My review of Dungon Siege 3

[enzain]

Reason why I brought this game:

Unlike many of you, the reason why I brought this game is because: I am a huge fan of Obsidian for making Neverwinter Night 2(best game ever created, just below Baldurs Gate 2). Now I did play the first Dungeon Siege as a kid(12 years old) and tbh it was boring even then and I'd go play Diablo any day over that. So when I saw a Dungeon Siege 3 I was like meh until I saw Obsidian as developer which then peaked my interest.

 

The combat

First of all I played this game on PC and I want to say to all you nubs who are whining about the controls, this is a case of L2P. I played this on Hard and I can honestly say that it was much more rewarding than beating Witcher 2 on Hard. The mechanics of auto attack gives you focus, and focus gives you power, which you can use to heal/shield/empower yourself was brilliant and very fun to execute properly in a battle or boss fight. I loved the fact that when I first attempted a boss fight it would seem impossible but after a try or to I would begin to learn the fight and eventually it all came down to executing. In other words the gameplay has depth which you don't see often nowadays.

 

The Story

Now while the story was interesting and the characters enjoyable, it did bear the burden of being a crappy action RPG and not a true RPG which was very noticeable, for instance I would have loved some more RPGish quests and perhaps some puzzle but I guess that is the price you pay for being an action RPG and not even the might of obsidian can undo that(even thought it was a pretty good attempt).

But in all honestly the story was pretty good and the only negative things I can say about are things that appear because it is an action RPG.

 

Graphics:

The graphics certainly weren't witcher 2 but I did not expect that either, the graphic was pretty good and the use of focus lens did a good job of making the graphics look prettier than they in actuality did. However lets not kid ourself either the game looks pretty good and this especially due to the fact that is has a nice art-style.

 

Did it hold up as a RPG:

In short no, however It did a good attempt at it, for instance your companions had influence(just like in NWN2) which unlike NWN2 didn't seem to do much. And you also had choice for instance I chose to slay the first of the Archon witches something that haunted me later in the game. However there were no NPC chat without a quest attached to it, which is a huge RPG negative. But I didn't matter too much to me as I wasn't expecting it either.

 

What I hated that deserves special mentioning:

Saving, ♥♥♥♥ing saving why wth use checkpoint based saved, doesn't the fagbox come with memory able to save the game...

No keybinds... WHY?!?!?!?!

Camera not able to rotate up and down ><

 

Last comment:

One thing that worried me when I brought this game was that it would be like all other Obsidian games and be released riddled with bugs, to my great relief it did not and I only had one bug, which were that the game would sometimes say save corrupted when I had just died and pressed continue but this was easily solved by just reloading the same save and the game would load without a problem.

 

This game was all that imagine when I hear the word Action RPG, and not the piece of ♥♥♥♥ DS1 where RPG is only based upon that you have spells, items and you level up. If you like TRUE action RPGs and want a challenge then this game is for you. The game itself was wonderful blast of about 18.5 hours game-play. It wasn't NWN2 by any stretch. Yet it was still better than dragon age 2 as that game left me very disappointed. So to sum it up the game is well worth your money

 

My score for the:

I give the game 6/10, now this score is based relative to the best games ever created so though it may seem low this is only due to the fact that it is competing against BG2, NWN2 and the likes.

Actually here is a full list of games and my score for them:

10 - Baldurs Gate 2

9 - Neverwinter Night 2

8.5 - Dragon Age

8.5 - The Witcher 2

8 - Mass Effect 1

8 - Placescape: Torment

7.5 - Mass Effect 2

7 - Neverwinter Night 1

7 - Alpha Protocol

7 - Jade Empire

6 - Dungeon Siege 3

5 - Dragon Age 2

4 - The Witcher 1

 

PS: I have also posted my review on steam dungeon siege 3 forum page.

Edited June 19, 2011 by enzain

[metamag]

First of all I played this game on PC and I want say to all you nubs who are whining about the controls, this is a case of L2P. In other words the gameplay has depth which you don't see often nowadays.

 

Nicely put, just like in my case.

 

Btw, it's pretty silly to put old games ahead of DS3 because their graphics are so poor you can't bring yourself to play them. Not very realistic ranking.

And most of them you listed ahead don't have combat nearly as good and engaging as DS3.

Edited June 19, 2011 by metamag

[enzain]

Btw, it's pretty silly to put old games ahead of DS3 because their graphics are so poor you can't bring yourself to play them. Not very realistic ranking.

And most of them you listed ahead don't have combat nearly as good and engaging as DS3.

 

My list is based on the overall game, and all of them are games I have played within the last year(played again rather).

 

Also in term of combat Baldurs gate 2 and NWN2 was way better.

Edited June 19, 2011 by enzain

[Kalis]

First of all I played this game on PC and I want say to all you nubs who are whining about the controls, this is a case of L2P. In other words the gameplay has depth which you don't see often nowadays.

 

Nicely put, just like in my case.

 

Btw, it's pretty silly to put old games ahead of DS3 because their graphics are so poor you can't bring yourself to play them. Not very realistic ranking.

And most of them you listed ahead don't have combat nearly as good and engaging as DS3.

 

 

If "bad graphics" are keeping you from playing BG2 or PS:T then I feel sorry for you.

[Chasted]

No keybinds... WHY?!?!?!?!

 

There are keybinds; if there weren't any keybinds you wouldn't even be using the keyboard. There being no custom keybinds is the issue :D

[enzain]

No keybinds... WHY?!?!?!?!

 

There are keybinds; if there weren't any keybinds you wouldn't even be using the keyboard. There being no custom keybinds is the issue :D

 

ba dum tsss

Edited June 19, 2011 by enzain

[metamag]

They already said keybinding will be patched in.

 

The only thing I would change is switch the function of SHIFT with ALT.

Edited June 19, 2011 by metamag

[TormDK]

Overall, from a single player point of view I'm satisfied with the game. I'm also a long time fan of Obsidian, and I'm fairly sure I have every game they ever developed for PC (Yes, even Alpha Protocol)

 

Sure, the camera for single player could get tweaked so we're not stuck with only two modes. But I like the Focus/Power design, it works well on pretty much all encounters. The only encounter I consider broken is playing as Lucas against bosses that have that aura that hurts you for being in contact with them (Since Lucas has no ranged). With the NPC AI being pretty poor I had to do alot of reloading to get past those areas.

 

Other than that there's a good feeling about this.

 

Now, if we move to Multiplayer as I've noted in other threads the camera design choice really becomes bothersome. The play area is too small to have players running around in, and since charcters are not able to dodge through each other (This is a good thing mind you) any sort of tactical gameplay is very annoying, and almost impossible if you play a mix of melee (like Lucas, with his 2h dash attack) and Anjali in her flame form. In that scenario Anjali is accually able to shoot at enemies you can't see! The game knows they are there, and can target them - The players just can't see them. Also if Lucas were to dash too far ahead he will get warped back to the host. We thought it was "just" lag initially, but it seems to be a leach on the people that join. The camera isn't centered on the Host, so rather than just one annoyed player there's two (or more).

 

My recommendation is to up the viewable playing area between 50-150% depending on the number of players in the game as to provide some room to move around on!

[metamag]

If "bad graphics" are keeping you from playing BG2 or PS:T then I feel sorry for you.

 

Well of course, you can't play something with abysmal graphics like Planescape Torment and other games he listed. I tried but just couldn't. Your brain is just too accustomed to higher standards.

His ranking list is pretty silly and irrelevant in that regard.

[Unreal Warfare]

You're trying to compare it to the wrong genre of games. For it's genre it's one of the best games out there. It plays more like Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light, Champions of Norrath, and Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance rather than Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Unreal Warfare

[Tigranes]

I still play Torment and it looks great. Everything looks a lot more solid, vivid, and most of all lovingly crafted. And there's no bloody bloom making everything post-2004 look like a puddle of fluorescent poo.

[metamag]

Hm, I simply can't bear to play old games like Fallout 2, Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, NWN, Baldur's Gate 2, etc., they just look too awful and with poor resolutions. How can you play games that look like total crap?

 

There is a certain threshold with visual media, those games were before that threshold and "current" games will not be nearly as unbearable to play in the future because they were created after the visual threshold.

[Alpha]

decent review ; although full of contradictions IMO.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Alpha

[enzain]

Hm, I simply can't bear to play old games like Fallout 2, Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, NWN, Baldur's Gate 2, etc., they just look too awful and with poor resolutions. How can you play games that look like total crap?

 

There is a certain threshold with visual media, those games were before that threshold and "current" games will not be nearly as unbearable to play in the future because they were created after the visual threshold.

 

Its simple you play for great story/gameplay and not graphics, then you'll have a blast ^^

Edited June 19, 2011 by enzain

[enzain]

You're trying to compare it to the wrong genre of games. For it's genre it's one of the best games out there. It plays more like Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light, Champions of Norrath, and Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance rather than Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect.

 

I compared it to my all times favorite games, because those are the games I know, I am not a big fan of the Action RPG genre, have only really played diablo(all of them) and DS1(as a kid), and against those this game would easily score 10/10 which itsn't saying much.

Edited June 19, 2011 by enzain

[Kalis]

Hm, I simply can't bear to play old games like Fallout 2, Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, NWN, Baldur's Gate 2, etc., they just look too awful and with poor resolutions. How can you play games that look like total crap?

 

There is a certain threshold with visual media, those games were before that threshold and "current" games will not be nearly as unbearable to play in the future because they were created after the visual threshold.

 

Well at least for BG2 and PS:T there are high resolution patches out there.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Kalis

[MonkeyLungs]

If "bad graphics" are keeping you from playing BG2 or PS:T then I feel sorry for you.

 

Well of course, you can't play something with abysmal graphics like Planescape Torment and other games he listed. I tried but just couldn't. Your brain is just too accustomed to higher standards.

His ranking list is pretty silly and irrelevant in that regard.

 

Maybe for you. Personally I can play old games just fine. Many of the environments in the old games still hold up well today. The art direction in these old gems is also far superios to much of the new games. You make absolutely no sense. The guys list is well thought out, I wouldn't keep the same order but I can get a sense of his tastes from that list.

 

Gameplay > Graphics