Dungeon Siege III

[Fiach]

Is third time a charm?

Well, a series that always espoused focused mediocrity, over daring creativity, was never going to set the world alight with the next game in the series, so when it actually turns out to be a pretty good game, it begs the question....was the series as mediocre as it was thought to be originally?

Dungeon Siege games are quite similar to Diablo, a much loved Blizzard isometric RPG series, but while Diablo's most recent iteration only ran in 800x600, its competitor in the Dungeon Siege series could run at three times that resolution. In Diablo, you played one character, in Dungeon Siege, you created a character and could have a party of up to six members at any one time. In Diablo you were tied to skill trees, in DS you could mix and match, plus you could level up skills by just prolonged use of a skill. There were many ways in which DS totally surpassed Diablo, yet the game held most fondly in peoples memories, is Diablo.

Diablo had randomly generated dungeons, this was a big plus for people (I dont know why, because they all looked the same to me), it also had a very good multiplayer, where people could mindlessly grind these dungeons to get "epic loot", whereas DS concentrated on a storyline and kept pushing you forward, no monsters continuously respawned, to provide a mindless grind, with the hypnotic click-fest to liken it to Diablo.

Even now, with Diablo 3 a year away, DS III is still being compared to a game series it bears absolutely no resemblence to, or shares a heritage with, that hasn't even been released yet.

Time to judge a game on its own merits methinks.

Made by Obsidian (Fallout NV, Alpha Protocol,)The storyline still centres on the kingdom of Ehb, the mighty Legion has been hounded to the brink of extinction by a religous cult led by a lady that could be described as having Joan of Arc delusions as she is derermined to exterminate the last vestiges of the Legion, the last defence left, for the royals and common people alike.

You are one of the last decendents of the Legion bloodline, its your job to rally what is left of the legions offspring and defeat this evil cult.

As you start the game, you are asked to choose which decendent to play, these characters all have different skills, one uses rifles/shotguns/pistols, another uses 2 hand swords or Sword and Shield, another would be Anjali a fire demon, who either floats around, with her head on fire casting fire based spells, or as her human form, using spears, the last character is a basic mage type character.

When you decide who to play, you will start up the game proper and journey through the kingdom of Ehb, meeting the other offspring on your way. While they will always join your party, you can only have one with you at any given time on screen. You can swap members in and out from the pause screen and even if you dont use a character, they will still gain their levels in the background, so that, if you do choose to use them, they wont be weak and unlevelled.

Combat is very well implemented, with each character having two "stances", that  can be switched on the fly, with the press of a button, making fights an interestingly strategic affair, take Anjali for instance, you encounter a band of enemies, make her a fire demon (Archon), leave a pool of flame surrounding your feet, so anyone that comes near you gets burned, summon a hell hound, then revert to human form and melee the crap out of anyone that comes within range of your spear, thats just one example on one character, but you are talking a nice set of variations of combat strategies, which make subsequent playthroughs mandatory.

The game looks very good, I have seen people say that the characters are not very detailed, I disagree thoroughly with this, if you get a character into a corner and see them close up and look at the tattoo's etc, the detail is quite incredible, I can only assume people that do not see this are playing in low def.

The storyline is .... OK, well, I could say that its good, but by RPG standards like Fallout, Planescape, Baldurs Gate etc. Its OK, compared to Diablo, well it would be like comparing DS 3 as Tolstoy, to Diablo as a Dr Seuss book. Its compelling enough to keep you moving forward and forgettable enough that subsequent playthroughs are going to bore you to death.

With the game clocking in at about 12 hours, you are going to have to play it a few times to get your moneys worth, if thats your bag, there is no New Game Plus, which seems to bother alot of people, personally I think a NG+ is pointless in a RPG as you dont level your character any more, which negates the character development, which is the mainstay of the RPG genre.

While Co-Op play is implemented, it is done in a weird way. The Host keeps all the data on their game save, while it makes Co-Op kind of pointless, it was done this way to solve disparity of character levels and quest completion differences which makes sense, Couch Co-Op is fine though as you and your partner will be using the same console either way, I have no idea how this is implemented in the PC version though.

All in all a good game, I have played DS1 and DS2, plus their two expansions, I can definately say that, over all this is an improvement on the series, both story-wise and technically. I still think that Obsidian have to find their raison d'etre, all they seem to make are pretty good sequels, with Alpha Protocol being a pretty divisive title and their last shot at a new Intellectual Property, hopefully they will soon get the right vision, that will allow their potential to shine as bright as it should, these people worked on Fallout 1 and 2, the spark is there somewhere still I hope.

[PZ]

Good info, Fiach - nicely written  :-X

[Art Blade]

Nice review. Thanks, Fiach  :) :-X

Oh, hehehe, mentioning Diablo.. a friend of mine used to play that quite excessively.  :)

[Fiach]

Yes I actually liked Diablo, I just dont get why people play it over and over, its not that good, they are just tryig to complete armour sets etc. The story is just bonkers!:)

[Art Blade]

 ;D

I remember that I kept watching him play (sitting next to him) and how players like him at a very high level had weapons that other players sold and bought for real money on the net.  ??? I remember that there used to be "farmers" -- people in China and so on hired to do nothing but level up and get good gear so that character could be sold for real money later on.

[Fiach]

There is a game called Lineage II, where a guy got access to his mates account, took a pretty awesome sword and sold it on ebay, the guy who lost the sword followed him to a cyber cafe and klilled him.

There were two rival guilds in Lineage II and they met up in a cyber cafe in Korea one night, something happened in-game and the two gangs turned on each other in real life, I think two were killed.

I have even seen funerals and weddings in MMO's, people that play them so incessantly tend to be a bit bonkers I think LOL :)

[Art Blade]

hehe, true  :-D

Silly, really. It doesn't have to be taken to real life encounters face to face, you may already find enough of those things that happen in game like when you're part of one team, using headsets. I heard people getting really annoyed and even mad when some team mates failed to do something or managed to accidentally perform a team kill (killing one of their own). That was one of the reasons I withdrew from competitive/pro gaming, long ago.

[JRD]

Very nice review Fiach...  :-X

Well written and very informative... cheers, mate!

I don't know why, but the last game I played like that was Golden Axe. I like the visuals of games like DS III and Diablo but the gameplay gets old quite fast to me.  :-\\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWRxLvi2bjs#

[Fiach]

Thanks mate :)

There is a more recent Golden Axe, GA : Beast Rider, its pretty good, its 3D of course, with pretty involved combat, need good timing and strategy, you can ride certain mounts to use in fights as well, maybe worth checking out if you are feeling nostalgic :)

Well, with DS3, the game isn't too long, so you can replay it as a different character, they are all quite different strategically, I'm currently playing as the mage type guy and that takes a fair bit of strategy as he is like a "Glass Cannon", when he lets loose, its like armageddon, but to build up his focus (kinda like mana), he has to go into melee and punch the crap out of some enemies, then, if he survives, he can unleash havoc.

So its a nice risk vs reward structure in his character, no pain no gain. The other characters bring their own variables to the equation, but in truth they are all kind of over powered if you build them correctly.

Anyway, its horses for courses, I'm really enjoying it, your mileage may vary :)

Reinhart Walkthrough Part I HD - Dungeon Siege III