Classes/Pumping up your character

Face it. Being a low level character SUCKS. RPGs only really get fun when you start to level up and get to be a major bad ass. Sparks are bad, massive fireballs that char your enemies into BBQ briquettes are good. Daggers bad, six foot long electrical swords with barbs, hooks and optional fuzzy dice good. You level VERY quickly in Dungeon Siege. Compared to other RPGs, it's just amazing and suits the whole feel of the game very well. There's an incredible amount of combat, and you get rewarded for all your hard work/killing.

DS is interesting in that there's no real "class" you pick when you start. There are four basic skills you can level up in. Ranged weapons, melee combat, nature magic and combat magic. All you have to do is use that form of combat and you level up in it. Want to be a warrior? Just use melee weapons. Nature mage? Equip and use nature magic. Yes, it's that simple. Your stats don't get fiddled with either, they'll increase automatically as you journey. I just know this sort of thing is going to annoy some of my hard-core RPG playing friends, but I really like it. Much less micromanagment, and worrying about messing up your character too badly.

Inventory and Bob the mule

Standard RPG inventory system. Just drag items onto your character's image to equip it, (assuming he/she is capable of wielding that item.) drag it to another character to give it to them, or drag it over the ground to drop it. The inventory (oh glory glory!) has a "sort" button that auto-arranges the items you are carrying at the time. No more spending all your time trying to figure out how to put things in a certain order. The autosort works quite well, but I did occasionally have to shuffle potions and smaller items around to fit a large/long item (usually a sword or axe) into my pack. Another very sweet thing is the ability to select items and party members by just dragging a box around them. Click on the items, and your party will spread out and collect all the gear near them. Saves some major clicking work.

Spells must be placed in spellbooks to be used by a mage. Each spell book can hold twelve spells, but I usually found myself only using a few of the most powerful/useful ones.

You may also hit CTRL and click on an item. If you do not have any other inventory open, it automatically drops it. If you have more than one characters inventory open it will transfer the item to the next character in line. When purchasing items from a vendor, having CTRL down will automatically transfer the purchased item into your selected characters inventory.

An interesting inventory note: Each character can equip a complete set of gear. Armor, rings, amulet, melee weapon, ranged weapon, shield, etc. You get the bonuses from magical gear that is equipped, even if not currently in use. (Ex. If a shield gives you +2 to your ranged skill and you are using a bow, the shield is on your back.. and you get +2 to ranged regardless.) Very cool.

Normally when I think mule, some guy moving drugs back and forth across the border comes to mind. In this case however, we're talking about a vital member of your party in Dungeon Siege, the pack mule. Ever get pissed off in an RPG, 'cause you've got all this great loot, but you have to leave half of it behind when your stupid backpack runs out of space? I'm guessing that the Gas Powered guys have too, and they've solved the problem with some elegance. Just buy a pack mule. Or two. You sometimes go a long, long time without running into a merchant, and you collect a massive amount of gear in that time. Just load it onto your handy dandy pack mule and away you go. The only downside to these critters is that they take up a spot that you could use for an extra archer or fighter, and you DO have to make sure you defend them. Your tiny beast of burden will defend himself, sort of... But kicking a wraith, when it's hammering on you with a sword really isn't a good way to win battles. And you don't want to see the explosion of items when your mule actually (*ahem*) "packs it in".

I think it's pretty funny that you can also control your mule directly. DS is now the #1 selling RPG where you can take on the challenging role of a donkey. The donkey is unfortunately unable to open doors or control lifts, but he can count up to five and answer yes/no questions.

Combat, spells and controls

Nothing too hard to learn here in the way of controls, everything is pretty logical. Clicking on an empty area will cause the party to move there, attempting to stay in the formation you set out for them. Formations are vital in DS. Set your characters up wrong, and your spell casters wind up on the front line of the battle, rather than in the back where they should be. Surrounded by enemies? No problem, set a circle formation and protect your packmule by placing him in the middle. You can easily change the direction and the spacing of your formation with a few quick mouse clicks.

Clicking on an enemy will attack that creature, clicking on a door or chest opens it, clicking on a barrel breaks it, etc. You can control each character in your party, or you can control them as a group. I found myself controlling them as a party most of the time, as it makes it much easier to take down monsters when everyone is concentrating on one. Thank god for the pause key, as you can give every character a command, then unpause and watch them do it. The combat is DS is probably the most frantic I've ever seen in a game, busier even than Diablo 2 combat and you're going to need that pause function to make out who's who and what's what once the spells start flying and things get confusing. There's also quick "drink mana" and "drink health potion" buttons a the bottom of your screen, although they don't seem to always work when clicked on.

Your characters will also attack the enemy automatically, depending on how their orders are set. They can defend, attack at will, pursue, hold ground etc. You have to watch how you have the behaviors set, as enemies will frequently retreat and draw your unwary battlemongers into an ambush situation. Dividing your forces in the face of a massive assault isn't generally the best plan.

There's some very nice touches in the hud. Each character has his/her health, mana and currently equipped melee/ranged weapon available with a click of the mouse, as well as two spells in his current spellbook. I would have preferred to have four spells available for each mage in the quick menu, as it would have allowed a wider variety of casting during combat. Fights are too frantic to be constantly scrolling down your list of spells to pick the one you want to use. There's a huge variety of spells available. Some heal, some pump up your party (there's tons of these available to nature magi.), and then there's my favorite. Combat spells. Oh yes. There's nothing quite like raining flaming death on your enemies, summoning dark creatures to kick some ass for you, or sucking the life directly out of your enemies like a lawyer on a juicy case. There's something in here for everyone, and having at least one mage of each type will give your party a major advantage in their journeys.