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Dungeon Siege is a real time computer role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft. Chris Taylor (from Total Annihilation) showed Dungeon Siege years in production for the first time at E3 2000. The game was released in 2002 and later bundled with HIS line of X800 video cards on the DVD medium in 2005.

In November 2003, Gas Powered Games and Mad Doc Software developed an official expansion pack to for this game called Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna. Microsoft produced it.

Dungeon Siege, its expansion pack Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, and In the Name of the King take place in the Kingdom of Ehb.

Introduction

The player participates in a quest to save the land of Ehb from the forces of evil. The player controls the main character from humble beginnings as a farmer to a powerful hero or heroine. As the game progresses, the main character may be joined by other adventurers, who the player also controls. The background is based in a fantasy medieval world with a great geographic variety in open and closed environments (dungeons). The graphics are very detailed with intelligent environment changes.

Aranna is the continent where the games of Dungeon Siege series take place. The Kingdom of Ehb is the capital of the continent.

Story

In the Kingdom of Ehb, a humble farmer's life is turned upside down when a race of evil goblin-like creatures attack the community. The Krug, as they are known, must be stopped and the player's character is tasked with seeking help from a neighboring town. Along the way, the player may meet others willing to help. The player soon discovers, however, that the quest does not end at reaching the town.

According to the game's back-story, The Kingdom of Ehb is a border kingdom in the continent of Aranna, next to the Plain of Tears. Originally a trading post on the outskirts of the Empire of Stars, Ehb later achieved temporary status as a military protectorate and province when the 10th Legion migrated westward.

In the wake of the War of Legions, and the ensuing collapse of the Empire of Stars, Ehb became an independent kingdom in its own right. Stability was achieved thanks to the protection provided by its fortifications and the 10th Legion - one of the most highly trained armies on Aranna.

Ehb presents a rich variety of terrain and peoples. Valleys, icy mountains, swamps, cliffs and volcanoes ornate its layout. Its main inhabitants are Humans and Dwarves who live in harmony and acknowledge the same ruler. There are also the primitive Krug, secretive Goblin technologists, and the mysterious, though largely autonomous Droog.

Krug

The Krug are unintelligent beast-like creatures who inhabit the Kingdom of Ehb. They are often used as pawns in malevolent overlords' plans. They do not have enough initiative or intelligence to make much trouble, but in the hands of a greater evil, they can be quite efficient.

Features

Gas Powered Games developed the 3D engine for Dungeon Siege from the ground up—it did not license a pre-existing engine as is often done in today's game industry. Creating the game engine from scratch gave them the benefit of adding features tailored to their game. Another innovation was the game content streaming, thus almost completely eliminating the need for "level loading", and it also made possible the creation of enormous worlds, which do not need to fit in computer memory.

In most role-playing games (RPG), a player chooses a class for their character and when the character gains enough experience, they "level up" and become more powerful in that class. Gas Powered did away with this classification and, instead, made characters more powerful based on what they do instead of what they are. For example, if the character uses mêlée weapons (e.g. swords or maces), they become better at fighting with weapons. On the other hand, if the character casts spells a great deal, they become better at that. Other games have built engines on this premise, most notably Final Fantasy 2

The game keeps track of the character with four skills, all of which can be developed independently.: mêlée, ranged, nature magic, and combat magic. Mêlée includes all hand held weapons (swords, staffs, maces etc). Ranged includes projectile weapons, such as bows and crossbows. Combat magic and nature magic, although different in principle, have many of the same spells just by different names, levels, and power. Combat magic has stronger offensive and weaker defensive spells, while nature magic has stronger defensive spells and weaker offensive spells. Both schools of magic can summon creatures of equivalent power and have the ability to heal damage, although nature mages are more effective healers.

Dungeon Siege is mainly a single-player game, but it also has a multiplayer mode that delivers a different gaming experience, including many secret areas that can only be reached in multiplayer mode, such as the Utrean Catacombs, the Chicken Level, and Eastern Island.

The setting of Dungeon Siege is a marriage of fantasy and steampunk genres, with foes consisting of dragons, goblins and other creatures of fantasy to the steam-powered machinations of mechanical spiders and steam-powered goblins and other more uncommon, steampunk-influenced adversaries.

The expansion Legends of Aranna includes such upgrades as a new pack animal capable of combat to replace the mule, additional spells, additional weapons, a global map tool, a new teleport portal system, and a new campaign. Other many minor changes were implemented in the interface facilitating the management of the inventory.

Gameplay

The gameplay is widely based in the automated Diablo "point-and-click" being highly linear and constant hack and slash battle. It's a party-based RPG, players can have up to 8 characters in a party. It has a very simplified game system, without classes and skill trees. The game has been criticized for being too automated and lacking replay value for its repetitive gameplay . On another hand, this high automation has the potential to help players concentrate on other aspects of the gameplay (granted, the game doesn't offer such opportunity, but the underlying technology could be re-used on a game which would offer such a thing).

The party system is automated but efficient with basic formations resources and action-response. In addition to being able to recruit non-player characters (NPCs) that function much like the player's own character, it is possible to buy a mule to help carry more items being a part of the group.

Multiplayer

Dungeon Siege supports multiplayer cooperative gaming over LAN and the Internet (direct TCP/IP connect) in Story mode. Multiple players can play together as separate-but-allied parties. There is an overall limit of 8 characters, regardless of whether they're player-controlled or NPCs. Players can also import their character from the single-player game to play in the Multiplayer game.

On the Internet, players can also engage in PvP fighting against other players and teams. They can play in Zonematch, a free online gaming service. An exclusive map is included for online play, called Utraen Peninsula.

The Macintosh port of the game has an incompatible multiplayer protocol to the original.

Bonus packs

Gas Powered Games released some promotional mods called as "Bonus Packs."

Return to Arhok

Return to Arhok continues the story of Legends of Aranna. This mod is a promotional release of GPG and requires Windows XP and the Legends of Aranna expansion installed. * It is also called "XP Level."

Yesterhaven

Yesterhaven is a multiplayer-only short story that can only be played online. This bonus pack does not require a pre-existing character, nor any previous experience with Dungeon Siege. This official mod can be downloaded at GPG and requires the original Dungeon Siege game.

Mods

The game engine allows content creation and modification through a released toolkit. New content and modifications are called mods or siegelets. There are many mods available created by amateurs with features ranging from new graphics to a completely new character development system.

Dungeon Siege is currently kept alive by modders communities and Ultima series fans.

Ultima

Lazarus, a DS mod remake of Ultima V, was released at the end of 2005. Development of the mod tooks three years. A project to remake Ultima VI using the same DS engine is currently ongoing at: U6 Project.

Copperhead: Retaliation

Maybe one of the most notable DS mods, Copperhead: Retaliation changes the game dramatically into a sci-fi futurist adventure: weapons, environments and characters are all heavily modified.

The Lands of Hyperborea

The Lands of Hyperborea is a Dungeon Siege Siegelet created by Jim Farris. It is noted for its intense characterization, story line, and unique music. It added Minions (summonable servants that could be controlled by the player), altered the mechanics for casting spells (spells cost health as well as mana to cast), complex race relations, and a crafting system that allowed you to create up to 80 different kinds of items within the game. Gameplay requires much more skill than DS, but serves up a very rich and satisfying world.

Mageworld

Mageworld is a Dungeon Siege Total Conversion created by Jim Farris. Players can expect a detailed story line and intense gaming experience that will keep them occupied for months. The map is enormous, larger than Manhattan Island, and based on a chess board. Players control an anthropomorphic female equine-warrior, a white knight who travels across the board (via flying ships) with her pawn companion Mantri, doing battle against all of the pieces of the Black King. Mageworld has new spells, new art and new music. Most of the combat system has been rewritten. Major styles of melee combat include bare-handed, sword and shield, two-handed sword (greatsword), and staff. Also included, though to a much lesser role, are Morning-stars, a rapier (with correct sabre style for Knights and foil style for Bishops), farm tools (notably the scythe), double-bladed axes, and whips. Black characters receive a bonus to melee attacks both in hit % and in damage. The crafting system in Mageworld is very detailed and has dozens of hidden "easter eggs." Virtually everything in the game that can be used by the player is crafted by the player, and crafting is the major (sometimes only) means of obtaining better equipment. The expected time to complete the single-player game is no less than one month for most players, with many taking longer. Gameplay is significantly more challanging than the original game because it includes mental puzzles that the player must solve. In addition, as with most Total Conversions, many of the basic game mechanics have been changed. Players will no longer have characters with health and mana pools in the hundreds or thousands (as in the original) and magic has been altered similar to the Lands of Hyperborea - spells now cost health as well as mana to cast.

Ranged combat is accomplished primarily with bows. Projectiles travel at real-world speeds, making it impossible to manually dodge. Instead, mechanics to allow the characters to "duck" from bow shots has been added. Characters auto-ducking because of arrows becomes an important tactic to use against them in the game, since it will interrupt them attacking someone (allowing that someone to get the upper hand). Bows now expend ammo, and ammo management is extremely important for a range based character. Arrows also take inventory space, so that is also an important concern. Also available for ranged combat are chakrams and an arbalist-type weapon.

Spells now take a significant amount of time to cast, allowing for the possibility of interrupting a mage casting by attacking them. There is now only one magic skill - called talent (vs the combat and nature magic from the original DS), but three "realms" of magic: protection (represented by a blue color), creation (represented by a green color), and destruction (represented by a red color).

The Road to Allysium

One of the most awaited mods by DS fans, TRA is a professional mod made by Mystical Productions. It will come with more than 500 MB of modifications. It has been in development since 2002.

Bonus level

Dungeon Siege has a unlockable bonus level called Chicken World (see Cow Level of Diablo II) . You need three items to achieved this: the newbie knife (your first weapon), the fury eye (can be found in water caverns) and the trial of gallus book (which is in the town of Hiroth). Then, start/join a multiplayer game on the map Utraean Peninsula. Choose the town of Quillrabe to start in.

Sequel, spin-off and movie

A sequel called Dungeon Siege II was released in 2005. A movie based in the game is in production and set to be released in the fall of 2006 with the title In the Name of the King.

In March 2006, Take-Two Interactive acquired all publishing rights of Dungeon Siege, ending the Microsoft/Gas Powered 4 years of partnership (March 2006 in video gaming) a new game was announced for Sony PlayStation Portable called Throne of Agony. The end of Microsoft partnership opens the franchise to all platforms.

Screenshots

See also

Official websites

External links

Reviews and other info

Fan sites

2002 computer and video games | Mac OS games | Computer and video role-playing games | Computer and video role-playing games | Dungeon Siege | Windows games | Computer and video games featuring cooperative gameplay

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Dungeon Siege".

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