Dungeon Siege III Previews

You’re going to have to wait a week or so for my hands-on article, but in the meantime, there are a couple of new Dungeon Siege III previews on IGN AU:

Getting a sense of the wider storyline while playing through an hour or so of Dungeon Siege III was like trying to catch rainwater in a sieve. Sure, I got some of the bare essentials, such as the fact that there was a big war 30 years ago, in which Lucas’ father (the playable character in this demo) was killed and Jeyne Kassynder (now there’s a ridiculous fantasy name) rose to power. With evildoers and mercenaries rampaging across the Kingdom, it’s up to the player to reunite the 10th Legion the group that once protected the land and save Ehb. From what I’ve seen this seems like pretty no frills fantasy fare, but like I said, I was armed with little more than a figurative sieve, so fingers crossed the wider story is rich and interesting.

In terms of conversations, Dungeon Siege III is relatively progressive, drawing in close to the character in question so that players feel as though they’re talking to them. At least, that’s the theory. The reality is that the player is assaulted by stereotypical accents (heroes seem to have poncy British accents while sexy big-bosomed vixens speak with an eastern European lilt) and poor facial animations. Honestly, you might as well be talking to a puppet for all the emotion you’ll extract from their mask-like faces. Even so, the big plus is that the conversation system gives players numerous options to choose from, allowing them to find out as much or as little about the world around them as they’d like.

And CVG:

Players won’t leave the group in a huff if you start acting up, but loyalty does earn you character-related advantages. Dungeon Siege III doesn’t have competitive multi-player, but Obsidian have confirmed a local sofa co-op mode for two players, in which a second player can piggy-back your storyline, help out and have access to your inventory for as long as they’re there.

Squabbles over loot won’t happen, thanks to the fact that different heroes use different sets of items. Anjali the mage isn’t interested in axes, and if you asked Lucas to wear magical beads in his hair, he’d look at you like you were nuts. There’ll be an online multi-player too, but Obsidian are tight-lipped on that for now.

Let me just say that the IGN preview does not do this game justice and has a few points of misinformation in it. Mine will be much more in-depth and accurate. I promise :).