Dungeon Siege III Reviews

Obsidian’s first stab at the hack’n’slash genre has been met with a mixed reception from the press and gamers alike, as these three new reviews for Dungeon Siege III we’ve rounded up can attest.

Gaming Nexus, C-.

The single-player campaign, while rather brief, does present a passable (and incredibly linear) story. There are some side quests to keep folks busy for a short while, although many of them require a little backtracking through familiar ground. Players can soon team up with an AI-controlled companion (one of the remaining three main characters), and rampage across the world of Ehb. The AI actually does a decent job of holding up its part of the fight–on those few occasions where my main character was knocked unconscious, they were usually quite quick in pulling me back into the fray. Should players want to be a bit more social, they can invite friends to join them in their quest to restore the 10th Legion to its former glory. Unfortunately, those friends are merely backup singers and groupies to the main character, and unless the entire game is played with the same folks, the extras don’t get to keep the characters and loot they’ve acquired.

Given the pedigree, I was really expecting more out of Dungeon Siege III. I was hoping for something deeper, with greater character customization and a more engaging and rewarding loot system. I was certainly hoping for a little more support for the PC platform itself–if a game isn’t going to work well or be a priority on a system, I would rather it simply not be released in that format. Dungeon Siege III is not a terrible title, but perhaps it would be better enjoyed on a more appropriate console

Xbox World 360 (through CVG), 7.9/10.

Slightly unbalanced characters aside, Dungeon Siege III does a good job of bringing a PC genre into the console realm. Dungeon design strikes a nice balance of punchy action for the time-limited multiplayer parties and fuller side-questing for the lone adventurer.

And there’s a definite appeal in such a full-bodied approach to multiplayer: Borderlands aside, few games offer such substantial co-op meat. Fantasy RPGs often lazily tout the value of camaraderie only to lump you with AI husks; the potential to play a party as a party is enticing.

Dungeon Siege III is a perfect stopgap in the RPG calendar: brisk enough to be over and done with by the time Skyrim arrives while offering suitable training should Blizzard deign to cook up Diablo III for consoles. A new enough spin on resolutely old fashioned thinking.

The Telegraph, 8/10.

It’s a game that offers few surprises then, but one that offers plenty of enjoyment. It has nowhere near the depth of Obsidian’s last RPG, Fallout: New Vegas and in this case it suits. It offers the immediacy of other, perhaps cheaper dungeon crawlers while doing it with the style and substance afforded to a full priced game. It may not be the most memorable tale in the world, but the continued adventures of the 10th Legion are worth following if you’re after a game to play with a friend – a game that’ll make you think, but not too much.