Dungeon Siege III Review

Dungeon Siege III (3) returns to the players and fans on console and PC. We applaud Square-Enix for listening to its fans and making this game for us who love the series and past releases. In the third installment of the Dungeon Siege series Square-Enix left no stone un-turned and put everything it has into it.

 

 

STORY

Torn asunder, the delicate balance of power between the kingdom of Ehb’s factions has fallen apart. As one of the few remaining members of the 10th Legion, the disgraced protectors of the land, it is up to you to rebuild the once-great Legion and stop Ehb from falling into darkness. Joined by a group of unique companions, you will travel through the striking land of Ehb defeating all manner of villains and beasts through a combination of heroic abilities, screen-shaking magic and pure cunning.

 

 

In Dungeon Siege III, players assume the role of one of four heroes, fighting for the sake of their fallen comrades to restore the land of Ehb. Conflict is constant in this action-RPG and decisions have lasting consequences, allowing players to alter the storyline. Choose to battle along with a companion or fight for honor with up to four friends via online co-op play. Dungeon Siege III allows for two players to experience the story from start to finish in local co-op mode. Thanks to the robust AI, Dungeon Siege III’s co-op multiplayer mode allows players to seamlessly drop in and out of battle without interrupting the action or impacting the campaign.

 

 

Dungeon Siege III lets the player have hours upon hours of gameplay and different choices throughout the game, with side quest you can do on your way to save the legion and to understand the fate of them. The side quests gives you missions to help the towns fold as well as to build your characters stats and experience points. I suggest doing these side quests to improve your character because most of them are easy and not too far from the person that you accepted the quest from. Remember that some of these will be battles so make sure your always using the best weapons and equipment so you can handle these with ease. A feature that is greatly appreciated that we love is the when doing a mission or quest you can make a guide appear to help you get to point A to point B, instead of being lost and end up not finishing what you set out to do!

 

 

A few features and new stuff added, “Quick Loot Acquisition” this is for if you don’t want to go around to pick up all the gold and loot and want keep fighting and hunting for the next kill you can click the left stick to quickly gather all the gold around you. For a quick opening of the weapons page you can press right on the D-pad to access the page faster.

 

 

Square-Enix has also added that you can decide between choices of what you want your character to say or how you want them to respond to a conversation or reaction (hint for you trophies and achievement hunters) this makes the player feel more involved in the game and decisions that go on throughout the game. Something that changes the game play a bit is that you can equip two weapons and at anytime you can change your stance, which change make a difference in attacks and fighting bosses. We equipped a two handed weapon for one stance and a shield and one handed sword for the other, by doing this we found to cut down different enemies faster and easier.

 

 

You have 4 different characters you can choose from and they are:

Reinhart Manx

Reinhart Manx is descended from a long line of Legion mages. He has spent most of his life at the Stonebridge Collegium, immersed in the study and practice of magic. Reinhart is known for his unconventional thinking and innovative magical techniques.

A scholar of arcane magic, Reinhart warps the forces of creation and destruction to his will. Although it leaves him open to attack, his Entropic magic can blast a wide area with life-extinguishing force. It is perfect for destroying crowds of enemies, as long as he keeps them at a distance. His Dynamic magic is channeled through an arcane gauntlet and capacitor. This deadly device creates currents of energy with a mere motion of his hand, allowing Reinhart to quickly incapacitate a single target at close range.

 

 

Lucas Montbarron

Lucas Montbarron is the son of the former Grand Master of the Legion. He is the last of a noble and respected line. Raised in a series of safehouses by families loyal to his father’s memory, Lucas will not rest until the Legion is rebuilt, and his family’s honor is restored. Lucas has been taught the art of combat in the ancient and deadly style of the Legion.

Lucas is a skilled swordsman, and a master of two combat stances. He can fight with a sword and shield, which allows him to attack quickly, deal heavy damage, and interrupt and stun single targets. When outnumbered, he wields a massive two-handed sword. While slower to swing and less practical for one-on-one combat, its can strike multiple foes and knock them back, making it an ideal weapon for crowd control.

 

 

Anjali

Anjali is an archon – a legend, come to life. In the old stories, archons were spirits of fire, who served the long-lost creator gods. But Anjali was raised by friends of the Legion, and she does not know how she came to this world, or what happened to the others of her kind.

Anjali can shift freely between her human form and an incarnation of elemental fire. In human form, she fights with a staff or a spear, allowing her to fend off multiple attackers while leaping in and out of the fray. In her fiery incarnation, she can hurl bolts of flame at ranged targets, flood areas with heat and fire, or inflict searing wounds that injure her foes over time.

 

 

Katarina

Katarina is the illegitimate daughter of Hugh Montbarron – the former Grand Master of the Legion – and a Lescanzi witch. Her mother’s people are nomads and wanderers, distrusted by many people in Ehb… but they are skilled in both warfare and magic, and Katarina has been trained in their ways.

Katarina takes a thoroughly practical approach to conflict resolution: stay out of sword’s reach, and settle your problems with firearms. With her rifle in hand, she can fell distant foes, and even the most resilient enemy can be brought down by her ensorcelled bullets and debilitating curses. When forced into close combat, Katarina uses sorcery and a pair of short-range shotguns to repel attackers.

 

 

Each of these character have unique attacks and abilities they can learn, also only certain characters can use items that that class can use. But you can still pick up that item or weapon and sell them or give them to a co-op player. The co-op is very well thought of and intertwined with the game play. A second player can drop in and out of game play without interrupting the adventure or the story of the single player! Players can also play co-op online as well as offline so players can host a game and also play alone without distractions. Great feature! Co-op on the couch can be 2 players and online co-op can be up to 4 players to go adventuring!

 

 

FEATURES

• Players will be able to adventure by themselves or with friends in co-op multiplayer.
• Uncover a deep story that only SQUARE ENIX and Obsidian Entertainment can deliver.
• Pick from unique and highly customizable character classes with a wide range of abilities to choose from.
• Recruit companions with unique personalities, abilities and views on the world around them.
• Players will have weighty decisions to make that will impact their alliances, enemies and the culmination of the story.

 

 

With details and pristine graphics and nothing left out the look and feel of the game is beautiful. One thing we wanted to be put in the game is for the camera to follow the character instead of always having to move the camera behind the character to get the best angle of attacking or when being attacked. Another problem we found is that when equipping new items, armor or weapons it is a little confusing at first to know which items or weapons is better or worst then the one you are currently using, but after paying a little attention to understand the way it is set up with each of the levels going up or down to show if it helps or hurts if you equip it.

 

 

The spells and abilities learned and ability points are earned by leveling up and just like all other games with leveling up, the first few level are easy to move up ranks, and gaining levels later on takes more work, but the more ability points you get the better you can make the character you are using at that time. Dungeon Siege III offers 50 game slot saves (awesome!) because this allows you to play multiple game plays using or trying each different character and class. This also comes in handy if you run into a problem and want to revert to an older save point, just as long as you don’t overwrite the other saves.

 

 

Dungeon Siege III will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 system and Windows PC via Steam beginning June 21, 2011.  Dungeon Siege III is rated T (Teen).  Please visit the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) website at www.esrb.org for more information about ratings. For more information about Dungeon Siege III, please visit the official website at www.dungeonsiege.com or the official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DungeonSiege3.

Game 2 Gamer’s Final Score 4 / 5