Dungeon Siege II

evvything

Absolute classic. DS1 and DS2 are great RPGs from the early to mid 2000s and are highly recommended for anyone that enjoys an old school RPG.
Definitely follow the guide to have the Broken World expansion installed as well as some of the other bits and pieces that optimise the game a bit.

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Good nostalgia game

level of detail is incredible! be it music, storyline, the inventory, the depth of characters.
Thank you to Steam for supporting the old school generation

very nice game play and challenging

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Don't buy if you have windows 10. None of the fixes for the missing mouse issue works anymore. The only fix is downloading a code editor and redirecting the games paths to your graphics card. Which windows compatibility mode should do but doesn't. You would think steam would be aware of this issue and would post a warning or an actual fix other than requiring you to alter the games code with 3rd party programs so you could play it. Love spending days researching a fix for things that should work when i buy them.

willing to pay "beyond wildest dream" for a "good remaster"

Still a great game after all these years.

Childhood gem, almost 10 years later i found it on Steam, play it again only to fall in love with the game again. Personally would recommend as this genre of rpg has been lost to the daily strive for pay to win, old school no cheats or shortcuts, play through the whole game once and never again has it been the same for my interest in any other games. Thank you Steam, I'm forever indebted to this platform for giving me the chance to enjoy a game i truly love.

classic

Welcome to one of the 4 PC games I played when i was a young boy. Back when I had my own PC in 2006, I was enthralled by how great this game was. I loved the 3D animation, the art style, the powers, and the Action. The glorious Action hack and slash game where you have a party of 4, instead of the party of 8 you had in the original game. It was such a great game, with an iconic cutscene opening you to the story. All beautifully made with a fantastic soundtrack that really gets you excited to play. It was the epitome of my Childhood. "Good sir" I said to my friend," Dungeon Siege 2 is simply better then Diablo 2 in every respect," my younger self was loving every bit of this game, playing as a warrior and murdering every enemy you see. It was great.

This all changed when I played the game recently. It's a complete mystery on what I loved this game so much. I actually now have to re-evaluate my younger self taste. Allow me to explain.

You start the game with the first best thing about it, Valdis; The game's main villain who you need to kill. This is great, since DS1 never really had a main villain you were aware of until you saw him in the last 10 minutes of the game. Valdis gets an entire back story as the introduction of the game; It's a fantastic way to introduce your villain, and he's no joke. I think Valdis has a grudge against your character; This man killed your best friend, decimated your hometown, and may have slept with your characters mother. I can't confirm that last part, but he is not a good dude.

You start off in a spectacular way, with a whole level dedicated to a tutorial. Your friend, drevin, helps you as he explains you the new mechanics to Dungeon Siege 2 (DS2), like Rampage and mirror mode. Mirror mode has all party members mimic the controlled characters action, while rampage basically lets the characters attack who ever we want. This is already one step down from Dungeon Siege (DS). DS allowed for at least 6 different formation, and each character could be dictated to a particular behavior you want. DS2, in trying to make it more simple, doesn't allow you to automate your parties behavior. Since I chose to go with a all ranged party, with my character being a combat mage, I only used mirror mode since I had to use a high professional gaming technique called "Kitting". Rampage mode bassically meant my party members would stand in front of the enemies as their face was getting smashed. So the tactical aspect of the game is alot more simpler.

You finish the tutorial and start the game, recruiting characters as you pursue your quest the one guy who killed your best friend. You have a whole new leveling up system, where you can spend points into different parts of a skill tree that increase different attributes. None of this is as important as the pwoers you get, which are unlocked by increasing some of your skill tree to a minimu requirement. As an example, in oder to get critical smash for your melee character, you need to invest at least one point into his critical attribute. Every character can unlock up to 8 powers, which seems alot for a party of 4. The trick is that you wouldn't have enough time on your first play through to unlock all powers, so you pick 2 powers for each of your characters to have, and max it out. You still end up with 8 powers in all, but here comes the second problem with the game as a system. you will use your character Characters largely to do auto-attacks and then may use one power at a time when it's free, since powers are put under a cooldown after uses: A character powers are shared in terms of useage, so you can't use one power, and then use another. The powers have to recharge by hitting monster before the character can use a power again. In other action RPG's, your character can use a variety of skills/powers to engage in combat, limited by a resource, like mana. With DS2 it can be a bit boring thinking that the character you made basically has two jobs in the party and nothing else. This is still excuse a bit because when you use a powerful power and see enemies completely shatter with their blood covering the battlefield, it's a cathartic experience for my brain.

I begin the game and chose to make my character a combat mage specialising in fire, which is straight up broken in how much damage it does. But it doesn't take long until you notice something very odd when it comes to characters attacking the enemy. If you have melee character, they will walk past the enemy who is aiming for your mages, attack the spot the enemy was at, and then correcting itself by going after the enemy. I always thought it was a bug when I was young, but no that is how it's programmed. You see, mages and rangers will also move in range closer then need to attack the enemy. This is because when you command your party to attack the enemy, it will go to the last location of the enemy when you command it to do that.It makes it difficult to do the high gaming strategy I mentioned earlier, since your your characters will have no problem walking right up to the enemy to get in range to attack at a position that it was at 5 seconds ago. And since I'm a combat mage, even late games enemy will kill me in two hits. In fact sometimes the enemies are so powerful that they completely skip my characters unconcious phase and kill them instantly. Truly engame DS2 is a challenging experience. It is the first game that says to the player, "You got hit and died immediately, well then don't get hit next time."

Also theres elevation in this game. I know this because if my character is shooting fireballs from ontop of a hill, the fireball might hit the hill. Not so much a tactical thing, since the environment is never a tactical consideration when engaging enemies. It's more like an annoyance that you encounter every so often, like filling your income taxes.

You go through hordes of enemies until you come across one of the three bosses of each Act. The first is a hydra Snake, who you have to kill the middle head everytime, since it will revive the other heads. The second is a dragon boss, which you have to main a cballista to shoot it down, and then dodge its fireball attack of its own. The third is Valdis, who is completely immune the first half of the fight until you smach him with beams of light to make him invulnerable. At one point of the fight he sends you his Lord of the Ring undead army after you, which I almost died at. In all of these bosses, you have to dodge their attacks while putting out damage of your own. The one thing they feel like are actual boss fights. These enemies are massive, taking a good portion of the screen. Diablo in Diablo 3 looks like a mini boss compare to these bosses. The game ends when you stab Valdis through the chest and we "free" the souls of the damned. Also this game is quite dark as a dark fantasy.

And that is Dungeon Siege 2. I still remember the tutorial, killing enemies hordes are great, and the party system, although flawed, is a enjoyable experience to play. Keep note of the flaws I mentioned, but you'll find yourself enjoying this game from my childhood.
"These tree enemies are weak to fire. Too bad I'm not a combat mage" - Drevin

Do you like leveling up? How about foraging for loot? Do it all in this classic Diablo-esque hack and slash.

Unable to load saved games and so this game is a true failure considering you have to start over at the beginning each time your character has met its match. Not a good port from the CD version at all. I did enjoy this game years ago in it's former format. Shame it has lost its way.

Ive loved this game since I was 13. There's still a major glitch that can break the game. Like if something happens when fighting certain bosses (mostly the dragon) that make it so you can't progress and you have to restart. So be careful with that, but other than that its fun to play.

check my balls out

Level up, level up. Repeat. Love this game.

The game used to be a great one and still should be.
Unfortunately the Multiplayer is disabled, so you cannot enjoy it with friends.

good game
CONS.
some times the camera angle can get annoying, some of the quests can be difficult to find without using a wiki guide. End boss battle was annoying. graphics are dated.
PROS.
loot can be good, story and quest are good. music and atmosphere are good.

this game is so fun and easy, loved it in middle school and i love it now

This game is great, i haven't played this one back when i was younger, but i did play the first one which was great.
Dungeon Siege II expands upon Dungeon Siege, even though the first one is nostalgic, the second game does some things better plus you hav mods which makes the official maps and content from the first game and its expansion playable on the second game.
First game is still enjoyable to play, especially since it has custom maps which cannot be played on the second game (as far as i know).

Ignore the third game, it has nothing to do with Dungeon Siege.

Note: Works great on my main computer with resolution set to 4k, with all the expansions and lan playable.
Also works great on my Steam Deck, 720p, with all the expansions but lan makes the screen go black, still haven't found a fix for this.

pros
-Soundtrack by Jeremy Soul
-Characters attack automatically (you feel like a summoner watching your minions do your work)
-fancy spell animations
-cool stats and passives allowing for some nice build making
-osm intro cinematic
-giga osm main theme

cons
-very bad pathfinding (characters (npcs and your char) don't move at all sometimes
-characters move into opposite/different directions when you click on the ground
-characters simply stop doing anything at all (AI completely breaks for like 10 sec)
-characters often don't immediately follow you up stairs and narrow passages
-that leads to them standing below you not fighting/healing at all
-your backliners rush into frontline and die instantly
-your frontliners rush int YOUR backline and start taking a nap
-bad balancing of playstyles/specs/enemies
-often times lots of cheesing needed due to above mentioned problems
-boring dialogue/banter
-super dragged-out areas, everything feels mega stretched and gets boring after some time

Old time classic that doesn't carry your ass. Prepare for a lot of frustration though. Would only buy on sale. And even then, I would not recommend it due to all above mentioned issues.

Not bad.

+ good adventure story with a gripping start
+ cutscenes make the story more exciting
+ beautiful atmospheric music
+ NPCs are voiced
+ does not take place in the same area as part 1 but expands the world further
+ loot from enemies regularly encourages you to improve your equipment
+ unlike the first part, there is now a talent tree and various skills to learn and use, so it's not just a mindless automatic attack like in the first part
+ Characters attack and search for targets automatically
-+ “Broken World” expansion not available on Steam, but still playable thanks to a simple guide
-+ the length of the story & the size of the game world is less than in the first part and therefore not boring, as there is enough variety
-+ outside of battles, it is possible to teleport to and from the city at any time, making it easier to manage the inventory, but this also means that the feeling of setting off on an adventure with preparation is lost a little
- multiplayer problems with synchronicity and saves deleted
- you now have talents and skills, but they are still few compared to other genre representatives from the same period

tl;dr: So in the end I think it's a worthy successor and does almost everything better.

(DE:
+ gute Abenteuer Story mit einem packenden Einstieg
+ Zwischensequenzen machen die Story spannender
+ schöne atmosphärische Musik
+ Vertonung von NPCs
+ spielt nicht in der selben Gegend wie Teil 1 aber baut die Welt weiter aus
+ Loot der Gegner bringt einen regelmäßig dazu die Ausrüstung zu verbessern
+ im Gegensatz zu ersten Teil gibt es nun ein Talentbaum und verschiedene Fertigkeiten zu erlernen und einzusetzen, sodass es nicht nur ein stupides automatisches Angreifen wie im ersten Teil ist
+ Charaktere attackieren und suchen sich Ziele automatisch
-+ Erweiterung "Broken World" nicht bei Steam erhältlich, aber dank einfachem Guide trotzdem spielbar
-+ die Länge der Story & die Größe der Spielwelt ist geringer als im ersten Teil und wird dadurch nicht langweilig, da es genug Abwechslung gibt
-+ ausserhalb von Kämpfen ist es jederzeit möglich in die Stadt und wieder zurück zu teleportieren, somit lässt sich das Inventar leichter verwalten, aber dadurch geht auch ein wenig das Gefühl des Aufbruchs zu einem Abenteuer mit Vorbereitung verloren
- Multiplayer Probleme mit Synchronität und Spielstände gelöscht
- man hat jetzt Talente und Fertigkeiten, aber es sind immernoch wenig im Gegensatz zu anderen Genrevertretern aus der gleichen Zeit

tl;dr: Also letztendlich finde ich, dass es ein würdiger Nachfolger ist und fast alles besser macht.)

Awesome old game where you can gather a party of adventurers and travel falling apart world to try to save it.

Save your money. This game is not for sale. This game is "for lease" only. Hence, you don't own it and never will.

If you're into REAL dungeon crawlers (OGs) and willing to sacrifice resolution and some time to fix the game (not to crush on startup, fix resolution, ui, etc..) then you really should give it a go.
The game is great even in 2024 (2025!)

ghjd

Just a good classic top down RPG. Would reccomend.

Dungeon Siege II is an ancient game from 2005. It's a whopping 19 years old at the time of this review. The game lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge, or just a cash grab to try profit from abandonware.

While this title has fallen by the wayside, it was always a welcome competitor to the Diablo series of the time, featuring some fun ARPG top down combat, a bit of questing and narrative... what's not to love about a good RPG? Well, the age of it, for one.

The developers have done nothing to adapt the game for modern gaming PCs, as such the display resolution caps out at around 1024p, there's no support for the state-of-the-art 4K or higher resolutions. The game simply won't look right on modern gaming displays due to this failure on the part of the developers. The game only displays in 4:3 pillarboxed aspect ratio, due to the age of the game, it predates the 16:9 widescreen gaming standard established back in 2006. It's possible they're marketing this towards people using an old CRT they found in a dumpster, or this game is being specifically marketed towards people gaming on PC's from 1995... either way, this isn't really acceptable in the modern era of PC gaming. It's obviously not going to look right on a modern 16:9 gaming display.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

Dungeon Siege II is relatively expensive for an abandonware nostalgia gouge, at $7 USD, and it's not worth it. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again.

This would be a really great candidate for a remake or remaster. But I can't recommend games for what they used to be, but for what they are today.

great game

Too little camera movement, but I suppose it was top tier for the time.

very fun controls are different from number one but its ok

its a classic

Great game. Love the pause feature

Good story with lots of exploration. A bit confusing at times but worth it.

Far better than Dungeon Siege 1.

Story, mechanics, world are much much better and bigger to explore. Lots of quests, hidden areas, companions, items.

Dungeon Siege 2 is really good game, playing it once again after ~18 years feels still amazing and it's truly one of the best games ever made.

Get it!

Also I highly recommend to use this guide and get Broken World DLC aswell: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165078098

Now, I'm off to continue journey in main campaign and then DLC.

Easy 9/10

i have enjoyed this game since it was released very well made great story

Old but still pretty good game. Though getting a mod for more inventory space is recommended, at least for the way I play.

GRAPHICS

🔵 MS-DOS graphic
🔘 Ugly, but still bearable
🔘 Fine, nothing too fancy
🔘 Pretty good
🔘 Next gen graphic or art
[hr][/hr]
STORY

🔘 What is the story?
🔘 Written by 5 years old child
🔘 Something that'll hook you up with the game
🔵 You can remember the story after you finished the game for a while
🔘 You cannot get it out of your head
[hr][/hr]
FUN

🔘 You want to delete it after a few minutes
🔵 It's not for everyone
🔘 Could be bored after a while
🔘 Can keep you entertained for hours straight
🔘 It's already morning?
[hr][/hr]
MUSIC

🔘 Just mute it
🔘 Few of them are good
🔵 Not the best, but it's good
🔘 You get immersed in the game
🔘 Sometimes you will need to stop playing the game to hear it.
[hr][/hr]

TOTAL SCORE: 10/20

This game is near comparable to the echelon of Diablo 2. The neat part is the party system. You're progressing more than just one character at a time, and it plays just like a regular hack and slash with a strong level of depth in the loot and character progression. This game desperately needs a remake to bring it visually up to par, as some areas and monsters would look absolutely stunning with an upscale and new rendering. Kind of like Diablo 2 Resurrected did. With the success of Baldur's Gate 3, this game could fill the void some players had that didn't like turn based combat. This game is a great mix of feeling between Diablo and Baldur's Gate. PLEASE! This game needs a remake. It came out ahead of it's time and is a glorious experience.

Dungeon Siege II is an RPG made in a difficult time for the genre, whose lack of ambition belies a simple fun and elegance to its mechanics - at least for a while.

Standard opening: Who the hell am I? I'm the guy who:

- Played Dungeon Siege II back in the day (this part may be crucial)
- Played whilst taking turns with a friend, rather than the network co-op
- Grew up through the silver age of PC RPGs, and watched that end
- Likes a bit of tactics to his RPGs
- Likes a bit of story to his RPGs
- Is never going back to the world of MMORPGs. Never

For me, Dungeon Siege II is easily one of the best 100 RPGs ever made. Or if not the best 100, the best 150. 250 minimum. Certainly not less than 400...

Back in the day, DS2 was in a tricky spot. The silver age of PC RPGs was in its death throes, action games and walking simulators were cherry picking mechanics from the genre's not yet cold body, and the industry attitude was turning. RPGs were about to become "cool," which was to say the genre was to be reinvented into Bethesda's first/third-person mould, or World of Warcraft's massively multiplayer world.

As such, the funding and fanbase wasn't really there in 2005. It feels like the developers of DS2 knew this. DS2 is not, in any way, ambitious. Honestly, it feels like the anti-BG3 of its time. The production values involved in its creation feel like they were scraped from a nightclub floor. The graphics, even back in the day, were not great (and have aged like milk). The voice acting is of the quality that Final Fantasy X would've baulked at four years earlier. More than either of these, though, the game is a narrow, linear adventure without a new idea in its head.

All of which points towards DS2 being a very bad game, and perhaps it is. The story is weak and uninvolving, the characters are nominal at best, there's a plethora of "Is 9-15 damage better than 10-13?" inventory management going on, and you'll find a greater level of depth and difficulty in your average microwave than this game.

It is fun, though.

It's a little hard to quantify, but I shall try. DS2 is very, very good at pacing its combat against its leveling up system. It isn't a level-scaler (at least not that I noticed), but rather it manages to pitch its levelling system at such a way that the player can take it at their own pace. With each return to town the enemies respawn in full, and you, starting from the warp points that might as well signify levels, can choose to push forward or progress your characters by pushing backwards. Hardly advanced stuff, but DS2 handles it well, and that's the important part. I never resented going back, I seldom felt crippled going forward. Always there was a path.

The gear and the levelling itself are fun, though it's an odd juxtaposition. My class development choices, along with my inventory management, left me feeling satisfied and clever with my choices. I then hold the right mouse button down and sip my tea as the party do the rest (oh, alright, and occasionally put the tea down to do the sort of kiting that Sir Robin would be proud of). It shouldn't feel involving, but it does. A few extra button presses for bosses, and that's it.

By now, maybe this high fantasy strategic cookie clicker game will have appealed to you or not. Personally, I can't help but enjoy it. To a point at least.

Because DS2 has a limited shelf life. For the sort of money you'll pay for it now, it easily offers value for money, but that is not to say you will complete it. A quirk of DS2, is that to play on "normal" difficulty you must first complete it on "easy," and on "normal" for "hard." In a game as uninvolving and casually repetitive as this, it feels most likely that you will stop after the first Act of "easy." My steam page tells me I got to that point in around 20 hours.

In summary, a nice bit of fun from the bargain bin, but don't expect more than that.

9/10 (with Broken World Killah Fix)
Best gameplay with these mods:
- DS2BWAllSaves
- ResetSkills
- Retroactive Skill Point Rewards
- Uberstash
- General Stores Everywhere
- 6 Slots

It's one of my favorite hack & slash games out there. The graphics back then was O_O. Also, the deep questing does not just kill this or that you need to solve some stuff here. And if you play it like me slow and farm the flaw of this game then it takes the time. However, it's not just flowers and good stuff. There are bad stuff like bugs. Yes, there are still a few there—also the clunky controls and the UI you need to practice. However, the game is 8 out of 10 be sure.

It has a good story

saufen

will they release the expansion broken world?

This is a 19 year old game that hasn't aged well graphically but stands the test of time as a role-playing game. Take on the role of a combat mage, healer, warrior or ranger and explore the story of an evil artifact an its good twin. Build up a small team if you wish and take back the lands conquered by the evil Modren.

This game is mod friendly and there are several graphical mods to help with a game that boasted 1024X768 :)

old but gold