Dungeon Siege III Previews

Obsidian Entertainment’s foray into Dungeon Siege territory has garnered a few more articles, including over four minutes of footage alongside a narrated preview from the fine folks at Machinima:

Then stop by Yahoo! Games:

Although the action is mostly viewed from an elevated position, the land of Ehb, and within it each town, the many people, creatures and curious objects are painstakingly detailed, with every scene lit to perfection. Chainmail and hand-hammered armour plates glisten. Magic spells shimmer. Ancient trees cast mesmerising shadows from their twisted boughs. It’s beautiful.

But this is an action (RPG) game we’re talking about, so the main consideration has to be with the controls. Well, using a DualShock 3 makes both navigation and combat feel great. We took charge of Lucas, one of four playable legionnaire heroes essentially a Warrior meets Paladin type. Switching effortlessly between two combat stances at the press of a button, Lucas performs fast-hitting strikes with a short sword and shield or more powerful yet slower combination moves with a broadsword. Timing your hits results in flashy, smoothly-animated and flowing combos. Using the sword and shield stance it’s possible to stagger enemies with a Shield Pummel, or with the broadsword held in both hands a dash attack deals serious damage, penetrating the strongest defence.

Before paying a visit to Total PlayStation:

Attacks which are primarily chosen for their offensive capability come with passive effects of benefit to teammates. For instance, Anjali can summon a swirling storm of fire to damage enemies in her vicinity; it just so happens that this fire heals her companions, making it a good idea to stand by her side (and possibly lure more enemies into it as a further benefit) upon seeing her cast. All characters also share the ability to revive fallen comrades, and everyone possesses a self-healing action of some kind. It would seem that regardless of how one develops one’s character, it would be hard, if not impossible, to make one unsuited for the duties fighting alongside others.

If it sounds like all of this healing and reviving business will make the game lack challenge, don’t fret. I mentioned earlier that my hosts were patient; I was not referring to a lack of punctuality on my part. Even with Director of Business Development and Executive Producer at Square Enix David Hoffman’s ability to heal me and get me back on my feet, my ineptitude still managed to lead to a fail state on multiple occasions. Based upon my experience, Dungeon Siege III is not likely to devolve into the brute force exercise of a credit-feeder like Gauntlet Legends.

And IGN:

Like many old RPGs, Dungeon Siege III is played from a top-down perspective. There are ample customization options for those of you that want to tweak your character to your liking. During your quest, you’ll progress the main story, make choices that affect the plot, and collect new items and weapons to equip.

You can choose what class to play as, and then decide what sort of upgrades you want to learn. We don’t have all the details yet, but the idea is to give players a tremendous number of options to consider when building their character.