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> Results: Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony
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ESRB Content Descriptors Say:
Blood and Gore : GamerDad watched as all manner of man and beast were destroyed with small amounts of blood and Violence: the game reminded GamerDad that pretty much the sole motivation in action-RPG's is killing everything in sight.! The PSP has seen loads of games ported from consoles, but Dungeon Siege is the first major PC role-playing franchise to land on the platform. Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony is more ambitious than most ports, bringing original content and an all-new story to handheld gamers while tying into the recent PC expansion pack. The result is the best action-RPG for the PSP, but one with some significant flaws that will challenge players as much as many of the bosses. Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony is a fairly standard action role-playing game, based around a thin story which serves to support the pursuit of more power and better equipment. The only real strategy is how many times to repeat a dungeon to grind out as much experience as possible to make the next area challenging but winnable. The control system is excellent and very flexible, and the skill advancements work very well and each point produces real and tangible differences in combat. The quests and rewards are fairly well balanced, and each quest even has a target level indicated to let you know if you are ready. The tie-in codes with the PC expansion pack are largely a gimmick, but feature some very nice high-level items that you can't get any other way.  The biggest issue with the game is load times. Unlike the PC version, the PSP Dungeon Siege consists of single towns and dungeons places on a large over-world that you need to traverse by running around. Each of these has a load time of 30-40 seconds. Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony features the teleports from the PC game, yet these take nearly 45 seconds to load! When coupled with the anemic inventory system that features limited item stacking, you could find yourself making trips from dungeons back to town that will take about six minutes ﾖ and five of those minutes are load times! There are other minor issues ﾖ the inventory system, repetitive combat and lack of intelligence of allies and enemies are the most notable ﾖ that plague the game, taking what is at times a truly excellent experience and making the end product frustratingly average. It is frustrating because it is clear while playing that this game could be so much better with a few tweaks to the gameplay and some significant load-time optimization.  
Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony is about rescuing people and nature against the encroaching minions of evil ﾖ at least that is what the story says. In reality, it is yet another mindless hack ﾑn' slash game that is really all about killing everything in order to reach an area, finding the guy handing out the quests, killing all the stuff he wants dead and returning for the reward. This gives you the gold to buy better stuff to kill bigger things to get to the guy handing out the higher level quests, and so on.
Despite this game being rated T and having warnings about ﾑblood and gore', I had no problem letting my two under-10 kids play the game. The battles can get intense and there is constant peril, but it is all very unrealistic and formulaic. There is no real feeling that you are facing forces that require moral choices ﾖ the look isn't cartoonish, but the action certainly feels like that. As always, use your judgment regarding your own kids ﾖ I recommend it as an easy choice for kids in their teens, with caution to slightly younger kids. Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony |
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