Dungeon Siege II Preview
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The four races of Dungeon Siege II are the human, the dryad, the elf, and the half-giant. The races have different sizes, which helps to differentiate between characters, and they also get some bonuses and penalties. For example, the half-giant, who can only be male, gets +6 strength, -2 dexterity, 2 points in the (fortitude) melee specialization, and the ability to regenerate health over time. Dryads, meanwhile, can only be female, but they get -2 strength, +4 dexterity, +2 intelligence, points in the (dodge) and (natural bond) specializations, and a 10% resistance to death magic. Skills and Specializations
In the last paragraph I used the word (specialization) twice, and you might be wondering what that's all about. Well, Dungeon Siege II has the same four basic skills as Dungeon Siege -- melee, ranged, combat magic, and nature magic -- but new to the game is the concept of specializations, which gives you something to do each time a character levels up.
Specializations in Dungeon Siege II work much like the skills in Diablo II. That is, each time a character levels, the character gets a specialization point, and the character can spend the point on any of the 48 specializations in the game (there are 12 specializations for each skill). However, the specializations have prerequisites. For example, the (fortitude) specialization, which increases the hit points of a character, requires that the character have a level in the melee skill. Other specializations have much more stringent requirements. The ranged skill's (mortal wound) specialization, for example, requires that the character be level 36 and know four other specializations.
Specializations can be learned multiple times (with diminishing returns), and so characters will have to make a series of decisions. Should they go for offense or defense? Create more powerful spells or cheaper spells? And should they try and pick up some levels of a skill just so they can learn one of its specializations?
In all, specializations make it more interesting to develop characters, and they make the characters more unique. That's a good thing in general, but it's especially good for Dungeon Siege II, since there was so little to do development-wise in Dungeon Siege.
Companions
Speaking of developing characters, in Dungeon Siege II, just like in Dungeon Siege, you'll be able to use an entire party of characters to help you get through the game. But while your party size appears as though it'll be smaller (looking at the interface, I'd guess the limit will be five or six characters rather than eight), the companion characters that you pick up promise to be more interesting.
Right off the bat I could tell something had changed, because the first companion I allowed to join my party kept talking to me. Later, as I built my party up to four characters, the companions often commented on what was happening, and sometimes they even talked among themselves. I even saw a couple of doors that could only be opened by particular companions.
The feeling I got from playing the press build is that companions will be a little like those found in the Baldur's Gate games, but slightly less interesting. None of the companions I met gave me any quests, and none of them had what you might call a memorable personality (in fact, I couldn't keep the two dryads in my party straight), but at least they seemed to be paying attention. This is still a big step up from Dungeon Siege, where companions were mindless automatons.
