Now Playing: Dungeon Siege 3

Dungeon Siege 3, unlike Dungeon Siege 2, serves as a more direct sequel to the original game in terms of story, characters and locations. This is one aspect of it I quite liked, as DS2, whilst a great game, felt very far removed from the original to the point where it felt like an entirely separate franchise. Dungeon Siege 3, however, is unfortunately a significant step back from the great strides made forward in DS2.

Although it is technically still an action-RPG, DS3 feels more like a simple (and repetitive) hack and slash game. I must state that the PC keyboard and mouse controls are rather awkward, and clearly not designed for the game and the way it plays. I switched to using a controller, which was a lot easier.

So let’s look at the good stuff first. The game looks great, with some lush, highly detailed environments. Character models and animations are good. Level and enemy variety is also good. Combat is fast, fluid and magic and weapon effects are colourful and enjoyable to watch. DS3 is certainly a pretty game, there’s no doubt about that. Audio is decent, as is VA. Story wise it’s nothing special, but it does the job, although I really liked that the ending took into account your choices and gave you a personalised epilogue of events.

Okay, so that’s about it for the good stuff, I’m afraid. Now onto the bad things. First of all, let’s talk about companions. DS1 allowed you several companions, although these weren’t so much unique ‘characters’ as just extra stats to add to your team. DS2 limits you to a team of 4 out of a larger pool of companions which you swap out as you please. Although more limited, each companion was given a unique personality and side quest, plus additional dialogue as they commented on certain events.

In DS3 however…there’s a moment when you find the tomb of the original companions in DS1. It’s a nice touch, but it comes just before you recruit your second companion in DS3 and sadly realise that you can only have ONE companion in your ‘party’. You see, there are four playable characters, although these really boil down to four different classes to choose from, and whichever you choose at the start, the other three characters then form your companions. But you can only have one active at a time.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the companions were given some depth, unique dialogue and side quests, but that isn’t the case. Aside from a few lines here and there, your choice of companion is largely irrelevant. They have an ‘influence’ bar you can increase by making certain story based choices, but this didn’t seem to mean anything in the game at all. So you certainly won’t bother playing through again to see how things change with a different companion or main character.

Gear/level progression is terrible. You have a ‘base’ set of gear you can upgrade but visually it’s all practically identical aside from a few colour variations and a couple of unique items. You’re also locked to specific weapon types for each character so there’s very little freedom to customise. Level upgrades are basic, simply unlocking new tiers of the same few abilities.

Combat is solid, but can grow repetitive. You have normal attacks, special attacks, power attacks, blocking and rolls, plus two ‘stances’ which involve switching to alternate weapon sets. But with no party tactics or even the basic ability to pause the game and issue orders, it feels much more like a hack and slash as you simply hammer the attack button whilst rolling around on the floor and your AI companion does their own thing.

Side quests are disappointing compared to DS2, largely just involving small detours off of the main quest areas. There’s no companion specific stuff, or puzzles to solve. In fact there’s very little exploration in general. The environments, although they look good, are very static and incredibly linear. This was something DS2 pulled off very well, by creating levels that didn’t feel like a grind, but also allowed room for a great deal of exploration. DS3 is really just a slog from A to B to C, with no reason to revisit areas, or put together pieces of a puzzle as in DS2.

DS2 addressed a lot of the flaws of DS1, but DS3 seems to have ignored a lot of these improvements. DS3 should have built upon those improvements, but instead it seems to go backwards, and in some cases ends up worse than the original. It’s shorter than both of the previous games, with practically zero replay value. It’s pretty to look at, but very shallow. DS1 may not have aged very well, but I can forgive a lot of its quirks as the product of its time. DS3 has no such excuse. It’s short, forgettable and just not very interesting. Get DS2 instead.

4/10