Dungeon Siege III Review (360)

The original Dungeon Siege games were role-playing games, with strategy elements, and point and click functionality. Think Diablo 2, and you get the picture. This new addition (and sequel) to the series, is far more action-oriented, with only minor RPG elements.

Dungeon Siege III is once again set in the kingdom of Ehb, some 150 years after the events of Dungeon Siege II. The 10^th Legion is almost totally wiped out, thanks to the game’s main antagonist, Jeyne Kassynder, and has driven the current Queen Roslyn underground, into hiding. Only a few legionnaires remain, hidden and lead by a former Legion spy, known as the Venerable Odo.

You can choose from one of four characters in your effort to rebuild what is left of the Legion, regain the people’s trust in them and stop Jeyne Kassynder, who is hell bent on revenge against the Legion. Each of the four characters represent which approach of attack you wish to take. Lucas is the youngest son of the former king and of the first Dungeon Siege’s protagonist, Lady Montbarron. He fights using a single or two-handed sword, depending which stance is chosen in combat. Anjali, a mythical being, uses fire magic to attack and can morph from human form with a spear to elemental fire form. Reinhart is a descendant of another original Dungeon Siege character, Merik, and uses magic as his base of attack. Katarina is the long range attack option, wielding either a pair of shotguns, or a rifle, again depending on the stance chosen. She also has deep ties to the murdered king.

Finishing the game as Lucas, I discovered that each of the aforementioned characters actually join your party at different junctures of the story, to become an available NPC partner, to assist in the quest. Only one of the other characters is available at any one time, but as you level up, so do all your characters, even if not active. Very un-Final-Fantasy-like but rather handy if need a quick swap around of styles on the battlefield. The NPC’s AI is okay; they just attack, attack, and attack some more and pretty much look after themselves. Anjali can look rather silly trying to fry enemies with a fence in the way, that fence will not burn lady, no matter how hard you try!

If your NPC team mate falls in battle, a quick hold of RB over their body will revive them, with 50% health. They will also return the favour should you fall in battle also. Many boss fights (and there are MANY) can be very distracting, as all the other enemies focus on you, the player, so a lot of the damage is in fact dealt by your partner. Working through the quest was a constant heal-a-thon. Enemies deal a lot of damage, so constant dodging and blocking (where possible) is paramount to completing the game.

There is also a wealth of collectible armour and weapons available to enhance your characters along your quest, obtainable via chests, scattered around Ehb. Those you don’t need, you can sell at stores located in most areas along the quest. I did find that was the only use for the stores though; there are so many accessories available in chests (for free), I never had to use a shop to buy anything, ever.

Dungeon Siege’s graphics, although not awful by any means, look at least a couple of years out of date, if not more. Included is the ‘golden trail’ line to direct to the location of the current quest (as seen in the Fable series) with a click press of ‘Up’ on the D-Pad. This is a nice touch, as the Kingdom of Ehb is vast, if linear. The plot is also fairly thin, also; anything that would be regarded as a twist you can see coming from a mile away, but the voice acting is well done, if vastly overwrought.

The main camera view is above the character more than Fable but combat is almost identical – in other words, boring and repetitive. I actually fell asleep for a few minutes during a battle, whilst repeatedly hitting the ‘A’ button, and had received very little damage. Who’s a clever AI, eh? Have an apple. Or not. Overall I felt that, in Dungeon Siege III that combat is all the game has to offer from each quest.

Ultimately the game’s core is just Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 all over again, with the only difference being the Fable-esque setting. Starts out promisingly, but you will be grateful once it has ended. Very, very mediocre game.