Reviews

[PoetAndMadman]

gry-online.pl - 8/10 The reviewer is very positive about the game, likes it very much, loves art direction and is satisfied with bigger amount of complexity than in other Hack'n'Slashes, he also thinks that the story is much better than in Dragon Age series.

Edited June 26, 2011 by PoetAndMadman

[C2B]

Review by Mr. Orange (who also did the AP flash)

 

http://www.gamesajare.com/2.0/retro-analis...ege-3-xbox-360/

 

LoL at the Cloud/Sephiroth vs Avellone Standoff.

 

The one sole reason I want to learn the language of the spains.

Edited June 29, 2011 by C2B

[Bendu]

1UP: B-

[funcroc]

G4: 4/5

[C2B]

G4: 4/5

 

 

Looking at one of the comments I'm surprised how people think this has a poor story or is poorly written at all for an Obsidian game. I mean, even under different standards/preferences people have regarding narrative. The quality of Dungeon Siege 3s writing is by all means better than NWN2OCs or SOZ was (no offense meant to the people who worked on them. I still very much enjoyed the writing on both of them) and the story is at least on the quality level of Alpha Protocol (Dialouge Writing is worse but then again, its against Avellone written Dialog). Its also better/more logical structured than the others and Jeyne is probably Obsidians "most grey" written Antagonist.

 

I mean I get the comments that its a little lighter on the narrative/writing quantity than other Obsidian games. (Which I kinda expected) But by no means is its quality worse.

Edited July 1, 2011 by C2B

[Bakercompany86]

Alright, why didn't we have this as the manual?

 

Aye, that would have been nice. But seems to be the current trend that publishers almost getting rid of manuals completely...

 

This is due to the heavy in game tutorials. Why spend money printing a large elaborate manual when the in-game menu handles everything?

 

I personally don't mind as much, I do like manuals like back in the day where they had everything explained, story prologue, character bios etc. In the case of DS3 everything you need to know is in the in-game Help Topic menu.

[XxTaLoNxX]

I'm sure the last thread spiraling into a discussion about the merits of Dragon Age 2 was not in any way, shape or form damage control over Dungeon Siege 3's mixed critical reception.

 

I suppose Obsidian is exempt from making bad games, to the point that its fans will ignore the reception for Dungeon Siege 3 and still bring up the failure that was Dragon Age 2 whenever they can, as a mark of embarrassment for BioWare ( which they should, but I doubt most would have actually played it )

 

Wrong. People bring up DA2 and all it's failings as a direct COMPARISON to DS3 and all it's strong, well thought-out, and interesting design choices. You see (well YOU don't obviously) DS3 and DA2 are in the same genre. And therefore warrant direct comparisons. Another thing I would like to point out. BioWare/EA BOUGHT the initial high review scores of DA2, while Obsidian are an honest company and take what they get because they earned it.

 

So yeah, smart gamers get a bit pissed when they see this...

 

IGN

DA2 - 8.5

DS3 - 7

 

when DA2 shouldn't have even gotten a 4.5 and DS3 should be an 8

[Dabu]

when DA2 shouldn't have even gotten a 4.5 and DS3 should be an 8

Well, that's your opinion. I haven't been bought by Bioware (or I don't know about it) and still enjoyed Dragon Age 2. I even thought it was much better than all previous Bioware games (except Mass Effect 2, I loved it). I think that plot, characters and dialogs in DA2 was nearly as much good as in Obsidian games. Nearly...

 

Subjective matter, man. While I think that DA2 should have more critically reviews due to it's horrible graphics and design, I still loved it. Great experience.

 

Dungeon Siege is a little bit simpler than Dragon Age, there's no team or creating your personality, although I like it too. It has a great gameplay, which DA2 hasn't.

Edited July 1, 2011 by Dabu

[Volourn]

" BioWare/EA BOUGHT the initial high review scores of DA2, while Obsidian are an honest company and take what they get because they earned it."

 

 

You must a comedian b/c that is hilarious!

 

DA2 is a great game just a s good as DA1 and is better than DS3 most liekly from what i've been reading on these forums.

 

DA2 = 8.5

 

DS3 Demo = 2

 

DS3 Proper = Not worth full pirce

 

 

"DA2 was nearly as much good as in Obsidian games. Nearly..."

 

Better than NWN2 OC, SOZ, AP, and DS. Not as good as MOTB 9friggin' awesome stuff). And, who knows about FO3.5:LV.

[XxTaLoNxX]

" BioWare/EA BOUGHT the initial high review scores of DA2, while Obsidian are an honest company and take what they get because they earned it."

 

 

You must a comedian b/c that is hilarious!

 

DA2 is a great game just a s good as DA1 and is better than DS3 most liekly from what i've been reading on these forums.

 

DA2 = 8.5

 

DS3 Demo = 2

 

DS3 Proper = Not worth full pirce

 

 

"DA2 was nearly as much good as in Obsidian games. Nearly..."

 

Better than NWN2 OC, SOZ, AP, and DS. Not as good as MOTB 9friggin' awesome stuff). And, who knows about FO3.5:LV.

 

1) Seriously, learn to use quote tags.

2) I guess you really don't know.... perhaps you should do some research. DA2's initial reviews were inflated and it was obvious... in fact if you were ever on the BioWare social network this is common knowledge. EA is a very large and powerful company in the industry and they have the ability to... force reviewers and gaming magazines to... inflate the scores and give "nice" reviews. Otherwise the reviewers and gaming magazines can have access cut from certain events that EA holds.

 

So if anyone is a comedian it would be the person who has NO IDEA of how the industry really works behind closed doors. I however have worked in the gaming industry for the last 5 years and have seen a lot of things (shady things) which remind me of the late 80's, early 90's where the gaming industry was full of coke'd up undercutters. Like Nolan Bushnell...

[rafoca]

The definitive co-op review:

 

Despite my quarrels with the game

[funcroc]

GamePro's podcast: RolePlayers' Realm VIII

01:26:20 | Wizardy & Dungeon Siege III w/ Ray & Jason Wilson

 

EDIT: Chris Nahr's mini-review (I really like him, especially his Torment review for Desslock's blog)

Edited July 2, 2011 by funcroc

[Rockman]

Wrong. People bring up DA2 and all it's failings as a direct COMPARISON to DS3 and all it's strong, well thought-out, and interesting design choices. You see (well YOU don't obviously) DS3 and DA2 are in the same genre. And therefore warrant direct comparisons.

 

I agree they both fix into the big overall genre bracket of RPG but they are different subgenres of RPG, so yes comparisons are all well and good as long as the stay fixed to the generalized area of cRPGs and the bits that of overlap. The same applies for comparisons with Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate.

 

Now for me DS3 story is better than 1 or 2 and the gameplay is far more interesting, as for reviews personally I find the scoring system to be pointless for making my choices about the game outside of the few that get get low scores (IE it only good at showing if X a piece of junk or not, out side of that well it not really much help), the comments are more helpful.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Rockman

[Tigranes]

We really don't get the hint the first time, huh? Let's keep it to DS3 and reviews, DA2 rants can... go in a DA2 thread/forum.

[xhtsregginon]

Typically I wouldn't register an account on dev forums just to complain (or praise) about a game, but in this case it's just so that there is one seemingly unbiased review that doesn't unfairly reference some other games success, some other games failures..just the game as it is.

 

That being said, as it is, I bought the ps3 version, doing little research of how DS3 would play, because I read Dungeon Siege and assumed there would be dungeons, and I would be laying siege to them! With friends!! Sounds fairly entertaining, since the idea reminds me of a dungeon crawler, which reminds me of D2 fashioned games where after completion, you take that character into a new game(+) and continue racking up kills, collecting loot, ENJOYING GAMEPLAY. But alas, I should have researched before I purchased.

 

For starters, the length of the game is really disappointing. When you see the name and associate it with old Dungeon Siege games, you can expect hours and hours of roaming dungeons for loot, for quests, or just for killing. But this game does not offer that in the traditional sense..you can of course backtrack through dungeons and kill same-level-as-they-were mobs, with little if any expectations of loot but you can enjoy this act. But why would you want to do that when you could have started a NG+, taken your characters with you to a harder difficulty, for higher level, better loot, etc? Isn't that the point of most ARPGs? To grow your character into the biggest badass you can so that you can challenge the depths of the dungeons on harder difficulties? Maybe it isn't the focus or the goal of the game, but it is the singular experience I've taken from them. Replay value. Sure, there are 4 classes. As it stands, I've beaten the game 3 times, all 3 on hardcore, and have experienced the same level of disappointment when I reached the end..thats it, credits, "Start New Game". Why did this happen? How much effort would have been lost in the quality of the games first playthrough for the devs to have added a NG+ option? Or even just a centralized hub after completion, maybe afew pick-up quests and an actual dungeon to go crawl? Revisit old places that scaled with you? Just trounce around with your fully leveld character and do really good dmg? Or was the focus DLC addons, xpacs to add this feature? If so, why..? 15-25 hours for 60 dollars is not my idea of worth it, and spending more for features games 10 years back came already packaged with (maybe not as refined as this game..) is not the right way to develop a game.

 

The experience overall is satisfying, yes. The story was nicely done, the graphics are quite beautiful, environments reflect the devastation the story provides you with, and the battle is rewarding. Difficulty on normal is well, normal. Hardcore adds a much better balance to an overall too easy game, but the length of it made the devs rely on swarms of monsters rather then amping up certain units and supporting with tactics/strategy. The end experience of the game feels very short-lived, even on hardcore, because you can essentially spam dodge/roll your way through most any encounter you come across until you find the weak-points. Now this isn't a complaint about the battle system, just an observation, but if the game were to last more then 15 hours (9 hours on average for me..) how would the gameplay continue on? Would we just see more powerful adds, the same scaling of damage? Taking 500 dmg per swing via a mob with barely that much HP to me, is a lazy way to make something hardcore.

 

I think the hardest battle of the game on hardcore was the first Jeyne + waves of enemies, only due to the fact that the little fanatics were hitting for 550+, and the constant chaos led you to make the mistake of being hit by one of Jeynes constant ranged attacks. That battle turned into a dodge/roll fest, utilizing very little blocking/regular attacks and more focus on abilities that did not take long to animate. It was more of a kiting-situation, even as Lucas you were NOT going to stand still and try to tank, because if you did try to Block, you would more then likely end up the victim of Cyclops power-swings or a Javelin/Explosion/Swarm of Light projectiles which would break through block and eventually end in a 1shot. Instead, you took every characters strengths and made them irrelevant, Lucas' high armor/stamina provided him to be the bait, get initial aggro to get control and kite around while others did damage. This is a relatively tried and true tanking strat, very reminscent of "jousting" on WoW, but more like focus/HP defensives, shear shear blade dance, roll roll roll roll.. I think because of the short length of the game, developers were forced to rely on zerg burst damage, because there was not enough room for things to progressively become stronger or become more challenging through tactical changes.. it was just a VAST increase in dps from enemies, to the point where armor was almost an obsolete stat for tanking, it was more about having stamina stacked to survive a hit if you did get hit, and just rely on dodge for every encounter.

 

That shouldn't be the end result of a hardcore difficulty. With how well the block does work in this game, it should have been more emphasized, it should have been more prominent as a defensive technique, especially as Lucas and especially in big boss battles. But more often then not, a simple dodge would negate several enemy attacks..it leaves you with the feeling that block was not designed to be used, it was just implemented for the full effect of combat.

 

That brings me to my next point, the character system. Now every character imo has a well balanced play style, each reflecting what you would expect. Lucas covers both as tank and DPS, Anjali as melee and ranged, Kat is your untypical typical ranged class, with a good playstyle for any situation, and Reinhart is a cool if not confused Mage Warrior. The abilities are limited but have a good feeling of usefulness at the level you gain them until you can access the next tier. The added value of proficiencies makes characters feel more complete, leaning characters towards support or DPS regardless of class intentions. It seems to be a good way to think outside the archetype "warrior tanks", "mage dps or heals" type thinking..until you get down to it. Limited by level and the lack of abilities is an obvious reflection of how short this game really is. On Lucas, I became a Vanguard Strike machine. It's literally all Lucas needs, he can tank with it, he can DPS with it, he can kite with it. It's the best ability he has (imo), and is dangerous when upgraded correctly and empowered. But it's a tier 2 ability, and it's high (HIGH!!!) dps is confusing, seeing how he is in a tanking stance. This is because of how the scaling in this game was designed, with the lack of length in gameplay, you dont see the need to do anything but activate his Focus defensive and spam Vanguard into all the small adds, eventually developing a Vanguard swing swing Vanguard rinse repeat method. This again is a problem with the length of the game..because it's so short, theres not much need to do anything else. You can Wind Shear/Blade Dance, which is very fun, satisfying, yet costly, as it should be with his focus being tanking, but it seems like Vanguard Charge is just far superior in terms of DPS.

 

With Kat, all you need is Agility/Doom and Flintlock Flurry..eventually Empowered Flinklock Flurry is the end-all of her DPS. She is reduced to 1 ability, which is very fun to use, very fulfilling to spam, but because of the length of the game, you never get to see how powerful she can really be. You get to a point where she can 1-shot everything basically, bosses taking 2-5 uses of Empowered Flintlock, the damage which is again, not the problem I'm addressing, but the fact that you cannot carry her into more developing and more growth, and thus more DPS because there is no NG+. If you reach the last shop and don't find a weapon for her there, the game is basically over in terms of fun. You do not get another chance to pick up a better gun, unless you can get lucky on Archon drops.. which is fine, luck is part of games like these. But when you can't replay it with the same character to get the better loot you might have missed out on before..you can see where I'm going with this. It's disappointing, SEVERELY.

 

The Camera angle on MP is pretty pathetic, I can't really defend it in any way other then by saying, if you are host, you can choose to roll everywhere you go and teleport your party members with you, thus controlling the camera for yourself.. But when I have people complaining to me about how they can't see their character, they keep dying due to teleports during fights, etc, it becomes a camera issue adding to the difficulty. This technical aspect of the game should not be a way to increase difficulty, regardless of whether you are tethered to your host or not, you shouldn't be losing sight completely of your character because the host dies waay over in 1 corner, and you are rolling to save your life to another.. This to me, was almost the unplayable part of the game. The camera literally made me want to take the game back, because anygame that promotes couch co-op or 4p MP online should have a good camera system to go with the experience. The games camera shouldn't be the limiting factor in your gaming experience, and if it is, whoever designed it needs to be looked at, good and hard, and asked why. Why are so many people complaining about a camera, that in SP works relatively well, but in MP is game breaking?

 

TLDR version

 

The game is nice, enjoyable to an extent..but once you reach that extent, you are at the end of the games ability to provide replay. So many elements of this game were limited and held back by the short length of this game, and while there is much room for improvement, whether via patch, DLC, and Xpac, it seems to me that this game was poorly handled. It is like playing Dynasty Warriors, the encouragement to play other characters is the only thing to add replay value, which should not be the story with a game boasting the title "Dungeon Siege". Dungeon crawlers should have dungeons in them... I remember 1 "dungeon" that actually contained fighting, it was before the Spire.. I am an avid gamer, I play after work to enjoy the last hours of the day, to reward myself for a long hard day, and in the case of buying this game, it was to enjoy the weekend by couch potato mode hardcore RPG time. I was incredibly disappointed when I beat the game and there was nothing after that. I can't say it wasn't an enjoyable experience, but with how short-lived it was.. I can't believe I just paid 60 dollars for this title.

[PoetAndMadman]

8/10 in the biggest magazine in Poland - CD-Action

[C2B]

but in this case it's just so that there is one seemingly unbiased review that doesn't unfairly reference some other games success, some other games failures

 

When you see the name and associate it with old Dungeon Siege games,

 

Thats one contradicting review.

 

Also no review is unbiased.

[jaxx]

I really like this game. I think it has a good story, cool graphics, and a cool fighting system. My major gripes r the game is way to short!!! I could see this game being awesome if a bit more was put into the game, more story , more places to go like different towns ans sidequests. You get soo much loot and it all pretty much looks the same, there r very few rare weapons n armour! Leveling up is annoying, after u have been to a place only a few monsters come out and they r weak n it makes grinding extremely tedious!!!

[GhostofAnakin]

If I had to give it a quick numerical score, it'd probably fall in the 7.5 to 8 range.

 

Granted, I rated it based on my own perception of Obsidian games (ie. I look at the RPG aspects, as opposed to folks who might rate this game based on hack n slash aspects), so perhaps some of the marks I took off aren't fair given the setting of the game. For instance, the linearity of the quests resulted in points being removed, as did the overall lack of story growth of your companions (unless I'm missing something, the only time you actually learn much about them is when you first meet them, and at the very end).

 

Also, while I'm not a big MP fan, I do think the tethered camera and the range of the camera (ie. it always seems as though you should be able to see just a bit more ahead of you, but never can) should be pointed out as a minus. It's not game breaking for me like it apparently seems to be to some that are frothing at the mouth about it, but I also think it could be improved upon.

 

Additionally, there didn't seem to be that many sidequests. The overall main quests weren't bad (though I think maybe one more "major" city/town area with a main quest and a handful of sidequests would have worked great), but where the game felt short was there wasn't the usual bunch of sidequests you find in most other RPGs.

 

Overall, however, I enjoyed the game. Great, fun combat, interesting characters, straight forward but interesting story, and decent replay value.

[funcroc]

OT: Gamasutra interview with Mike Fischer, President and CEO of Square Enix US

[XxTaLoNxX]

OT: Gamasutra interview with Mike Fischer, President and CEO of Square Enix US

 

Hate to be the guy who points out random crap, but, that is NOT on topic and DS3 is mentioned once in the first three pages and the article has nothing to do with this topic at all. It's not a review, it's an interview that mentions DS3 in a passing glance and really just focuses on SquareEnix USA's business strategies.

[C2B]

OT: Gamasutra interview with Mike Fischer, President and CEO of Square Enix US

 

Hate to be the guy who points out random crap, but, that is NOT on topic and DS3 is mentioned once in the first three pages and the article has nothing to do with this topic at all. It's not a review, it's an interview that mentions DS3 in a passing glance and really just focuses on SquareEnix USA's business strategies.

 

OT=Off Topic

[XxTaLoNxX]

OT: Gamasutra interview with Mike Fischer, President and CEO of Square Enix US

 

Hate to be the guy who points out random crap, but, that is NOT on topic and DS3 is mentioned once in the first three pages and the article has nothing to do with this topic at all. It's not a review, it's an interview that mentions DS3 in a passing glance and really just focuses on SquareEnix USA's business strategies.

 

OT=Off Topic

 

lol *facepalm* "doh"

 

had a brain fart, my bad

[funcroc]

OT: DSIII features page at Square Enix Members (NA) community (Dungeon Siege III Art Contest, Fan-Powered Q&A With Obsidian Entertainment, Dungeon Siege III Gameplay Journal)

[Flouride]

OT: DSIII features page at Square Enix Members (NA) community (Dungeon Siege III Art Contest, Fan-Powered Q&A With Obsidian Entertainment, Dungeon Siege III Gameplay Journal)

 

Gotta love how you can't access those with an EU account.