The Rise and Fall of Dungeon Siege

In the realm of actionoriented video games, few are as zen as dungeon crawlers. Even at their most complex, demolishing and looting enemies in the likes of Diablo or Torchlight is as hypnotic as it is satisfying; their gameplay loops providing a perfect mixture of habitual repetition, and utter excitement. And to a small, yet passionate subset of PC gamers during the early 2000s, few games offered a better blend of these elements than Dungeon Siege. Created by Gas Powered Games a Redmondbased development studio led by the legendary Chris Taylor Dungeon Siege received significant praise upon its release in 2002 for its unique, partybased gameplay and its seamless, loadingscreenfree world, resulting in a dedicated player base quickly rallying around its design. Yet even amongst its most ardent fans, it also received significant criticism for its barebones story, as well as its tendency to play itself. As a result, its creators worked hard to ensure its sequel featured a more impressive n