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Any Dakka fans of the original Dungeon Siege out there? I might be a minority here, but I still feel like it has no successor despite generating a series and movie.
One of my favorite aspects of the game were the real-time player party mechanics and while this was primarily a thing only in single player mode, I got a lot of good play time out of multiplayer. Though sure would have been cool to enter or start a host with your full party and everyone else's full party.
I recall a time in the development of the sequel where Gaspowered Games had actually tested that, but then we ended up with less than what we started with in the sequel.
So what do you remember about it? Do you still play?
Does anyone still host multi now that Microsoft Zonematch is a thing of the past?
I played it when it came out.. 21 years ago, I feel old now. It was okay, I played through it twice, once in single player, the other time in coop, but aside from being able to play as a skeleton and having a dragon-shaped minigun, not much else I can remember from it.
It's mainly nostalgia for me now, and probably a big part of that is the soundtrack from Jeremy Soule.
The skill-based or active progression leveling was unique if not unheard of at the time. The party formations were great and unseen in most if not all rpgs (I think), but the fact you could just load up with health pots, kinda negated any tactics to it.
I suppose turn based players could relate more to the pause feature and way pointing, but none of it was further developed upon to make it truly tactical in one way or another sadly.
Visually its aged poorly but it had some really neat features that I've never experienced since.
1) The idea of having donkeys! Seriously it was ahead of its time in terms of inventory management. You could take them instead of characters/warriors so you could loot. Take 2 and you could basically loot everything between two settlements (more or less). It's something I sorely feel is missing in the modern era of gaming, which is really odd because modern games have LOADs more random loot for crafting whilst in DS it was just loot to equip or flog to buy more gear with.
The only game that gets close on that is Torchlight where you have a pet that you can send to town to sell loot every so often. Which is pretty great for a hack and slash as it lets you keep hacking and slashing
2) One of my favourite game moments that was unscripted in a game is still in DS original. In a mid-game period you enter a swampy region. Now when my party entered I got into a fight and lost control, the donkeys got panicked and fled. So I had to chase after them as they fled into the advancing game area (ergo toward more potential danger). They arrived at a small church and thus I herded them in and before long it was "the 300" type situation of me defending the church, donkeys inside and safe, whilst enemies were outside.
Sure combat wasn't really the 300 with hoards but it felt engaging and exciting and wasn't a scripted thing. Good honest fun.
3) Interestingly when I first played it I didn't realise how linear it was; its 100% rail-road linear gameplay which today would be considered pretty poor; but in its day it was really a lot of fun.
4) Music for it was ace!
Sad to say that the expansions for it are stuck in some kind of legal/file issue because they aren't sold anywhere whilst the core game is (interestingly its the same for the sequel, Dungeon Siege 2 which is really odd because that expansion was tied right into the core game and storyline)
Overread wrote: Visually its aged poorly but it had some really neat features that I've never experienced since.
True, but for the time it was a definite step up from 2.5D isometric. The world was rendered in real time as you moved through the map and loading times into different levels were non existent.
Overread wrote: 1) The idea of having donkeys! Seriously it was ahead of its time in terms of inventory management. You could take them instead of characters/warriors so you could loot. Take 2 and you could basically loot everything between two settlements (more or less). It's something I sorely feel is missing in the modern era of gaming, which is really odd because modern games have LOADs more random loot for crafting whilst in DS it was just loot to equip or flog to buy more gear with.
The only game that gets close on that is Torchlight where you have a pet that you can send to town to sell loot every so often. Which is pretty great for a hack and slash as it lets you keep hacking and slashing
That's another thing I can't think of any other game prior or at the time doing. The donkeys were fun for a while, but then the novelty wore off on me and I just recruited all the extra NPCs to my party and used them as mules since they fought back a lot better and you could basically switch to whoever you want to play/control whenever you wanted.
Overread wrote: 2) One of my favourite game moments that was unscripted in a game is still in DS original. In a mid-game period you enter a swampy region. Now when my party entered I got into a fight and lost control, the donkeys got panicked and fled. So I had to chase after them as they fled into the advancing game area (ergo toward more potential danger). They arrived at a small church and thus I herded them in and before long it was "the 300" type situation of me defending the church, donkeys inside and safe, whilst enemies were outside.
The idea that they had a kind of morale or sense of danger was cool, yet another aspect that fell by the way side. The swamp was real, loved those Swamp Witches! EEEEYAAAHHH! EEEEYAAAHHH! Next thing you know you're about to get mobbed.
Overread wrote: Sure combat wasn't really the 300 with hoards but it felt engaging and exciting and wasn't a scripted thing. Good honest fun.
100%
Overread wrote: 3) Interestingly when I first played it I didn't realise how linear it was; its 100% rail-road linear gameplay which today would be considered pretty poor; but in its day it was really a lot of fun.
True again, I recall waiting for the world to open up, a little over half way through I was like is this just a path? And by the time I reached the Seck I just wanted to be done with it heh...
Overread wrote: Sad to say that the expansions for it are stuck in some kind of legal/file issue because they aren't sold anywhere whilst the core game is (interestingly its the same for the sequel, Dungeon Siege 2 which is really odd because that expansion was tied right into the core game and storyline)
Oh I did not know this, will have to read up on it. That's a shame. I've always wanted to see a true remake of the original, and bring the graphics up to date.
DS2 was good but different. I do recall that it felt a bit lacking. I think a big part was that they cut it down from a party to just yourself, one beast and I think one helper. DS 1 shined because whilst individual characters were simple (2 active abilities you swapped between and attack) the team element meant that you were always busy during a fight without being overwhelmed.
It was interesting that it was a similar thing that Baldurs Gate to Neverwinter also did - and that felt really rough because the whole DnD skill tree is kind of built on the idea that you'll have a varied party.
It's really hard to get a good skill covering when you only have 1 character and 1 support that you "sort of" controlled.
It was interesting that it was a similar thing that Baldurs Gate to Neverwinter also did - and that felt really rough because the whole DnD skill tree is kind of built on the idea that you'll have a varied party.
It's really hard to get a good skill covering when you only have 1 character and 1 support that you "sort of" controlled.
Yes when people weren't accusing it of being the Diablo killer (which it really wasn't) they were longing for it to be the next Baldur's gate.
I've never played BG only watched a friend. I have played Neverwinter and wow, those Henchmen could be clunky as hell. Maybe it was me, but it sure felt like they would get confused and jump in the way of things mucking it up more off than not.
Where as in DS if you told your party to move in a certain formation they'd do just that.
If you wanted more micro managing you could individually configure their stances and switch them on a dime, much like in Total War where you can control an individual unit and quickly switch to grouped formations or override their AI all together.
While it was great, it wasn't much use since there wasn't anything in the way of terrain advantage or flanking advantage etc, just a pretty straight forward hitbox with some percentage to hit that was hardly noticeable if I recall correct.
The last DS game is the only one I might consider playing. I always wanted to shoot a gun, so there's that.
I remember having a "firing squad" of party members. A couple of mages to keep us healed, and then 4 people who just had bows and rained shots down on anything that came near us.
The two spells I remember were a healing wind spell that healed over time as it blew past you, and "soul lance", a slow moving thing that hit like a truck.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/03/09 00:37:31
