Just because I'm taking a vacation from work doesn't mean I'm not playing games. This gave me the opportunity to play through Dungeon Siege III without feeling rushed, as I'm giving myself three or four days to finish a game. As a fantasy RPG I assumed I would need it. I bought the game from GameStop brand new at full price.
As an Xbox 360 user I am a bit of an Achievement nut, so after loading the game I went through the list to see what the game wants from me. A little disclaimer in how I played the game; there are three difficulty settings, but only one achievement for beating it on Hard. I didn't think this was the ideal way to play it the first time, so I opted for Casual, as Normal doesn't get you anything extra. There was one particular achievement that caught my eye, Perfectionist, which is about completing the game and all the side missions. As it turns out the side missions all appear on your in-game map but I used a list to make sure I didn't miss any. That was the only amount of assistance I used in the game.
Well, that and a list of where all the books are that explain the entire backstory of the franchise. There is a brief history on the land of Ehb in the manual and the prologue of the game, but the game might have been better served if the player knew the world's history before going into it. I would be remiss in mentioning since this is a sequel the events from the previous games (Windows and PSP) are in fact covered. Some care was taken to craft the world to explain the motivations of all forces involved, up to and including the gods of the land, so that should be commended.
Like most games of this genre, the world is in chaos. You are one of the last few descendants of the Legion, the elite defenders of the realm in days gone by. Even though they were the most powerful force of good in Ehb, they somehow failed keep some hot, young illegitimate heir to the throne from using god-powers to decimate them and the land, as well as turn all honest folks against them. It's deeper than that, but on the surface you are trying to clear the name of the Legion which was hunted to extinction as well as bring order to the land. Nothing new there.
The draw for this game is playing a top-down Fantasy RPG dungeon crawler where you wander the land, beat up evil and collect as much loot as possible. It's even a feature on the back of the box. The developers want you to collect incrementally better and better gear as you play. I like min/max-ing my armor and weapon choices as I play a game, but I don't like a game that either focuses on it, or tailors the world to make me do it. When you switch to better equipment it should look and feel like your character is better, and I never did, except seeing damage numbers above enemy heads. I also had the feeling that enemies scaled with you, almost defeating the purpose using gear to an advantage. Equiping seems easy at first, but you get companions that have to be equiped as well, and it becomes clunky dealing with them as you can only use one of them at a time. Upgradeable between levels are personal powers and character mods, but you never get enough points to put into everything, so I always felt at a loss when I had to choose one of many different things.
I have played any number of RPGs, and this game seems to have taken a number of mediocre ideas from other games and merged them into one. Every aspect of Dungeon Siege III I have played elsewhere and better. That's not to say it's is bad, just that it's bland. Borderlands and Too Human did a better job of the item collecting game. Dragon Age: Origins and Knights of the Old Republic did the character ability tree better. Diablo did better with top-down camera angle. Baldur's Gate did better with the dungeon crawling. It feels like a blender was used to list the features this game should have. The sad thing is it's a decent game, but just misses shy of the mark in so many ways. I want to know why games that let you carry 20 different suits of armor for four characters suddenly imposes a limit. Just let me carry everything, or put a box somewhere in the world I can store my things in. I hate RPG item management.
The camera is always over your head, but can be moved a little closer to behind and above your head. This never lets you see what's in front of your character. Ehb is a lush looking world at times from a forest village, to a Steampunk city, to a snowy mountain pass, to a Dwarven mine with shiny crystals and floating rocks. I wanted to see all these things from a first person perspective and enjoy the details, but the god-like view made much of this impersonal. But then, a lot of times the detail wasn't that sharp when you could look at the environment close. This could easily have been an original Xbox game. If Dungeon Siege were presented like an Elder Scrolls game it would have been much better.
If you are worried that an open world would be hard to manage with this camera, then you'll be relieved to know you can't go anywhere off the beaten path. This is almost the perfect definition of Invisible Walls. There is no freedom to wander and no need to back track unless you think you missed something. If you get disoriented after a battle, a Fable II dotted trail will lead you to the next destination. It's hard not to figure out what to do. I'm not sure this is a good thing. Dragon Age: Origins was the same way but I could call my own shots with an overworld map to decide what to do next. This freedom is gone.
There are four characters to choose from the start, but the only one that appealed to me was Reinhart, a mage with the power over electricity that had spinning gears on his clothes. All the interactive dialogue is presented like a BioWare game, with voice acting and a conversation wheel. There were plot elements to choose from that did feel like it effected the game, and all this came from talking to NPCs. The sad thing is the character animation was flatter and less interesting than Fallout 3. I suppose I should be happy characters blink. Conversations always seem an abrupt change to events unfolding as you run around. At least there are no load times to speak of.
I am spoiled by Final Fantasy of days gone by when it comes to cut scenes. There aren't any. Well, there are these nice sepia-toned art pieces that act as segues between major events, that are able narrated by a character named Odo. I really wish Rene Auberjonois had voiced him. It just would have made sense. The voice did a decent job, too. It is weird hearing your own character talking back after choosing a response. However, when I did manage to see my character's face, he wasn't talking, just a voice coming from his head. Cheap shortcut. And what is it with games that change what you say after you respond? There was even an L.A. Noire moment where I needed to judge if someone was lying, and there was no way the facial animation had that level of detail to it.
Fighting is handled in real-time with some minor cool-down of defense spells. You have a life bar, you have a magic bar, what else do you need? How about grinding? Unless you want to game the system; save, then reload in a wilderness area to force enemy to respawn. Rinse and repeat. At least your companion is good enough to revive you when you fall during battle, so being overwhelmed isn't such a chore.
The bright shining light I found in this game was the town of Stonebridge. Inhabited by both humans and Goblins (I think they were supposed to be Gnomes), the entire town is Steampunk with moving gears on buildings and robot police walking the streets. It is the most fully realized idea in the game. From its history to the economy and technology. There is a Foundry underground that powers the entire city and you have to investigate it when it goes silent. I wish every town and hub in the game was made with this level of care.
This franchise could use an update of some sort. I have nothing against the story as they have filled a lot of history over the last 150 years of in-game time since the last game. I need something more out Dungeon Siege, though. I wanted to be wowwed by the locations, spend hours picking the right piece of armor, or grind for a while until I could face down a boss on my terms. Everything in this game is adequate, except the voice acting and the music which are above average. I like the world, I just want a better use of it. And who the heck is the person on the cover?
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