Dungeon Siege III Reviews

We have rounded up three new reviews for Obsidian Entertainment and Square Enix’s Dungeon Siege III, in line with the trend of mixed scores and impressions from the press.

GameWit, scoreless.

More frustrating was the limitation on exploration. Online, all four characters are tethered together in a level, preventing anyone from wandering off and exploring. If you have that friend who’s fond of exploring every little nook and cranny for powerups, ammo and loot, this tethering feature might just strain your relationship. In an era in which games like (Borderlands) let online gamers play autonomously in huge areas, this tethering can make (Dungeon Siege III) at times feel like a relic from 2004. It also gets a little frustrating in some of the game’s boss fights. If three characters try to evade an attack by running to the left while the fourth runs to the right, that one character can find themselves hemmed in by the edge of a TV screen.

Paying the full $60 for (Dungeon Siege III) without being willing to deal with these limitations is a nonstarter, but the game is already starting to sell for $40 at some retailers. At lower prices, it’s bound to be intriguing for fans of hack-and-slash dungeon crawls like (Diablo) and (Baldur’s Gate.)

Just Push Start, 3/5.

Dungeon Siege 3 does little to stand out in the crowd of this year’s slew of big hitters, but that doesn’t make it a terrible game. The combat is entertaining enough and gets the job done even if it feels over-simplified at times. The environments are varied and a pleasure to look at. Not to mention their filled to the brim with loot (seriously, who’s leaving this all here?) for RPG fans to go crazy over. Unfortunately, that’s where most of the commendations end. Cooperative play was a good idea, but it was executed poorly, leaving online players feeling cheated. The short story and bland characters never go out of their way to make you feel anything for them, which is unfortunate because I wanted to like them. If you are dying to get your next dungeon crawl fix, then this isn’t a bad choice per se since there is some fun to be had. Just don’t expect to be blown away by innovation and individuality.

And finally, Christ Centered Gamer gives the game a normal score, 78%, and a “morality score”, 61%.

While the beginning and ending sequences change based on the character, the bulk of the game is the same. You can try to unlock various achievements or try the game at various difficulties. I like how you can change the difficulty on the fly. It took me twenty hours to beat the single-player campaign and I have no intention of playing it again for achievements.

Having very fond memories of the multiplayer experiences of the original Dungeon Siege games, I was extremely disappointed in the crippled multiplayer offered by Obsidian. This game disgraces the Dungeon Siege name. Don’t get me wrong, the single-player campaign is fun and I enjoyed the characters and story, but Dungeon Siege has always been more about the multiplayer than the single-player campaigns.

Dungeons Siege 3’s multiplayer is merely a cooperative play mode where people can join a server and play as an unused character in the game. Only the host gets experience and nobody gets to keep or transfer over any of the loot. Other than a cooperative experience, what is the point? This is a dungeon crawler; people want to get loot and keep it! I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t see any open servers to join.