Dungeon Siege II: Broken World Review

RPG's don't have to believable, they just have to be fun.

By Warren Dunlop (Nov 13, 2006)

6.6

Decent

Pros:

Both updating and cross-referencing is extremely easy, including the importation of your DSII characters; main nav and command keys are both easy to remember and come in handy all the time; voice work is again well done; the orchestrated music will get you into the mode every time.

Cons:

Some enemies can be hard to attack or even see in a cluster as they are very small; the action does slow down quite a bit for story purposes and exploring for items, whilst at other times you seem overwhelmed with attackers; short compared to original; not much added to the multiplayer side of things.

Note to self: If current planet proceeds in a fury of demolishment, make an expansion. The Dungeon Siege saga rages back to the "broken" land of Arrana to pick up what little the second to the plot left off. DSII: Broken World has a new race, new classes, new items and other content, but getting to the new foe isn't much of an interesting quest in itself.

With a lengthy RPG such as DSII, an expansion really has to pack a lot of heat to match up if it's going to do it quick. The expansion is just that, an extension of the original. Starting in a dryad outpost, everybody is curt with anything you do, miserable by the past events. Starting with either your DSII character or a provided base character, you continue to learn the world has gone dark, with a Dark Mage whom has decided he wished to summon Zaramoth, a dark lord that will destroy the world... again. Commence your journey.

The new dwarven community is also the new playable race, enabling you to create a Dwarf hero right from the get go. If becoming a dwarf doesn't float your role playing boat right off the bat, you may want to consider sinking into one of the two new classes available in Broken World, these being the Blood Assassin and the Fist of Stone. Ranging combat magic helps with diversifying your team, so grab Blood Assassin and set your enemies blood on fire, literally. The Fist of Stone produces decent results with both melee combat and nature magic, just make sure you know when to use either or. The dwarf characters are also playable in the original, although you'll be the only one.

Difficulty levels pretty much continue close to where they left off, making importing a character a high recommendation. Setting yourself up for each battle is all the more crucial, devising a plan of attack instead of just slashing and gashing and hoping for the best. The full game won't take long, the main quest taking you no longer than ten hours, compared to the fortnight it took with the original. Side quests aren't all necessary, but will keep you busy for awhile.

Although there are plenty of dungeons to go through, Broken World doesn't really do much to make them unique, let alone long and challenging. Some dungeons seeming like a straight corridor with nothing to explore and discover, simply survive and defeat. Personally, mobs of enemies tend to be more difficult at time then do the bosses. Especially when at time there is so much magic and metal flying you can't seem to focus on a particular enemy, some being quite small, overlapping on themselves. The re-use of bosses gets a little boring, having only a handful of boss battles with the same three enemies.

The visuals are still decent, but are quickly losing pace to other more modern releases. Always offering something new to look at, you won't be disappointed, especially if you like extra flashy attack effects, both good and bad, the bad being really intense fights where you lose track of who is who. It is an expansion, and as such the environments still kick ass, which is a pro. Although this time around you'll be surrounded by a "Broken World", which includes plenty of dark, dead, burnt, and crushed things. Textures are re-used quite a bit in dungeons, adding to the generic tunnel feel. DSII being released just over a year ago now, the expansion should extend on the polygon face count for its main models, which it doesn't. Broken Worlds creatures are decent but are (as most RPG's) used a lot. Exploding foes into a pile of bowels and blood is always a nice sight to see, accented nicely in Broken World.

The sounds haven't changed much, and still get you into the action as much as the visuals do. The voice acting on the DS series has always been a fairly high point, this expansion being no exception. Orchestrated symphony subduing in the background until the action rises always proves to be a great asset, creating seamless mini-climaxes.

As an expansion, Dungeon Siege II: Broken World doesn't bring much to the story, and in thinking, probably shouldn't, as the third is apparently in the works. Its content, side missions, new race and classes all add to the decent mix, but overall you'll be aching for a proper sequel.