Board 8 > Looking for recommendations like Dungeon Siege

(+) Yeah! (+)

I had an urge to revisit the original Dungeon Siege. I played it for about 2 hours, and quickly realized that the camera controls, as well as a few QOL issues, were going to make it very difficult for me to stomach in 2024. But I miss the idea of Dungeon Siege. So I'm asking if anyone has any suggestions that I can access on PC.

For the uninitiated, Dungeon Siege started you with a character who would fight their way past enemies by using either Melee, Ranged, Combat Magic, or Nature Magic. Rather than an overall experience-and-class system, these individual categories would level from usage, like if the Elder Scrolls only had four skills and no levels. You could multi-class, though it usually wasn't super helpful to do so. But you'd eventually pick up party members who would complement your skills, up to eight in total. The world felt a little like what Diablo would be if it were hand-crafted rather than procedural, with ambushes you'd need to fight past, but also lots of fun secrets. The combat was not super deep, focusing more on positions and giving general team orders during real-time (but pausable) battle. The strong focus on discovery and always encountering something around each corner is part of what kept the game fresh. I won't say no to a good story, but it's completely optional here.

To try to quantify what makes something more like Dungeon Siege than other games I've played:

• Diablo is a little too hands-on with the action. I appreciate that DS lets you watch the character do their thing without having to click-click-click. It's also single character, though that's not a dealbreaker. Diablo clones are fine. I like them. But I've also already played PoE, Grim Dawn, Torchlight, etc.
• Neverwinter Nights and Pillars of Eternity are a bit too CRPG for me. I like a game to have depth, but not to feel like I need to read an entire D&D manual first.
• Dragon Age: Origins (I haven't played the others in the series) is maybe just a smidge too tactical, though it's probably the closest of the games I've played. I also like that Dungeon Siege had one continuous (albeit very linear) world.
• Divinity: Original Sin 1&2 are turn-based. I'm not looking for an actual TRPG. In addition to being mechanically dense, it's also much slower. So while I'm sure BG3 is great, it's not what I'm looking for.
• Dragon's Dogma felt really cumbersome. I like some of the things it was doing, but the execution left a lot to be desired. (And yes, I've played basically every Bethesda game, as well as Cyberpunk.)

There is a Dungeon Siege 2, of course, which is also okay. Different vibe to some of the mechanics and the world-feel, but I might just download that. Still, I'd like to think there's something in this vein that's come out since 2005. Hopefully something that's not a slog to control, too, which most of these games are.

So, uh, on that note, how's Inquisition? Only game I can think of that might come close and it's on sale rn.

Dins Legacy or Zombasite.

You can find cheap keys for them on the usual cheap key sites.

Maybe VtM: Redemption? As I recall, it was a bit more RPG-y than Diablo, but a bit more Diablo-y than a Neverwinter Nights or similar. Can't remember if you got companions or just the (non-customisable) protagonist though.

So an update: I bought Dragon Age Inquisition for $4 on Steam...and ended up returning it due to nonsense with the EA app. Seemed like it was going to be an enjoyable game, and then it just refused to load after my first couple play sessions. Was past the 2 hour mark, but Steam still accepted my refund request.

Feels cheap as hell to refund a $4 game, but if it's not going to work, I'm not going to pay for it.