I demand a census be taken for every role-playing game ever made. Questions will be included to find out how many RPGs have you saving the world from a maniacal force while rescuing the damsel in distress, how many dungeons are explored in an ancient fantasy world and just how many giant insects, dragons and orcs you'll kill in one outing. I'm genuinely interested to see how many games abide by these RPG clichés. Actually, scratch that, I'm more interested in how many games don't.

With that in mind, I'd probably find Dungeon Siege pretty unspectacular. as it does little to distinguish itself from the crowd, neatly fitting alongside the likes of Diablo. Dungeon Siege is a game that's more about action than role playing, offering up a simple tale about a farmer who's thrust into an adventure to save the mythical land of Ehb, while collecting potions, chatting to non-playable characters (NPCs) and banding together a motley crew of stragglers who aid him or her along the way.

A decent character creation tool allows you to design your own hero, a nice option that adds some individuality to the main player, but with a story that's there only to add some purpose to your constant monster bashing, such a tool feels slightly misplaced. Like Diablo, Dungeon Siege is a fairly linear game that simply has you travelling from one locale to another whilst killing everything that gets in your way - and there's a lot that stands between you and your next destination.

Interactions with NPCs are kept to a minimum; usually they are found dotted around the landscape and only offer free gifts if you kill lots of things for them, or jumbled together in towns and only offering you advice on how to get to the next settlement, which always involves killing lots of enemies. Towns themselves only feel like pit stops, places for you to unwind for a while before you get back on the road to, yep, more killing.

Relentless fighting does prove useful for selling the masses of weapons, potions, armour and other items you find from defeated foes though; in fact you can collect so many trinkets throughout your journey that storing all the spoils of war through your many battles can become a problem. This is where Dungeon Siege's most innovative and unique feature comes into play, namely the pack mules. You have to feel for a game where the biggest and most ambitious feature is having a mule accompany you throughout the game but it does prove its worth as a walking inventory that can store huge amounts of pointless items that can subsequently be sold off. You can even get a couple of mules and become a walking, fighting troupe of salesmen, going from town to town selling cheap junk.

All this has a purpose though, as money buys more expensive items and equipment, plus in fine RPG tradition each of your characters gain skills with each kill, skills that once improved allow you to use more complex weapons and armour to fight more complex monsters. There are your usual magic tricks to pull off and bottles upon bottles of mana and health drinks to use in the many fights, everything you've come to expect from an RPG is present and correct, well, except the replacement of advancing through the game by following a narrative and instead of being pushed along by whacking things over the head with an axe.

The graphics at least benefit from some nice detail. While old by today's standards, the game still has its looks with some fantastically realised mythical worlds to explore. Stretching from huge forests to huge snow covered mountains to the dungeons themselves, every land you walk through always has something new to look at, maybe nothing amazing but still, at least your journey is never a dull one. The game is also moved along by a soundtrack that could have come straight from The Lord of the Rings; the full orchestral score really does get you in the mood for some major orc-bashing.

Dungeon Siege is a bit repetitive and has a none too original take on the RPG genre. Still, it is kind of fun, even slightly therapeutic through its non-stop action. This is a game that doesn't ask for much; it's certainly not an overcomplicated game and will keep even the more hardened RPGers out there entertained for a while. It may not have depth but it's an enjoyable ride through every RPG cliché there is. Good to look at, easy to play and it won't put much of a strain on your wallet. With that in mind you really can't go wrong.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).