Dungeon Siege 3 Review

20 Jun 2011 at 17:45:00 by John Robertson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3, 360, PC)

In recent years it seems that I’ve been spoilt by the quality and imagination offered by Western RPGs. The likes of Mass Effect, Fallout and Oblivion changing, defining and expanding what is expected of an RPG and what we classify as one. It’s for this reason that I find Dungeon Siege III troubling as it’s a game that I would have liked some years ago but, it seems, I don’t any more. This in turn begs the question of whether it’s a bad game or whether it’s simply ‘vintage’.

Dungeon Siege III (DS3) carries with it the style, structure and baggage of a bygone RPG era. Its characterisation is stale and sloppy, its quests are repetitive and combat lacks any kind of satisfaction or thrill. In comparison to the diverse range of combat systems, speech options, ability customisation and the grandiose scale displayed by the games mentioned in paragraph one DS3 feels incredibly old fashioned.

In a way it’s heart warming, a reminder of earlier years and earlier games. The nostalgic memories flooding back with every dungeon crawl, every character viewed from an isometric camera angle and every corpse diligently looted. If it wasn’t for that nostalgic feeling of comfort (and the fact that I had to play it for review), I probably wouldn’t have given DS3 more than a couple of hours of my time.

The main problem is the lack of any real personality. It’s not just the characterisation, it’s the story-telling, the setting, the writing, the acting… all instantly forgettable and failing in any attempt to create an immersive world to explore and absorb. This lack of personality is compounded by the lacklustre gameplay which is of a kind that has been done before. And done better.

DS3 takes place in the world of Ehb, a kingdom that was once under the protection and celebrated leadership of the 10th Legion. However (as explained in the game’s intro) the Legion was overthrown and by Jayne Kassynder, a powerful witch that now rules over the land with a much lower approval rating than the former incumbent. The few remaining members of the Legion were exiled after the war and have gone underground. Needless to say, it’s your job to restore their power and take Kassynder out of service by choosing to play as one of four chip-their-shoulders heroes/heroines.

In this world, towns are occupied by people with exclamation marks over their heads indicating their ‘quest giver’ status, combat is hack ‘n’ slash with a dash of spell casting and a lot of healing and looting is essential to career progression and general empowerment… Nostalgic? Repetitive? Predictable? Yes.

Some comprises have been made to the classic formula. Conversations feature speech options which are selected via a Mass Effect-esque conversation wheel. Although, whereas BioWare’s RPG places emphasis on having you live by your decisions and there consequences, DS3’s options rarely go beyond having you decide the order in which you wish to obtain your info. There are a few moments in which your dialogue choices affect the game and your relationships but they are a rarity and matter little.

There’s also a Fable style orb trail to lead you quickly to your mission objectives and Fallout style graphical bugs. These bugs usually occur as one area loads into the next with weapons suddenly disappearing from your characters, enemies appearing out of thin air and the ground under your feet lacking any texture mapping, making it look as though you’re literally walking on air.

That other requirement of so many a modern game, co-operative play, is also included and goes a long way in preventing DS3 from being an entirely worthless experience. With up to four players questing together combat becomes a much more tactical affair as different players concentrate on different skills. It’s all very standard stuff with the warrior getting in close while mages fire in spells, ranged attackers stand back and someone else concentrates on healing.  

Unfortunately, players cannot carry over any stat progression or loot from their multiplayer character/s to their single player one/s. Career progression does occur in multiplayer games but it’s limited to your multiplayer save.

Still, co-op generates that sense of camaraderie and shared experience that can make a good game great and a bad game acceptable.

When playing in single player the combat soon outstays its welcome due to the frequency and repetition of the battles and the enemies. The hack ‘n’ slash combat offers little in the way of variation when playing by yourself, despite its attempts to trick you otherwise via the inclusion of ‘abilities’ that usually deal damage as well as some kind of negative status effect.

Each character can learn only a maximum of nine abilities each, six for combat and three relating to defensive/healing (deployable from different combat ‘stances’). These are drip feed as you progress through the levels meaning that there are extremely long waits between learning new skills and it’s difficult to escape the feeling that you’re being short-changed. It certainly feels underwhelming compared to the exhaustive list of available skills and abilities the dungeon crawler genre is known for… Diablo this ain’t.

It’s difficult to wrap my head around just who Dungeon Siege 3 is aimed at. It doesn’t offer the depth that fans of dungeon crawlers have come to expect and, on the other hand, it refuses to incorporate enough modern elements to appeal to the new generation of RPG fans. The result is a game that generally functions as intended but largely falls flat and struggles to impose a sense of personality.  

What’s so disappointing is that Obsidian has shown great skill and respect in developing sequels to established franchises in the past (Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights). It seems that even the best have their off days. 

Comment