Dungeon Siege 3 - PC Demo On Steam
 

The PC demo for Dungeon Siege 3 is now available on Steam. Have at it and let us know in the comments what you think.
More information.

I will try it tonight.

At work, but based on feedback - it's another Obsidian fumble.

Will have to check it out tonight.

Just ran through it, not great.

Graphics were meh, low resolution textures and blurry all round.

The camera was bad - 2 modes give you a zoomed out and zoomed in. Neither showed me as much as I wanted to see. I just don't like that camera style, it feels too "close" and I can't ever see what I want to see.

Movement was OK, either keyboard or hold down the right mouse button to move. This felt a bit unrefined. Kind of slow and cumbersome. I prefer Divinity 2 movement.

Fighting was a bit all over the place and not very interesting. Whack this, special move, whack that. Oh and whack all those barrels, lots of barrels for spare change.

You seem to get lots of loot but need to go through a couple of screens to equip it which is a pain. Hit C for character, then select Equip and then select the armour slot. It doesn't sound to bad but it felt unrefined again. All the UI does really. Leveling up required going through 3 or 4 screens to allocate points. These screens had giant icons on them and the whole lot could have been laid out on my 1920x1200 resolution quite nicely.

To be fair this wouldn't really be my game any way but I normally like the 3rd person action games more than this. Loved Divinity 2 and NWN 2, this style seems to be in between both of them.

I think this could have done with a bit more polish and development.

I got bored of the story in about 10 minutes so that won't carry it. I will be interested to hear what others think of it.

So its just another terrible mess for Obsidian then? I had hope for the game.:-/ How about bugs are there any in the demo?

with games like titan quest and such - how can you fumble such a simple thing ?

Fumbling is often what you do when your heart isn't in it, or if - as an artist - creative control is taken away from you.

Just to confirm for this title, if playing multiplayer, only the host of the game gets loot?

I was interested in this title, but if the above is true forget it. My quest for filler before Diablo 3 continues and I'm unsated given what an absolute disaster (understatement) Daggerdale was. Even its price does not justify the immense crappiness.

Only if you have no pride in your work or respect for your future employability. These guys are professionals - they are paid to provide to the full extent of their skills.

When the people calling the shots have no shame, it's not quite that easy.

There are skills that have nothing to do with being a professional. Something the industry keeps missing and keeps being shocked by.

Obsidian were never about "professionalism" or "technical prowess" - their games were always about the heart and the art.

So, it's pretty inevitable that this happens if you try to make artists into robots.

They should have picked a very different team for this kind of cash-grab.

This is what happens when you develop a game for consoles and pc together and try to please both. You wont you either make a game more for one or the other there is no middle ground. Its been proven over and over again.

I only want to know if it's fun.
If it becomes boring after a couple of hours, I'll just skip it.

It seems console controls are only part of the problem. Apparently, the actual game is crappy even for a Dungeon Siege game. I hope they're exaggerating, and I plan to give it a fair shot tonight.

I don't think it being a multi-platform game necessarily means the game has to be bad. That's an extreme assumption, in my opinion. Some of the best hack/slashers were on consoles, to my mind.

I'm not sure if I'll bother with the demo. I have to little time as it is so if I'm playing anything atm I'd rather play TW2. I think the game looks interesting enough and I have enjoyed previous Obsidian titles like NWN2 and Alpha Protocol. Diablo/Titan Quest/Sacred games are enjoyable for what they are so I believe DS3 will be fun enough for me.

I had to give it a try since everyone was talking about it. The demo wasn't even worth the download for me.

I only played for about 30 minutes, but I'd say pox67 summed it up well, and I have to agree with pretty much everything he said. The controls feel awkward (and there are no menu options to remap anything), the camera is awful (odd angle, and much too restrictive), the UI is sub-par by PC standards, and the story did nothing for me at all.

Other than the visuals and animations, which are decent for this type of game, there is absolutely nothing I liked about it.

It plays like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, there's barely any Dungeon Siege left in it. It has practically no soul or atmosphere. My advice would be, unless you're very bored, wait until it's in the bargain bin.

So its another Obsidian game guaranteed to be a bargain bin game in a month then. Thanks for the info. Tried the demo and I agree with all the comments.

Seems like Obsidian has fallen to the point where seeing their name on a game is more of a negative than a positive. It's a shame… The stuff they do well they do better than just about anyone, but it's overwhelmed by the stuff they just can't seem to get right.

I know we've seen Obsidian here before, but I'm still shocked and disappointed by the comments. I thought for once I would find a DS game enjoyable. Perhaps not overly deep but fun and I would've been happy. I didn't have any major gripes with Alpha Protocol, and certainly none with New Vegas (but that's the general consensus on that one). Anyways I have to at least try it for myself so I'll be back.

Ok, played the demo for about an hour.

Yep, quite underwhelming and surprisingly bland. I guess I'm a UI/controls angel or something, because they didn't bother me. I felt the same way about TW2 controls, and even Gothic 1 controls. Ok, so you have to spend a few minutes adjusting - but then it's fine.

Anyway, it still has the potential to be a decent cooperative game. It depends on how it evolves, and how much variety the characters have, and how the loot works. It's a bit too early to tell, but it's most definitely not a classic. Dungeon Siege 2 was much more interesting and non-linear, based on this demo.

I don't really know what Obsidian is doing these days….

I believe it started out as a single player sequel but then turned into another co-op game instead. Seems Obsidian doesn't know what to develop nowadays.

Wow. This is one crappy piece of software.

I didnt expect much. Since i know Obsidian are new to action RPGs.
But this is simply horrible.

Dungeon Siege is not a great brand (although i loved the first one , i must admit)
But this just blows it out of the water.

And just a funny fact to notice is a map. Its so linear, its just a snaking path you follow. This was below standard even in 1991

Shame. For Obsidian.

They are good guys, and really do know how to make good RPG.
What they do not know is how to program and design a game. :O

Thanks for heads up guy. i am going to avoid it. I knew about the mechanics about the loot sharing and so that killed the multiplayer but if it isn't going to have much of a story then there is no point of playing it. i will keep my 50.00. Shame on you Obsidian!

It's not that Obsidian are bad…just so inconsistent. I wonder if it depends which specific Obsidian personnel work on particular titles?

Anyway in my book Obsidian don't really have a lot to live up to with this one - even if it is a blandfest it's not like that will be any different to the previous two DS titles. I'll probably pick it up once the price has dropped.

I wouldn't go by a demo to be representative of the final game since most demos are not and usually you find out the game is far different for better or worse.

Considering how bad the DA2 demo was, I'll still give the actual game a go. My hopes aren't too high, however.

Hmm…Arcania? DA2? I believe both were pretty representative…unfortunately.

I hate when people say that. Then what the hell is the point of a demo then? If they are so inept that they can't make a demo that is at least reasonably representative of the final product then they deserve to lose a sale.

If the demo is any indication the main problem is that the pacing is way way off for a linear A-RPG (and especially for a Dungeon Siege game). It needs about ten times more stuff to kill in about five times more area spacing out the abundence of cut-scenes and talky bits. It could also do with doubling or tripling the width of the areas, everything is forced down much too narrow a pipe.

There's just no space or time to even make a start to build up the zen slaying rhythm thats critical for Diablo-alike before you trip over an interruption, or hit barrel smashing mode.

And yes the controls are just plain weird on PC even for what's obviously as straight up console port (*right click* to move in a way that isn't really 'click to move', WASD with no mouselook or option to strafe instead of turn, spacebar acting like a shift key to bring up another set of powers, Whaaa..?) tho' they can be gotten used to.

I just finished the demo (I think?). And I have to say that this game (if demo is indeed representative of the whole game) is way below Obsidian's standard. The controls are horrible on pc (to say the least), targeting is -eh- what targeting? And the camera and camera controls are as bad as ever. Right-clicking to walk/run is OK, but the execution of it - not so well done.

I didn't like the fact that at least in the demo, the game forces you to auto-level when you gain a level (didn't check if this could be turned off, though). Also, as some has said, this is basically a game (at least so the demo suggests) where you follow a hallway disguised as paths disguised with trees or rocks.

And the enemies jumps at you, that's OK, since this is an action rpg. But since you're in these narrow pathways and hallways, you'll never get into the rhytm of timing your swings or in the flow of swings. In this case, I agree with the poster above me, SKapusniak.

The story - eh what story?



And I have the same problem with this ARPG, I have with them all, you can only save at certain savepoints. Or when you close the game. And the graphics? I'm no graphics whore, but these graphics, but perhaps more the art direction is again not up the usual standard, I think we've come to expect from Obsidian.

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On another note, and way off topic, I just picked up Fallout: New Vegas for 150 DKK (30US dollars or 20 Euros) I have done so or your guys recommendations. Can't say I can recommend DS3 back, at least not based on the demo I played….

Obsidian should stay teamed up with Bethesda. It's the only place they've truly been successful.

But hey !

What with Knights of Old Republic 2 , or Mask of Betrayer ?

They did good stuff with Bioware aswell :)

Most Obsidian games are buggy messes (KoTOR2, NWN2, Alpha Protocol, FO:NV) but I enjoy them despite the problems -- this one, not so much.

I played the demo for a bit and I'm not interested at all. I'll be passing on this one and I've bought every Obsidian game released.

That's EXACTLY what the first one was.

Yes. Dungeon Siege 1 was like that, too.
Sad.

Well I tried it. The camera is set up so I can't see what's ahead of me. And turning the entire view with A D instead of strafing is retarded. And holding right mouse button to move forward is weird but you can use A. The graphics look pretty but I was hoping for a less linear DS type game, and everyone says it's worse than the first two. Add in those sucky controls and I'm out.

Well I can't really say I'm too disappointed because I never expected much from this game anyways. The other DS games were mediocre as crpgs, imo. I'm not sure why anyone would have had high expectations for DS3.

I guess having "Obsidian" on the box was enough to get a lot of people excited.

Played about 30 minutes of the fire chick, the controls were good with a 360 pad plugged in, so try that if you can (keyboard sounds terrible). Lots of dialogue with decent voice acting for everyone except my toon. Which is kinda funny in a bad way. All that aside, if you remember DS1 then you'll remember it was a straight path, just like this game seems like it will be. I do recall from one interview that the only non-linear part of this game is quest order heh.

:( Here's hoping it gets some last minute changes… I'd hate for Obsidian to turn into the next Troika… but it's quickly going that way.

…But, hey! Perhaps Tim Cain and Chris Avellone could end up in the same company if that happens :P

We already knew this was a strange marriage of concepts to begin with.

Reading these reviews of the demo isn't that surprising - it is only a Dungeon Siege game after all, I wasn't expecting much. I'm more disappointed for Obsidian than anything else if even the writing turns out to be rubbish. Also, If I were to play it, it'd only be for the multiplayer aspect.

To the gentleman who claimed some cynical nonsense about teaming up with Bethesda - that sir, is fairly narrow minded tripe. Perhaps try some Obsidian games from the Black Isle days to destroy that illusion. ;)