Dungeon Siege: Nostalgia, Adventure, Immersion and…Questionable Analogies
The PC I had in the early 2000s wasn’t that great for gaming and I certainly didn’t know how to optimize it or look for games that would actually run well. I pretty much stuck with Diablo II, StarCraft, Ultima Online, and a bunch of older games that wouldn’t require too much effort on the part of the family PC to get them up and running. (By the way, this is the second post in a row I mentioned Diablo II, and I’m not sorry…okay, maybe I am a little bit.) Basically, I didn’t play a lot of old PC gems from that era so I love that they are still accessible to guys like me who suffer from incurable FOMO. What I love even more is when one of these old games is still playable and is not only a good time, but also surprises me in ways I wasn’t expecting. 2002’s Dungeon Siege is one of those gems.
Dungeon Siege may have been on my radar since it came out, but it took me almost 20 years to get around to buying and playing it. The FOMO will always become too much in the end…usually when a seasonal sale event pops up…during which I bought all three entries in the Dungeon Siege series. I have FOMO to thank for why I finally ended up playing through the core Half-Life series a few years ago and is also the reason I’m currently working my way through the original Halo trilogy now. Certain games just demand to be played no matter how old they are. I don’t really know how Dungeon Siege fits into this list…I mean, for one thing it doesn’t even start with an ‘H’. I just know that the name Dungeon Siege has been stuck in my mind since way back when and the only way to cure the FOMO was to sit down and play it and I’m happy I did.
The gameplay can be described as a blending of classic CRPGs and ARPGs. Take one part Baldur’s Gate with its slower, more meticulous party-based mechanics and mix it with one part — wait for it— Diablo II with its more fast-paced, action-oriented mechanics. Season with copious amounts of loot then shake and pour the contents through a cocktail strainer into a highball glass. Serve with twist of lemon for garnish and voila — Dungeon Siege. Poorly thought out game recipe aside, for someone like me who could never really get into CRPGs (even though I really want to and own quite a few), the gameplay in Dungeon Siege just felt right. There are certainly things there if you like to go deep with party customization and formations and ability management etc., or if you’re like me, you’ll play it like a party-based Diablo II and try to steamroll your way through everything. There are a ton of hotkeys for the party stuff and I got the impression that hardcore players probably switch between characters and abilities on the fly, but I’m not that patient — nor that good at these games to begin with — so I went the straightforward route. I’m not really one for finesse and micro-managing. However, the genuine fun in Dungeon Siege doesn’t necessarily come from the gameplay itself, but instead comes from the sense of adventure you get when making your way through the Kingdom of Ehb. Before we get into that though, I need to say tiny bit about the story.
In the midst of what appears to be a Krug uprising, your character’s farmstead is attacked which sets the events of the game in motion. With his dying breath, the old farmer who’s name I forget tells you to find another guy (Bjorn, Kjorn, something?) in the next town. Boom. Adventure started. You get to Fjorn? and he tells you his regiment is on its way to another town and you both need to catch up to them. This is how most of the story plays out. You move from point to point in a linear fashion and are given a new task at every point which then drives you to the next. Any NPC’s who join your party along the way only do so after you agree to help them in their personal quest and/or pay for their time. Everyone seems to be on board with your main quest in finding out what has the Krug in a tizzy though, so there isn’t a whole lot of character development. Basically, the story and characters are fine, but what Dungeon Siege excelled at is the journey that takes place in between the story points and the various locales you visit.
It felt like I was on an adventure. There was no fast travel. You could rent pack mules to tag along with you and carry extra loot which was a cool way to eliminate having to choose between which loot you would keep OR having to go back to town every fifteen minutes to sell stuff. The lack of town-hopping in particular kept me moving forward through the world and I never got tired of any spot. What else was nice is that the world never opened up too much to the point where I felt overwhelmed or lost (except in the fucking swamp). This creates a more profound sense of progress compared to merely leveling a character or advancing to the next chapter in the story. I was able to explore and discover each area of the world without too many of the safety nets found in more modern games like said fast-travel, and it gave the game a more epic feel when I wasn’t teleporting everywhere on a whim. The game is designed in a way that you organically see more or less the entire world simply by progressing through the campaign.
Additionally, few other games I’ve played have been able to accomplish this sense of progression through the world. For instance, in open-world games like Skyrim (since I’m listening to the soundtrack right now), you can go and do whatever you want pretty much right off the bat. To a certain degree, the amount of content presented in massive games like Skyrim can easily become overwhelming especially if one does not have the time to invest in getting every ounce of enjoyment out of it. You don’t really get to experience the entire world unless the only video game you’ve played since Skyrim came out is Skyrim. What I like about Dungeon Siege in comparison is that there was just something oddly refreshing about its linearity. It still had a lengthy campaign that took me about 22 hours to get through, but when I finished I felt like I had actually finished. So often these days, I’ll complete a game’s main story to justify moving on to something else, but in large open-world games I feel like I’m shorting myself on the experience. I know the multitude of side-quests I’m usually leaving behind and I end up regretting that I didn’t do them. In the end I subconsciously I feel like I didn’t truly beat the game, but thankfully I didn’t feel that here.
Questionable analogy incoming: An open-world game is like a giant pool. You can ease into it or dive right in. You can play Marco Polo, you can have races, you can compete to see who can hold their breath the longest, play chicken, etc. You can usually get out (re: beat the game) after a few hours or after hundreds. The whole experience is based on player choice. A more linear game, like Dungeon Siege, is like a water slide. You can only go down the slide, but it’s a blast (unless you’re a soulless heathen) and the ride is designed with a definitive end in sight to keep you from becoming overwhelmed. End questionable analogy.
Essentially, it was thoughtful world-design on the part of the developers (Gas Powered Games) that made the game feel like a complete experience. The rich variety in locales was there, but each area felt like it was just the right size so that I never felt like I was over-staying my welcome in any one place (except for the fucking swamp). Of course, none of the world design would be half as impressive if the developers weren’t able to make it seamless. This brings me to immersion — you know, that word from the title I haven’t mentioned yet.
Immersion is tricky these days. Take something as commonplace as loading screens and ask yourself if one ever made you feel more immersed in the game you were playing. If you answered yes, then I’ll assume that you’re playing a loading screen simulator. No judgment here…just please go talk to someone. No one should ever subject themselves to that kind of torment willingly. My thoughts are with you… Anyway, what stood out to me while playing Dungeon Siege was the fact that there were no loading screens with two exceptions (that I can remember). The first exception happened whenever you would load a save file and the game would “prepare” the world — which is necessary so no problem there. Second: I’m pretty sure every other loading screen was hidden in a cutscene…which was something I was not aware could happen in 2002. I have a feeling I’m definitely wrong about how possible this method was at any given time throughout the history of video games, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it still blew my mind. What I’m getting at is this game epitomizes “immersion” in terms of world design by allowing the player to explore the game seamlessly. The only time I was taken out of the game was when I chose to be by turning it off. I didn’t quite notice it at first, but after a couple times of just walking in and out of places from the field without getting hit with a loading screen was amazing. Yes, I am easily amazed and no, I don’t want to renew my vehicle’s extended warranty. Please stop calling.
In my defense, the last thing I was expecting when I started Dungeon Siege was a completely seamless world. I’m used to loading screens for almost everything these days and was certainly expecting them in a game this old. Load times have gotten better, and a lot of developers these days are utilizing the ability to hide loading times by keeping control in the player’s hands or having stuff pre-load during a cutscene. I do understand the necessity in huge open-world games, but hopefully with the SSDs of the future, immersion-breaking loading screens may soon be a thing of the past. In the case of Dungeon Siege, I would say it was ahead of its time. Is that out of line? Maybe. Have I played enough games to make such a claim? Certainly not. What I can say definitively, however, is that this post has now come to a conclusion.
Random Stats and Stuff
Lesson of the Day: I still miss Diablo 2.
Secondary Lesson of the Day: Don’t trust Jerry
Recipe of the Day: Dungeon Siege-tini
- 1 part Baldur’s Gate
- 1 part Diablo II
- Loot Spice
- twist of lemon
Acronym of the Day: FOMO
Estimated Time to Beat: 29 Hours
Time Played: 22.5 hours :)
Recommended to: Fans of “classic” PC games. Fans of RPGs that are accessible for casual players, but that have systems to allow for very specific party management stuff if you’re into that. Fans of linear games that have fairly long main campaigns and very limited side-questing. People who love swamps.
Not Recommended to: Normal people who hate swamps.
Rating: 92% fart strength
Next Up: Little Nightmares
