Over a thousand years ago, Zaramoth, his dark wizards and Azunai the Defender were at war, keeping the world in a delicate balance.
One day, the sword of Zaramoth and the shield of Azunai locked, and a great scream enveloped the land as the armies of Zaramoth and Azunai were eliminated in the blink of an eye.
And since that day the world has become a more chaotic and wild place as the memories of the kingdoms of Zaramoth and Azunai fade.
Until Valdis, a tribal prince, overcome by a feverish delirium headed off to the mountains.
On his return Valdis wielded a precious object, something thought forever lost - the mighty sword of Zaramoth.
So the adventure of Dungeon Siege II (DSII) begins, with murmurs of Zaramoth`s return, in the guise of Valdis, the killing fields are reopened as the great conflict between Zaramoth and Azunai begins in the second age.
Restricted party size
What will it be? A role-playing human, half-giant, dryad or elf are the race options. Each has unique strengths and advantages. As the game progresses, additional party members can be brought on board.
Party size is restricted to four until a veteran rank is reached, when the party size can be increased to six. This is frustrating, as the first level of the game needs to be completed before such a rank can be reached.
With about 60 hours of game time per level, and nothing new on offer other than a slightly harder playing field in round two, it seems unreasonable to expect gamers to have the tenacity to reach the veteran level.
Pets can also be members of the party. These can be invaluable assets as they can learn special powers that other party members cannot. This, however, highlights the party size restriction.
Right click and more right click
DSII has two combat modes, mirror or rampage.
In the mirror mode, the selected party member will attack a chosen enemy while the other group members follow suit. With rampage mode, well the word says it all, it is a free for all.
Unfortunately the game slips into a right click frenzy, as the enemies encountered don`t offer much in terms of resilience and are fairly similar, except for what they leave behind in armoury when killed off.
The more kills attributed to party members, the more experience they gain and in turn get more skill points to spend, making attacks more lethal.
Gold is found ubiquitously throughout the game, but doesn`t have much use, except for paying for the process of enchanting items. The equipment picked up after battles is far more valuable and effective than that which is bought from the weapon stores.
Back to the village
Reloading a saved game can induce a headache as the gamer is always taken back to the village teleporter. So no matter how far the gamer has gone in a quest, he will be heading home after a save and exit.
The quests are divided into primary and secondary quests, which direct the gamer through the land of Arann. Primary quests are guided by a yellow arrow on the map in the right hand corner, but the secondary quests are harder to solve as there is no direction key other than the few words spoken by the person offering the quest. The secondary quests are great fillers and take the gamer off the well-trodden path of pure destruction.
The maps are not very useful, as the small maps are hard to follow and read, while the larger map has too little detail.
All in all a sound role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games with a great plot - just warm up that wedding ring finger.
Dungeon Siege II scores a 6.5/10.
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