So it’s clear that the new Dungeon Siege is much more of an action game. Of course, there’s still strategy, but it’s not strategy that comes from having a huge range of interacting abilities. It’s more a matter of mana management, and learning to deal with the game’s special enemies, whose colour-coded auras affect the fight in different ways. Even fighting the regular fodder-mobs is more tactical than chaining a set of regular attacks – from the very beginning, there’s a strong element of crowd control and taking the enemy on in a way that effectively uses your current hero’s style.
There’s a lot to like about Dungeon Siege III. It’s an earnest story, told well, and it looks great in Obsidian’s beautiful new RPG-oriented Onyx engine. I don’t feel like my self-important worries about dumbing down the game have been fully addressed, but I enjoyed my playthrough on a gamepad, and there’s more than enough time to address the worrying lack of information about how the PC version will stand out. But for now, with Obsidian’s history of solid adopted sequels, it’s probably fairest to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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