Dungeon Siege III

Another mediocre PC 'RPG' that's probably better on the consoles.....

User Rating: 5 | Dungeon Siege III PC

By DecapitatedOrc | Review Date: September 8, 2011

This was another one of those games that I was unsure about stumping up money for, so borrowed it from a friend and played it a bit first. After selecting your character from a huge choice of 4, you are taken through a decent, yet hardly original short tale explaining your character's background and affiliation with the 10th Legion of Ehb and its destruction at the hands of the main villain of the tale, one Jeyne Kassynder. Your character choices are limited to Lucas Montbarron (a warrior who fights with sword and shield or greatsword), Reinhart Manx (a pudgy mage who bashes opponents with fists of lightning or zaps them with horizontal waves of energy), Katrina (a gypsy girl who uses 2 pistols or a rifle), and Anjali (a woman known as an archon, able to assume a fiery form and pelt opponents with fireballs, or else attack with her staff like a monk in human form). Your characters use either of their two attack modes throughout the game, with you being able to then give them extra abilities or talents which either enhance these attacks, or grant them extra powers. For example, Anjali can summon a fire jackal to aid her in combat, Lucas can damage a crowd of opponents when charging through them while wielding his greatsword, or Katrina can fire a continuous stream of bullets from her rifle. Characters also get common talents which increase the rate at which they heal when activated, or increase their chances of scoring critical hits in combat.

The game then begins with your character a short distance outside a mansion which your mentor, Odo, has called you and all remaining Legion survivors to for a meeting. You rush off boldly down the country paths towards the mansion, only to discover that it is burning down, and the adventure begins there. I have played through most of the game but got too bored to continue, so decided to give it a break and will probably return to it sometime in the not too distant future....

PROS -
- Combat is fast paced and quite enjoyable most of the time. It's tremendously satisfying to mow down weaker foes with a single swish of your sword or staff, or use your more exotic talents to take out groups of several opponents simultaneously while listening to their pathetic cries of agony.
- There are lots of different types of weapons, armour and other items for your character to use in the game.

CONS -
- The game doesn't seem to have much of a plot or great level of immersion. There is little in the way of an introduction to the world of Ehb for those who haven't played the previous games in the series, and you basically end up knowing what your overall goal is right at the start of the game.
- The voice acting is pretty unremarkable when compared to some other games in this genre. As another reviewer commented, the characters often seem to talk like they are either stoned or in a daze, displaying little emotion, talking in something of a monotone and often starting the blatantly obvious. Out of the 4 playable characters, the two male ones definitely have the best voices, while Katrina sounds suspiciously like Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing while Anjali has something of a disaffected faint American burr!
- Monster AI sucks. Monsters always seem to attack your character specifically, even when your companion is standing right next to them bashing the living daylights out of them.
- Boss fights can be very difficult (for the reason above), and also for the fact that there are no healing potions or spells you can use to heal yourself quickly; you have to rely on talents that you take for your character which let you regenerate health more quickly.
- You can only travel with a total of 2 characters in the party, unlike previous Dungeon Siege games (which I haven't played), where you could travel with 4.
- The game is apparently quite short, from what I have read in other reviews.

CONCLUSION -
Look, I've certainly played worse games than this one, but given this game's lack of overall depth and playing time, it would have made more sense to release it at a lower price.

Other Helpful Reviews for Dungeon Siege III

• Rating:5.5

  This is not Dungeon Siege. Don't let the title of the game fool you. My actual review of the game inside

  By oopomop | Review Date: Jun 22, 2011 | PC

  This is not Dungeon Siege, don't let the title fool you. The only thing this game has in common are a few references to characters in the first two games, nothing more. Square Enix dropped the ball on this one so bad tha... Read Full Review

  13 of 13 users found the following review helpful
• Rating:5.5

  There are games that are reinvented with new formulas and made better for it. Dungeon Siege III is NOT ONE OF THEM.

  By renegade_magnum | Review Date: Jun 18, 2011 | PC

  NOTE: The following review is only for the PC version of Dungeon Siege III and was written SPECIFICALLY for the game on PC. As such, many observations that were made during gameplay may or may not apply to its console ve... Read Full Review

  23 of 26 users found the following review helpful