Dungeon Siege 3 Preview Based on Press Version

In my time, I paid quite a bit of attention to the Dungeon Siege series of games. The first part was a fun and beautiful role-playing action game, which favorably distinguished itself from most analogs with its style, atmosphere, and the fact that the hero did not walk alone but with a whole supporting team. The second part left a strange feeling - it seemed good, and a step had been taken from action RPG to a full-fledged role-playing game, expressed in the introduction of not only classes but also races of characters, but... somehow it all felt unconvincing. The step was small, and the role was not persuasive - in short, I did not like the second part very much, but nonetheless, it did not put a cross on the entire game series for me. No wonder I was interested in the third part of the series being developed by Obsidian. Recently, I got the chance to try the press version of the game and now it’s time to see what we got in the end.

Of course, let's consider why one should not overlook the portrait of a suspicious lady in a haunted house.

An Action Game with a Human Face

The guys at Obsidian have always been known for two things: their games are very interesting storyline-wise, and at the same time, they are riddled with bugs and shortcomings. They disproved one of these two statements in Dungeon Siege 3 - and fortunately, it was the one about the bugs. In more than 15 hours of gameplay, I did not encounter a single glitch, freeze, or dangling 'tail' of an interesting feature that has been cut out. This is not an indicator yet, but it still suggests that the Obsidian team knows their main problem as well as we do and is trying to fix it. However, nothing unexpected about the second point - from the very beginning of the game, we find ourselves in the thick of plot intricacies, shown in a stylized animated video. The story of the game is closely related to the events of the previous parts of the series - in particular, the very first Dungeon Siege, from whose descendants the main heroine, the Tenth Legion, was founded. This Legion defended the kingdom of Eb, founded by the descendants of a decrepit empire, from external enemies for several hundred years - however, they overlooked an internal enemy. The aristocrats played their intrigues, a civil war broke out in the kingdom, and on the bloody crest of the battle of all against all, some mysterious woman rose. Is she - or rather, is it? - luring the main forces attempting to quell the Legion's rebellion into a trap and nearly completely annihilating them. We will play as one - or one - of the few survivors.

In this bonfire, witches burn the souls of captives.

The setup is promising, but the most interesting is yet to come. After the video, we get to choose our character. Note, choose, not create - the four main heroes of the game are rigidly defined, have their own history, personality, and absolutely unique abilities. The aristocrat, the last surviving offspring of the family of the founders of the Legion, wears heavy armor and wields a sword and shield expertly. The yellow-eyed girl is actually a spirit of fire and can instantly transform from human form into a blazing fury, bombarding enemies with fireballs. The old scholar, a technomage, draws symbols that take physical form, striking with lightning from a mechanical glove and sweeping enemies away with waves of energy. And finally, a graceful dark-haired lady in a leather suit, with two pistols at her waist and a rifle over her shoulder - a sort of "daughter of the regiment," emerging from a barbaric and dark people, finding a new home in the Legion, and offering her combat skills and dark knowledge to serve.

The cutest girl - you never know if she will shoot you or jinx you.

Regardless of who becomes the main character, the others will encounter them throughout the story and become our companions, controlled by artificial intelligence. As has been the case in games from Obsidian, each of them has their own opinion on every question, and depending on how your relationships with your companions develop, the course of the story will differ. Each of the main heroes has their own lines in dialogues, so playing as one of them will be significantly different from playing as another, even without considering the completely different style of play.

Shape-Shifting Heroes and Everyone, Everyone

Unfortunately, the cross-platform nature of the game has not particularly benefited it - while the graphics, although technically lacking, are beautiful due to the perfectly maintained dark style, interplay of light and shadow, and stunning special effects, there are numerous complaints about convenience, amounting not to a cartload but a whole armored train with an artillery trailer.

A very beautiful portal. Too bad it doesn't work.

The camera has two modes - over the character's head and behind the character. Good, but why does the overhead camera hang so low that you can't see anything properly around, and in the 'behind the back' position, the character faces the camera when turning, making it necessary to manually turn it with keys or the mouse to see the enemies charging from behind? Why are the tilt angles of the camera so small and strangely set that you can only play at the extremes for both modes - all other angles are simply non-functional? Why do you need to press 3-4 times just to access the hero’s inventory and change their equipment, which in regular RPGs is done with a single button press? Why must you continuously hold down the right mouse button to run?

I wonder who in the haunted house fuels the stove?

There are other oddities. So, each hero has two 'stances' - two switchable modes that completely change their abilities. One could hit an enemy with an energy glove and launch lightning - and now, you'll be drawing symbols on the floor that strike all enemies standing on them with waves of energy. Each stance has three activated abilities-spells, unlocked as the character develops – for example, the aforementioned lightning or summoning a demonic dog. There are also three shared spells for both stances that can only be activated from block mode. Among these spells is a very useful feature like healing. Now, imagine the following scenario: a mage races across a glade, teleporting here and there, laying traps with the singular goal - to keep enemies at bay and shoot them with waves of energy from afar. And then a stray arrow strikes him. Want to heal, right? No problem: hold down the block button (while freezing in place, and not always facing the right direction), press the healing button that appears, wait for it to take effect, exit block mode (which is certainly not instantaneous), and joyfully smile at the crowd of melee fighters surrounding you… Or else you can’t do anything. Talk about convenience, indeed. Such little things noticeably spoil the impression of the gameplay. And it is actually good.

Something about her made her feel like a quest giver...

At first glance, it may seem that two main types of attacks (for example, spear strikes and fireballs, electric glove hits and waves of energy) and nine active abilities for a character may be too few. But in reality, it is somewhat more intricate. Firstly, each of the abilities has five levels of improvement in two directions – for example, an increase in damage or a clever effect like stunning. This allows customizing abilities to fit your play style. Secondly, besides standard stats affecting the number of health and mana, damage from standard attacks and spells, critical hit probability, etc., the character also has a whole set of so-called 'Chaos parameters'. This category includes various charming effects like burning, lifestealing, poisoning, freezing, etc., which apply not only to the character's main attacks but also to all their active combat abilities. Can you draw a symbol on the floor that strikes all enemies standing on it every second? Equip your hero with an artifact that grants lifesteal - and that symbol will not only hit enemies but also heal your hero with each strike! Thanks to such a system, we receive an enormous number of options for combining spell effects, which significantly diversifies the gameplay.

This strange figure on the ground will significantly shorten the lives of all enemies standing within it.

Finally, the local battles are simply stunning. Imagine the following scenario: an old mage wanders through a dark, gloomy forest, not bothering anyone. Suddenly, a troop of mercenaries rushes out from around the bend. A wave of the hand, another, a third - waves of deep black energy lash at the enemies on the right and left, like slaps, and eventually, they crash down from above, mercilessly. The corpses scatter, some are crushed against the ground, but a few opponents still reach the mage... and under their feet, blue flames burst forth, they suddenly feel unwell, and their movements slow. While the enemies are reeling, the mage switches stances, and his glove crackles with electric discharges. He vanishes in a flash of blue light and appears right in front of the stunned victims. Hit, hit, another hit, and again a hit - and here, wizard Reinhart delivers an uppercut. The enemies collapse like broken puppets, and the last one arcs beautifully away into the distance. And this is just the description of a completely ordinary skirmish. The local battles feature a frenzied chaos of rolls and dodges, blocks and spells, stance changes and strikes. You definitely won't be bored. If only managing all this joy were a bit easier...

With a light wave of his hand, the mage invokes a true cataclysm.

The quests and dialogues in the game are simply excellently crafted - with humor, beautiful descriptions, unexpected twists, and constant opportunities for choice. Should you trust the suspicious witch offering help or send her packing and risk your friends' lives? Should you cleanse the cursed mansion of the Legion and leave it to your ally as promised, or return it to its rightful owners, namely the heirs of the Legion? Help the fisherman figure out who scared all the fish away from his favorite spot, or just walk past? The main plot also gradually immerses us deeper into the intricacies of civil war, intrigues, and ruins, as we assist in restoring the former glory of the Legion. A significant role in this immersion is played by sound - beautiful and unobtrusive melodies following us throughout the game, along with excellent voice acting, perfectly complementing the characters’ images with intonation, expression, and accent.

There’s something ancient and patriarchal about this bearded man.

In summary, I can say the following: Dungeon Siege 3 is very different from its predecessors, and notably for the better. Now it is more of a full-fledged role-playing game with a strong combat element rather than an action RPG-diabloid. Excellent style, interesting story, well-developed heroes, and engaging gameplay - what more could one wish for? Perhaps normal controls.