Review [Quickie Nr. 002]: Jools and Dungeon Siege III

[Jaesun]

Tags: Dungeon Siege III; Obsidian Entertainment; Quickie

<p>For our second article in the prestigious Quickie series, Jools gives us his impressions of Dungeon Siege III. A snippet:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Last bits and bobs, now. The AI is, well, non-relevant, which is ok in this kind of game. Average encounters (again, the classics: spiders, slugs, bandits, skeletons, etc) will be easily dispatched of, whereas bosses, for one, occasionally display some thin strands of originality, as far as game design goes. Nothing revolutionary, mind you: they are "original" within this game and in comparison to similar titles out there. The economy is not even bad, it is just futile: in the whole game I never once found myself having to buy an item from any merchant, nor the need to sell mine. All the cool stuff drops from mobs and chests, and the drops are PC-related, so if the PC is the melee guy, they will get melee drops, and so each character will get class-related drops. Convenient! Too bad the characters' appearance will only "upgrade" at certain levels and upon equipping some of the items: most items will not have any effect on the visual appearance of the character. Again, a Diablo comeback. The "campaign", as mentioned, is really short: 10 hours, and that's taking things slowly and doing every of the (few) possible side-quests.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=237" target="_blank">Read the whole thing here.</a></p>

 

[Darth Roxor]

The game features three characters

Jools can count to potato

 

[Jools]

The game features three characters

Jools can count to potato

LOL true, especially since I actually describe four in the following lines. :D

One, two, potato!

 

[Serious_Business]

Quickie series?

Degrading

 

[Regdar]

What score did you give it? Every game must have a score between 7.5 and 9.5, where 7.5 is the worst game ever and 9.5 is Oblivion.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Here to defend DSIII

None, absolutly none of the "evil" people in the game you can spare are "evil". They all have believable reasons behind their actions and Jeynes background story is nothing else than a Heroes tale.

Fuck the most evil, oppressive factions in the game ARE YOU AND YOUR ALLIES. (With the exception of the queen but even the royals are fucked up in their own way and (with the legion) the ones responsible for the whole thing.

Love Obsidian games and all but if DSIII is simplistic and shit so are all their other games.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also, I have a serious question to ask here.

What's really the point of those quickies? I mean, both the articles sent so far I personally found to be seriously lacklustre, hurting the prestige of our review section (which was, actually, p. prestigious and many people on different sites would say 'rpgcodex is shit but I come for the gud reviews') and not really saying much.

I'd say enforce some better quality or get rid of the concept, really.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Also, I have a serious question to ask here.

What's really the point of those quickies? I mean, both the articles sent so far I personally found to be seriously lacklustre, hurting the prestige of our review section (which was, actually, p. prestigious and many people on different sites would say 'rpgcodex is shit but I come for the gud reviews') and not really saying much.

I'd say enforce some better quality or get rid of the concept, really.

The concept is OK I think. Enrich the content section with more and more frequent articles which are not of epic length or depth but still worthwhile. It's hard to come up with the time to do stuff. I can't even tell you how many hours I poured into the TW2 review. That's not even taking into account the hours VD spent on it. Plus there have been requests in the past for more [user-made] content. Maybe shooting for a higher quality is appropriate though, so for the time being I suggest you all spam Konjad's and Jool's inbox to tell them your concerns.

 

[Satan]

I suggest you all spam Konjad's and Jool's inbox to tell them your concerns.

Isn't Konjad banned?

 

[villain of the story]

Then I suggest a new way to achieve incline:

Every week, the staff will accept reviews of one and the same game from various people. Reviews will be posted in a thread and then people will vote which review is the best. The winner will get to:

- name the next game to be reviewed
- name one person to be a mod in GD for a week
- and optionally, name one person to be banned for a week

That's an awesome idea. It's double the incline! No, make that triple! Three birds in one cock stroke! If you disagree your moran.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The concept is OK I think.

Yes, but

Maybe shooting for a higher quality is appropriate though

This.


Suffice to say, Jools is not only counting to potato, but there is also a couple of thingies and stuffies like:

The first paragraph being a mess meandering from point to point and leaving you scratching your head.

But no, we are stuck with the stupid controls and the sub-par camera, and it is not even romance-able.

Wut?

And some factual errors:

it was horrible to find out how they are all sort of copy-pasted from one class to another and from one skill-tree to another

This is bullshit. The only skill that is really 'copy-pasted' is the single heal spell. Unless you also wanna tell me that summoning a fuckhueg pillar of fire as Anjali is the same as shooting a high-powered, single-target rifle shot as Katarina?

the fact that life/mana/stamina instantly regenerate after each encounter (thanks to convenient health and mana orbs "dropped" by dead enemies

The dropped orbs are rarely enough to regen all stamina back, don't remember about life. You also can't regen your 'mana' (if by mana he means power orbs) in any way close to this

and the fact that the healing skill can be more or less spammed freely

Haha, oh wow? If by 'spammed freely' it's supposed to mean 'you can use it a total of two times consecutively unless you are 6 hours into the game' then I guess he's right.


Although I suspect nobody from the stuff could really check those because nobody played DS3, but verdammt.

And now don't think that I'm some sort of an angry fan of this game because while it was a fun romp for a while, I haven't actually finished it because I eventually got tired of the eternal corridor at one point. It's just that stuff like that stabs you in the eyes

 

[tindrli]

i still think that this.. this.. i cant even call it a game.. it could be far better in simple 2D...

a truly disgrace for the genre

 

[Jools]

And some factual errors:

it was horrible to find out how they are all sort of copy-pasted from one class to another and from one skill-tree to another

This is bullshit. The only skill that is really 'copy-pasted' is the single heal spell. Unless you also wanna tell me that summoning a fuckhueg pillar of fire as Anjali is the same as shooting a high-powered, single-target rifle shot as Katarina?

Many skill concepts are copypasted, not the precise skill. The aoe, the single powerful shot thing, the defensive stuff, the summon ally, the regain mana, knockback, stun... Fair enough, this also happens in many other games, but in DS3 the thing is a bit too blatant and the low number of skills makes it even more evident and really undermines one's will to replay the game as another character, as the "approach" would be mostly the same.

the fact that life/mana/stamina instantly regenerate after each encounter (thanks to convenient health and mana orbs "dropped" by dead enemies

The dropped orbs are rarely enough to regen all stamina back, don't remember about life. You also can't regen your 'mana' (if by mana he means power orbs) in any way close to this

Playing on normal, I never found myself low on anything or running out of options. This means that the generic "regeneration" concept is pushed a bit too far (by whatever means it happens), at this level of difficulty.

and the fact that the healing skill can be more or less spammed freely

Haha, oh wow? If by 'spammed freely' it's supposed to mean 'you can use it a total of two times consecutively unless you are 6 hours into the game' then I guess he's right.

Even after two consecutive uses (if there is ever any need for such a drastic measure), the power "meters" can be refilled way too easily, thus making the power accessible again very soon.

In the end, I really don't even want to defend this "quickie". Going through it again, I agree that it's not much, and the two main issues I had while writing it were that I actually wrote it one month after having played and uninstalled the game (when going for a real review, I usually write stuff down -while- playing the game, in order not to miss important bits and/or do gross factual mistakes), and that I really disliked the game so this was more of a rambling rant. This is a reason, not an excuse.

Like VoD said, a proper 5k words review takes a number of hours, and most of us has a life. Moreover, some games are just not worth it. In fact, when I submitted this, I must have added a comment along the lines of "feel free to release it or let me know if it's not worth it, and I shall just post it in the boards", in the PM. But then again, I haven't seen that many reviews "published" in the last few months (despite a handful of kinda RPGs having been released), so maybe sometimes lacklustre mediocrity is better than absolute silence?

Very last words, I wanted to get across the idea that the game is, in simple words, bad, and I think that, at least, I did.

Now, let the flaming continue.


edit - That said, lesson learnt. Next time I will try and be more careful about quality and details.

 

[Cynic]

Disagree with a lot in this "review". First of all, if you're looking for "enriching content" at least make sure the person reviewing the game gets simple facts correct, like number of characters? Fuck. Also, 10 hours for EVERYTHING? Bullshitz. Again, best items drop from enemies and chests? Again bullshitz, in fact some of the best items you can buy from merchants. Also, saying that skills are copy pasted? What the fuck? The characters all play in a very unique way. Game plays TOTALLY differently with the mage vs the fighter, or the shooter vs the archon and vice versa. Also, you played on Normal? Why? Why would anyone actually do that when games these days are so fucking retarded that a lobotomized crippled monkey child could beat them?

I'm not going to say anything about opinions regarding the game, I think mine are pretty clearly different from most people here, and that's cool, but when you attempt to review something, at least get the simple basic shit right.

 

[Roguey]

All right, my issues:
a) The patch that was released like a week after its release fixed the controls.

b) Though the plot is by the numbers, I really enjoyed the smorgasbord of cultures (a Ziets thing I noticed in MotB as well). The Raven's Rill area is distinctly eastern European whereas Stonebridge is thoroughly western, the Ur-Shamesh are some strange combination of ancient Sumerian culture with the Shuar people, and the gods' helpers are Indian with the daeva being a near-dead-ringer for Kali if someone did a number on her face. I also like it whenever anyone decides to use magic as technology, as was the case with the now-extinct dwarves and the fire elemental-powered Foundry in Stonebridge. Additionally, it handled the theme of pragmatism versus idealism better than say Dragon Age.

Plus Jeyne Kassynder>Kreia, the King of Shadows, Zehir, Leland, and Caesar's Legion as far as antagonists go since she's not outright evil like they are and I agreed with her on nearly all points. The Legion was wrong to harbor that murderer just because he was "one of them" and it was well within her right to exterminate that kind of wrong-headed culture. And that teenage queen niece of hers is too soft, impressionable, and naive to rule.

c) Normal difficulty is for babies. Even the Champ Man said this on the SA forums. I found quite a few of those boss fights very challenging (in a good way) in hardcore mode (even on the second time through), and there were a few times when I'd get a full wipe fighting mobs. Though as with many other games, once you know how to build right and get all those enemy-tell reactions in your muscle memory it becomes far easier.

d) It took me 15 hours the first time, 12 the second, and the game pauses the timer whenever you're in a menu of some kind. Not ideal, but I'm glad they chose to make a shorter game rather than pad it out like Bioware does.

 

[Mangoose]

I actually wrote it one month after having played and uninstalled the game

Wow, this shouldn't have even been published then. Shame on you for being a dick enough to even submit it, shame on VoD for posting it.

 

[villain of the story]

I'd say enforce some better quality or get rid of the concept, really.

 

[Shannow]

Controls are pure shit. An insult to any PC gamer. No key-remapping. The game was not only made for consoles, they let the intern do the porting.
Thus it has the worst gameplay ever. And I mean: ever.
The franchise rape makes FO3 look like a faithful sequel.
Classes and skills are boring at best.
Graphix are ok but the atrocious camera (who'd have expected that from Obsidian?) ruins even that.
Story beginns with the PC running into a burning mansion...really. He there finds letters from his mentor adressed to him strewn accross various rooms in the burning mansion...really. He then proceeds to cut through the assassins that killed 40 would-be heroes mere minutes previously...really.

Jools, no matter how bad your review it could never have done justice to the pile of vomit streaked shit that is DS3. Never listen to the critcism of people who admit to playing it longer than 15 minutes. Their taste is obviously so bad that their opinions are worthless. (Sry, DR, but that's just the way it is...)


There. Some random reader looking into the comments section might have gotten the impression that "the codex" liked DS3 at least a little.

 

[meh]

Then I suggest a new way to achieve incline:

Every week, the staff will accept reviews of one and the same game from various people. Reviews will be posted in a thread and then people will vote which review is the best. The winner will get to:

- name the next game to be reviewed
- name one person to be a mod in GD for a week
- and optionally, name one person to be banned for a week

That's an awesome idea. It's double the incline! No, make that triple! Three birds in one cock stroke! If you disagree your moran.

Well said. The perks might be debatable (name a mod for TPaS!+EW), but the idea is great that let's say every month, not week, people would have a chance to play certain game and then everybody could post a review of a named game.

 

[Satan]

Yep. I'm sure a lot of people will post reviews (meaning 2 at best, of which one will be a shitty troll attempt)

 

[Darth Roxor]

Playing on normal,

Oh right, this explains a lot then, since I played on the highest difficulty

Mind you, it definitely wasn't superhardcore, but at least there was some difficulty to it (mostly during bossfights, though)

I actually wrote it one month after having played and uninstalled the game

That's not a very BRO thing to do

Moreover, some games are just not worth it.

Indeed. When going through DS3 I was contemplating writing some review for it, too. But then I just realised 'oh fuck this, this is not an rpg '. That's why I haven't written anything, instead of writing some popamole rant on the fly.

(Sry, DR, but that's just the way it is... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

 

[Crooked Bee]

The game deserves a much better review -- for one, an actually competent review would be nice.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Although I suspect nobody from the stuff could really check those because nobody played DS3, but verdammt.

Yes, sorry. Factual errors are not good, but neither Jaesun nor I played the game. If we had only a guy like Darth Roxor on the staff, he could have corrected that shit before it was too late.

The game deserves a much better review -- for one, an actually competent review would be nice.

Looking forward to your competent review of the game.

 

[J_C]

There. Some random reader looking into the comments section might have gotten the impression that "the codex" liked DS3 at least a little.

I enjoyed it for what it is.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Looking forward to your competent review of the game.

So you're telling me I can't expect to read a competent review of DS3 until I write one? Riight.

I'm flattered though.