Preview Dungeon Siege III Preview

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Dungeon Siege III; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>Gamebanshee provide <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/previews/101915-dungeon-siege-iii.html" target="_blank">an in-depth hands-on preview</a> of Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming action RPG <strong>Dungeon Siege III</strong>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since your character's stance determines which weapon you're wielding and which talents are mapped to your primary controls, it's going to be the most important decision you make during combat. Playing Anjali as a kicking, staff-swinging human is a much different experience than playing her in the ranged combat-oriented fire elemental stance, so you'll always want to make sure that you're in the most useful stance for the environment that you're in. It's also important to switch between stances to make sure your health and focus (mana) don't get too low - you might find that some of your abilities are great for keeping enemies at bay, but only the game's base attacks will replenish your focus. There are also green (health) and blue (focus) orbs to be nabbed from fallen enemies, but based on my experience, you'll need to come up with a good rhythm of stance switching to maintain a healthy character. Remember, there are no potions! <br /><br /> In addition to your repertoire of attacks, you can also make use of blocks and dodges. Dodging saved me from certain death on a couple of occasions and blocking tends to be very useful, as it will cause the blocked attack to damage your focus rather than your health. Regardless of how often you mix up your attacks, blocks, and dodges, you'll always know how effective your strategy is, as the screen is filled with hovering damage numbers and large screen-shaking "CRITICAL" alerts whenever a critical hit is scored.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/101938-gb-feature-dungeon-siege-iii-preview.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[Metro]

Nice. Basically it is shaping up to be a fairly polished ARPG with a light amount of CRPG elements.

If you decide that an item will never be used, you can either haul it back to the nearest merchant or immediately transmute it into gold.... I transmuted some boots with a gold value of 30 and ended up receiving 3 gold.

On occasion, you'll receive a gold bar as loot, in which case you have to actually pick it up to add its worth to your gold amount (a small bar that I found was worth 143 gold, for example).

Interesting stuff. Hopefully they've kept the economy somewhat balanced rather than just a straight up 'you can buy anything within a short amount of time' standard. I like the idea of varied loot, e.g., gold bars and gems -- more creative than just giving people piles of gold.

If you've joined someone else's game, none of the experience, gold, loot, or story progress that you gained during the play session will be retained on your local PC or console. It seems a bit strange for a co-op game to be designed like this, but assuming the mechanics used in the early build I was shown are carried through until release, only the hosting player will be able to save the game and keep the goodies that the group was able to find.

Somewhat disappointing.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

If you've joined someone else's game, none of the experience, gold, loot, or story progress that you gained during the play session will be retained on your local PC or console. It seems a bit strange for a co-op game to be designed like this, but assuming the mechanics used in the early build I was shown are carried through until release, only the hosting player will be able to save the game and keep the goodies that the group was able to find.

Somewhat disappointing.

Only local though. Which isn't really that much a problem.

 

[flushfire]

Somewhat disappointing.

It is. They're also restricting classes to 1 per game AFAIK. Haven't really been following news about this game closely, but I'm disappointed they're still gimping MP gameplay for whichever reason in an ARPG. That makes different class builds useless.

And that bit about active blocking/dodging also worries me. Stances are already in, why not just put in a defensive stance and let that handle damage mitigation. Just makes combat needlessly twitchy. FFS

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Somewhat disappointing.

That makes different class builds useless.

No, it actually accounts for that. Pretty hard to explain though.


Also just found this on the obs boards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiGhU7CP ... um=twitter

Apparently Dungeon Siege 1 was the best rpg of all time according to several people

DUNGEON SIEGE = GREATEST RPG EVER CREATED. THEY TOTALLY RUINED IT WITH DUNGEON SIEGE 2 and ARE GOING TO RAPE IT WITH #3!!!!!!

 

[Sannom]

And that bit about active blocking/dodging also worries me. Stances are already in, why not just put in a defensive stance and let that handle damage mitigation. Just makes combat needlessly twitchy. FFS

There is a defensive stance, in fact you dodge by moving while being in that stance. Since you need to hold on a button for it, its powers are limited to 30 seconds buffs. And enemies' attacks damage your Will instead of your health when you're in that stance.

 

[turn_based_fanboy]

That's some impressive planning they put into hack and slash.

 

[KalosKagathos]

This just became a day 1 purchase for me. A dedicated polearms-using class? No potions? Low level cap? HEAVAN.

EDIT: What's the difference between abilities and talents? They seem to work similarly, yet are bought with different kinds of points.

 

[commie]

Obsidian..incling every IP they touch: NWN, KOTOR, Beth's Fallout...now DS. Soon EA will hire them to do the next Dragon Age and they'll make it MOTB quality.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

This just became a day 1 purchase for me. A dedicated polearms-using class? No potions? Low level cap? HEAVAN.

EDIT: What's the difference between abilities and talents? They seem to work similarly, yet are bought with different kinds of points.

Heres a short overview.

Note: I'm going to explain the game using a console controller as reference.

First, lemme explain Stances/Modes. Each character has two offensive stances or modes, plus Defensive Mode, which is a mixture of blocking ala Ninja Gaiden or God of War, plus a shift state for your ability buttons.

Each character's stances or modes are completely different, and their abilities are also completely unique. No sharing. For example, Lucas has a Sword and Shield and Two-Handed Sword stance, and Anjali can shift between Human Form and Fire Form.

Your offensive Stances are a toggle, so for Lucas you just tap the Stance Switch button to change between using a Sword and Shield or a Two-Handed Sword. When you toggle your offensive stance, your X, Y and B buttons (on 360) change to abilities in that Stance - you have unique abilities in each stance. You also have a different basic attack combo in each stance.

When you hold down Block, you also enter Defensive Mode, and your Abilities are swapped for Defensive Abilities. Again, these are unique and class-specific, but they are always 30 second buffs - so heals, damage buffs, etc.

Given that context, I'll explain progression.

Each character has 3 progression "paths":

* Abilities - There are 9 abilities each character will learn over the course of the game. These are split up into 3 tiers. There are a few ability points scattered through the early and middle levels, and three ability tiers, but you DO earn enough ability points to buy each ability over the course of the game - the main customization here is what order you want to buy things in. However, the abilities themselves can be further customized to do pretty different things based on the Proficiencies you purchase for them.

* Proficiencies - Every ability has two different proficiencies you can buy for it. You can spend up to 5 points in a given ability, split between the two proficiencies however you want. The proficiencies can pretty radically alter how you use an ability - for instance, Anjali has a placed AoE ability called "Aura of Immolation" in Fire Form.

By default, the Ability is just a light damage AoE. The first proficiency, Fiery Presence, increases the damage output by 10% per rank. The second, Cauterize, causes it to heal any friendlies in addition to dealing damage. So, you can either choose to turn it into a deadly AoE of... death, or use it as a nice healing option - which is especially fun to give to your AI companion or to use in co-op with your buddy.

So proficiencies actually pretty substantially change what you use the abilities for, and the fact that you can only spend 5 points and can't max out any ability means that you have to make some tough choices. You'll want to spend your Proficiencies in a way that best matches your playstyle.

* Talents -Each character has 9 Talents, with 5 ranks per Talent. These are passive improvements to the character that work across all of their abilities, or across multiple abilities. You only earn 30 talent points throughout the game, so you have to also make some tough decisions here, and buy talents that synergize well with your play style.


On top of all of that you also earn Deeds (which are permanent stat rewards) for completing certain objectives within the game, or making certain decisions, and of course you have gear which is a major form of both character advancement and customization. I'm actually really happy with the amount of RPG depth we were able to cram into it for an ARPG.

 

[Destiny Dominus]

Maybe this game can offer something except battle or not? Obsidian have made good plot all of their time.

 

[turn_based_fanboy]

Maybe this game can offer something except battle or not? Obsidian have made good plot all of their time.

It's hack and slash - if you expect anything serious about it prepare to be disapointed.

 

[KalosKagathos]

* Talents -Each character has 9 Talents, with 5 ranks per Talent. These are passive improvements to the character that work across all of their abilities, or across multiple abilities. You only earn 30 talent points throughout the game, so you have to also make some tough decisions here, and buy talents that synergize well with your play style.

So, contrary to what Gamebanshee says, talents are passive-only? Thanks.

It's hack and slash - if you expect anything serious about it prepare to be disapointed.

This just in: combat in an ARPG isn't anything serious.

 

[flushfire]

So it does look like they're turning combat more into 3rd person ARPG ala TW than the usual iso ARPG ala Diablo. Oh well. Don't really mind twitchy gameplay, just wasn't expecting that direction.

 

[Crooked Bee]

This is probably the only mainstream game I'm going to buy this year. Kinda sad, really.

Plus maybe the Twitcher 2, but that remains to be seen.

 

[circ]

Obsidian..incling every IP they touch: NWN, KOTOR, Beth's Fallout...now DS. Soon EA will hire them to do the next Dragon Age and they'll make it MOTB quality.

As bad as NWN 1 is, I'll take it over NWN 2 any day, fuck, they pretty much look the same. Great job on that shitty armor Annie. And KoTOR 1, same thing. In its incomplete stage, I don't give a shit abou Kreia and some cocksucking jedi. And FO, you can't incline the infinitely negative. And let's not forget AP. Fuck Obsidian.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Obsidian..incling every IP they touch: NWN, KOTOR, Beth's Fallout...now DS. Soon EA will hire them to do the next Dragon Age and they'll make it MOTB quality.

As bad as NWN 1 is, I'll take it over NWN 2 any day, fuck, they pretty much look the same. Great job on that shitty armor Annie. And KoTOR 1, same thing. In its incomplete stage, I don't give a shit abou Kreia and some cocksucking jedi. And FO, you can't incline the infinitely negative. And let's not forget AP. Fuck Obsidian.

As much of a newfaq as I am... I'm pretty sure insulting Annie does not give you any Kool Kodex Kredits.

 

[Jaesun]

Obsidian..incling every IP they touch: NWN, KOTOR, Beth's Fallout...now DS. Soon EA will hire them to do the next Dragon Age and they'll make it MOTB quality.

As bad as NWN 1 is, I'll take it over NWN 2 any day, fuck, they pretty much look the same. Great job on that shitty armor Annie. And KoTOR 1, same thing. In its incomplete stage, I don't give a shit abou Kreia and some cocksucking jedi. And FO, you can't incline the infinitely negative. And let's not forget AP. Fuck Obsidian.

As much of a newfaq as I am... I'm pretty sure insulting Annie does not give you any Kool Kodex Kredits.

Annie has been at the codex for quite a while. It's not too hard to spot people trying too hard to be a complete dumbfuck.

Unlike Gaider....

 

[circ]

I'm not trying for anything. I'm saying the armor in NWN 2 is an insulting travesty, and that I remember, Annie has taken credit for some of it. I'm venting out my opinion.

 

[Sannom]

Which armor? Leather, plate, female warlock before extensions?

 

[circ]

All armor. I've tried to forget the visual images, but from what I recall, druid and warlock looked like Generic the Barbarian.

 

[Sannom]

Really? I thought the Warlock base armor was the more elaborate in the series. I can't recall if druids had anything particular about their armor though.

Also that would mean you never tried changing armor? Wow, a bit on the conservative side, aren't you?

 

[circ]

Like I said, it all looks like shit man. It doesn't matter if you change it. If you want good looking armor, take tips from Drakensang 1. They got it mostly right. Some real design going on there.

 

[Jim Cojones]

All armor. I've tried to forget the visual images, but from what I recall, druid and warlock looked like Generic the Barbarian.

She was writing descriptions, not creating models.

 

[circ]

Ah ok. Not to rub my own erection, again, but it's all Obsidian to me.