Sieging Dungeons in the Kingdom of Ehb
Dungeon Siege III Box Art
was released on June 21, and is the latest entry in the ever-popular
Dungeon Siege franchise, now brought to us by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Square Enix. Gas Powered Games created the previous titles in the series, but the reigns were handed over to Obsidian in 2010. However, Chris Taylor, creator of
Dungeon Siege, remained as an adviser. Now, before I start firing off what I love and hate, I'll quickly mention that I haven't played either of the previous titles; therefore I cannot compare the difference between old and new.
For those who aren't in the know,
Dungeon Siege III is a hack-'n'-slash dungeon crawler with co-operative gameplay for up to two players on one console, or four players online. The series was previously exclusive to PC, with a PSP spinoff, and upon first starting up the game it's instantly recognizable why PC gamers were disappointed: the controls are clearly watered down and designed for consoles. Unlike most dungeon crawlers, Obsidian has included a rather compelling story. When conversing with other characters, you're presented with a Dragon Age-style chat interface, allowing you to choose how to respond or which course of action to take. The options can affect the story in minor ways, but sometimes you're given larger options like the option to end someone's life, or spare them in order to send them back with a warning. The game shines most when you're fighting monsters and mercs, possessing one of the most enjoyable combat systems I've seen in a long time. There are nine skills per character, six offensive and two defensive with two fighting stances each. There are no "useless" abilities here, so you're not investing points in a skill that's overtaken by another hours later.
The adventure isn't very long, give-or-take five hours of gameplay, but it's an enjoyable, although shallow, return to the Kingdom of Ehb. There are plenty of optional side-quests along the way, but the game almost forces you to take them seeing as they are always along the main path of the story. The game is relatively linear, there are few side-paths to take and any exploration is generally back-and-forth along already explored paths. However, the locations you visit do vary fairly nicely. From a spider-infested forest to a haunted mansion, all your favorite fantasy dungeons are there for you to crawl.
Choosing Your Dungeon Siege Hero
Lucas: Sword 'n' Shield
When you first hit new game, you're given the choice between four different heroes: the warrior Lucas, magical gunslinger Katarina, fiery elemental Anjali, and mad alchemist Reinhart. The character you choose does subtly affect the storyline. You eventually get to recruit the other characters as NPC comrades, though you can only have one accompanying you at one time. Although you dictate which talents and skills they obtain upon a level up, you cannot swap control between you and your companion, meaning you’re stuck with whom you choose. It's a shame they didn't implement a "Knights of the Old Republic" system, where you can take control of your party members at the push of a button, or upon death of the character you control.
The looting system lets the game down a fair bit. Looting and finding new items is dull and uninteresting - the opposite of what a great dungeon crawler should possess. Switching between new equipment rarely yields any major difference, their appearance is mostly a color swap and largely unnoticeable. You’ll be picking up a ton of items from treasure chests, weapon racks, destructible boxes and downed bodies, and before long you'll be back at the vendor, selling everything you found. Money isn't difficult to obtain because of the aforementioned reason, but there isn't a huge amount to purchase anyway. No consumable items of any kind and it's almost pointless purchasing equipment when chances are you'll be replacing them once you're on the road again.
You Won't be Looting Any Polished Graphics
Anjali in Elemental Form
isn't a graphically impressive game. Some of the locations do look pretty, character models look stunning up close and in conversations, but the scenery within areas just looks a bit copy-and-paste, and overall the textures have an "upscaled PS2 graphics" feel to them. The tends to slow down a bit if there's too much going on at once, and while the spell effects are flashy, it can get a bit disorientating trying to squint through the particle effects. Cutscenes are presented in beautiful graphic novel-style cinematics with subtitles for dialogue, yet disappointingly no voice acting.
Due to the inside of areas looking rather samey, it's a relief that Obsidian added in the ability of summoning a quest trail at the press of a button, not unlike the quest trail in the
Dead Space series. The quest trail leads you to whichever quest you currently have marked, whether it be a side-quest or part of the storyline. It does take away the aspect of exploration, but considering the linearity of the game and the lack of a map, a quest trail fits in nicely.
Crawling Dungeons Online is Far From Satisfying
If you're interested in this game for its multiplayer aspect, be warned: the multiplayer component of this game is beyond disappointing. Joining another player's game means you're forced to select one of four of the main characters, one that isn't already in play. That's right, you can't import your own character, rendering online multiplayer almost entirely pointless. You have full control over how you equip and level up that character while in somebody else's game. There's just no incentive to join another player's game, and to make matters worse the loot and currency is shared between party members. Playing with a buddy on one console isn't very rewarding for the person joining the game, and only truly works if you and a friend start, play and finish the game together, but it's still a fun experience.
Want to mess with someone? Head to the nearest vendor, sell all his items, buy as many of the most useless item you can find and then disconnect. There's just no way to set rules for a multiplayer session. However, what really disappointed me most was the camera in online play. All players share one screen as if it were local play, rather than having a screen to each player. It's frustrating, especially during boss battles where the boss vanishes off the side of the screen and you're left wrestling with the camera - playing with more than two people is almost unbearable. It's problems like this that cause multiplayer to be a broken mess, and there's just too much wrong with it to be fixed by future patches.
Dungeon Siege III is an enjoyable game while it lasts thanks to a fantastic combat system and an interesting story. However, with a broken and almost pointless multiplayer mode, and a short story with no New Game+ to redo the the adventure with your completed profile, don't expect to find much incentive to continue exploring Ehb once all is said and done.
