Story
Dungeon Siege III takes place 150 years since the original game. You choose one of four characters, each with different proficiencies. You must fight to reclaim the land of Ehb and restore the 10th Legion, who were once the protectors of this great land (you remember them right?). 30 years prior to the game, the king was murdered and the 10th legion was blamed by a young and charismatic woman named Jeyne Kassynder, who made it her job to make sure they were all but eliminated, but legion descendants survived. You are lucky enough to be one of these few.
The story progresses pretty well, and if you're a lore geek, there is tons to read and explore in the world of Ehb. There are side quests that don't necessarily progress the story, but you can skip them if you so desire, some are actually really rewarding in the end, so don't pass them all up. Throughout the storyline you will be given dialog options, where you decide what is said, and what action to take. There are very few points that actually make any changes to the overall story, and it seems that most of the dialog options are based on what order you would like your information, rather than changing any part of the actual conversation. A little lackluster here, but I came for the phat loot, and awesome hack and slashery.
Game Play
I ran through the single player and actually had a good time. I figure when more people are online I will tackle it again for some more co-op action, but let's focus on the single player campaign right now.
While traversing the world of Ehb you will not be alone, you will find companions on the way, and as you do you can switch them out through the game, depending on the situation. I say switch out, because although you get a choice of four characters, you will only be fighting two at a time on screen. This disappointed me a bit, because the original Dungeon Siege let you have up to six characters on the screen at any given time. Hell you even got a pack mule (hint: there are no pack mules in this game). Different combinations of different characters can also be devastating, especially if proficiency points are allocated well.
The AI is wonderful. I can honestly say that playing this game with an AI controlled character was a joy. If I was trying to focus fire on a big baddie, my hired hand helped me. If I fell in combat, by chum revived me. Normally in a game like this I would be cussing at the screen, yelling to the NPC to stop running into walls and help me, but DS3 really got the AI down, and makes it a really enjoyable experience.
Playing DS3 on PlayStation 3, I was a bit hesitant. I've played the original on PC, and I was not sure how well it would translate onto a console. Again this is a point that DS3 shines, creating a very small learning curve, but giving players all the options they would need, from a hot key stand point. The D-pad serves for quickly accessing menus and navigation, creating easily accessible "quick keys" that make leveling and quest checking a snap. Although I would still love to have it on PC, I think this translates very well on the console and new players would really get the hang of it pretty quick.
Graphics and Sound
The soundtrack to DS3 is really done well, and adds another depth to the game. Even just putting the disc in and listening to the title sequence is very haunting and magical. Although you spend more time listening to your gun shots off the enemy's skulls, or your shield bashing in faces, the ambiance really sets the overall tone of where you are in the game. The only bug I found was here, and it happened once and awhile. I would load my game and I would only have the soundtrack playing in the background, no ambiance and no effects could be heard. This was remedied by quitting the game, removing the disc, reloading the disc and loading my previous save game. Not a biggie, but it did happen a few of times.
The graphics are good, nothing to write home about though. Swordplay and Magic attacks are great to look at, and the environment is very detailed, but if you've seen one forest of Ehb you've seen them all. The cut scenes on the other hand are better than any of the previous titles, but still fall a little short. The scenes come off more dry than anything else, and it really takes away a bit of the experience during the story telling, while during the conversation the NPC is just staring at you, and his mouth is the only thing moving. Not very immersive and it lacks quite a bit of personality in my opinion.
Combat
Ah the Hack and Slashery, this is why you came to get this game. To seek out new life and new civilizations, and destroy every last living thing that moves on the screen. Generally your just mashing buttons hoping that when all the carnage is over, everything is dead and shinies drop all over the floor. This unfortunately creates a "grind" that some players just don't enjoy. I personally enjoy it, and spent many hours looting and killing my way through this game.
Throughout the game you will level up, at which time you will be able to purchase new abilities, proficiencies and talents. The first option is abilities; each character has nine abilities, six for combat and three healing/defense. To further customize your character you will become proficient with the abilities you choose. Each ability has two separate proficiencies, each adding a different bonus to the ability. Point spenders beware, each ability only has five proficiency upgrades so spend your points wisely. Finally this brings us to the talent portion of our game, where you can add even more passive abilities to your character to make him even more dangerous. Be wary as you will not be able to master all the abilities/talents by the end of the game, you may actually go through the game not even learning certain talents, so spend your points wisely.
Multiplayer
Players will have the option to play two player local co-op or up to four players online. It's really easy to jump in and out of games, and find one that you like without disrupting the whole group. There are private and public games, or you can choose quick-play to just be thrown into a random campaign.
If you're playing multiplayer, unlike the original Dungeon Siege and the "Utraean Peninsula" players only have the campaign to play. Not only that, only the host of the game can save his/her progress, so you're really there to help them complete as much as they can. There are a few achievements that can be unlocked during multiplayer games, but otherwise there is no particular advantage to playing online. Jumping from room to room does you no good, since you cannot save the loot or abilities that your character has earned in previous rooms.
A few things that are great about the multiplayer aspect, during the dialog sequences players will vote on what answer they want, and you can unlock achievements depending on how you vote, which becomes interesting at times. Any time during game play you can hit pause and you can "take a break", at which point your character becomes AI controlled and you can step away, or fiddle with your equipment, without holding up progress.
Overall
Depending on your play-style the game will probably take you a better part of 15 hours, barring any side quests, or exploration. With four characters to beat the game with, it does hold its replay value, and with a good group, multiplayer can be a blast. I recommend this to anyone that is eagerly awaiting a good hack and slash game. It's fun, it's pretty fast paced and local co-op is something that a lot of games lack these days. If you're not into a dungeon crawler, or grinding through enemies to get the next best piece of armor, I suggest you avoid this title. If you're looking for a good story, good character ability customization and phat loot, then this game is for you!
Dungeon Siege III was developed by Obsidian Entertainment Inc. and published by Square Enix, Inc on Tuesday June 21st 2011 for the XBox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. A PlayStation 3 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. I played through the campaign mode and participated in the online multiplayer.
