Published by Xplosiv
Developed by Gas Powered Games
Released: Out Now
Price: £9.99

This may be the only Xplosiv game to cost more that £4.99 that we are looking at this month but don't be put off because this is a cracking game and is exceptional value at just under ten pounds. The game's story is set in the Kingdom of Ehb. You are working in your farm when suddenly a friend, who has been attacked, staggers toward you and with his last breath tells you that the Krug are attacking and you are to make your way to Stonebridge instantly and warn Gyorn. Almost immediately you come across the Krug and you're forced to battle your way through them as you make your way to Stonebridge.

The game is a Diablo style 3D hack 'n' slash RPG that is absolutely full of innovative touches, such as the inclusion of pack mules. Rather than getting bogged down with your riches and potions and getting to the silly situation of having to throw things away in order to have space to pick something else up you can now purchase a pack mule. This creature enables you to carry a lot more stuff and therefore be able to sell a lot more stuff when you arrive in the next town. This is a fantastic inclusion and makes you wonder why no one else had not thought of it before.

Graphically Dungeon Siege is excellent. The fully 3D environment allows you to zoom right in and out. Close in the graphics are quite detailed whilst remaining zoomed out is the most efficient way to conduct battles and gaining a sense of direction. Pushing the mouse back and forth tilts the camera whilst moving it from side to side turns the camera. The zoom feature can be operated with the use of a mouse wheel. Of course this richly detailed 3D world comes at a price and you are going to require a decent graphics card and processor if you intend to run the game at high resolution. If you have fairly old hardware though you can still run the game fine providing you stick to the lower resolutions such as 640x480 and 800x600.

Dungeon Siege cannot fail to impress you. The interface is wonderfully easy and uses visual clues galore. Icons flash, such as the journal icon which flashes to let you know that something has been added to it, and text labels can be attached to items that are on the floor. These labels make objects far easier to see and are a must if you are playing the game at some of the higher resolutions where the objects can appear really small. Best of all though is the fact that everything in the game is subtitled. The cutscenes and the conversations have been wonderfully subtitled and this is made even better by the fact that for the conversations, dialogue boxes have been used. These dialogue boxes allow you to scroll back through the conversations and must be clicked off for the game to continue.

Recommendation: Highly Recommended. A superb game at a superb price.
Suitability for deaf gamers: Suitable. Absolutely fine for deaf gamers.

Overall Game Rating: 5.0/5