Dungeon Siege III Previews

A handful more Dungeon Siege III previews have become available based on the hands-on time journalists received at the recent Obsidian press event. Escapist Magazine.

There is a story, but it’s kept largely to the background so that it doesn’t get in the way of the fast-paced combat and loot-collecting. Finding a balance between Obisidian’s traditional story-heavy RPG approach – these are the folks who made Fallout: New Vegas, after all – and the hack-and-slash vibe of the original Dungeon Siege games was tricky, explains the game’s Creative Lead, George Ziets. The solution was to keep much of the game’s lore on the sidelines, in books, and allow players to zip through the dialog as quickly as possible. Most conversations have an option along the lines of “Whatever, let’s just go do this thing,” that boil down the dialog to the bare minimum, but if you’re interested in discovering how Ehb has changed over the past century and a half (hint: there are guns now!), or simply learning more about the people you encounter, the information is there.

Segment Next.

The graphics of Dungeon Siege 3 resemble that of its predecessor, Dungeon Siege II, but the visuals overall have seem to have taken a face-lift (and a good one too!). Well putting it bluntly, they don’t look half bad as Dungeon Siege 2, but way, way better.

In fact a whole new graphic engine is doing the job and has allowed good little things like immense increase in the general field of view, pretty bling-bling-styled light effects (typical of fantasy RPG’s), and a general improvement in textures.

Moreover, the camera angles are slightly enhanced and allow players to get closer to their characters and make it a more personal experience. All in all the game is a visually beautiful, but not to the extent that you’d go gaga over it, but definitely a beautiful.

Game Front.

Time to (finally) venture into Raven’s Rill. Along the way, the legionnaire (there’s just one of you now, with the rest having stayed behind at the chapterhouse) encounters more of the guys who attacked Montbarron Manor mercenaries of a nomadic group of people called the Lescanzi, who all kind of look like Colonial minutemen from the American Revolution.

Raven’s Rill is a quiet place, even though it’s bustling with people. The people who are willing to speak with you are brisk at best apparently, it’s very obvious that you’re a legionnaire, and no one wants to incur the wrath of the powers that be by speaking with you. Lescanzi mercenaries have occupied the town and are set up in the upper end (you enter in the lower), and whoever employed them to murder you is expecting you to show up in the area after they failed to capture or kill you at the chapterhouse.

The people are distrustful of legionnaires, too, which is part of the smear campaign waged by Jeyne Kassynder when she took control of the country from the 10th Legion something like 30 years ago. It’ll take a good reputation to sway these people, and after a bit of prodding, you can pick up a couple of side quests in Raven’s Rill from a few distraught members of the community.

Co-Optimus.

We were given the chance to play on the PC, Xbox 360, or PS3. I went with my comfort level and grabbed a 360 spot. Once I got my hands on the controller I was given the choice between Lucas or Anjali, along with a brief description of the character’s back story and combat capabilities. I have an old rule when it comes to games with different classes, and that is: “I tank, that way I don’t have to think.” That’s right. I’m just going to pound the “destroy” button and keep walking forward. Someone else can keep me alive.

Gameplay was simple, push “A” to melee, the other face buttons were special moves, a shoulder button changed stances, a trigger acted as a Shift key. Pounding baddies with melee charged up your special attacks. Charge those up enough to get a special-er attack. I should note the game looked very good on the 360, but it looked remarkably better on the PC. Hand-drawn weapon effects added vibrant colors to an already colorful game. At one point in time I saw a high level player-character with a weapon that absolutely dripped with poison.