Review Dungeon Siege III Review

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Dungeon Siege III; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>Gamebanshee presents their <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/105291-dungeon-siege-iii.html" target="_blank">Dungeon Siege 3 review</a>.</p>
<p><em>"Unfortunately, while Obsidian usually makes games more interesting and sophisticated when they gain control, this time they took a PC title and ran with it straight into consoles where nobody wanted it to be."</em></p>
<p><em><br /></em></p>
<p>Here's their conclusion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Overall, <em>Dungeon Siege III</em> is a playable but unexciting game.&nbsp; It provides you with lots of stuff to kill and equipment to loot, which gives it the minimum requirements for an action RPG, but it doesn't include anything to keep you playing or wanting more.&nbsp; It is slightly better than <em>Space Siege</em>, preventing it from being the worst <em>Siege</em> game of all time, but it's a near thing.&nbsp; That being said, if you're not expecting much, and you just want to mess around killing stuff here and there for an hour or two at a time, then <em>Dungeon Siege III</em> can get the job done.&nbsp; I'd just recommend that you pick it up during one of the sub-$25 sales we've seen lately rather than the $40-50 range that it typically hovers around.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To be honest, Dungeon Siege was always crap so I guess Obsidian just wanted to stay true to the formula.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[tindrli]

I played many shitty games in my life but this.. this is a disgrace for gaming industry in total.

 

[Achilles]

Worst Obsidian game to date.

 

[MetalCraze]

Unfortunately, while Obsidian usually makes games more interesting and sophisticated when they gain control

Obsidian had full control over AP and it ended well. Although I agree - releasing trash like DS3 - you need to have a special talent.

Obsidian does better when publisher rams the fuck out of its ass. Of course the fact that nobody bought Obsidian yet proves that while many devs can make shit - Obsidian's trash is beneath even EA & Co standards.

 

[tindrli]

the interesting thing is that once you try this.. this.. it.. you realize that it could be better in 2D since 98 % of time you can go forward and backward and thats it. if for some weird reason you encounter a crossroad you can be sure that the third or forth path will join with one of the basic ones in no time.

0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5

 

[Excidium]

It was a decent little game and fun while it lasted, not worth full price and certainly not the type of game Obsidian should be developing.

 

[Volourn]

SOZZY

 

[Metro]

Pretty accurate review.

 

[bhlaab]

I picked it up at half price the other week and enjoyed it. Very light rpg that you lean back in your chair and play with a gamepad. Pretty good if you want to play an rpg but don't want to put much effort into playing it.

 

[Morbus]

There are wastes of time like watching Grey's Anatomy.

There are wastes of time like playing Dungeon Siege III.

I prefer the former.

I guess that paints a clear picture of how I feel about the game.

 

[Jaesun]

If it is about as mindless grindan fun as Gauntlet II is (which is the only reason I still have my PS 2 hooked up to my TV) I might pick up a copy some day...

 

[Mangoose]

Still waiting for a camera patch.

 

[Roguey]

I for one am glad that Obsidian has gone full console and is pissing off the fans of its shitty console-and-would-be-console games. Keep trying, get better.

 

[Felix]

pretty fun game, though it should have been named 10th legion something instead of ds.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

pretty fun game, though it should have been named 10th legion something instead of ds.

Because DS is such a prestigious name.

Where the fuck is all this Dungeon Siege 1+2 love coming from?

Own opinion: Fun game, compared to other Obsidian games it has the best core! qualities. The story and dialouge isn't exactly Obsidian finest but it is always on the same quality as the rest of their work (and probably the most consistent one). Its at least better than NWN2, SOZ and AP.[/b]

 

[commie]

I'm playing it now. Don't understand the rage as it's no different essentially to all these types of games. Mindless clicking on things until they die, picking up look and replacing shit with something better. What's there to really hate?

The problem is that this didn't need Obsidian to make. They wasted time and effort on this that they could have used making an AP sequel instead or a proper MOTB type of truer RPG.

 

[Black Cat]

What's there to really hate?

Two thingies, mostly.

The first is the lack of skills and customization, which translates itself into linear power progression. Even shitty ARPGs give you lots of different builds to try, and lots of different skills to mix and match. Dungeon Siege III doesn't, and any character you play will be pretty much similar to the character anyone else who uses that character plays. Even having thirty skills from which you can only focus on a few ones is better.

The second one is the lack of actual actiony gameplay, given the actual action in the game's simple and boring. In other words, what's the point of a game that isn't focused on making builds nor focused on actual action?

Both are even made worse given today you can just go online and play free to play action role playing games which have much better graphics, many skills and builds and equipment options to explore per class or character, and actually interesting and dynamic action gameplay focusing on combos, juggling, etc.

 

[Roguey]

What's there to really hate?

It has Obsidian on the box.
DS3>Divinity 2, seriously. Better character system, combat, controls, content, and combat animation despite all those things being rather meh. Marginally worse level design (the hallways are narrower). Oddly enough I prefer DS3's constrained camera to Div2's sloppy mess but MMV. Div2 is an especially wretched game to play. It's cute and funny though.

The problem is that this didn't need Obsidian to make. They wasted time and effort on this that they could have used making an AP sequel instead or a proper MOTB type of truer RPG.

Sega's not interested in an AP sequel and no publisher is interested in a "truer RPG." It was either make this or lay off the rest of the Aliens team. They couldn't all work on New Vegas.

 

[abnaxus]

DS3>Divinity 2, seriously. Better character system, combat, controls, content, and combat animation despite all those things being rather meh. Marginally worse level design (the hallways are narrower). Oddly enough I prefer DS3's constrained camera to Div2's sloppy mess but MMV. Div2 is an especially wretched game to play. It's cute and funny though.

1/10

 

[IronicNeurotic]

DS3>Divinity 2, seriously. Better character system, combat, controls, content, and combat animation despite all those things being rather meh. Marginally worse level design (the hallways are narrower). Oddly enough I prefer DS3's constrained camera to Div2's sloppy mess but MMV. Div2 is an especially wretched game to play. It's cute and funny though.

1/10

No troll and I agree with him. (Well, I'd argue the charachter system)

 

[Roguey]

1/10

Perhaps I should have gone into more detail. So I will.
Character system
Div 2:A lot of skills go something like 15 ranks deep, and thanks to ever-increasing enemy HP it means you have to pick maybe a couple of skills and really pump them since putting points into them pretty much just increases damage. A ton of pointless noob-trap gimmicks. Magic blast/explosive arrow/dual-wielding were absolutely absurd before the DKS re-release in a "seriously, how the fuck did they not notice those fucking ridiculously high damage numbers in comparison to every other skill?" way. Intelligence is the stat to pump because it increases all magical damage.
DS3: Abilities are 5 ranks deep and have two different paths, the best kind offer a choice between two effects instead of just increasing damage. You don't have to invest at all in the least-useful abilities to still get some use out of them. Nothing quite absurd as pre-DKS's holy trinity though empowered heartseeking shot and geometry of annihilation come close. It shares a character system flaw with Div2 in that will is the stat to pump for all characters.

Combat/controls/animation
Div2: For melee you run up and have a stiff, crappy-Gamebryo-looking HP attrition fight, then regenerate health/mana either naturally or through over-time potion chugging. Spam the two or so active abilities you have when cooldowns/mana permit. There's no active blocking, and dodging feels terrible because you can only do it sideways and it's direction + spacebar which feels unnatural (also before a patch it was completely useless for dodging projectiles because arrows and the like would curve to hit your character; another "What the fuck were they thinking?!" moment). There are collision sound effects but they feel extraordinarily weak. The targeting's pretty solid at least.
DS3: HP attrition fights but the presentation is much better because enemies have better tells, and your movements aren't nearly as awful looking. Healing's done through picking up orbs or a regenerate-over-time defensive ability that requires purple orbs (which are filled up through ability use and are also used for empowered abilities). No cooldowns, instead you ultimately have access to 6 active abilities you spam until your bar runs out, then you use regular attacks to build the meter back up so you can spam again which results in a better ebb and flow. There's active blocking that's only useful for regular enemies (not bosses) if you really pump the block stat (still better than Witcher 2 blocking), but sadly enemies don't block themselves. You can dodge in every direction and it's spacebar + direction which feels so much better. No collision sound effects damn it. Targeting for ranged characters kinda sucks, but I never actually died from hitting an enemy I wasn't aiming at (plus it helps that you can aim certain ranged abilities by holding down the number key).

It'd be possible to be more thorough but I don't feel like typing any more about this silly topic so I'll leave it there.

 

[bhlaab]

The problem is that this didn't need Obsidian to make. They wasted time and effort on this that they could have used making an AP sequel instead or a proper MOTB type of truer RPG.

I dunno, I think their big picture intention with DS3 was to a) create a solid engine of their own that fits their needs with less bugs and b) get a top-down rpg released as a full priced retail game

they accomplished both and neither goal is really a waste of time

 

[Achilles]

DS3>Divinity 2, seriously.

No.Fucking.Way.

 

[Roguey]

I already wrote over 400 words explaining my reasoning. I'm sorry but you'll have to do a bit better than three to convince me how I'm wrong in my assessment.

 

[Stinger]

I agree with Roguey on the combat. DS3's core combat mechanics are pretty good and unlike Div2 you can't just backflip around and kite away from your opponents until your cooldowns/health/mana recharges. It's got this nice setup where you have to play really aggressively.

I disagree on the character system though. Divinity 2 allowed for more freedom with the builds, even if the levelling up was just a linear progression while DS3 had more branching. In Divinity 2 you could run a number of combinations in playstyles by choosing the specific skills you wanted, within reason, whereas in DS3 you were forced into set builds with some specialisation within those builds. DS3's limited scope and options for skills kinda messes it up.

Hell its limited scope in general is what makes it a decent, but otherwise nothing special, game.