Writing for Apple, Brad Cook has posted a preview of Dungeon Siege, the forthcoming fantasy-based role playing action game coming from MacSoft.
A key feature of Dungeon Siege is its continuous level loading capability. Rather than having to wait seconds or minutes for each new part of the game to load into memory, you can start to play instantly. “When you leave a forest and descend into a dungeon, for example, the trees and grass fade away and cold, weathered stone fades in,” wrote Cook.
Developed by Gas Powered Games and published for the PC by Microsoft, Dungeon Siege was originally picked up for the Mac by Destineer’s Bold business unit — a company that has already published other Microsoft-made games for the Mac including Links Championship Edition and Age of Empires II. Destineer has since bought MacSoft from Infogrames, so Dungeon Siege will instead by published by MacSoft. The game’s Macintosh conversion is being handled by the team at Westlake Interactive, which said that it’s at “Final Candidate” stage now and should be out soon.
Dungeon Siege’s continuous level-loading technology is only one unique aspect of the game, according to Cook. In another break from standard Role Playing Game (RPG) fare, you don’t need to define your character as having a specific role, like Fighter or Wizard. You start out with a generic appearance and a standard set of equipment, and as your abilities increase throughout the game, you’ll become more specialized. Dungeon Siege is populated with lots of monsters and Non Player Characters (NPCs) to keep the world of Ehb interesting, as well.
What’s more, the game features multiplayer capabilities that enable you to import your character into “the Utrean Peninsula,” inviting other gamers to participate in player-versus-player battles. For more details about the game, along with screenshots, links to background information about the game and its developers and more, visit Apple’s Web site.