Dungeon Siege was one of those games that split the RPG community for many reasons, but united them on one front - it was very well done with high production values. Fans loved the constant battles, easy interface, solid AI and skill based character progression system. Detractors found the game largely pointless hacking and slashing that quickly became boring, with little story and few interesting characters. Personally, I often felt I could do bills while playing, just checking in occasionally to drink a health or mana potion. The game was very successful, and when Microsoft and Gas Powered Games teamed up to produce the sequel, they stated that they were determined to address the concerns brought up by 'hardcore RPG players' while keeping the simple interface, easy combat and open progression system loved by fans of the original. That seemed like a pretty tall order, but they actually did pretty well; the story was better, the graphics looked great, but most importantly the combat system was much improved, making battles more enjoyable and challenging. The success of the game pretty much guaranteed an expansion, despite the massive cataclysmic battle at the end, and now it has arrived in the form of Broken World.

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World follows squarely in the footsteps of the original game in that it is a combat-heavy, plot-lite romp through a linear world full of nasty monsters that are apparently filled to the brim with loot that flies all over the place when they die. Can we just stop to think about that for a second? The recent Bard's Tale game made a big joke about what items seemed to be coming from the innards of beasts and where they might have been stored - but while that was hilarious, this basic mechanic remains a core element of the action-RPG genre. You kill a bat and out pops a double-bladed battle axe; you destroy a snake and a set of mithril armor large enough to fit an orc jumps out gleaming in the sun. Okay, enough about this RPG cliché!

In terms of story, the original game ended with you seeming to destroy evil once and for all; however, you quickly find out that you only took care of one of the minions of evil. So, your task is to continue your quest and work through higher and higher minions before getting to the real final battle. And, well, that's about it. To be fair, there is more to the story, but it just doesn't matter as the plot is thin enough that you only need to check your journal and think "blah blah blah … I tuned out halfway through, what did she say I needed to get?" Dungeon Siege II: Broken World is very dark in theme and setting - more so than the original - because it takes place after the cataclysm that closed the original game. There is a constant air of desperation and peril, reflected in battles that are more intense and boss fights that feel more important as a result. There is also an even greater emphasis on the racial struggles - everyone is vying for survival and power, some looking for domination while others just hope to see another day. And while some cooperation is needed, and that comes through your character, it is never achieved through open understanding or dialogue. This all works thematically, but adds to the dark, dismal and mature feel of the game.

The gameplay is similar to most games in the action-RPG genre - you click to move and right-click to attack. The map in the corner shows the direction of your primary goal; everything else is optional. The controls are simple and effective, and they need to be, because you are controlling a small group of characters against almost constant waves of enemies - stupid enemies, fortunately, but in such quantities that you need to be able to adjust your weapons, spells and tactics quickly. There is a pause button available if you need to assess the situation, and most other necessary functions can be accessed quickly through the mouse or a hotkey. The controls of the original Dungeon Siege worked well and have only been refined and improved with each iteration. There are often multiple means to accomplish the same task, one with the mouse and another through a hotkey. For example, to gather all of the fallen loot, you can individually click on items, click the 'gather all' button on the interface, or press the default 'z' key to pick it up. You can change the hotkey as well, which is handy.

Another cool thing is the camera system - the game is played from a typical isometric view, but with a free-moving camera. In the style of the original Dungeon Siege and Neverwinter Nights, you can rotate the view 360 degrees, tilt from parallel to the ground to nearly top-down, and zoom in and out. The simplest way to do this is with the mouse - if you want to zoom in, use the scroll wheel; if you want to rotate right just move the mouse to the right edge of the screen, and so on. This gives a great view of surroundings and ensures that you never lose track of enemies. If you're in battle and need to use the mouse for battle actions, there are keys for all of the camera controls - this is extremely useful for finding monsters attempting an ambush!

The graphics and sounds are as well done as in the original game; battle sounds and voices are especially polished - the combat effects work very well (they need to, since you hear them almost incessantly) and there is a decent amount of voice work that is almost uniformly of high quality. The soundtrack is by Jeremy Soule and that can only mean one thing - excellence. He doesn't disappoint, either, as the sweeping themes create a grand atmosphere with his usual professional style. There is something that bugs me about the graphics, though; when I played Dungeon Siege II late last summer, I was impressed with how much they had improved the graphics and environments from the original, yet playing this expansion I feel like I'm picking up an older game. It is not that I have managed to become jaded in a single year - there are plenty of other games with worse graphics that I have played recently that haven't bothered me. What troubles me is that these graphics feel less effective, inspired and alive than the original. It carries through the whole game and takes away some of the freshness of the experience. It's more than just the graphics though, it's the design of the levels as well; you feel like you're trudging through the same areas over and over, without anything truly inspired happening - nothing in the world or the graphics to make you pause for even a moment.

The character selection and development system is almost identical to the original - classes and weapons are pretty much the same, with the only new additions being a new race and a couple of new hybrid classes. The new Dwarf race adds practically nothing to the experience, other than having a character that looks like a dwarf. The new classes - Blood Assassin and Fist of Stone - give good starting points, but as in the original you shape your development path through your actions. By using spells from Nature Magic, your intelligence and Nature Magic abilities increase. The same is true for melee and ranged combat - if you want to be a fire mage you won't do it with a sword in your hand. The character attributes also increase through experience - in other words, using a sword increases your strength as well as your melee combat skill, while gradually increasing your overall experience towards the next level. When you reach a new level you get a new skill point to spend, and these skills are laid out in a logical skill-tree arrangement, where a point buys a rank in a certain skill. Some require you to have reached a specific rank in others, while some just require a single rank in the previous level of the skill tree. Combinations of skills at specific ranks unlock special powers that you can unleash to cause terrific amounts of damage.

The minimum starting level is 39, and you can choose from several quality pre-made characters or import your own. If you finished the original game, your character will be at a much higher level than that, however, and the loot and experience from battle will feel unsatisfying. Even choosing a pre-made character gives a set of equipment better than the vast majority of what you'll find falling out of the monsters you kill. If you want to build a new character, you'll need to restart the original Dungeon Siege II before playing through the expansion. One good thing about choosing a pre-made character is that they were single minded in their development - if you take the level 39 combat mage, you will find that she is basically useless at everything else. This allows you to quickly level melee skills if you want to be a more formidable battle mage, for example.

On your travels you can look for non-hostile creatures with exclamation points over their heads and talk to them a bit, gathering information and quests, which fall into two main types - someone has lost a possession or companion and needs you to go hunting, or there is something that they need killed. Both amount to roughly the same thing, since you need to battle through hordes of enemies to get whatever you were sent to fetch or kill. As for the rest of the game, you run around following the arrow on the map, kill everything, get to the disproportionately stronger boss and die a few times before taking it down. Then repeat. Most of the numerous side-quests resolve naturally if you search out areas to the side of the linear main path. And I do mean linear - getting through this game is as simple as following the arrow through the path of most resistance, and occasionally seeking a side area. The expansion quest is also quite short - you'll complete everything possible in well under a dozen hours with little incentive to go back. There isn't a lot of extra value here to make this compelling for anyone but true fans looking for more of the same.

The highpoints of the game are that it continues to provide challenging and fast-paced combat, a progression system that rewards choosing a character type and sticking with it, a decent story with enough side-quests to keep you interested, and an interesting inventory upgrading system. This game won't replace Planescape: Torment in terms of depth, nor is it as good as the original Dungeon Siege II, but it is certainly better than the first Dungeon Siege. However, the developers seem to have slid back from the good effort they made of avoiding the tedium often encountered in games of this type. The multiplayer mode remains unchanged, with co-operative play in one of three combinations with someone else. It was adequate in the original and remains adequate here.

Dungeon Siege II was one of the most finished and polished role-playing games of last year. It did little that is new in general, but altered enough of the problems with the original game to be a compelling sequel. Unfortunately, the expansion doesn't deliver to that same level - it is just a bit more of the same, but lacks much of what made the original compelling. It is also too short in length and drab in appearance, providing little incentive to get from battle to battle. If you loved the original and just must have more, then you might like this; just don't expect anything innovative or earth-shattering and you won't be too disappointed.

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).