Dungeon Siege

It feels as though 2002’s Dungeon Siege gets a little forgotten when it comes to recalling all the classics of the genre you can still play today. From Chris Taylor’s Gas Powered Games (which you’ll remember better for Supreme Commander), Dungeon Siege was the Microsoft-published response to Blizzard’s Diablo, that truly innovated on the formula in a way that, really, no other examples have since. Although perhaps everyone just tries to forget it, in response to a trilogy of Uwe Boll movies based on the license.

Here, you created your own character, but could then switch between any other member of your party you gathered along the way—up to seven others at a time. Alongside this, you didn’t pick a character class, but rather the weapons and skills you used the most were those your characters became the best at using! WHICH MAKES SENSE!

Oh, and if you bought a weapon from a vendor in Dungeon Siege for 3,000 gold, you could also sell it to them for the same. BECAUSE THAT ALSO MAKES SENSE. Unused swords aren’t sports cars! They don’t devalue when you take them off the lot! Ahem.

The sequel from Gas Powered Games, Dungeon Siege II, was great too. The third game, cunningly titled Dungeon Siege III, was developed by Obsidian, and deviated quite broadly from the multi-character format. And let’s just pretend that GPG’s Space Siege never happened.