells they were allowed to use. In Dungeon Siege II, each specialty (Melee, Ranged, Nature Magic, Combat Magic) has a unique set of skills, arranged in a skill tree reminiscent of those in Diablo II, that determines a character's particular strengths. For example, melee-oriented characters can get better at using a shield to defend their allies or they can improve their two-handed weapon skills to more effectively attack opponents.

As in the original game, multi-classing (distributing experience and skills to more than one class) is possible, but it is best to do so with caution: A character learning skills in too many different areas may find him or herself spread too thin and unable to perform any role effectively.

In the expansion pack for Dungeon Siege II, "Broken World", two new character classes have been introduced. These classes are multi-class characters: the Fist of Stone being a multi-class of Melee and Nature Magic, and the Blood Assassin being a multi-class of Ranged and Combat Magic. These new classes have been given their own specialized skill trees in addition to the others, allowing them to multi-class more easily without being at as much of a disadvantage. For example, the Fist of Stone is able to cause small earthquakes when attacking to keep up with the damage output of a pure melee character, and the Blood Assassin is able to cause targets to hemorrhage blood to keep up with the damage output of a pure ranged character (as they multi-class, they cannot upgrade their weaponry as often and would otherwise be weaker in combat).

Powers

For the active skills, see Powers (Dungeon Siege II).

For the passive skills, see Skills (Dungeon Siege II).

Another change in Dungeon Siege II is the addition of the Hero Powers system. Powers are special abilities that characters can use when normal attacks do not suffice; they include abilities like invincibility for the entire party and the power to summon a lightning strike that damages all enemies in the area. They are acquired when certain skills are trained to a certain level. Each power has 3 levels, each requiring more skill points to get.

Powers increase in potency as characters level.

Parties and pets

For the usable pets, see Pets (Dungeon Siege II) and Companion#Dungeon_Siege_II_2.

Like its predecessor, Dungeon Siege II is a party-based role-playing game. Players can have up to four characters in a party under the first difficulty setting (Mercenary), five characters in Veteran difficulty, and six in Elite difficulty. Aside from being able to recruit character non-player characters (NPCs) that function much like the player's own character, players can also buy pets that grow after being fed items. However, unlike its predecessor, the hireable NPCs have unique personalities and can converse with the player and each other at certain points in the game; they even have their own personal side quests. Pets start off with a basic attack (and (gaming) spell if applicable), gain a Power upon reaching the third level of growth, and finally gain an emanation upon becoming Mature. Emanations are special pet-only auras that provide beneficial effects to friendly characters within range (such as increased mana regeneration).

Spells

For the usable spells, see Spells (Dungeon Siege II).

The magic system in Dungeon Siege II remains largely unchanged. Combat Mages and Nature Mages still have access to separate spell lines that increase in power as the character levels. However, combat and nature magic are much more distinct from each other than in Dungeon Siege. Combat magic focuses on causing massive amounts of damage and weakening enemies with curses, while nature magic focuses more on healing, summoning and strengthening party members with embrace and wrath enchantments.

Parties are limited to a maximum of two concurrent (computer gaming) buffs. Pets' spells count towards this buff limit, but their emanations (see above) do not. Weapon enhancement spells, used by the Fist of Stone and Blood Assassin characters introduced in the expansion, also do not count towards this limit. Each enemy may only have one (computer gaming)#Debuffs debuff placed on it at a time. All negative effects count towards this limit, including curses and stuns.

Death and unconsciousness

In Dungeon Siege II the "game over" system is similar to that in many other role-playing games. When a character loses enough health, they usually fall into a state of unconsciousness. The character falls to the ground, unable to move, and must wait for their health to slowly regenerate itself or wait for magical healing from another character. If a character is hit hard enough by an enemy, or if an enemy is persistent in attacking an unconscious character, the character may eventually be killed. Once death occurs, the character can no longer be healed and must be resurrected by another character or by a special Necromancer NPC in town. If the entire party is slain, the party may choose to continue by respawning back in town without their equipment. Their equipment is left on their corpses. The party must then find a way to retrieve its fallen equipment, either by venturing back to the characters' corpses or by having them summoned to town by a Necromancer NPC for a monetary charge.

Races

For the playable races, see Races (Dungeon Siege II).

Multiplayer

Dungeon Siege II supports video game multiplayer cooperative gaming over LAN, the Internet, and the GameSpy network. Multiple players can cooperate together in separate-but-allied parties. There is a total limit of 8 characters, though only 4 can be player-controlled. Purchased pets count towards this limit but summoned creatures (from spells) do not. There's an unsupported "old school" mode in multiplayer, allowing up to 8 players to play simultaneously. To enable this, add "oldschool=true" (without quotes) to command line or the .ini file.

For LAN and Internet play, saved games are stored on the players' own computers. For GameSpy play, saved games and characters are stored on GameSpy's servers. The GameSpy environment limits the amount of online cheating that can take place, but as of late beta, the possibility still existed.

GameSpy characters can be downloaded from the GameSpy servers to players' computers, where they can then be used for Internet, LAN, and single-player games. The reverse is not true: GameSpy characters can only be created and leveled on the GameSpy network itself. GS network supports only original games; pirate copies are blocked due to CD-Key control. Online play may therefore also not be possible with a second-hand game.

However, at the start of 2013, Gamespy Arcade shut down all Dungeon Siege II servers due to lack of active players and various bugs. For unknown reasons, this also affects Local Network multiplayer and non-Gamespy Internet games. There are guides available on the internet on how to play it using Gameranger and Syslinker, and if you use some community fixes, you'll be able to use multiplayer on the digital distrubutions of the game.

System requirements

Recommended

• Operating system: Windows XP Service Pack 1 or higher,
• Processor: 1.0 GHz,
• RAM: 256 MB,
• 4 GB free hard disk space,
• 4x CD-ROM,
• Video Card: ATI Radeon 7000 or better/nVidia GeForce/Intel 82845, 82865, 82915 Graphics Controllers.

Music

For the official soundtrack, see Dungeon Siege II: Official Soundtrack.

Broken World

Broken World is an addition to the computer game Dungeon Siege II. To start, you must have the original game.

Some of the new features include:

• An additional act (campaign)
• Two hybrid classes, based on existing classes
• Dwarves as a playable race
• Enchantment-based "recipes"
• Two new pets purchasable at the new act's main town, including the Pack Ram and Kohl Beast
• PlayStation Portable crossover items, to promote and to be used in conjunction with Throne of Agony

Deluxe Edition

Deluxe Edition cover

On October 23, 2006, the Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe Edition was released, it is a special collector's set that includes the original Dungeon Siege II and the Broken World expansion pack, and also a number of collectible items.

• An physical expandable map of the Aranna continent.
• Artworks of Lady Montbarron misnamed as Princess Evangeline on the CD files.
• The Making of Dungeon Siege II documentary on CD-ROM.
• Desktop wallpapers
• Multiple artworks and concept arts.
• A short story about Broken World called "Journey of Katala".

Mods

The game engine allows content creation and modification through a released toolkit. New content and modifications are called siegelets. There are many mods created by amateurs available for download on the internet, with features ranging from new graphics to completely new character development systems.

Dungeon Siege II: Legendary Mod is the most notable mod for Dungeon Siege II and it's expansion, Broken World, and in a nutshell had ported the entirety of Dungeon Siege's campaigns (plus a few modded ones) into the engine and game play of Dungeon Siege II.

Gallery

Dungeon Siege 2 Trailer

External links

• [1] Official Dungeon Siege II site hosted by Gas Powered Games]
• [2]Official Dungeon Siege II site hosted by Microsoft]
• [3] The fantasy art of Dungeon Siege II]
• [4] Useful resources and modifications for Dungeon Siege II]