Gameplay

One of the more important ways to increase player involvement is to have him select special powers. Special powers are ability-related. Each character has four different areas where he can specialize in – melee, ranged, nature magic and combat magic. It is best to focus each character on one of these fields, since they determine what kind of equipment he can use and what special abilities he’ll have. A special ability is unlocked or improved by using character points to buy skills. Characters receive one point per level they earn in that field. To earn levels in the field, they need to use the skills – so to rank up a “fighter”, he needs to melee, while healers use nature magic.

Special abilities are vital for getting out of tough situations or bringing bosses down quickly. Typical combat scenarios are not the best time to use them, since they recharge only by killing more enemies or by gaining a level. Characters can have a variety of these abilities but can only use one at a time. Thus, as the game progresses and becomes more complex and difficult, the player finds himself balancing his abilities against what he’s facing and expecting to be facing. The designers can be tricky and sometimes set up mini bosses to waste the special abilities, before the actual boss.


The player’s party grows throughout the game but only as much as the player is willing to spend on it. Each new position in the party is increasingly more expensive, and even the mule takes up a slot. The major party members have to be discovered, though if the player wishes he can fill in spaces with mercenaries. Party members have some role in the story but it tends to be minimal, they aren’t as interactive as in the Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, or Knights of the Old Republic games.

Although Dungeon Siege II is a game that makes itself very easy to play and accessible, it is not easy, per se. There are areas that are clearly more difficult than others. At times the difference is so dramatic that we wonder how they made it through play testing. In the second act there are these spitting spiders in particular that come out of nowhere and are more difficult than the boss dungeon encounter that just preceded them. As with Diablo, strategic use of town portals can get the player out of many hairy, ghoulish or even spider-infested situations.


Characters rarely actually die, they usually just fall unconscious and spring back to life once they heal up. This can result in some particularly cheesy tactics that have your sole survivor of a bad encounter running around until his compatriots wake from their power naps. Even should your entire party suffer “final” death, the handy teleporters can bring you within a few minutes of your corpses to recover lost loot, or you can pay the perfidiously greedy necromancer 25% of your gold to recover everything at your respawn location.