Developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published for the first time by Square Enix after the acquisition of the series, Dungeon Siege 3 is set to continue the great success of its predecessor. Also for the first time the franchise moved from being just a PC game to multiplatform going to Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Being one fan of the action role-playing genre, was looking forward for this release hoping for being a better experience as the previous release.

Around 150 years after Dungeon Siege first release, the 10^th Legion which has taken over the administration and control of the kingdom for more than 400 years was almost completed killed. Around 30 years before the story of Dungeon Siege III, Jeyne Kassynder drove the people from various parts against the Legion after accusing them for her father’s death who was the king. This of course led to a long and brutal crusade, Jeyne managed to eradicate the Legion in a final battle in the Rukkenvahl Forest… forcing the army of Queen Roslyn into the mines of Glitterdelve.A small group of legionaries has managed to survive and lead by Venerable Odo has kept some of the descendants of the Legion safe. Dungeon Siege III takes place here as Odo calls on the descendants in order restore the Legion. This is where you come in and although you might not have played the first two to enjoy this great game. Although the storyline is linear, with the map having only one way to go, it’s still a great adventure from start to end.

After the introduction, you will be asked to choose your path by choosing one of the four characters available. Depending on the character you choose, the story will be altered to accommodate the change of story. The characters are different from each other and all have their unique abilities and powers. We start off with the warrior by the name of Lucas Montbarron who was the main character from Dungeon Siege using either his one-handed sword and shield or the long two-handed sword to bash his way through the wave of armies. Then we have Anjali, the elemental-ist who can change between her mystical being using her fire abilities to her human form using her spear. The mage, Reinhart Manx who is an old descendant of the Legion mages, uses his magic in close combat and ranged attacks. Katarina, the illegitimate daughter of Hugh Montbarron and a Lescanzi witch, uses the power of gun fighting. She uses long-ranged rifles and shotguns for close combat. As you can see all the characters have the same combat features i.e. close and long range combat and you need to use the features well. You can easily switch between close and long range weaponry by pressing the L1 button.

The character’s visuals are predefined and you cannot spend endless hours customizing the face of your character. Thou to some might be a loss; you will be having endless hours customizing your character with armour, weapons and abilities. This of course will bring out a good re-playability for the game. Every time you level up, the Abilities screen will show up illustrating the abilities you want to master from the Recruit, Legionnaire up to a Master level. After this screen you will be presented with the Proficiencies screen where you can choose the abilities of the character from the offensive and defensive stance.

Although the game was originally set for PC, the porting to the consoles was a success and gameplay is easily mastered on the gamepad. The button assignments and controls works extremely well despite the fact that games of this genre are a bit tricky when ported to consoles, so thumbs up for that. Quests are a must in these games and one tip that I found useful when doing quests is that if you press the up button on your d-pad, a trail of light orbs will light up on your screen showing you the way to your destination depending on the quest you are following. One gameplay feature that I liked is the reviving of a dead player. Through the solo and multiplayer mode, your real and AI friends will be able to revive you if you are dead and vice versa. Each character has the ability to return their dead combat friends when they die. This is a good feature when you are in a group or if you want to tackle a challenging part of the game.

The visuals are impressive with creative design and it features great sceneries and a colourful environment. The effects, especially the combat effects of Anjali fill the screen with fire effects and lighting is one of a kind. All this is accompanied with a great soundtrack composed by Jason Graves and Timothy Michael Wynn.

The game is very easy to pick-up and play while remaining enjoyable and entertaining. The immediate fun is good point. Also the game has some multiplayer features that impressed me, but the thing that really caught my eye was that at any time in your solo quest to restore the Legion’s powers you can easily put your game online and your friends or complete strangers can just join your gameplay while you continue playing. The game has many checkpoints and they are placed just before a critical or strong army is ahead, so that is a plus in your path. For those who are new to the Dungeon Siegeseries, the game is about fun since its linear storyline and path, its action hack and slash role playing genre along with great visuals. Dungeon Siege 3 does pick up on those points and succeeds to make them work perfectly with stunning visuals, great gameplay and controller configuration to keep the gameplay fun and enjoyable. Dungeon Siege 3 will give you and your friends, endless hours of gameplay and entertainment.

Looking at the game, the only thing around the game which may have been improved is the ability to skip through cutscenes, even those that you have already seen. Another thing was the voice overs which although not critical, the villagers or people you talk to have a modern American accent and they lack a bit of emotion in cutscenes or in-game talking.

Conclusion

Six years after its predecessor release, Dungeon Siege 3 is an enjoyable entertaining game and fun to play. The graphics of the forests, dungeons and general effects are great and rich, and its original score is superb. The gameplay controls in general are well designed and easy to get the hold on. The instant multiplayer access in your solo game is a great feature, along with a very entertaining co-op mode. Dungeon Siege 3 is a very good Hack and Slash action Role-Playing game which will give you a considerate amount of fun.