Dungeon Siege Glimpse

GameExperts.com, the site for game experts, by game experts, launched a military-type tactical evaluation of the RPG that has perhaps the most impressive graphics to date, Dungeon Siege. So glide over and have a peek. Through the periscope (because I’m feeling wussy atm) I spotted this phrase from the preview, but spotted no new screenshots:

This is perhaps the most innovative and interesting technology that the game possesses. When you create your character you’re allowed to pick your gender, name and of course a pair of pants. Dungeon Siege doesn’t allow you to pick any skills or be a certain class from the start. Instead it allows you to develop into whatever you want from the very start of the game. You can dabble a bit in magic, beat down some enemies with an Ax or imitate cupid and let the arrows fly. The game’s skill system is pretty basic since it only has four skills, which are combat magic, melee weapons, ranged weapons and nature magic. If say you choose to be a melee fighter, you wont need to train any additional skills such as Ax or Sword since the skills works the same on all melee weapons. As you use whatever skill you wish your ability increases in that particular skill. I’m guessing most experienced players will be more specialized and not diversify while beginners will do just the opposite. This system seems interesting and quite fun in theory, however I’ll reserve my judgment until I can play a full released version since it may not work so well in practice.

Actually this is the part I’m looking forward to most, the skill system. I can only think of one game, a major game, that used this same type of tabula rosa character creation system: Ultima Online. So it’s relatively an untested to the mass population character development theory, but has great potential I think.