Dungeon Siege is an action role-playing game created by Gas Powered Games and released by Microsoft in April 2002 for Microsoft Windows. The game was later released for Mac OS X by Destineer in 2003. Set in a pretend medieval kingdom called Ehb, the game follows a young farmer and her friends as they travel to stop an invading group of creatures called the Krug. At first, the farmer only wants to warn a nearby town about the Krug. However, she and her companions soon discover they must also stop another group of creatures called the Seck, who have returned after being trapped for 300 years. Unlike other role-playing games of that time, Dungeon Siege has no levels. Instead, players explore one large, continuous world without loading screens. Players do not choose specific character classes or control each character individually. Instead, they decide how to use weapons, magic, and tactics, which influence how their character develops.

Dungeon Siege was the first game made by Gas Powered Games, a company started in May 1998 by Chris Taylor, who was known for creating the 1997 game Total Annihilation. Taylor was joined by coworkers from Cavedog Entertainment to make a new type of game. After trying different ideas, they chose to create an action role-playing game. Taylor worked on the game with Jacob McMahon, who was also a lead designer and producer, and Neal Hallford, who wrote the story and dialogue. The music was composed by Jeremy Soule, who had also worked on Total Annihilation. Gas Powered Games aimed to make a role-playing game without elements they found slow or frustrating, focusing instead on action. Developing the game took over four years, even though it was originally planned to take only two. The team often worked 12 to 14 hours a day, including weekends, to finish the game.

When it was released, Dungeon Siege received high praise from critics. It is listed by Metacritic as the third-highest rated computer role-playing game of 2002. Reviewers liked the game’s graphics, the seamless world, and the fun, easy-to-learn gameplay. However, they were not impressed with the story. The game sold over 1.7 million copies and was nominated for the Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year award by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Gas Powered Games provided tools for players to create custom changes to the game, which led to an active community of players making modifications. An expansion called Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna was released in 2003. Later games in the series included Dungeon Siege II (2005) and its expansion Dungeon Siege II: Broken World (2006), a PlayStation Portable game called Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (2006), and Dungeon Siege III (2011). A trilogy of movies inspired by the game was released: In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007), In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds (2011), and In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission (2014).

Gameplay

Dungeon Siege is an action role-playing game set in a fantasy world that resembles medieval times. The game uses 3D graphics with a camera that shows the player's character from the side, and the player controls the camera. Before starting the game, players choose the gender and appearance of their main character. They usually control this character. The main character is joined by up to seven other characters, which are controlled by the computer. Players can switch between controlling these characters at any time. The other characters move based on the formation and how aggressive the player is towards enemies. The additional characters can be removed from the group and re-recruited at any time.

The game world is one large area without separate levels or loading screens. As players move through the world, they meet different enemies and monsters that attack when the group approaches. Players defend and attack using melee weapons, ranged weapons, and magic. Unlike other role-playing games, players do not choose a class for characters. Instead, using certain weapons or magic improves their skills over time. When players earn enough experience points by defeating enemies, they level up in that weapon type. They then gain points to increase their strength, dexterity, or intelligence, which affect health, mana, and damage.

Characters can wear weapons, armor, rings, and amulets that add attack or defense points or improve other stats. Usable items like potions can restore health or mana. These items are found by defeating enemies, breaking containers, or buying from vendors. Each character has an inventory shown as a grid, with each item taking up space. The mule character cannot use weapons or magic but has a larger inventory.

Dungeon Siege has single-player and multiplayer modes. Single-player has one story and world. Players can create a new character or use one from a previous game. Cooperative multiplayer lets up to eight players play through the single-player story or a multiplayer map with a central town and harder enemies as players move away. Multiplayer games can be set to different difficulty levels. Players can create competitive maps. Multiplayer matches can be joined via local networks, direct IP addresses, or through Microsoft Zone (which closed in 2006).

Plot

Dungeon Siege takes place in the Kingdom of Ehb, a region on the continent of Aranna that includes deserts, swamps, forests, and mountains. Ehb was formed 300 years ago when the Empire of Stars ended. At the start of the game, the player’s farming village is attacked by a group of creatures called the Krug. The main character, a farmer with no known history who is given a name by the player, travels through Krug forces to reach the town of Stonebridge. After helping the town escape the siege and gaining their first companion, the player is asked by the town’s garrison leader, Gyorn, to travel to the town of Glacern and warn the Ehb military, called the 10th Legion, about the Krug attack. Along the way, the player fights enemies in crypts, mines, and mountains. When they arrive in Glacern, they learn that the Krug invasion happened on the same day that the Grand Mage Merik disappeared. They are then sent to Fortress Kroth over the mountains to help the legion there. In the mountains, the player finds Merik, who explains that the Krug invasion is part of a larger attack by the Seck, a group that destroyed the Empire of Stars long ago. The Seck were imprisoned under Castle Ehb but have now escaped and taken control of the castle. Merik asks the player to recover the Staff of Stars from the Goblins. Before it was stolen, the Staff kept the Seck trapped in the Vault of Eternity. The player battles monsters and bandits in crystal caves, a forest, a swamp, and an underground Goblin fortress filled with mechanical war machines. After retrieving the Staff, the player meets a group of the 10th Legion and is directed to Fortress Kroth, which has been taken over by undead creatures. After clearing the fortress and fighting monsters and a dragon in the Cliffs of Fire, the player travels to Castle Ehb. There, they fight through Seck forces to rescue King Konreid. The king reveals that the Seck leader, Gom, is searching for magical weapons from the Empire of Stars stored in the Chamber of Stars. The player must collect the weapons, then battle through lava caves and the Vault of Eternity to stop the Seck. Finally, the player defeats Gom, ends the Seck invasion, and saves the kingdom.

Development

Gas Powered Games was founded in May 1998 by Chris Taylor. At that time, Taylor was known for creating the 1997 real-time strategy game Total Annihilation. He was joined by several coworkers from Cavedog Entertainment. Taylor wanted to create a different type of game than before. After trying several ideas, the team decided to make an action role-playing game as their first project. Taylor helped design the game. Jacob McMahon was the other lead designer and producer, and Neal Hallford was the lead story and dialogue writer. Hallford joined the project after it had already started. Taylor created the beginning and end of the game, but Hallford was responsible for the details and background story in between. The game’s music was composed by Jeremy Soule, who had also worked on Total Annihilation. The development team had about thirty people during most of the project, and the number increased to forty by the end. The game took over four years to develop, even though the team originally planned to finish it in two years.

Dungeon Siege was inspired by earlier role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate and the Ultima series, but mainly by Diablo. Taylor admired Diablo for its fast-paced action, which allowed players to jump into the game without needing to learn complicated rules first. Taylor wanted to create a role-playing game that was simpler and more action-focused than most games of its time. He asked Hallford to write a story that was also fast and easy to follow. Hallford created a detailed backstory for the game that was not shown to players but helped guide the development team. The story in the game was not the main focus; Taylor believed that the idea of fighting an "ultimate evil" was motivating for players, even if it seemed common. Taylor and Hallford considered making a novel based on the game’s story, but this idea never happened.

Taylor wanted to improve on Diablo by removing the need to choose a character class and by eliminating long loading times. The team also made the game more efficient by allowing players to carry items on companions and pack mules, instead of returning to towns to sell items. At one point, they planned to have a helper character that would collect items from enemies, but this idea was later removed. The developers also changed some standard role-playing game rules, such as letting players resell items for the same price they were bought for, and allowing players to use potions partially instead of using them all at once.

Gas Powered Games included a game development tool called the Siege Editor, which allowed players to modify the game. Taylor wanted to give players full tools to create new game worlds, characters, and gameplay, inspired by the modding community for Total Annihilation. He believed these tools would help build a long-term community of players who could enhance the game after its release. The company hoped the tools would let players create small game areas quickly or even develop full games using the Dungeon Siege engine. They also believed this would improve multiplayer features beyond what the team could create on their own. Taylor was inspired by the success of mods for Total Annihilation and by John Carmack and id Software’s practice of sharing game source code. The company spent about 20% of its budget on developing the modding tools.

After the first year of development, Gas Powered Games realized they would not finish the game in two years. Creating a seamless world without loading screens was harder than expected. Lead developer Bartosz Kijanka said the team had chosen too many innovative features for the game’s custom engine, such as the camera system’s ability to zoom in and out widely. Other features that were planned but later removed included allowing up to ten characters in the game and a weather system that affected how projectiles moved. The team also changed technologies multiple times during development, such as switching from a custom animation editor to a licensed one and from OpenGL to Direct3D graphics. These changes required the team to work long hours, often 12 to 14 hours a day and on weekends, to complete the game within four years. In a 2011 interview, Taylor said the time spent on the seamless world may have been too costly, and he believed a shorter game with about 35 hours of playtime instead of 70 would have been better given their budget.

By 2000, Gas Powered Games began looking for a publisher. Taylor said several publishers were interested, but he decided to partner with Microsoft’s newly created PC publishing group, partly because of advice from Ed Fries. Although Microsoft’s publishing group was partly focused on the Xbox console, the team did not consider bringing the game to the console. Taylor believed this was due to the game’s size and the limited market for role-playing games on consoles at the time. Dungeon Siege was originally planned for release in the third quarter of 2001 but was delayed until 2002. The team used the extra time to improve the game’s features and expand its content. The game was released for Windows on April 5, 2002, by Microsoft. A version for Mac OS X was released on May 2, 2003, by Westlake Interactive and Destineer.

Reception

Dungeon Siege was commercially successful, selling over 1.7 million copies. According to the NPD Group, preorders of the game in the month before its release made it the eighth-best selling computer game of March 2002. After its release in the following month, it rose to second-best selling, behind The Sims: Vacation. In the next two months, it dropped to seventh and then thirteenth place. For the entire year of 2002, it finished in 14th place overall. By August 2006, it had sold 360,000 copies and earned $14.5 million in the United States alone. This led Edge to rank it as the 44th-best selling computer game in the country between January 2000 and August 2006. By September 2002, the game also received a "Gold" certification from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), which means it sold at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

The game received high praise from critics when it was released. According to Metacritic, it was the third-highest rated computer role-playing game of 2002, after Neverwinter Nights and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It was also the 21st-highest rated computer game overall for the year. Reviewers praised the graphics, calling them detailed and varied. Dan Adams of IGN described the visuals as "ridiculously pretty to watch," while reviewers from GameSpot and GamePro highlighted the environments as being richly designed. Robert Coffey of Computer Gaming World and Greg Vederman of PC Gamer also praised the detailed settings. Andy McNamara and Kristian Brogger of Game Informer and Peter Suciu of GameSpy noted that the game’s world had no loading screens and was seamless. Suciu added that the freeform, open map was used to create areas that were not shaped like standard rectangular regions, as was common in other role-playing games at the time. Reviewers from IGN and GamePro also praised the sound effects for helping to create the game’s atmosphere, while IGN and GameSpot reviewers appreciated the "ambient orchestral score."

The gameplay was also widely praised. A GamePro review stated that "Dungeon Siege’s gameplay is perhaps its biggest and most transparent improvement over previous titles in the genre." Some reviewers compared it favorably to Diablo II (2000), a popular action role-playing game. Dan Adams of IGN said it was similar to Diablo II with some improvements, while Robert Coffey of Computer Gaming World noted that the shift to a more tactical style made it too different to directly compare. Reviewers from PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, and GameSpot praised the gameplay as streamlined and easy to use, appreciating the tactical control of a party of adventurers who improved based on how they were used. However, Dan Adams of IGN said the gameplay could become repetitive, and Peter Suciu of GameSpy criticized the single-player game’s linearity. Adams also noted that many tactical choices were not meaningful, as battles often turned into chaotic fights, and the leveling system functioned similarly to four character classes, making it hard to pursue different paths.

The multiplayer content received mixed reviews. Dan Adams of IGN praised the amount of additional content, while Peter Suciu of GameSpy and the GameSpot reviewer pointed out that multiplayer gameplay could become unbalanced. The single-player story was generally considered weak, with the GamePro reviewer calling it "skeletal" and the Game Informer reviewers describing it as "lackluster." The GameSpot reviewer called it "bland and forgettable," saying players looking for a deeper role-playing experience would be disappointed. Overall, Greg Vederman of PC Gamer called Dungeon Siege "one of the best, most enjoyable games of the year," and the GamePro reviewer said it "walks all over its competition with almost effortless grace." Dan Adams of IGN concluded that the game was entertaining but had "untapped potential."

Legacy

After being shown at E3 2000, Dungeon Siege went on to win the Best RPG award from Game Revolution and the Most Immersive Role-playing Game award from GameSpot. After its release, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) nominated Dungeon Siege for "Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Innovation in Computer Gaming" at the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. It did not win either category, losing to Neverwinter Nights and Battlefield 1942, respectively. The game was also a nominee for PC Gamer US's "2002 Best Roleplaying Game" award but lost again to Neverwinter Nights. It did win the Best PC Game Graphics award from IGN.

Gas Powered Games' release of the Siege Editor helped create a modding community around the game. Before its release, several modding groups announced plans to use the engine to create large-scale mods that remade games from the Ultima series. After the game's release, many mods were created, including "total conversion" mods that made completely new games and stories, such as "The Lands of Hyperborea" and "Elemental." Gas Powered Games released one mod titled "Yesterhaven" in July 2002. Created by six designers over six weeks, this mod provided a short multiplayer storyline for low-level characters who defended a town from three themed monster plagues. It was followed by Legends of Aranna, a full expansion pack developed by Mad Doc Software and released on November 11, 2003, for Windows and Mac OS X by Microsoft. The expansion pack added few new gameplay features but included a completely separate story from the original game. In Legends, the player controls another unnamed farmer who retrieves the Staff of Stars after it is stolen by a creature called the Shadowjumper. After fighting monsters in icy hills, jungles, and islands, the player reaches the mystical Great Clock, a giant artifact that controls Aranna's seasons. There, the player defeats the Shadowjumper and retrieves the Staff of Stars. Critics praised the amount of content but noted that the base gameplay did not change much. At the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the AIAS nominated Legends of Aranna for "Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year," though it lost to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Other games in the Dungeon Siege series include Dungeon Siege II (2005), which had an expansion pack titled Dungeon Siege II: Broken World (2006). It was followed by a spinoff PlayStation Portable game, Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (2006), and a third main title, Dungeon Siege III (2011). A movie titled In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, directed by Uwe Boll and inspired by the original game, was released in 2007. It was described as being "loosely based" on the game and was a commercial and critical failure. It was followed by home video sequels: In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds (2011) and In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission (2014).