Welcome back to Aranna, my friends! For all you Diablo fans out there, here is a fantastic game for you. Dungeon Siege II: The Battle for Aranna (DS2), implements not only some of the best features from Diablo, but also from Baldur's Gate and WoW.

Your mercenary starts in the trenches under the command of Valdis, an unfriendly fellow at best. Bearing down in a siege against the Dryads, you begin to wonder which side you should be fighting for. Before you can make that choice, you find yourself alone and in a leafy Dryad prison cell. The best stories begin in prison, don't you agree?

There are four race choices of Elf, Dryad, Half-Giant, and Human. Aranna is a land rich in lore, and you can often find books on history and the denizens of the land which are an interesting read. I chose to be a female Elf, which I nurtured to become a battle mage. With DS2's leveling system, in the beginning all characters are created equal, and you advance in skill points as you use the skill. For instance, all I had to do to become a battle mage was to start casting spells. This gives you the ability to create a "jack of all trades" if you wanted to, but that also makes for a very weak character. The ability to micro-manage all of my other party members equipment and skills got me over my need to keep trying new ones on the same character. Yes, I was very happy to play both my battle mage and a dual-weilding warrior at the same time. There are so many different combinations of skills, even within the same class, that it would be hard to make the same character twice.

While I agree with others that the graphics are not first-rate, in my opinion "pretty and shiny" doesn't always take the cake for a game. What creates more playability to me is the fun of the game, and sometimes that means a good storyline. As a writer, I have a soft spot in my heart for a good storyline, and I am one of those geeks that will actually read the quests and backstories for every NPC in the game. I got the chance to read the comic book available with the game, and thoroughly enjoyed it as a prelude to some of the action. Using one of the aspects I enjoyed from Baldur's Gate so much, I enjoyed watching my party members make comments, offer advice, and get pissy at each other.

I found the characters' voices to be acted rather well. The short-lived Dryads were kind of "chirpy" and the Half-Giant's voice was kind of low and sexy. (Ok, I need to get out more.) Also enjoyable were the ambient sounds. I heard believable jungle birds and monkeys in the rainforest, and skittering sand in the desert, not just overbearing music.

The quests offered follow a primary linear path, which ushers you along taking some sudden twists. Just when I thought the action was resolved, the designers had another idea and I was just as screwed as I was five minutes before. DS2 offers a treasure-trove of content, and I doubt that I found it all. I was also titillated to not have to do the traditional "kill the rats/spiders/badgers/dustbunnnies in the basement" quest to begin with. No siree, you start in the trenches getting your ass waxed. This is war, after all. There are, of course, side quests and journeys which you may take that are completely optional, but may offer the next uber-item you crave.

Speaking of uber-items, DS2 affords you the ability to not only win your own loot in battle, but have it enchanted with reagents and runes to your own uber-specifications. Yeah...I spent a lot of time in the shops tweaking stuff.

The teleporters placed around the world offer you the ability to travel back to town in order to "take care of business." One of my beefs is that some of them are placed too far apart, causing you to run an ungodly distance to your desired location no matter where you last ported. In addition, when you save and exit the game you respawn back in town. A minor annoyance, I know.

I was enamored of the creatures in DS2, which were not just re-named critters from the level before but creatures with a purpose to the storyline. I loved that each time you fought something new it got logged in your journal where you could look at its' stats and laugh at what killed you later. I even had a few Resident Evil scary moments when things jumped out at me that I didn't expect. My favorite creature of all? The mimic! If you don't know what that is, you will soon you money-grubbing looters!

One of my annoyances with the game is with the camera. I know, I know...no game has ever gotten it right. However, there were times (especially during battle) where I simply could not get a good camera angle with which to view my party. Cave walls and other obstructions would block my view, when they should have gone at least transparent. I will blame at least two deaths on this factor, the rest is my caffeine intake.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Aranna and found the game to be engrossing and addictive. Now it's time for me to start over, and venture down the spiderweb of side quests that I missed in this gargantuan game.

RATING: 4 out of 5
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