A second review out of the blue for Dungeon Siege II: Broken World with GameBanshee posting a critique with a score of 6.9/10:

Unfortunately, the campaign isn’t very exciting. It’s like developer Gas Powered Games knew that they had to create an expansion pack, but they didn’t have any good ideas for it, and so they just plopped down a bunch of monsters for you to kill. As a result, there is plenty of violence, but there isn’t much interaction with your companions, there is only one puzzle sequence (with a joke -- literally and figuratively -- as a reward), there are few books and no chants to find, only one chest turned out to be a mimic, there weren’t many secret doors, and so on.

A blast from the past with Game Apex reviewing Dungeon Siege II: Broken World.  The score is 7/10 and here's a snip:

All in all, the gameplay in Broken World is more of the same from the standalone game.  This isn't bad thing, as the gameplay was excellent to begin with.   While there could have been more gameplay updates and a more customizable crafting system, Gas Powered Games took the formula that worked for the original game and kept it, resulting in an expansion that is still fun to play (but once again, the new campaign is very short).

Armchair General gave the Dungeon Siege 2 Deluxe Edition - which includes both the main game and the add-on - 80%. Here´s their verdict:

Overall, the experience played in Dungeon Siege 2: Deluxe Edition was not something unfamiliar. There is certainly a great deal of game time in the pack, which gives the gamer a good bang for the buck. The question is whether or not he or she wishes to play "yet another" action RPG. There just isn’t anything fresh or exciting to be played in Dungeon Siege 2. While the storyline is good, the gameplay solid, and the graphics crisp and clean, all of the above are things that have already been seen in RPGs in the past. Dungeon Siege 2 is a good RPG, but not one that would be recommended for those who are searching for something new in their collection.

Worthplaying has posted a rather tardy review of Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World. Scoring it 6.5/10, the reviewer said:

By my way of thinking, at least so far as expansions are concerned, if they don’t completely enhance the basic experience of the game they are connected to then they aren’t really worth a whole separate purchase. Much as I hate using Blizzard as an example yet again (I almost make the company sound infallible), their add-ons for both Starcraft and Diablo 2 essentially re-worked the games into a whole new experience. In the case of Broken World, whether you have it installed or not makes no difference whatsoever to Dungeon Siege II, aside from giving you the end of the story. (Which should have been included from the beginning anyways.) Microsoft has released a version of this game together with the expansion, and that makes a decent value, but as a stand alone release Broken World doesn’t merit anything more than a bargain-bin purchase.

6.6/10 is the verdict for DS2: Broken World in GamingExcellence's review:

Note to self: If current planet proceeds in a fury of demolishment, make an expansion. The Dungeon Siege saga rages back to the “broken” land of Arrana to pick up what little the second to the plot left off. DSII: Broken World has a new race, new classes, new items and other content, but getting to the new foe isn’t much of an interesting quest in itself.

A very short review of DS2: Broken World is available at Fragland with a score of 67.3%:

Next to an small extra story there's also a new race you can play with, and if you can believe Gas Powered Games they did this after a huge demand from the community. They've added dwarves. Unfortunately, these can't do anything different from any other race in the game and in the end they're just a bunch of little people... nothing more, nothing less.

IGN is on a roll with walkthroughs today. They have posted one for Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, the add-on to Dungeon Siege II. You can snag it at IGN . 

Still, we loved DS2, and we are rather fond of this expansion despite what other editors are saying (and yes we've read most of them). You won't find a huge graphical upgrade with Broken World. And as just stated, looks like the Zone Alarm firewall issue is still raging on. You might even be surprised by the intensity in gameplay this expansion offers, forcing you out of the usual hack-and-slash mode and asking you to really think about how you progress forward. In some cases, the gameplay may even get a little annoying, but that's ok. If you haven't played DS2, then you might want to experience that part of the story before taking on Broken World, as the expansion is generally labeled as the "conclusion" of the story set forth in DS2. But if you have played the original, and you've deleted the characters and uninstalled the game, there is still hope by way of the expansion's pre-generated characters. Just don't expect to whip though this in one sitting.

Here's a universal truth about expansion packs - you really can't judge them on their own. They are only as good as the games that they expand on. After that the criteria for judging them is pretty straightforward. So you have to assume the person that is checking out said expansion pack, in this case Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, found the original game to be a lot of fun and worth dusting off for some new content. Broken World certainly delivers what it promises on the box -- and for it's price -- serves up its fair share of new content improvements and fun to Gas Powered Games' role-playing game.

The highpoints of the game are that it continues to provide challenging and fast-paced combat, a progression system that rewards choosing a character type and sticking with it, a decent story with enough side-quests to keep you interested, and an interesting inventory upgrading system. This game won't replace Planescape: Torment in terms of depth, nor is it as good as the original Dungeon Siege II, but it is certainly better than the first Dungeon Siege. However, the developers seem to have slid back from the good effort they made of avoiding the tedium often encountered in games of this type. The multiplayer mode remains unchanged, with co-operative play in one of three combinations with someone else. It was adequate in the original and remains adequate here.

Everything is nearly identical to the original. The only additions are a couple of hybrid classes. These new classes are good starting points, but you shape your development path through your actions just as you did in the original. The minimum starting level is 39, and you can choose from several quality pre-made characters or import your own to begin this quest. If you finished the original game and spent any extra time leveling, your character is at a much higher level than this expansion expects making loot and experience from battle unsatisfying. Even choosing a pre-made character gives you an equipment set better than the vast majority of what you find.

One major improvement over the original is the addition of reagent recipes. In Dungeon Siege II, the developers added reagents that could be applied to enchantable armors, weapons, jewelry and spellbooks, but almost without exception, anything you had enchanted paled in comparison to anything found off creatures. Now you can discover reagent recipes -- as quest rewards, in chests and hidden alcoves, and off of monsters -- that create special enchanted magic items that are better than what can be enchanted normally. And they really are more powerful. Many of them are good enough to replace the armor and weapons you find off the monsters, and it makes the enchantment system useful for a change.

Dungeon Siege II is too big a game with too grand a storyline to ruin in just one sentence, but for the sake of those who've seen it all before and the constraints of space, here's how the story ended: there's this big, bad guy called Valdia, yeah? At the end he gets his ass whooped. That's pretty much it, but everyone knows the good guys always win out in the end. Broken World's plot reveals that defeating Valdia wasn't the end of the madness to unfold on Arriana. His death has only unleashed an unspeakable abomination that has waited a millennium for its freedom, hasn't it? Talk about whoopsie-doo. Obviously there's not going to be much time to party like it's 1999 while groups of Bound Elves, Familiars and all other manner of monster (innocents plagued by evil), are out and about causing havoc. Oh, there's also the small point of dark lord Zeramoth wanting to destroy the world too. And, y'know, since it was really your fault that this all happened in the first place, it's probably only fair that you admit responsibility and set off to sort things out once and for all. Well, perhaps after you've finished your cup of tea and checked the footie results on Teletext. Then it's time to show them who's boss.

If you really crave more of that Dungeon Siege II action, you'll definitely find it in Broken World. The problem is, you won't find enough of it to last you more than two or three days. And while there are some interesting additions here, the main arc of the story just isn't dramatic enough to support it all. I like that the combat is hard enough to force you to outfit your party properly but the action still winds up being little more than a clickathon.

A full year after the release of Dungeon Siege II comes Gas Powered's latest attempt at prolonging the magic: Dungeon Siege II: Broken World. As with the base game, Gas Powered has admirably listened to and implemented suggestions from fans (and detractors) of the series. On paper, at least, Broken World seems to hit all its marks. But, much like the game it expands upon, ingredients that should, by rights, lead to excellence only end up making something pretty good. Call it the "Traveling Wilburys Effect."

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World feels more like it should be the first act of a game rather than the last act. It doesn't bring anything to Dungeon Siege II in terms of the story, and it's too short to stand on its own as a separate campaign. The new character classes are a welcome addition, but they alone aren't worth the price. Broken World also doesn't add any multiplayer specific features, so that part of the game remains unchanged. You can play through the campaign cooperatively and experience the new content that way, but the multiplayer doesn't increase the longevity of the expansion. If you're just looking for a hack-and-slash role-playing game, you'd be better off replaying Dungeon Siege II, because it's a much more satisfying experience.

You start out at a Dyrad village and will gather together a party there -- a maximum of four members. At the beginning, your choices are sharpshooters, melee fighters, sorcerers and mages. I couldn't find any proper healers in the area, but my Fist of Stone main character was able to fill in the gaps here and there, and healing potions are relatively cheap to come by. Several of your choices are characters from DS2, but they're only skilled up in one ability tree (or at least this was the case in the preview build). I spent some timing choosing spells, getting my formation right, checking the vendors for good gear, and gathering side quests before I went into the fray.

Will there be any features in the expansion that will be totally new for the hardcore RPG-player?

That was one of the goal of the new multiclass characters....the give the player more tactical options in combat... and more divergent skill trees. we also hand scripted more encounters for the players, to present more challenges.

The conditionhal monsters are really awesome. They allow players to apply strategy to how they approach monsters and combat. It always keeps me on my toes even now. Our testers said that the ability to keep adapting strategies and customizing the new character classes allowed them to keep enjoying the game even after 6 mos of constant testing.

[RPGDot] Have any improvements been made to the multiplayer component? Will the game still use Gamespy? Will it be easier for players to find one another and, if joining after a game's beginning, will it be easier for them to join a party?

Multiplayer is a fundamental component of the DS2 engine. We could not significantly change the functionality for Broken World without re-building DS2, so we focused on making a number of terrific upgrades to the UI, including character creation and chat functions. We are very excited to have Gamespy as an online partner again for Broken World.

Players will be able to import their DS2 MP characters into the expansion, or can make a new party and start over. DS2X data will not override DS2 saves, so you will even be able to pick up your DS2 party where it left off if you want to return to another mode of play in DS2.

Both the sequel and the expansion are running on the same game technology that drove the original. While this gives all three games a sense of continuity, the team has had to work hard to wring every last drop of performance and keep the visuals fresh. Although it looks like a close cousin of the first game, the expansion aims for a sharper edge, packing in plenty of blood and gore. Perhaps the biggest complaint we had with the original was the cheesy dialogue - which should hopefully chucked, thanks to the entirely new voice cast for the expansion.

All in all, we think this fast-action add-on is coming together nicely for a 15-hour wrap-up to the series. Broken World ships at the end of summer, in August.