This is a review on the addon for Dungeon Siege II, Broken World.
Much like the Diablo series, Dungeon Siege is based around killing hordes of enemies, powering up your characters and finding items and treasure. However, a major difference is that in order to improve your stats and abilities, you actually have to use the weapon you want to get better with.
For example, fighting with hammers or swords improves your melee ability as well as strength, bows boost dexterity and magic mainly improve intelligence.
A big selling-point of the first Dungeon Siege was its beautiful graphics for the time.
And although Dungeon Siege 2 uses the same albeit improved engine, it has aged very well and looks nice, even today.
It features a party of up to six characters which allows for highly specialized characters that complement each other as well as quite tactical fights.
But one of the biggest problems with Dungeon Siege was its very shallow character development. There were no skill trees whatsoever and so the monster hunt got old very quickly.
Dungeon Siege 2 heavily improved upon that by adding skill trees for all four character types, while the addon slightly expanded these specializations with two additional hybrid classes, "Fists of Stone" and "Blood Assassins".
Basically, the "Fist of Stone"-class combines melee combat with nature magic, which is mostly based on healing and buff spells. Oh, there's the occasional attack spell as well, but you'd do better to use combat magic for actual damage. Overall, they are much like a very defensive tank/priest class.
The other hybrid class, the "Blood Assassin", combines ranged attacks with combat magic, resulting in high damage but very weak defenses.
Obviously, the two classes complement each other very well, yet there is little that is really new about either of them.
If you expect true innovation, prepare to be disappointed. After all, they just make mutli-classing easier than it was before.
Although I have to admit that some of the new equipment specific to those hybrids is very nifty.
A new addition in the item sector are the recipe items.
Remember the enchanting items from the main game? Remember how much they sucked compared to uniques, set items or even plain rares? Well, now you get a nice variety of actually useful recipes. Get the right base item, add the correct ingredients, mix them all together and you'll get your hands on some very special and powerful equipment.
It's not that great an innovation, either, but it is definitely nice to finally see the enchanting items put to some better use.
Now, Broken World also adds a new race to the game. Fans of the first game will remember the Dwarven characters and with this addon they have made a return. So you'll have them to choose from in addition to the already known Humans, Elves, Half-Giants and Dryads.
It also provides you with a few new companions to choose from, namely two Elves and one Dwarf as well as two pets. Not much, but it is nice to see a few new faces.
More importantly however, the game adds a new campagin to play through. I'd say that the whole Broken World campaign is about as long as 1 1/2 acts of the original game, so it's quite substantial.
It is set directly after the end of Dungeon Siege 2 and, as always, nobody likes you, even more so than at the beginning of the main game.
And while I know that this is a very minor issue, it feels very unrewarding to still be regarded the idiot who screwed everything up after all the fighting you've been through.
Anyway, as the title suggests, the world of Aranna is in shambles and it's up to you to finally put things right.
You begin your campaign in a very nicely crafted Dryad outpost, where you can meet some old acquaintances as well as several new people. You'll quickly come across the rumours of hideously deformed creatures in the surrounding woods and it won't be long until you first meet them in person.
Finding out about them and their origin makes for a very dark twist and seeing some of the places you know from the main game again, heavily changed for the worse, adds to this even further.
However, shortly after first meeting the monsters eye to eye, the first major negative point becomes apparant:
Most of the enemies you come across in the addon, you've already fought in the main game.
Sure, they have been reskinned, given better stats and all, but mostly they are the same as before.
Remember those pesky Hak'u? Yeah, they're back. Nearly unchanged.
This is very sad indeed.
Diablo was guilty of this, too. Simply reskin/recolour them, give them better stats and you have new enemies. Not that great a tactic, if you ask me.
On the other hand, some of the models have been modified quite vigorously or changed in terms of abilities and behaviour. For example, you will meet creatures that explode on death, others that cast an invulnerability shield (that also reflects damage back to you) or come back to life after a short time or some that spawn reinforcements.
So while they may look similar to what you already know, some of them have been given quite an interesting change that actually makes you use different tactics.
As is usual for the franchise, the landscapes are quite beautiful.
Forests, deserts, an underground city with glowing crystals are all very nicely done.
But then you come across ugly, uninspired caves and tunnels. And don't even get me started on Old Aman'lu, that place is just hideous.
However, right after that you enter a smouldering forest, ashes hanging in the air, small fires still burning and you have to wonder at the inconsistency.
It's like the various levels were designed by completely different people who were in no accord whatsoever!
Some of the areas are so plain ugly, it galls the overall experience.
Well, now that I've talked about the additions, the enemies and the graphics, I guess it's time for a conclusion.
Let me just tell you this:
Broken World is, in many ways, more of the same.
The additions to the gameplay are very minor and while the new campaign itself is quite extensive and well developed, it does have some minor flaws and little new to offer.
If you are a fan of Dungeon Siege 2 like myself, you will probably also enjoy this addon. However, if you felt the main game was repetitive and shallow, you won't like Broken World any better.
The changes just aren't profound enough to affect the general gameplay.
If you have any comments, criticisms or questions about the game, please let me know.
EDIT: Fixed image-links.
Much like the Diablo series, Dungeon Siege is based around killing hordes of enemies, powering up your characters and finding items and treasure. However, a major difference is that in order to improve your stats and abilities, you actually have to use the weapon you want to get better with.
For example, fighting with hammers or swords improves your melee ability as well as strength, bows boost dexterity and magic mainly improve intelligence.
A big selling-point of the first Dungeon Siege was its beautiful graphics for the time.
And although Dungeon Siege 2 uses the same albeit improved engine, it has aged very well and looks nice, even today.
It features a party of up to six characters which allows for highly specialized characters that complement each other as well as quite tactical fights.
But one of the biggest problems with Dungeon Siege was its very shallow character development. There were no skill trees whatsoever and so the monster hunt got old very quickly.
Dungeon Siege 2 heavily improved upon that by adding skill trees for all four character types, while the addon slightly expanded these specializations with two additional hybrid classes, "Fists of Stone" and "Blood Assassins".
Basically, the "Fist of Stone"-class combines melee combat with nature magic, which is mostly based on healing and buff spells. Oh, there's the occasional attack spell as well, but you'd do better to use combat magic for actual damage. Overall, they are much like a very defensive tank/priest class.
The other hybrid class, the "Blood Assassin", combines ranged attacks with combat magic, resulting in high damage but very weak defenses.
Obviously, the two classes complement each other very well, yet there is little that is really new about either of them.
If you expect true innovation, prepare to be disappointed. After all, they just make mutli-classing easier than it was before.
Although I have to admit that some of the new equipment specific to those hybrids is very nifty.
A new addition in the item sector are the recipe items.
Remember the enchanting items from the main game? Remember how much they sucked compared to uniques, set items or even plain rares? Well, now you get a nice variety of actually useful recipes. Get the right base item, add the correct ingredients, mix them all together and you'll get your hands on some very special and powerful equipment.
It's not that great an innovation, either, but it is definitely nice to finally see the enchanting items put to some better use.
Now, Broken World also adds a new race to the game. Fans of the first game will remember the Dwarven characters and with this addon they have made a return. So you'll have them to choose from in addition to the already known Humans, Elves, Half-Giants and Dryads.
It also provides you with a few new companions to choose from, namely two Elves and one Dwarf as well as two pets. Not much, but it is nice to see a few new faces.
More importantly however, the game adds a new campagin to play through. I'd say that the whole Broken World campaign is about as long as 1 1/2 acts of the original game, so it's quite substantial.
It is set directly after the end of Dungeon Siege 2 and, as always, nobody likes you, even more so than at the beginning of the main game.
And while I know that this is a very minor issue, it feels very unrewarding to still be regarded the idiot who screwed everything up after all the fighting you've been through.
Anyway, as the title suggests, the world of Aranna is in shambles and it's up to you to finally put things right.
You begin your campaign in a very nicely crafted Dryad outpost, where you can meet some old acquaintances as well as several new people. You'll quickly come across the rumours of hideously deformed creatures in the surrounding woods and it won't be long until you first meet them in person.
Finding out about them and their origin makes for a very dark twist and seeing some of the places you know from the main game again, heavily changed for the worse, adds to this even further.
However, shortly after first meeting the monsters eye to eye, the first major negative point becomes apparant:
Most of the enemies you come across in the addon, you've already fought in the main game.
Sure, they have been reskinned, given better stats and all, but mostly they are the same as before.
Remember those pesky Hak'u? Yeah, they're back. Nearly unchanged.
This is very sad indeed.
Diablo was guilty of this, too. Simply reskin/recolour them, give them better stats and you have new enemies. Not that great a tactic, if you ask me.
On the other hand, some of the models have been modified quite vigorously or changed in terms of abilities and behaviour. For example, you will meet creatures that explode on death, others that cast an invulnerability shield (that also reflects damage back to you) or come back to life after a short time or some that spawn reinforcements.
So while they may look similar to what you already know, some of them have been given quite an interesting change that actually makes you use different tactics.
As is usual for the franchise, the landscapes are quite beautiful.
Forests, deserts, an underground city with glowing crystals are all very nicely done.
But then you come across ugly, uninspired caves and tunnels. And don't even get me started on Old Aman'lu, that place is just hideous.
However, right after that you enter a smouldering forest, ashes hanging in the air, small fires still burning and you have to wonder at the inconsistency.
It's like the various levels were designed by completely different people who were in no accord whatsoever!
Some of the areas are so plain ugly, it galls the overall experience.
Well, now that I've talked about the additions, the enemies and the graphics, I guess it's time for a conclusion.
Let me just tell you this:
Broken World is, in many ways, more of the same.
The additions to the gameplay are very minor and while the new campaign itself is quite extensive and well developed, it does have some minor flaws and little new to offer.
If you are a fan of Dungeon Siege 2 like myself, you will probably also enjoy this addon. However, if you felt the main game was repetitive and shallow, you won't like Broken World any better.
The changes just aren't profound enough to affect the general gameplay.
If you have any comments, criticisms or questions about the game, please let me know.
EDIT: Fixed image-links.
