Dungeon Siege III

Obsidian doesn like romanced based quest

Finished the game- it's about 17 hours long exploring as much as possible according to Steam- there will probably be a lot of replay value with other characters.

Overall it's a pretty solid and fun game and the environments look great- the engine is incredibly well optimised and runs so smoothly (which is a refreshing change of pace from witcher 2's constant stutters and screw ups even after shelling out money for a graphics card that is way beyond the recommended specs)

The story is pretty interesting and I like the whole mythos with the archons (seems to draw a lot from hinduism and possibly buddhism which feels really fresh for a medieval fantasy game). I do think though that because of the whole mythology with the archons it feels like Anjali is clearly the main character of the game (I might have been kicking heaps of ass as Reinhart but I didn't feel that relevant to the plot compared to the others) and that's probably my only real issue with the story.

Reinhart is a mage that runs around with clockwork Power Fist and Power Belt and punches things in face with MAGIC. He is clearly way too awesome to be the main protagonist.

Though If I had to guess, I would peg the sword+shield/Two-handed sword guy as a main protagonist, given the initial description.

I kinda wonder: does the story change when playing it as a different character? And is there enough freedom with your skills and abilities to be able to build your character in different ways? Lack of the second one seems to be semi-common complaint on teh internet.

edited 20th Jun '11 12:19:14 AM by Drakovicz

You get all of the skills in the game but it's a matter of only being able to master a select few of the skills (I think was able to max out 4 of the 9 skills and I was level 28 of 30 when I finished the game). Also each skill can be built differently- for example as Reinhart I had this Ao E called Geometry of Annihilation and as I built it up I could choose between making it last longer vs increasing crit chance if Reinhart or companions stand in the Ao E as well.

Loot also has a big role in diversifying the characters since you get access to additional skills with certain pieces of loot (for example, I had this one weapon that allowed me to drain health as I damaged opponents and I didn't trade it up for a long time even for far more powerful loot because as Reinhart it felt necessary to get that health as I built him as sort of a glass cannon at the time)

However, judging from Reinhart at least, there's a bit of an issue in terms of balancing. For Reinhart the 4 skills I built up were probably the best skills he had- admittedly I didn't look that deep into the mechanics but that's how it seemed to me. So I think that's the only issue with variations in class builds- there seems to be a clear "best" build and any other specialisation with Reinhart wouldn't be as effective.

As far as character choice having an impact on story...not sure- I'm guessing that playing as Anjali would have a very different experience to Reinhart but I don't know just how different the story would be between, say, Lucas and Reinhart.

edited 20th Jun '11 1:24:39 AM by ShadowScythe

There's not too much difference story-wise between playing Katrina (wih Anjali) and playing Marcus (with Katrina) so far, but I've only played through the first third of the game so far. As characters the two of them play very differntly; Katrina's range was immensley usefull, and I'm finding it impossible to tank with Marcus, though I'm probably playing it wrong. He just seemed like a tank, given all the health regenerating techniques he gets.

so, I'm an hour and a half in with Anjali, getting ready to head to stonebridge. It's a pretty fun game so far, though it feels more like Diablo 2 then a Dungeon Siege game. Do I ever get more than 1 companion at a time?

edited 21st Jun '11 10:30:25 AM by Blissey1

An hour and a half in and you're already in Stonebridge? Did you do the Gunderic Manor/ Heroes Crypt levels? The Heroes Crypt dungeon has some pretty good loot.

And no, you have an arbitrary companion limit of one (for good reason I guess, I hear that 4 player co-op can become a real clutter)

I've been thinking about getting this game (I like most Obsidian stuff, and it seems pretty fun). Does it require knowledge of previous Dungeon Siege games, which I've never played, or can you just jump in?

There's a bit of Lore and some Continuity Nods to the previous games (You can enter the tomb of the MC from DS 1 and her companions) but the game is more of a reboot/sequel so (like me) you can just jump right into the game without checking out the others.

I wasn't at stonebridge, I had just gotten to the point where I was told to go to stonebridge.

Really disappointing about only one companion at a time. The previous dungeon siege games where all 6-party member affairs, something I very much enjoyed about them.

That being said, I am still enjoying the game. The combat/movement system took a while to get used to, but I think I've got the hang of it now. The only times I've died so far where those same damn witches from the Demo and then with that lascanzi guy who was the son of those same damn witches and wanted revenge.

edited 22nd Jun '11 1:48:15 AM by Blissey1

Is it glitchy and buggy like most Obsidian games? Have any of you run into any that have lessened the experience?

Nope, it's been glitch free for me. And for most people, or so I've heard.

Easily the most polished and bugfree game I've played this year (even portal 2 crashed on me a few times at the start). Never thought I'd find an obsidian game with less performance issues than a valve game.

However it's not as ambitious as other obsidian games (although I guess blending a good story with a h&s dungeon crawler is fairly ambitious compared to other titles in the genre).

so, I start up DS 3 this morning, and for some reason, my movement keys, A and D, seem to have switched places and are turning me the other direction. It's very annoying, to say the least. The option to invert the camera does nothing.

anyone else experienced anything like this?

edited 23rd Jun '11 11:41:56 AM by Blissey1

Did you download it from Steam/whatever? Could it perhaps have not downloaded properly?

I did get it from steam, but I've been playing it just fine the last two days.

edit: and I just started it up again, and now it works fine...strange...

edited 23rd Jun '11 1:52:10 PM by Blissey1

Shenanigans!

No it's an update. They are working on trying to fix the a & d keys as many people have an issue with it, for now the temporary solution is just that regardless of which direction you face a and d will rotate in the same direction (i.e. left and right even if the character is facing the player) - anyway that update had a bit of a hiccup at first but it seems they fixed it up.

well that certainly explains things.

In other news, just completed Gliterdelve. I've been using Anjali with Katarina as a companion. Together we put out a pretty absurd amount of ranged firepower. Few enemies ever reach me, and if they do, I've got inferno and doge teleporting to deal with them. I gotta say, the combat in this game is pretty fun.

edited 23rd Jun '11 3:56:36 PM by Blissey1

Gentlemen, I have some questions. I tried the demo, and it was pretty neat, but:

1). The story seemed a little...weak, for an Obsidian game. Does it get any better?

2). Is there much replay value? Are the four characters different enough to merit a full playthrough of each?

That will be all, and thank you for your time.

I bought this game the other day and I'm very pleasantly surprised at both the combat and the story (my previous experience with the series was playing DS2 with the expansion one summer when I was really bored and I only beat the whole thing because I had nothing better to do).

Does anyone know where the cave that I need to deliver some food to for some sidequest is? The quest log says its in the East Forest, which I assume means that Pilgrim's Road, but I don't see any caves there.

Yeah there's plenty more plot. Not as much as other Obsuidian games, but plenty more than any other Dungeon Crawler out there.

It's the cave underneath the Legion Hall. You get access to it once you've rescued your companion and talked to Odo.

^^Assuming you're playing on the PC, press r to bring up this kind of quest compassy thing that can help navigate if you ever get too confused (the good thing though is that some of the more labyrinthine maps it doesn't completely hold your hand).

^^^Story gets better but bewarned that it'sprobably the most idealistic Obsidian game so far, not much in the way of the usual black and grey morality or darker and edgier ness. However it's still Obsidian calibre in that you'll never see lines that really make you cringe and/or facepalm.

It's Dungeon Siege, not Dragon Age. You have a motley crew of adventurers trying to kill an Evil Overlord. Anything more complex would take the series a step too close to DA for my comfort. I mean, we already have a separate game for that.