Dungeon Siege III Reviews

We have rounded up quite a few new reviews for Obsidian and Square-Enix’s first attempt at the dungeon crawling genre, and this batch is decidedly more negative in reception than the last few.

IGN calls it a “dungeon crawler without good loot” and awards it a 6.5.

It’s also worth forgetting this game has a multiplayer component because of the restrictions in Dungeon Siege III’s online suite. The game plays out entirely in two-character co-operative mode with the partner class of your choosing controlled by a capable artificial intelligence that will make use of a variety of skills and revive you when necessary. You have full control over the skill development of the AI characters and can equip them with gear, but as soon as you go to play online, none of this matters. By hopping into the game of another through the game’s online browser you can’t import your main character. Instead, you’re forced to select from whichever character classes aren’t already active in the game (two of the same class are not allowed), and won’t have any control over skill development while you’re disconnected. While this might work if you want to play with close friends, it makes Dungeon Siege III’s online mode near useless if you’re looking for a random partner to pair up with and make progress.

The rules of online play also aren’t appropriately customizable either, since if you open up your single-player game for another to join, that random person can speed over to a vendor and sell off all your inventory items before bailing out. Such behavior isn’t the fault of Obsidian, but failing to put in safeguards against this kind of thing is. Though four-player online play is possible, it’s also a chaotic mess. The camera incessantly jitters as it struggles to follow the action, the spell effects, as bright and colorful as they are, make it overly difficult to discern what’s actually happening onscreen, and the arenas of combat feel far too small to accommodate more than two.

And GameSpot isn’t too kind with the title either, 6.5/10 for the console versions and 6.0 for the PC version being the scores.

If you tire of having just a single AI companion at your side, you can have a buddy take over in local cooperative play or have three others join you online. Many dungeon crawlers are energized by the addition of friends or strangers, and Dungeon Siege III is no exception. Setting enemies aflame while Lucas dashes through a cluster of spiders and Katarina dispatches them with her dual shotguns is a blast. But the co-op play has some execution flaws that limit its appeal. One of them is the camera, which forces players to closely stick together, even when playing online. It also has a tendency to move into positions that limit your view of the surrounding area, and it’s simply not fun to get hit by homing fireballs you can’t see until they’re upon you. And should you join another’s campaign, you aren’t taking your own character with you; you’re just taking over for the AI in that player’s game. You don’t get to keep any experience, skills, or loot that you might earn for your trouble.

With Dungeon Siege III, you might have expected a game that lived up to the nine-year-old adventure that started the series. Instead, you get a short and simple dungeon crawler with no aspirations to be anything more. On its own terms, Dungeon Siege III is fine, if standard-issue. You mash a button, cast some magic, and earn a ton of loot for your troubles. This game drizzles gold upon you as if it were pennies from heaven, and because you can turn unneeded items into currency right in your inventory screen, you never need to leave anything cool on the forest floor. But you needn’t have played the first two games to see where this sequel falls short of its potential. And if you did play them, you’re bound to be disappointed by how everything that made previous Dungeon Siege games special was stripped away. It’s not that playing Dungeon Siege III is a choice you’d regret–it’s that you wouldn’t remember anything about it once it was over.

IncGamers is confused by what the developers were trying to accomplish, 6/10.

It’s difficult to wrap my head around just who Dungeon Siege 3 is aimed at. It doesn’t offer the depth that fans of dungeon crawlers have come to expect and, on the other hand, it refuses to incorporate enough modern elements to appeal to the new generation of RPG fans. The result is a game that generally functions as intended but largely falls flat and struggles to impose a sense of personality.

What’s so disappointing is that Obsidian has shown great skill and respect in developing sequels to established franchises in the past (Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights). It seems that even the best have their off days.

GameSpy would have probably preferred the game to be more streamlined, 3.5/5.

Trite as it is and pointless as Obsidian’s slavish adherence to some of the old standby systems (like loot and leveling) seems, I genuinely hope it gets another crack at Dungeon Siege. The series has never been particularly memorable, but at least under Obsidian’s guidance, it’s mostly fun.

Metro, 7/10.

The flaws are obvious then but the game’s greatest triumph is that it has us genuinely interested in seeing a Dungeon Siege IV, and we suspect this time we won’t be the only ones.

Kit Guru Games, 4/5.

Overall, I feel Dungeon Siege 3 is polished, very attractively designed and a lot of fun to play. We aren’t sure that purist followers of the first game will enjoy it quite as much as I did, due to some of the points I made earlier, but I found the overall concept and structuring to be great. The story line, character development and cooperative modes ensure this is a game you shouldn’t miss. It offers enough to differentiate itself from previous titles, but it may also alienate a portion of the audience.

The Gamer’s Hub, 3/5.

Dungeon Siege III is good, but nothing great or ground-breaking. The game had a lot of potential to bring this world to life in all departments, but falls short of its true goal. The story is quite interesting and told well, but can get confusing, loses focus, and easy forgotten about half-way though. Gameplay wise, the games keeps quite a few core mechanics, but is limited and simplified. Presentation wise, the unique world of Ehb and the main characters doesn’t come into light due to lifeless Voiceovers and overused fantasy theme soundtrack. Graphics on the other hand might not be anything special, but shows a unique and detailed world. Overall, Dungeon Siege III is an enjoyable game, but certain development choices hold back the full potential Dungeon Siege III.