''Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony'' is a role-playing video game for PlayStation Portable developed by SuperVillain Studios and published by 2K in the U.S. in 2006, and by

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal ...

in the

PAL region The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Europe and Africa, alongside parts of Asia, South America and Oceania. It is named PAL because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used i ...

in 2007.

Gameplay

Instead of using the mouse like in the original '' Dungeon Siege'' games, the player directly controls the character with the

analog stick An analog stick (or analogue stick in British English), sometimes called a control stick or thumbstick, is an input device for a controller (often a game controller) that is used for two-dimensional input. An analog stick is a variation of a joy ...

. There are three characters to choose from, customizable as they level up. Players can also choose a partner, making a party of a maximum of two characters, but the partner can be changed (ranged, magic, melee). A friend can join in ad-hoc wireless play between two PlayStation Portable consoles, forming a party of up to four characters (two characters and two followers). Enemies are much more scattered throughout the map rather than having several enemies in one screen at the same time like in ''

Dungeon Siege II ''Dungeon Siege II'' is an Action role-playing game, action role-playing video game, the sequel to 2002's ''Dungeon Siege''. It was developed by Gas Powered Games and released in 2005. The story is a continuation of the ''Dungeon Siege'' storylin ...

''. Players can unlock exclusive items using codes provided in '' Dungeon Siege II: Broken World''.

Plot

''Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony'' picks up where ''Dungeon Siege II'' left off: after the second cataclysm altered the world of Aranna. A new threat appears out of nowhere, and the player has to choose one of three characters to oppose it. Wild monsters attack elves and humans, with the one behind this menace being known as the Black Druid. The player has to face many different creatures before the Black Druid is located and killed. It turns out that the true enemy are Vagar, a race of corrupted beings of whom the Black Druid was a member. They serve their mistress, Malith, once a leader of Agallan giants, now a fallen creature who takes its powers from the Throne of Agony. The hero has to defeat Vagar, find the Agallan giants, and ultimately defeat Malith. Finally, the player has to decide what to do with the Throne of Agony, a sentient throne of darkness, as it can either be used or destroyed.

Development

A console based ''Dungeon Siege'' game was planned by

Gas Powered Games Wargaming Seattle, formerly known as Gas Powered Games, was a video game developer located in Redmond, Washington. The development studio was started in May 1998 by Chris Taylor and several other ex- Cavedog Entertainment employees. In 2013 th ...

since 2003. The project named ''Dungeon Siege X'' was originally planned for

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

and expected release simultaneously with ''

''. The project slowed down and was eventually canceled. In 2006, Gas Powered ended the publishing rights with Microsoft Game Studios and signed with

2K Games 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. 2K was founded under Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports labels, following Take-Two Interactive's acquisition of Visual Concepts that same ...

. The project was resurrected by 2K and finally announced for PSP alongside '' Dungeon Siege II: Broken World'' expansion for PC. It was developed by SuperVillain Studios.

Reception

The game received above-average reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

References

External links

Official website
* {{Dungeon Siege series 2006 video games 2K games Action role-playing video games Dungeon Siege Fantasy video games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Take-Two Interactive games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring female protagonists Multiplayer and single-player video games SuperVillain Studios games