Dungeon Seige 2 screenshots! [Archive] - Gamers.org Community Forums

Terry Penrod

April 19th, 2004, 06:20 pm

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It's hard to tell from the scant gameplay details we have so far, but I sure hope there is more story / substance in the sequel than the first game. Any CRPG, action-oriented or traditional, 2D, 2D / 3D or full 3D with SP and/or MP should have more than just a cursory plot and a few short, insignificant side quests or hidden areas.

That is why I could never get into Diablo. Sure it looked and sounded great in its day, the cut scenes were brilliant and I did finish the game (although my wrist and thumb hurt for a week afterwards). The combat / enemies were very well done too. But as a SP fan, what real reason was there to keep clicking on an endless stream of monsters level after level after level other that the pure, dry mechanics of grabbing gold / loot, getting cooler weapons, etc. and upping numerical stats?

Like DS (despite those pack mules), Diablo failed to engage my imagination. It sorely lacked a meaningful in-game storyline or any substantial NPCs with dialog that led to a deeper understanding of who they were, what roles they played and how their lives / missions might impact the greater game world - let alone my "unique" character.

Without some real dialog, exploration, side quests, etc., I find all these Action RPG games too linear, too simple, too uninvolving intellectualy or emotionally and in the end, prefer just a good old shooter if that's what I'm in the mood for at the time.

One recent shining example of how to marry the very best of Action RPGs with traditional quest-oriented ones is Divine Divinity. It has a really good original story with plenty of well written text and well voiced dialog along with a ton of meaningful NPCs, loads of optional side quests, lots of free roaming, non-linear exploration and a very detailed, lively, seamless and expansive game world PLUS all the combat you would ever want against a huge variety of very cool enemies with all sorts of weapons and spells. Yet it is also streamlined enough in several key areas to appeal to SP Action RPG fans (there is no MP mode). This occurs in the initial main character creation step and is augmented by a much simpler leveling process that is very flexible / forgiving. It also helps that the overall number of spells / special abilities is a bit less daunting than a typical D&D game and it is basically a solo quest with no party system like BG, etc.

What Larian Studios accomplished was a near perfect blend of the very best aspects of D&D style SP CRPGs and Diablo type hack & slash solo affairs. A MP coop mode would have been cooler IMO as would the additional of at least a few optional party members / henchmen for certain SP quests. But the gameplay mechanics were near perfect as was the effect the total game world had. It felt very much alive and you felt quite free to explore it in almost every direction all the time, in almost any path you chose with virtually any type of character.

Not to harp on DD too much but whenever a new Action-oriented CRPG is mentioned these days, it's hard not to compare it with the very best one made - perhaps ever and most certainly in recent times.

Cheers, Terry

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