Dungeon Siege III Previews

Dungeon Siege III is one of the titles on display at E3, though the demo is hands-off and behind closed doors. IGN took a look.

The visuals in the demo were particularly impressive, with smooth animation and nice lighting effects. In terms of actual play, shown off were two character classes, the Guardian and the Archon. The Guardian is more of a melee class with bulky armor and a sword, and can switch between two stances. In one, the class can attack swiftly and do high damage to single targets. By swapping stances you’ll swing more slowly and forcefully, which works better for controlling crowds and hacking away at groups of foes. A number of special abilities can also be triggered, including area of effect attacks and charge dashes that can knock enemies across the screen and off cliffs. While this is going on, the Archon sits back and lobs spells.

As did NowGamer.

Gameplay is little different from any other action-RPG you can think of. You take on quests, explore dungeons, and find loot. The most interesting addition here was when the guardian Urquhart was playing as met an NPC, who he asked to join the party through a simple dialogue select system. The NPC started to fight by the player character’s side, controlled by the AI. However, Obsidian is keen to ensure that Dungeon Siege’s multiplayer elements are as big a point of focus here as in previous titles. Therefore, any player can pick up another pad and join in thanks to drop-in-drop-out co-op, at which point the camera view will pan out to a more traditional isometric viewpoint. Urquhart promised more details on co-op soon, which will be able to support up to four players.

Scrawl has a short write-up.

Of course, you’re probably wondering: Dungeon Siege was originally developed by Gas Powered Games, so now that Obsidian’s handling the third, what special touch are they throwing in? Conversations. They’re focused on adding an actual story to the game. Players can choose between answers in conversations that will effect the overall outcome of the game. Obsidian does promise though that there won’t be conversations every five seconds and that they’ll only occur when important. They don’t want to stray players too far from the action RPG that the game really is. To help aid the game’s story in this fashion, the players will walk and talk, interacting and learning the story while fighting and playing.