Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna Review
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Because it's an expansion, the game assumes the player already knows the basics of the game, which effectively left me high and dry for the first twenty minutes or so. Fortunately, the game itself has a very easy learning curve, which most likely helped in its success. I caught on quickly enough, with the help of the six beginning tool tips that popped up when the particular instance arrived. After a short while, I was using the interface like a pro, and have had few complications since. While I seem to have mastered my end, it seems AI is still something that developers are having trouble with. Even though you're given a simple party AI interface, I find it is one of those options that can be a boon or a bane. At times, the AI (which I had set to defensive combat) would only act for the one NPC. In other words, a party of three could be side by side, with one being beaten to a small greasy pulp, and the other two could hardly care. I didn't encounter much in the way of glitches and bugs, but that is more than likely due to the fact that Legends of Aranna is an expansion, and any major bugs have previously been sorted out with its predecessor. That was a huge plus for me, though, as there are few things more frustrating then being excited to play a game, only to discover a wave of bugs that impede the process.
Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna is indeed a worthwhile title for its expansion price, having the original title included along with it. The most effort has obviously been placed in the visual side of the game, but LoA expands on several other areas as well. It has a few other issues that will, sadly, never be addressed without much complaint from the community, but they can easily be ignored with the flick of a switch. It is definitely a title that is good for a good dungeon romp and stress relief due to the mindless combat, but if you're looking for something with a bit more substance, then I would recommend you look elsewhere. Dungeon Siege to me has always appeared as a one trick pony, and in this case, the graphics are its one trick. While stunning, they aren't enough to warrant long-term game play for the more hardcore group of RPGers.
