Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna Genre: Action-RPG When Diablo was released back in 1996, it introduced a whole new meaning to role-playing games. It showed the world that role-playing games can be fast-paced, action-packed, and do not need tonnes of character attributes. This is the action-RPG genre, and since then, there have been hundreds or maybe thousands of Diablo clones appearing on the shelves, some downward appalling, some pretty impressive. None of these clones ever manage to overthrow Diablo's claim on the crown of action-RPG, however, but without a doubt, none ever came as close as Dungeon Siege. It is a subjective matter, really, for there are gamers out there who insist that Dungeon Siege is a much better game. Well, with 3D mouth-watering graphics, a party system, shiny magical items, extremely colourful spell effects, and lots more, it is no surprise if some should say that Dungeon Siege was indeed a Diablo killer. Now, after almost two years since the original Dungeon Siege is introduced to the world, Microsoft has finally decided to issue a stand-alone expansion to an already great game; Say hello to Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna. The Typical Expansion Like most expansion packs, Legends of Aranna introduced a few new features to the game and the rest turns out to be just like the original game. There is just more of everything; more monsters to kill, more magical items to use, more spells to cast, more crates to break, the list goes on. Sure, it offers Dungeon Siege hardcore gamers what they have always been craving for, but there is certainly nothing extraordinary in the expansion pack to attract newcomers into the fray. Even the single player campaign storyline in Legends of Aranna turns out to be almost identical to the original one. You start out as a nobody in a small peaceful town (yes, you start off in a town this time instead of being in the middle of nowhere), and somehow you end up being the sole and only hope to stop an ancient evil that has awakened, bent on destroying the world that we all know and love. Along the way, you picked up powerful items, joined by fellow adventurers, and kill hordes of monsters. Having that deja vu feeling yet? Dude, Where's My Hero? One of the major bummers in the game is that you start off again as a nobody, which means that the adventure does not pick up where the original ended, and this means that you do not get to import your all-powerful character from the original. However, although the monsters in Legends of Aranna are as tough as they can get, there are also much more powerful magical items for your perusal, and as such, you will soon realise that you may not need to import your original character after all. For starters, there are now two more types of magical items. The first, obviously borrowed from Diablo II, are the set items. These are actually magical items by themselves, but when equipped together as a set, the magical properties of the items are significantly boosted. Unlike Diablo II, where set items only grant bonuses when ALL of them are equipped, the set items in Legends of Aranna also grant bonuses even when you equip only two of them. Of course, fewer bonuses are granted, but they increase each time you put on another set item, as long as they belong to the same set. The other new type of magical items is the imbued items. Imbued items are actually magical items that not only grant magical properties to the bearer, but also to his/her surrounding friendlies. So if you keep your party close together, all of them will get the benefits of the imbued item. And unlike other magical items (weapons excluded), characters who equipped an imbued item will also notice a cosmetic change - The items now have the same magical 'glow' that previously on the original game only applies to weapons. So for those who fancy eye candy, now you can see your adventuring party in their full 'glowing' glory. The Really Useful Ones There are also new, more powerful spells, but they are mostly improvements over the original except for the orbs. These orb spells, a new addition introduced by Legends of Aranna, actually creates hovering orbs around the caster. The orbs will then attack any nearby enemy that is within range, using magical blasts. There is even a healing orb, which heals all friendly units that are within range. There is a catch, however, and that is, a spell caster can only have one orb active at any given time. And there you were thinking you'd be invincible will all those great orbs floating around you. Legends of Aranna also introduces a few new features on the interface of the game. First of all, you can now view the campaign map. The map is basically a 2D map which is not interact-able, unlike the game map on which you can still manoeuvre your party around. The campaign map comes together with a 'fog of war', which gradually disappears as you make your journey around the map. A pretty useless feature, yes, but nevertheless you will find yourself using this feature often just to see how far are you are into the game. A second, more useful feature is that Legends of Aranna now offers you the ability to distribute your healing and mana potions evenly among your party members. This feature works amazingly well in the sense that your fighters will get more healing potions, while your spell casters will get more mana potions. Another useful feature is in the buy-and-sell system of the game, which has also improved. Instead of dragging and dropping all the items you wanted to sell, which to some can be a very tedious task, there is now an option to simply sell all your unwanted items. This new feature also works remarkably well; it does not blindly sell off all your items, but instead, it allows you to choose what you want to sell. For example, you can opt to sell everything except your potions or everything except your unique items, and such. This & That On the graphical front, since Legends of Aranna is nothing but a new module and uses the same Dungeon Siege engine, there are not really any improvements, although there is a new jungle terrain to play around with. That is not really bad, considering the graphics in Dungeon Siege still looks quite good despite its age. The scenery is still nice to gaze upon, the spells still utilises a lot of eye candy particles, so there is nothing to complain about, really. Hey, at least the game still runs great on your aging video card. Sound effects also do not see much change for the better. There are the usual sounds of swords clashing, sea waves, spells, barrels breaking... Still very much pleasant to the ears. However, if you are a gamer who is hoping that the developers will implement 5.1 support, then you are in for a disappointment, unfortunately. The game still plays in its humble stereo mode. Conclusion If you are not bored after going through all those levels in the original Dungeon Siege, then you should definitely get this expansion. Other than that, there is simply no reason why anyone should get Legends of Aranna. In short, Legends of Aranna is just more of Dungeon Siege. The new features, although attractive, are not really anything exceptional that anyone would die for. Rating Gameplay - 3.5 / 5 stars Graphics - 3.5 / 5 stars Sound - 2.5 / 5 stars Overall - 3 / 5 stars The Good Some of the new features are really useful, and there is more of Dungeon Siege if you cannot get enough of it from the original. The Bad There is more of Dungeon Siege for those who are already bored of the many levels in the original. The Ugly No improvement in the sound department (still stereo!), and certain bugs (rare, but nonetheless) in the game which can cause the game to crash (and you haven't save your game).
