Here at GamesEyeView, we’ve gone on the record a few times about our confusion regarding the history of Obsidian Entertainment. As a studio, they traditionally pick up other franchises and make passable sequels that offer up some interesting and fresh ideas, but fail on some level with regards to the game’s execution. As such, we were rightfully concerned that Dungeon Siege III might suffer from some of the same malaise as other sequels the studio picked up, like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, or Fallout: New Vegas. But instead we got a game that offered up an interesting mash up of some old and new gaming tropes that work surprisingly well together.
Dungeon Siege III plays very much like a dungeon crawling action RPG, similar to games like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath. Fans of the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games will also recognize the game’s style. This is a clear departure in style for the series, as the first two Dungeon Siege games play more like pause and play tactical games than a traditional beat ‘em up. But it turns out that while this game is far from perfect, the change in style suits the universe just fine.
Players in Dungeon Siege III take on the role of one of the last of the 10th Legion of Ehb. After the death of the king, Jayne Kassynder (leader of the Azunite Church and daughter of the king) waged a war to wipe out the Legion claiming that they had slayed her father. Each of the characters available are children of dead Legionaries, who must fight to stop Jayne Kassynder before she wipes out all who oppose her and seizes complete control of Ehb.
The Venerable Odo, last of the old Legion
Much like other games in the genre, players have a selection of pregenerated characters to choose from. No matter which character the player chooses, all four characters are a part of the story as the other three characters become “party members” that the player will pick up to join them throughout the course of the adventure. Since each character has certain story elements that are different from the others, this adds replayability to the game, as players can choose to play each of the four characters to learn each character’s own specific relation to the events in the game.
Unlike some other dungeon crawlers, the characters don’t necessarily translate into traditional ‘character classes.’ While Characters like Lucas and Reinhart fill the traditional ‘fighter’ and ‘mage’ classes respectively, Anjali and Katerina play more like hybrid classes. Anjali, for example can tank with her spear in close combat, or use a number of fire based spells at range. Katerina most closely resembles the archer stereotype using her guns, but she also has a number of spells that expand her usefulness. What we’ve found is that character balance can be a bit of an issue, as characters like Katerina and Reinhart are much harder to play at lower levels before other characters join the party due to their need for another character to tank for them. By comparison, Anjali is just grossly overpowered compared to all the other characters.
Undead in a crypt, huh? Never saw that one coming....
Players will progress through the game by essentially hacking and slashing their way through enemies, but they can also learn a number of abilities that augment their power in combat. For instance, while Katerina will spend most of her time blasting away with either her Rifle or Shotgun/Pistol dual wielding stance, she also has a number of hexes she can cast that will either hinder her enemies, or make her own attacks more powerful. All in all these combat mechanics work very well and will feel very familiar to gamers who are used to the classic action RPG genre. Unfortunately the camera could really stand to pan down lower to allow characters with ranged attacks to have a better field of vision.
Players will also be grabbing quite a bit of loot that they can use to improve their characters, either in the forms of new weapons and armor, or various charms that can be worn. Many of these items fit into the traditional fantasy stereotype, as Lucas will pick up items like the ‘Sheild of Protection,’ or Anjali will pick up the ‘Spear of Quickness.” However we couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that poor Katerina was subjected to traditional fantasy game sexism with items like the ‘Corset of Protection’ or the ‘Stockings of Rage.’
Perhaps something that covered her midriff would be more appropriate for combat
All in all, the game’s story in enjoyable with a number of playable sidequests that players can choose to accept. An interesting twist on the traditional dungeon crawling action RPG was Obsidian’s choice to use a dialog wheel, much like the one found in Bioware games like the Mass Effect series and Dragon Age II. Some gamers may remember that Obsidian used a similar dialog system in Alpha Protocol. This system works very well as it essentially gives the player an idea of the direction that the conversation will go without having to read lines of dialog that the character will simply repeat. Unfortunately in Dungeon Siege III, the voice acting is mostly terrible and we found ourselves quickly reading the subtitles and skipping ahead to avoid listening to it.
While Dungeon Siege III is a mostly enjoyable experience, it does have some flaws that are worth noting. While the game essentially loads during gameplay (with some occasional slowdown), if the player gets killed they will spend nearly a minute staring at a load screen waiting to get back into the game. Another issue is that the graphics aren’t great. They’re not terrible, but the do feel slightly ‘washed out’ by comparison to most games.
No, I'm not a vampire. I just have strange teeth.
However the game’s biggest failing is the co-op multiplayer. Part of the charm of Dungeon Siege III is that it is meant to be played by either two players locally or by up to four players online. Unfortunately we were actually reminded of the failings of Fable II’s multiplayer in that players were forced to join into someone else’s multiplayer game with one of the game’s pregenerated characters not in use (which as we mentioned before, are unbalanced). Players couldn’t take weapons or items back to their own games, and were more or less only visitors in that other person’s game. As such, unless players plan to play through the game together, there’s no incentive to just drop into someone’s game.
Despite the game’s failings, Dungeon Siege III is still a fun game. The change in gameplay style from the first two games in the series fits perfectly and will still feel familiar to Action RPG fans. While the multiplayer is a bit of a mess, and the are some other issues that players will need to overlook (like the horrible voice acting), Dungeon Siege III is still an enjoyable RPG with a good story and solid gameplay. While it’s certainly not a game for everyone and could have stood a bit more balancing, it’s certainly worth a rental for RPG and action game fans.
Overall Score: 7/10
