Let me start out by saying this: DS3 is not a Diablo clone. If you expect one, you will be disappointed. I hear people comparing it to Dark Alliance, but I haven't actually played it, so I wouldn't know (I'm not much of a console gamer). The only game DS3 reminds me of is actually Nox, a somewhat underrated game. A few similarities between DS3 and Nox:
- Both are in no man's land as far as genres goes. They're not simple hack'n slash games, due to the focus on story and lack of emphasis on the loot. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of looting, but it doesn't define your character to the same extent. In fact, the only important items in Nox were weapons. The rest can safely be ignored unless you're a Warrior. In DS3 it's slightly more important, but still nowhere near Diablo.
- Both games have a fairly limited class selection, but the classes are more than just classes: They're characters with a background that affects the game.
- Both games have slightly unorthodox controls that tend to grow comfortable after a while.
- Both games require skill beyond mad button mashing.
Anyway, moving on.
Gameplay/interface
There's been a lot of discussion regarding the gameplay and interface already, but I won't repeat all of it here. Instead, I'll just give you my opinion on it.
The gameplay is hardly intuitive, but it's actually quite smooth once you get the hang of it. On normal or above, you have to use skills wisely and know how to dodge/block or you'll be slaughtered in certain fights.
The interface shares a similar fate: Not intuitive, but quite smooth nonetheless. For example, the equip screen is on "F" instead of the usual "I", probably because F is near WASD, so you can enter the equip screen quickly. There are only two things that bother me regarding the interface:
- Why is the "Enter" button used here and there? Almost everything else is located near WASD and will be within range without lifting your hand from the keyboard, but all of a sudden "Enter" appears out of nowhere and ruins an otherwise smooth interface experience.
- Tooltips anyone? Do they exist? Maybe I just missed them? "45 Doom" - okay, what does Doom do? Defensive abilities are hotkeyd to 4, 5 and 6 and not only "Space" + 1, 2 and 3. Great stuff, but it would be terrific if I could look it up in-game instead of burning halfway through the game using "Space" + key.
EDIT: There's something called "Help Topics" in the in-game menu that explains the tooltip thing. Definitely worth a look.
Speaking of which, keybindings in combat work out great. Stances + 1, 2 and 3 with defensive abilities on 4, 5 and 6 is a great setup. I like it a lot. Dancing between stances is also a very nice gameplay experience, and works out a lot better than stance dancing for Warriors in World of Warcraft.
Loot is an important part of the gameplay, but not quite as essential as in Diablo 2, Sacred, Titan Quest etc. It does define your character, more than in Nox, but it's still not crucial - how you play the game is actually more important than equipment. Also, there is very little "grinding" in DS3, nor any need to do so. This is definitely going to be a bummer for people who like going through various difficulty settings or farming bosses in order to improve their characters.
I personally prefer to only play through it once per character, without having to grind anything, so I really like the approach of DS3, Nox and so on.
Writing
It's not what you'd expect from Obsidian, but it's still miles ahead of most hack'n slash games. Then again, DS3 is not really an ordinary hack'n slash game. For example, there are choices + consequences in DS3, which is pretty much unheard of in such games.
Also, the choices are explained at the end (classic Obsidian style) which leads to a more satisfying end than, for example, The Witcher 2 or Mass Effect 2. There's none of that "you made a choice, but you'll have to wait until the next game in the series to see if it mattered" stuff. Thank goodness! I'm getting a wee bit tired of making some all important decision without getting to see the results.
Anyhow, the writing overall is better than similar games, but it's nothing spectacular. Unfortunately, the delivery of the writing is not as good as it could've been, which might be the reason why the writing itself feels somewhat.. flat at times. This brings me to..
Sound
The sound! Overall it's of decent quality, just as you'd expect from a serious game. However, the voices tend to be a bit boring, which is something of a bummer in my opinion.
Not a lot more to say than that really, other than.. is the voice of Lucas the same guy that did the nameless hero in Gothic 3? Sounds like it, but with a different accent.
Graphics
I played DS3 on the PC with every maxed settings, and it's obviously the prettiest hack'n slash game to date. Then again, there's not a lot of competition.
It looks relatively nice, everything in the world "fits", nothing that looks awkward. The spell effects and so on all look fairly good. The faces could probably have been slightly better and the difference in gear should've been bigger. Also, the camera is a bit too close to actually enjoy the view, which is a shame. A more flexible camera should definitely be on the to-do list if they're planning a sequel. At least on the PC, not sure about consoles.
Still, I can't complain about the graphics, especially since everything ran flawlessly the whole time. This leads me to..
Technical issues/engine
The engine and various technical issues. Or rather, the lack of technical issues. This is, without any doubt, the least buggy release Obsidian has ever had. In fact, it's probably the least buggy game I've played since Blizzard last released a new game (StarCraft 2), which is pretty impressive!
I only experienced a single glitch in the entire game: Sometimes the character seems "stuck" in a certain direction. For example if the character is stuck hitting south, you can point the character in any direction and the next attack will still hit south for some reason. When this happens, I found that using the mouse to navigate direction will "unlock" it.
Beyond that, not a single glitch. I suspect there are two reasons for that:
- The scope is smaller, and more realistic, than what Obsidian usually targets. They tend to try the whole "revolution!" approach every time, though their approach is not as extreme as the approach Troika had.
- The engine is their own and the game was written from scratch, instead of inheriting some buggy engine and/or source code from someone else.
Whatever it is, it seems to have worked. In fact, they should re-use the engine, as it really is very smooth. Imagine a more tactical game, such as NWN3, with that engine and a zoomed out camera? I feel there's a lot of untapped potential here.
Conclusion
All in all, I liked it a lot. I see most reviews tend to end up at 7-8ish and that sounds about right to me. It's not a flawless game by any means, but it is a solid experience with quite a bit of replay value due to interesting classes (or rather, characters).
My final savegame showed level 27 and 11 hours, but Steam showed 18 hours. Neither is accurate, as Steam doesn't know when I'm away from the keyboard to make some food, go to the bathroom and so on, while the savegame doesn't take reloading and what not into account. My guess is that DS3 is about 12-15 hours long, 20ish hours for people that play in short sessions.
As I already explained, I feel DS3 is closer to Nox than most hack'n slash games, and that is a direction I personally like a lot. I'm simply not a hardcore hack'n slash gamer, and I generally prefer the "hybrids" that do have a decent story and only needs to be played once per character.
Edit: A small note - I played Lucas (Warrior type), and I'm currently playing Reinhart (Mage-ish fellow).
Edit 2: I completely forgot to mention companions and their AI.
Well, they're not as interesting as in most Obsidian games, but their AI is quite good - possibly the only AI controlled companions I've ever seen where they actually do well on their own. In fact, I've been saved more than once by the AI, which is actually pretty impressive. It really makes it possible to control a single character + companion without feeling the need to control the companion as well.
- Both are in no man's land as far as genres goes. They're not simple hack'n slash games, due to the focus on story and lack of emphasis on the loot. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of looting, but it doesn't define your character to the same extent. In fact, the only important items in Nox were weapons. The rest can safely be ignored unless you're a Warrior. In DS3 it's slightly more important, but still nowhere near Diablo.
- Both games have a fairly limited class selection, but the classes are more than just classes: They're characters with a background that affects the game.
- Both games have slightly unorthodox controls that tend to grow comfortable after a while.
- Both games require skill beyond mad button mashing.
Anyway, moving on.
Gameplay/interface
There's been a lot of discussion regarding the gameplay and interface already, but I won't repeat all of it here. Instead, I'll just give you my opinion on it.
The gameplay is hardly intuitive, but it's actually quite smooth once you get the hang of it. On normal or above, you have to use skills wisely and know how to dodge/block or you'll be slaughtered in certain fights.
The interface shares a similar fate: Not intuitive, but quite smooth nonetheless. For example, the equip screen is on "F" instead of the usual "I", probably because F is near WASD, so you can enter the equip screen quickly. There are only two things that bother me regarding the interface:
- Why is the "Enter" button used here and there? Almost everything else is located near WASD and will be within range without lifting your hand from the keyboard, but all of a sudden "Enter" appears out of nowhere and ruins an otherwise smooth interface experience.
- Tooltips anyone? Do they exist? Maybe I just missed them? "45 Doom" - okay, what does Doom do? Defensive abilities are hotkeyd to 4, 5 and 6 and not only "Space" + 1, 2 and 3. Great stuff, but it would be terrific if I could look it up in-game instead of burning halfway through the game using "Space" + key.
EDIT: There's something called "Help Topics" in the in-game menu that explains the tooltip thing. Definitely worth a look.
Speaking of which, keybindings in combat work out great. Stances + 1, 2 and 3 with defensive abilities on 4, 5 and 6 is a great setup. I like it a lot. Dancing between stances is also a very nice gameplay experience, and works out a lot better than stance dancing for Warriors in World of Warcraft.
Loot is an important part of the gameplay, but not quite as essential as in Diablo 2, Sacred, Titan Quest etc. It does define your character, more than in Nox, but it's still not crucial - how you play the game is actually more important than equipment. Also, there is very little "grinding" in DS3, nor any need to do so. This is definitely going to be a bummer for people who like going through various difficulty settings or farming bosses in order to improve their characters.
I personally prefer to only play through it once per character, without having to grind anything, so I really like the approach of DS3, Nox and so on.
Writing
It's not what you'd expect from Obsidian, but it's still miles ahead of most hack'n slash games. Then again, DS3 is not really an ordinary hack'n slash game. For example, there are choices + consequences in DS3, which is pretty much unheard of in such games.
Also, the choices are explained at the end (classic Obsidian style) which leads to a more satisfying end than, for example, The Witcher 2 or Mass Effect 2. There's none of that "you made a choice, but you'll have to wait until the next game in the series to see if it mattered" stuff. Thank goodness! I'm getting a wee bit tired of making some all important decision without getting to see the results.
Anyhow, the writing overall is better than similar games, but it's nothing spectacular. Unfortunately, the delivery of the writing is not as good as it could've been, which might be the reason why the writing itself feels somewhat.. flat at times. This brings me to..
Sound
The sound! Overall it's of decent quality, just as you'd expect from a serious game. However, the voices tend to be a bit boring, which is something of a bummer in my opinion.
Not a lot more to say than that really, other than.. is the voice of Lucas the same guy that did the nameless hero in Gothic 3? Sounds like it, but with a different accent.
Graphics
I played DS3 on the PC with every maxed settings, and it's obviously the prettiest hack'n slash game to date. Then again, there's not a lot of competition.
It looks relatively nice, everything in the world "fits", nothing that looks awkward. The spell effects and so on all look fairly good. The faces could probably have been slightly better and the difference in gear should've been bigger. Also, the camera is a bit too close to actually enjoy the view, which is a shame. A more flexible camera should definitely be on the to-do list if they're planning a sequel. At least on the PC, not sure about consoles.
Still, I can't complain about the graphics, especially since everything ran flawlessly the whole time. This leads me to..
Technical issues/engine
The engine and various technical issues. Or rather, the lack of technical issues. This is, without any doubt, the least buggy release Obsidian has ever had. In fact, it's probably the least buggy game I've played since Blizzard last released a new game (StarCraft 2), which is pretty impressive!
I only experienced a single glitch in the entire game: Sometimes the character seems "stuck" in a certain direction. For example if the character is stuck hitting south, you can point the character in any direction and the next attack will still hit south for some reason. When this happens, I found that using the mouse to navigate direction will "unlock" it.
Beyond that, not a single glitch. I suspect there are two reasons for that:
- The scope is smaller, and more realistic, than what Obsidian usually targets. They tend to try the whole "revolution!" approach every time, though their approach is not as extreme as the approach Troika had.
- The engine is their own and the game was written from scratch, instead of inheriting some buggy engine and/or source code from someone else.
Whatever it is, it seems to have worked. In fact, they should re-use the engine, as it really is very smooth. Imagine a more tactical game, such as NWN3, with that engine and a zoomed out camera? I feel there's a lot of untapped potential here.
Conclusion
All in all, I liked it a lot. I see most reviews tend to end up at 7-8ish and that sounds about right to me. It's not a flawless game by any means, but it is a solid experience with quite a bit of replay value due to interesting classes (or rather, characters).
My final savegame showed level 27 and 11 hours, but Steam showed 18 hours. Neither is accurate, as Steam doesn't know when I'm away from the keyboard to make some food, go to the bathroom and so on, while the savegame doesn't take reloading and what not into account. My guess is that DS3 is about 12-15 hours long, 20ish hours for people that play in short sessions.
As I already explained, I feel DS3 is closer to Nox than most hack'n slash games, and that is a direction I personally like a lot. I'm simply not a hardcore hack'n slash gamer, and I generally prefer the "hybrids" that do have a decent story and only needs to be played once per character.
Edit: A small note - I played Lucas (Warrior type), and I'm currently playing Reinhart (Mage-ish fellow).
Edit 2: I completely forgot to mention companions and their AI.
Well, they're not as interesting as in most Obsidian games, but their AI is quite good - possibly the only AI controlled companions I've ever seen where they actually do well on their own. In fact, I've been saved more than once by the AI, which is actually pretty impressive. It really makes it possible to control a single character + companion without feeling the need to control the companion as well.
Last edited:
