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arts-culture/reviews
Date Posted:
2/29/03


Dungeon Siege Review

by: Jonathan Kui


In life, there are only two certainties—taxes and death. Now add over-hyped, over-priced and over-simplified violent RPGs to that list. Last year, Chris Taylor’s “Dungeon Siege” was supposed to be different. It wasn’t supposed to be like the rest of the RPG splurge. To my disappointment, it was exactly that.

You might recognize Chris Taylor from his “Total Annihilation” days. With his newest release, Dungeon Siege, Taylor shifts 180 degrees with a visually pleasing, musically satisfying anti-click fest. And to my delight, Dungeon Siege annihilates the graphically lagging, story line lacking Total Annihilation, any day.

But don’t go running to your local video game store waving $35 dollars just yet.

Contrary to popular belief, this game was originally released as Diablo 3: The Adventures of a Brave Little Farmer. However, the overwhelming similarities between Diablo and Dungeon Siege didn’t affect the overall essence of the game. It just leads me to believe that Taylor drugged and tortured the creators of Diablo into releasing the blueprints for the game.

Following the wishes of a dying old friend, you throw down your pitchfork, and pick up a mighty dagger. You embark upon a quest to destroy evil that seemingly magicians, warriors, and kings could not even complete. So it makes sense that an unknowing farmer could conjure the right spell to defeat the mysterious evil. But to base a game on that is just being picky.

No worries, the linear game play warrants emotional memories of countless hours simply being guided to the next town. It seems a shame to have such 3D graphics when the game required nothing but following markers and NPCs. It’s almost a blessing in disguise that a dungeon or cave takes seemingly a lifetime to complete. Which brings me to another aspect of the game that only merits disappointment.

If anything, this game is titled Dungeon Siege for all the right reasons. The dungeons or caves are as in depth and complex as sanely possible. If they were any longer, more difficult, or time consuming, this game would quickly be entering the “cave” that is my backyard. And even though Dungeon Siege is not a click fest like some of its RPG predecessors, there is an awful amount of killing.

No, I mean an awful amount of killing. Every which way you turn, there will be a sword, arrow, or fireball hurling directly at you. And if I’m correct, all three usually come side by side. If not for the automatic and one click attack system, this game might be single handedly responsible for causing carpel tunnel syndrome.

If not for the breath taking, muscle relaxing, awe-inspiring graphics, this game might better be classified as cruel and unusual punishment. But to the customer’s satisfaction, the graphics, unlike the other components of the game, live up to the hype. The background scenery of icy caves and fiery mountains alone will leave your jaw dropping, eye popping, drool gathering self, mesmerized.

But the graphics alone aren’t enough. Even the relatively appealing sound effects don’t offer enough to make this game worth playing. The one most important characteristic of the game, just so happens to be the worst. If the game play was as complex as the dungeons, the game would be a different game. This review would be a different review. The 25 hours spent playing this game, would have been appreciated. But in reality, it’s 25 hours of clicking, drooling, and simple frustration.

 

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