Dungeon Siege III Preview

Written by Michael Rohde Friday, 11 March 2011 10:10

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the good folks from Maverick PR to play some local co-op of Square Enix’s Dungeon Siege III. I went into the preview thinking nothing more of Dungeon Siege as being a PC dungeon crawler. I went away thinking, I have to get this game for my 360 when it’s released on May 31. The game will also be available on the PS3 and of course the PC.

Before we started playing, the game was described to me in such a way I thought they were talking about Dragon Age. You can play as four different characters and each character will have it’s own story line. The choices you make during the game will effect how the game ends. Sounds a lot like Dragon Age, doesn’t it? I was corrected in that it is more like Baldur’s Gate. After we started playing, I allowed myself to stand corrected.

Dungeon Siege III offers single player action, two-player local co-op and up to four-players online. When you set up the multiplayer, one person will be the host and that person will make the ultimate decisions on how the game is played. This includes dialogue choices and what decisions are made, which effects how the game is played. However, your friends are not along simply for the ride. They will be able to influence the conversation choices by voting on which answers they want the host to pick. The host can then either go along with the votes or override their friends. Playing in this manner will unlock special co-op Achievements.

This action RPG from Obsidian is looking great. The details in the game are awesome. You can check out the screenshots in the GoozerNation image gallery. The action comes in the form of spell casting from a distance or slashing your sword in an up-close-and-personal fighting style. By clicking the right bumper, your character either takes a different form or assumes a different fighting stance. For example, the spellcaster can transform from a human form to a floating form complete with her hair on fire. It’s pretty cool to see in action. You could play the game as a simple button smasher, or you can use a variety of tactics. This includes the ability to cast spells that heals other players while damaging monsters. Teamwork is a huge factor in Dungeon Siege III. At one point in the hands-on game play, we devised a strategy that I would attack the smaller monsters while the PR guy attacked the big monster. In that way, we were able to defeat the boss in a very cooperative style.

I was told the game will offer up to 30 hours of gameplay. But with extreme replay value that Dungeon Siege III offers, you could probably quadruple that number. You could shoot through the entire game in 15 hours if you skip all of the dialogue and the side quests and simply zip through the main quest. Dungeon Siege III will be a game you’ll want to pick up with your friends for some story-driven monster-smashing fun.