[Review] Dungeon Siege III – PC

It’s Dungeon Siege but not as you know it

Hardcore Dungeon Siege fans who have been eagerly awaiting the next installment may feel betrayed when they get their hands on the Dungeon Siege III. Maybe it’s because Gas Powered aren’t behind developing duties (that honour goes to Obsidian ), console gaming has become more of a priorty or some other factor. But it’s quite clear that when you play Dungeon Siege III, it’s not quite what you expected.

For a start, Dungeon Siege III is more dumbed down then your usual hack ‘n slash/action-RPG game, which where never that complex or in-depth – gameplay wise – in the first place. The controls have you attack with one button while mapping three abilities to the other face buttons, which vary depending on which stance you’re in; you’re offered two offensive stances – one suitable for single foes and the other best for multiple foes – and a defensive stance which allow you to heal or bestow buffs. Now this is all fine but there is one messy issue that can make the gameplay fustrating and that is if you play with with the mouse and keyboard. This is because your fighter won’t attack in the direction he’s facing but the direction the cursor is. This can lead to hitting nothing but air for the first couple of hours until it becomes second nature and even then you’ll make mistakes in the heat of battle. So already, unless your playing via gamepad, you’re at a disadvantage. It’s at this stage you realise that Dungeon Siege III was made for console gamers in mind and PC gamers a distant second.

And if you hope that this doesn’t become the case later on in the game, then it will keep reminding you that this is an inescapable fact, such as how the only way to save the game is via checkpoints! Yes there is no quick save option so if you mess up in battle then it’s back to the last checkpoint for you. Thankfully they are numerous so you never have to re-tread much ground but it’s still a pretty archaic system.

Then there’s the way you restore health and mana. It seems that Obsidian think potions are for wusses as there is none to be carried around. Instead you must refill by collecting green and blue orbs for health and mana respectively. They are either found in barrels or by defeating enemies. It’s a system that is annoying as you can be on low health or really need to cast a buff and yet have to resort to kill off an enemy in order to survive. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if it wasn’t for how difficult the game could be, but we’ll get to that soon.

Other quirks include a very limited camera, a fussy lock-on system and gold not being auto-looted and we’re off to a very shaky start.

But the biggest issue for the game is the fact that it is pretty damn brutal. For the first hour there is nothing to suggest that there will be a sudden difficulty spike. But as soon as you meet the first boss, that’s when Dungeon Siege III decides it’s time to put you into a world of hurt. By this time you better have learned how to dodge effectively, when to attack and when to use your skills and able to juggle these responsibilities in quick succession, otherwise you’ll barely get halfway through the game, let alone near the end. It’s not so much that enemies get clever but the fact that they get stronger and you’re usually outnumbered. This means that messing up can see you lose a big chunk of health and that mid-bosses, bosses and even some normal enemies can massacre you in seconds in you make the slightest mistake.

The most likely reason that Obsidian made the Dungeon Siege III difficult is because this is quite a short game. 12-20 hours (depending on how good you are and what difficulty you selected) is all it takes to complete the game and that includes all the sidequests, which there aren’t too many off and usually are on the way to your main objective anyway.

At this point Dungeon Siege III may sound like a lost cause, but that is far from the case at it certainly a few good things going for it.

First of all the story is very well executed. It sees you taking control of one of four characters and restoring the 13th Legion back to its former glory days. Now I know many people don’t play the previous Dungeon Siege games for their story and as such weren’t clamoring for it to be at the forefront, but Obsidian nevertheless have done a good job. Most notable is the ending which shows you how your choices and actions have impacted the people and places in Dungeon Siege III. It makes you feel what you did that more important.

There’s also a positive trade-off for the dumbed down interface as it now means it’s quick to navigate through menus with the gamepad and inventory managing is a lot less of a hassle. You can even transmute the items, which is a quick way of getting gold. This prevents stopping and agonising which items to throw away and which to keep when you run out of space (which takes a while thanks to being able to carry a lot).

And sure the game may not be much of a looker (which is another piece of evidence that Dungeon Siege III was made with consoles as a priority) but it is pleasant enough and does the job. Same with the music which is no way memorable but not offensive either.

Another positive point is that the characters voices range from decent to very good, with the latter belonging to the main characters and important NPC characters. This is evident by Katrina, who’s not only hot and uses guns (always a bonus in any form of RPG’s) but has an awesome voice. It’s so cute when she speaks in a rhetorical way.

Multiplayer is where you will get the most enjoyment out of Dungeon Siege III, though it’s not without its own issues. The game is still difficult, the camera focuses on the host, so if you’ve joined, you are forced to stay close (and this also makes the battles harder). But the biggest problem is that, again unless you’re the host, you can not save your character’s levels! So this means you either have to play one big session or be content in dipping in and out helping others but not getting the pleasure of feeling rewarded. Those who will have completed the campaign mode on their own won’t feel so bad but otherwise it’s a flawed system. Sure Obsidian don’t want the same characters turning up in the story (even if two more Katrinas would make the Dungeon Siege III world a better place) but why not be able to level up each character independently; someone else using Lucas? No problem, just switch to Katrina and level up Lucas later on.

Overall though, the online campaign is a good time-waster and it’s a very good alternative if you find that solo is a bit too much to handle.

Overall
Despite dropping the ball somewhat, Obsidian have crafted a decent action-RPG that plays smoothly and a well-executed story. Sure that’s only if you can bear with the difficulty spikes, simplistic gameplay and the niggling thought that you might as well play the console versions and at the end of the day, Dungeon Siege fans will still feel that their beloved series has become a different beast and PC gamers will feel snubbed in the way it seems built for consoles. But if you give it a chance, you may find a game that is decent if you got hours to spare and nothing else to play.