Dungeon Siege III Preview

The editors over at AtomicGamer let us know that they’ve finally gotten around to posting their hands-on preview of the multiplayer mechanics in Dungeon Siege III. A couple of paragraphs to start you off:

I think the only thing I am not terribly happy with, as far as managing your gear, is that in local cooperative play, only one person can mess around in any full-screen menu, so you’ll have to take turns fiddling with gear, proficiencies, and talents. When I asked about this, a couple of guys on the team said that so much information for each item and such was being shown, it just wouldn’t all fit into one screen if it had to be split into two, but I have a sneaking suspicion that that it actually could fit, and what’s holding them back is that lingering group of people that are still gaming on SDTVs. Frankly, I think it’d be worth adding some kind of optional mode that only works in HD-sized modes to let cooperative players to both work on their characters at the same time.

One thing that’s important to point out is that Obsidian has made Dungeon Siege 3 a very story-focused game, so even when you go online, one player is always the lead player, and everyone else joins that person’s game to essentially make changes only in that lead player’s world. This isn’t Diablo, and you won’t be jumping into someone else’s game to complete quests, level up, and get gear for your own character that you then take elsewhere. The lead player gets to choose conversation options, but anyone else that’s joined gets to see the conversation and can actually suggest answers for the lead player to choose. I should also point out that the game’s heavier story focus requires everyone to be playing a unique character; you can’t put two Anjalis in the same game.