Shiny new graphics and the azunates. Is it enough to bring back Dungeon Siege ?
I will cut to the chase. For an action rpg, this looks good and fresh. Everything around you has a sence of right. From the grass that gets trampled at your characters feet , chains dangling down from the ceiling moving aside when you walk into them to the the ice glare looking realistic enough to give you chill's.
The game world loads very smooth. Transition between one scene to another is done extremely well, even in cut-scenes wich are very often.
The total amount of world ready for you to explore is relatively small, medium at best.
The main story is short. Side quests to little to less. The plot follows something that happened 3-4 centuries after the events of DS2. We are placed in something that looks like the meddle ages. The azunites come into the light and the story unfolds as strangely and boring as possible. I will let you discover the actuall thing for yourselfs. But there is still something to be said here.The makers of the game could have made the story more intense,with some plot shifting along the way. Instead its a bit to linear making the gamer expect the things that happen at every turn.
Unlike DS2 this game is more mature, not necessarily a good thing dow.
Characters are premade, you have a few to chose from. The skill tree is divided nicely,but nothing new here. The game leaves you wanting for more: more skills, more character customization,more enemies, more hack and slash. The actual idee of hack and slash ,takes a turn for the worst.
There for ,regardless of what character you choose to play with, the fighting style is tedious. You will end up fighting every wave of enemys with specific difficulties. Running around bushings everybodys head in a killing frenzy wont happen. You will end up dying quite often. That could get frustrating.
There are no MP or HP potions. I played with the fighter charcter,he has a skill that can restore his HP. Once fallen in battle youl have to wait for your party mate to revive you.
The party sistem consists out of two playable charcters. The one you are commanding and another one. You can add along the way some more,but you'l have to chose between them. Unfortunately the saying "the more the merrier"does not apply for this game.
Lothing system is not bad (I've seen wors) but a bit mediocre. You would expcent the mobs to drop more items,but they don't. Picking up the items its another job itself. Its predecessor DS2 had a simple push of the button.Here after the fight is over you tediously run around to get your items. Its time consuming,and it isn't fun.
Speaking of buttons, there is no custom key mapping.Whatever you do you cant custom alocate the game buttons to what key you desire.
Voice acting is a bit disappointing , the one exception here for me was the main hero voice. His accent and lines were indee heroic and noble, as they should have been I suppose.
The camera doesen't zoom-in enough to get a closer look at your mighty hero, neither does it zoom-out to get a bether look at the battlefield. In close quarters it's a nightmare giving the player the worst possible angles. You will end up dying just because you can't see where your going or what enemy you are selecting.
It is completely up to you if you can find the patients and enthusiasm to play Dungeon Siege 3.