Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna (PC, M15)

Reviewed by PETER ELEY

Herald rating: * * * * *

Legends of Aranna is labelled as an expansion pack to Micro-soft's Dungeon Siege. It is, in fact, a full game, and could have been titled Dungeon Siege 2.

Oddly, Legends of Aranna comes bundled with the original game and both are installed together.

Even if you do have the first game, Legends is worth buying, because it expands the original concept while staying faithful to the core role-playing elements and boasting the same superb graphics of its predecessor.

I'd played Dungeon Siege through a couple of times and found Legends a bit samey at first. Then I noticed that the hours I'd spent playing (which are logged on the saves) had crept into double figures and I had to admit I was hooked.

Much of the game is spent wending your way through mazes, fighting an endless succession of enemies, and listening to members of your party make facile comments.

But the sheer quality of the graphics, an immersive plot, clever camera angles and the ability to tweak the fighting abilities and formation of your party to deal with different situations add to the game.

I won't say how many hours I've spent so far, but I suspect I've got a long way to go yet.

The game deals with the quest to recover treasures lost when monsters ruled by an ancient force attack a trade caravan.

The game gets quite mystical and New Agey at times with flashing lights and magic rings.

You start out relatively weak, but gain strength, dexterity and intelligence as your kill count increases. This gives you access to better weaponry, armour and spells, which equip you to meet more powerful foes.

It also introduces an outstanding multi-player mode, which really puts the icing on the cake in terms of value.

(Microsoft)

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