Dungeon Siege III Reviews

We have yet another batch of reviews for Square Enix and Obsidian Entertainment’s Dungeon Siege III, confirming the generally mixed impressions from the press.

GameReactor, 7/10.

Dungeon Siege III’s biggest problem is that it obviously can’t figure out whether to lean more towards a more hack’n’slash romp or traditional RPG, and therefore probably will disappoint both camps due to the fence-sitting. Towards the end is a blood-bath of swinging swords and cast spells, and some puzzles would have been welcome to break up the action.

While decisions will weigh on the difficulty of later sections, there’s still a hefty degree of linearity here that’ll annoy some RPG fans, and any attempt to break from it is purely cosmetic. Such as the pay-off for your choices in the game’s conversations.

The consequences (spoiler!) of these are primarily seen in the game’s final sequence, with a narration explaining the course of events after the last shot; after so much brilliant build-up, it feels unsatisfactory. As a whole Dungeon Siege III offers some grand ideas, and the illusion of fantasy epic, but falls just before greatness due to its shortcomings.

Bit-Gamer, 50%.

While we’ve been harsh throughout our review, Dungeon Siege isn’t a bad game per-se. It’s not horrible, broken, offensive, unfair or anything like that – it’s just completely bland. It doesn’t do anything new, and it doesn’t excel in anything either. Plus, while the combat is fine, it doesn’t offer the fun, blast-through action experience of games such as Torchlight, Diablo or even Titan Quest. If you can convince someone to play co-op, it might be okay when it hits the Steam sales at a massively reduced price, but there are definitely better alternatives.

NY Daily News, 3/5.

(Dungeon Siege III) winds up being a solid game, with good battling and tremendous production values. But we can’t help wondering if it could have been better.

It’s a good dungeon crawl, but there were just so many missed opportunities.

Dealspwn, 6/10.

A third game that pays little homage to the first two, but still delivers a solid-yet-unspectacular experience. Combat relies too much on dodging, but there’s some depth in the tactical levelling, and there’s four-player co-op. It’s just it’s not that exciting.

Cheat Code Central, 3.6/5.

Dungeon Siege III doesn’t set out to revolutionize anything this time around. Instead, it tries to capture the magic of the previous two entries. I wish this title was treated more like a new generation introduction to the franchise, because, in that regard, it does several things right. However, putting the number three behind the title should mean progression. Unfortunately, this feels more like a transgression. Enjoyable for what it is, Dungeon Siege III will entertain for as long you can stand it. Just don’t expect things to get much better.

Gaming Age, B.

It’s a real shame that the online wasn’t better implemented; otherwise this would have been one of my bigger surprise hits for this year. Just a few key changes could have made that experience great, and I’m not sure why the developers felt the need to make it so limiting. Other than that, the game is absolutely fun, and it’s definitely worth a look for console players. The end of the game also heavily hints at DLC, so hopefully a few changes might be implemented there that could at least address my issues with the online side. I’d definitely give the game a go; I still had a lot of fun with it.

Gamers Daily News, 7.0/10.

While there is much to like in this dungeon crawler, there are some significant problems. The first one is perhaps inherent to the genre, as repetitive game mechanics set in quickly. While the variety of attacks does indeed prevent things from getting too stale, you’ll nonetheless find yourself playing in cycles and loops quite often. All of this leaves Dungeon Siege III as a decent game of its kind, though it faces obvious competition from several other games, including some Xbox Live Arcade entries. The variety of characters in this game does help it stand out, as does the inclusion of a basic but reasonably engaging story, but for the most part it is typical of the genre. Thus, it is best recommended to fans of dungeon crawls; you’ll find plenty to like here, though anyone who has already had their fill of this kind of RPG can pass on it.

Ten Ton Hammer, 82/100.

While it’s a departure from the spirit of the first two games, and lacking that Chris Taylor touch of over-the-top awesomeness, Dungeon Siege III manages to be a good game. The words .ood game’ are highly subjective though, as the PC control setup will have you close to rage-uninstalling more than likely. It may lack the character skill depth of Diablo, and the character development of Mass Effect, but it strikes a strong balance and the closest game I can possibly relate the frantic feel of combat to is Phantasy Star Online 2 or Demon’s Souls, games where taking damage is not an option and you have to choose when to attack and when to evade very carefully. If you can stomach the controls, you’ll find a well-polished action RPG beneath that ugly surface.

Paranerds, 8.5/10.

Dungeon Siege 3 offers about 12 hours, give or take, of gameplay. This all really depends on how many sidequests you choose to embark upon , and there are a lot to keep you occupied.This game has a very detailed and simple menu to equip and maintain your character and a lot of replay value. There is a lot of fun gameplay aspects but the graphics are kind of disappointing at times. However, I really recommend this game. It’s a very enjoyable experience that will have you messing around to make your characters stronger without the tedious level-grinding. I think Square-Enix and Obsidian Entertainment did a great job on this console based game and for those of you that were worried about it, let me tell you, it’s great.

And finally, GameTrailers has a video review, score being 6.3/10.