It is time for MashButtons to review another dungeon crawler, this time in the form or a disk based game rather than a download. Obsidian made and Square Enix published action RPG with online coop capabilities, Dungeon Siege III, has just released and we have had a full week with this title on the PS3, so let’s get the basics out of the way before I get to the meat and potatoes of the experience. You pick one of four Legionnaires, protectors of Ehb, similar to the Grey Wardens in Dragon Age, who have been betrayed and almost wiped out to the brink of extinction. Like others in the genre you are able to develop your character to fit your play style, loot, button mash your melee, plan your moves based on your energy, quest, and more loot. With all the Diabl-esque titles recently being released in the form of downloadable on XBLA and PSN, is it worth it now a days to pay full retail price to get what some would call the same content for a quarter of the price?
So far, I am going to have to go with yes. Admittedly, if you are not sure which character you are going to play as, this may be the toughest decision made in this game. I decided to play through as Anjali, you know since she is a vixen, good with a staff, and likes to play with fire. The gameplay was smooth and I do not recall coming across any bugs or glitches in my single player play through. The multiplayer is rather hit or miss, depending who you are playing with. If you are playing with friends that have the same goals and intentions you will really enjoy the coop gameplay. If you do not play online, you will not miss the coop as you can play couch coop, which played really well, and if you are the type that would rather play with yourself, you will get assistance from NPC's throughout the story. The graphics look great and think the environment design along with the character animations, and fluidity when things get hectic is what makes the game play so well in comparison to others out there in the same genre. There really isn't much in the way of load times that I noticed, not enough to deter playing like that which I encountered during another recent review, which may mostly be due to the installation of the game to the hard drive on the PlayStation 3.
Now to the other side of the online coop gameplay and a couple other issues encountered. There are two ways to play online coop, join a match or have others join you game, I have been focusing on having others join me until I have my character build figured out. Playing with strangers runs a huge risk of encountering some...well, for lack of a better word, jerks. Whether speeding through areas they have played through already, messing with your loot stash, or lack of support, it is bound to happen here and there, but as I said before, it is hit or miss. It is a large world in this land of Ehb, but is rather linear in terms of maps, Where in a similar title, Sacred 2, It was an open world environment, not a big issue, just less exploration than I would have thought. Also, this is an Obsidian titles, which means there are decisions to be made, you know, those of us that have played such titles as Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, and Knights of the Old Republic Dos, but I felt as if your decisions didn't impact the story as much, making morale questions easier to answer.
I am happy the Dungeon Siege III released on a console. The high def dungeon crawling typically seen on handhelds, has been really trying to breakthrough as of recently, and though most are fun though without multiplayer, or have multiplayer with numerous bugs, this will hopefully bring new life to the genre so we can see Diablo III on consoles. Being a newcomer to the Dungeon Siege series, I didn't feel lost at all playing through the third entry, and had enough fun to go back and start a new character, so there is a lot of replay value here, doubt I will try all four, but will enjoy the looting and multiplayer for as far as I get.
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