DUNGEON SIEGE 2

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

Okay, anybody played this yet?

 

Sweet Addiction.

 

Has anybody gotten anything from the "???" set, I love running around with a metal bucket on my head:D

 

I use a Ranger PC, with a heavy armor knight, a nature mage with good heal and buff skillz, and either another nature mage or a dual melee specialist.

I don't use combat magic, and don't like having more than one ranger in my party.

 

The only thing I dislike about the game is the conversation, on a lesser note it's not very deep, but the main problem is most of the banter dialog and some plot dialog gets skipped because it's only triggered when coming upon a group of hostiles or during combat with said hostiles, and taking damage or attacking instantly ends the conversation (usually asuming you would've picked a dumb dialog choice)

 

But aside from that, great action, great items, great levelling, camera gets restricted a little but not too bad, great boss monsters, etc.

 

I just destroyed the shard in the kaderak mine,

are there any new towns later in the game, I wish there were more towns:D

 

How do you play it:D

[Bob Lion54]

Good game. I was playing it, but then Fable came out for the PC. hehe DS2 went on the backburner.

 

I like a combat magic character with some melee skill. Hopefully, I can find a "Fantasia style" magic hat! I loved that on the first game. hehe

[Aash Li]

Dungeon Siege is alright for a game, but theres too many things that make it suck. The whole game is a hack-n-slash, nothing else.

 

Things that make it suck:

Minimal roleplaying

Chara doesnt eat

Chara doesnt sleep

Chara doesnt rest

The fact that youre not really roleplaying, and yet you still get injured in fighting is kinda lame... so might as well play in god mode... youll end up playing it the same way.

The cheat-codes sucked... had to reload them each time I think. (I only used no fog of war, and windowed mode).

 

I liked the mods to make the chara a dark elf though, and the graphics were really pretty.

 

I rated the game as 2 catgirls out of 5 (being generous).

[stoffe]

I haven't played Dungeon Siege II yet, though I bought the first game when it was released. The first turned out to be a bit too much Hack&Slash and too little RP for my taste though and I got tired of it fairly quickly.

 

How is Dungeon Siege II in this respect? Have they added (more) RP elements, or is it the same linear Hack&Slash with the occasional quest-giving NPC monologue as the first game, with better graphics? Worth a closer look?

 

(I was about to check out the demo but to download a 1 GB file is a bit too much when you don't know what you'll get, and I recently got VtM:Bloodlines and Morrowind keeping me busy instead on the RPG front. )

[Achilles]

^^^^

 

I picked up VtM:Bloodlines a couple months ago. Did 5 or 6 playthroughs and then put it aside for Baldur's Gate. I really enjoyed it although I felt the areas were too small/constricted. I highly recommend playing Nosferatu followed by Tremere before playing any of the other clans.

 

I bought Morrowind over a year ago, installed it, played for an hour and then never touched it again. I liked what I played, but I think it was a little too open-ended for my taste (too Virgo I guess).

 

I really enjoyed my first playthrough of the orgininal Dungeon Siege (and the expansion Legends of Aranna). Although there wasn't much RP to it, I thought the story was pretty good. Surprisingly, I couldn't bring myself to finish a second playthough. For me, that's a kiss of death (I usually play games at least half a dozen times before retiring them). Based on that, I wasn't too excited about DSII. Hopefully I'll see or hear something to convince me otherwise

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

@bobL, a fantasia style hat? combat magic items always look strange to me:D

 

@Aash, I liked it though, I just thought there were a few things (already mentioned) that should've been caught in Beta testing,

And the only codes I ever used were two that gave you a ring, and high dex items,

are there any that give you other items?

 

@Stoffe, you kinda summed it up:D

nothin like using thunderous shot to create a veritable sri-lankan tsunami of blood:D

you can use a little strategy with character positions, lining them up to get the most out of powers,

but if you don't like that, I wouldn't recommend it because it is a little shallow on the story side:(

 

@Achilles, "convince me otherwise" that's what demos are for buddy:D

[Darth_Terros]

So who's looking forward to the Dungeon Siege movie? lol

[stoffe]

I picked up VtM:Bloodlines a couple months ago. Did 5 or 6 playthroughs and then put it aside for Baldur's Gate. I really enjoyed it although I felt the areas were too small/constricted. I highly recommend playing Nosferatu followed by Tremere before playing any of the other clans.

 

I'm enjoying VtM:Bloodlines a lot so far, it's been a while since I played some new good RPG, and Bloodlines filled that need nicely. While the setting is a fair bit darker than I'm used to (getting killed in the opening sequence and playing as an Undead and all), being a habitual goody-twoshoes player, it still has managed to keep me playing. At least there's a somewhat happy ending if you aren't making stupid choices.

 

I'm on my second playthrough now, first one I played as a Toreador, focusing on the social attributes and using Persuasion and Seduction a lot in conversations. Worked out fairly well to play as a good-gal (as good as an undead bloodsucker can get, anyway).

 

I'm currently playing as a Malkavian on my second playthrough, quite a different experience to say the least. I was a bit sceptical at first of the choice, seeing as my vampire is completely crazy, but there's some method to her madness after all, and she's quite clever. A lot of the Malkavian dialog is hilarious, and your character can be rather charming despite (or because of) her madness, so I'm starting to warm up to my Malkavian girl and even like her better than the Toreador. Dementation choices in dialog rocks as well.

 

In retrospect it was probably a good thing to not play as a Malkavian the first time though. You get a lot more out of the experience if you've played the game the normal way first and know the story. Your "insight" allows your character to predict (in unclear malk-style wording) some of what's going to transpire way ahead of time, spooking out some NPCs you speak to when you tell them of their secrets and schemes.

 

I don't know if I'll try a Nosferatu though... I'm a bit picky when it comes to the look of my game characters, and I'm not sure if I would enjoy playing as a hideous-looking character. And besides, sneaking is more fun in moderate doses, having to sneak around the whole game and avoid being seen seems a bit...excessive. I assume you'll miss out on a lot of dialog as well if you can't speak to humans in Masquerade areas without them fleeing in terror and you getting slapped with a Masquerade violation.

 

Ah, Baldurs Gate... been a while since I played that now. I've lost count how many times I've played through BG and BG2. Playing and modding those games was a near-obsession a few years ago.

 

I bought Morrowind over a year ago, installed it, played for an hour and then never touched it again. I liked what I played, but I think it was a little too open-ended for my taste (too Virgo I guess).

 

I picked up Morrowind+Expansions a few weeks ago but haven't started playing it yet, as I tried Bloodlines first and got hooked on that.

 

It'll probably take a while to get used to a completely new rules system and approach to world interactivity as I too prefer games to be fairly story driven, but since the game was dirt cheap to buy it's no great loss if I end up not liking it after all.

 

I really enjoyed my first playthrough of the orgininal Dungeon Siege (and the expansion Legends of Aranna). Although there wasn't much RP to it, I thought the story was pretty good. Surprisingly, I couldn't bring myself to finish a second playthough.

 

Same here. I could only play through Dungeon Siege 1 once, to see what the story was all about and enjoy the visuals. The game had little replay value, IMHO, since nothing changes between playthroughs. The lack of dialog, the completely linear maps and monsters that, while they look different, essentially acts the same anyway. No choices.

 

A shame if DSII is more of the same, but I guess if the first game was successful they have little reason to change the concept.

 

If it's still a pure hack&slash fest I'll probably wait until it drops in price and pick it up if I don't have any other games to play.

[Aash Li]

While Im not a huge vtm fangirl, my favourite clan has always been the Malkavians. When I first started RPG, my first chara was a Malkavian, and she was a hoot to play. She was an undead nympho and liked getting her blood through sex. lol (most of the time it was off-screen). Still my most favourite chara. Toreadors are ok, but theyre just the stock-pretty-girl/boy-race/clan/tribe... sorta like the elves in D&D.

 

So whats the plot of Bloodlines? Is it console or PC?

[Bob Lion54]

So whats the plot of Bloodlines? Is it console or PC?

 

Its on PC for sure, I'm not sure about consoles, though.

 

Basically, the game starts with a cutscene of your character in the throws of extacy! hehe (got you attention?hehe)

Anyway, all of a sudden you screem. They show you transforming into a vampire. A group of vamps burst into the room and take you and your sire in.

 

The Prince (Lecroix is his name) wants to kill you as your sire never got permission to vampify you. Luckly for you, the crowd does not like this, so he lets you live, but kills your sire.

 

So, you run around doing quest for the prince. As the game goes on, you start to see the politics of the vampire world. The story is great with a lot of depth! It has many side quest and the main quest is awsome.

 

I definitley recommend this game. It has a good replay value, too, as stoffe and Achilles mentioned.

 

I also have to mention that Bloodlines features one of my favourite areas of any game. Its a freaking haunted hotel. hehe John Carpenter has nothing on the spookiness of the hotel.

 

Smiling Jack is one of my favourite charactors, too. (play the game to see who he is. hehe)

 

Anyway, thats all I can think of without getting into spoilers. If you like RPGs and Vampires, this is the game for you!

[Achilles]

I don't know if I'll try a Nosferatu though... I'm a bit picky when it comes to the look of my game characters, and I'm not sure if I would enjoy playing as a hideous-looking character. And besides, sneaking is more fun in moderate doses, having to sneak around the whole game and avoid being seen seems a bit...excessive. I assume you'll miss out on a lot of dialog as well if you can't speak to humans in Masquerade areas without them fleeing in terror and you getting slapped with a Masquerade violation.

Yeah, I didn't like being ugly either, but it ended up being a lot of fun. You do have to rely on the sewers a lot more, but I even got used to that pretty quickly. You can get masquerade violations for walking around on the streets but for the most part, you're safe. And you can still talk to people although they won't respond to you the way they do when you play as another clan (some of the dialogs are hiliarious!).

 

If it's still a pure hack&slash fest I'll probably wait until it drops in price and pick it up if I don't have any other games to play.

That's what I did with the first one and it's probably what I'll do with the second as well.

 

While Im not a huge vtm fangirl, my favourite clan has always been the Malkavians. When I first started RPG, my first chara was a Malkavian, and she was a hoot to play. She was an undead nympho and liked getting her blood through sex. lol (most of the time it was off-screen). Still my most favourite chara. Toreadors are ok, but theyre just the stock-pretty-girl/boy-race/clan/tribe... sorta like the elves in D&D.

 

So whats the plot of Bloodlines? Is it console or PC?

Believe it or not, Malkavian was the only clan that I didn't get around to playing.

 

Bloodlines is for PC only. The plot line is that you're a newborn vamp (or "childe") in modern LA. The leader of the vamp "government" takes you under his wing (kinda sorta) and sends you to do a bunch of his dirty work. Ultimately you're trying to recover an recently excavated ancient artifact, that may or may not have a significant impact on the vampire community (it may unleash the vampire equivalent of Armaggedon).

 

As the game progresses things become more and more political. There are several factions that you can align with. Therefore you can pick your clan, your gender, your humanity (kinda like alignment), and your political allies. Makes the game ripe for replay, although there isn't enough variation to make it a completely different game each time.

[RedHawke]

^^^^

Well it sounds like I'm going to try to pick up VTM: Bloodlines then... thanks for the info Achilles!