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Dungeon Siege:
Platform: Win 95 / 98 Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Gas Powered Games Projected Release Date: TBA 2001
After leaving Cavedog, the creator of the RTS Total Annihilation, Chris Taylor, founded Gas Powered Games. And what kind of game will he and his new found company be developing on their maiden voyage you ask? Why an RPG of course. Dungeon Siege is planned to let soak in some beautiful 3D vistas all while not having to deal with load times, in an attempt to streamline traits of the genre.
Load times have become the bane of many a gamers existence. If there is a need to get from point A to point B quickly, players aren't terribly keen on waiting as a new area is being loaded, watching that bar at the bottom of the screen fill up. Addressing this, Dungeon Siege is being designed as one enormous, continuous world. When a party enters a dungeon they just keep on going without missing a beat, no level intermissions here. This feature while preventing frustration in players who want to be adventuring uninterrupted, has the potential to make the game take on a far more epic feel, as the world will truly feel gigantic, not compartmentalized.
The graphics are also shaping up quite well as the game has a stronger 3D "feel" than a lot of RPGs on the market. The locales are wide ranging, with plenty of shadow and lighting effects to spruce things up. Even the sheer height of the mountain tops and depths of the valleys looks to be on a grand scale.
Parties will be larger than average too, as players will be able to include up to 10 players in them, whether playing alone or on-line. However, class selection is a little different. Instead of picking a class at the beginning of the game, players will have to virtually train their characters in specific fields as they all start off "raw". If you want a mage, then have your character read a lot of magely scrolls and cast a lot of magely spells. Want an archer? Equip your character with a bow and he or she will become an archer with practice.
It can be a royal pain having to return to town regularly to unload excess treasure or stock up on supplies. To help reduce this problem the party will have a squire and pack mule to help them out. If the party has too much booty, or needs more items, all they need to do is exit the dungeon and get the squire and his mule to take the excess items to town to sell, and / or pick up items for them. To help the process further stores remain open all of the time so that players don't have to sit around waiting. Even better players will be able to trade back items they have bought if they haven't left the store after the purchase, without taking a hit to their party's pocket book.
One can see that Chris Taylor's RTS roots have certainly rubbed off on Dungeon Siege as the controls of the game resemble that genre so much. Control of a single character is achieved simply by clicking on him or her, while gaining control of multiple plays is done through the drag and click method. Even the collecting of a large amount of treasure over a wide area is done through dragging and clicking, so that players to have to go after each find individually.
While the story is still being kept hush-hush, the technical achievements of Dungeon Siege have a lot of potential, as they address a number of minor, yet oh so annoying, problems gamers have had with RPGs.
Previewed by Kaspian May 15, 2000
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