Dungeon Siege 3 - Review @ Suicide Girls
 

The first full web review for Dungeon Siege 3 seems to be up at the Suicide Girls Blog. Before we take a quote, SG is a softcore scene-girls nudie site, so don't get lost on the way to the actual review. ;) The article is generally positive and here's a snip on bugs:
More information.

Unfortunately, they also state this:

Which is kind of what I expected, given people's issues with the demo :(

I might buy it, but mostly just to support Obsidian.

I am a bit surprised that there are RPG reviews on SG.

And it's actually a good review, though he could have gone into more detail regarding the combat. While the comparison with X-Men Legends is understandable, I find DS3's combat to be a huge improvement over both the X-Men Legends series and the Marvel Ultimate Alliance titles. I feel that Obsidian should have made the inspiration for the combat more clear to PC gamers, this could have saved them from a lot of the pre-release bashing.

Although I am glad to hear that, for once, there are little technical difficulties in an Obsidian game. I hope DS3 turns out to be a success for them.

It really does look and feel like a console game. I willl pick it up for a rainy day. I still wait for the day when a hardcore , topdown , openworld RPG comes out for PC only. GRIM DAWN will desroy this game.

Console Game = no buy.

I save a lot of money these days…

Sigh. What to do.

I predordered the game but i fell into the tempation of pirating this game 10 days before release.

One major problem. The game is only 10 hours long. So i feel bad about paying $50 for this game when it should be atmost $25. There is little replay value in the game, however there si absolutely no grinding required for this game, there are also no set items either, which my friends who aslo played it says is a good thing because it makes other items obsolete.

That said it was a fun romp. Hope that helps people. i am still paying fo rit since i finished it, however i am not happy. :(

Sad to hear about how short it is, not good at all. I have it preordered for the pc as well and still look forward to it mostly, but wish it had more differentiating loot, as all the screenshots of the different armors look the same. Is this true as well in your opinion?

There is a lot of different loot as you progress. They however didnt do much to differentiate the looks o fthe armors even though they look different in the item view.

Another game that could and should have been so much more. What is going on with the production of the high profile games when the developers put soooo much hype in it. Is it the economy, no love in the product, is it developers are only pushing what consoles can handle ???

Thanks for warning Damian! I am not prepared to spend 50 bucks on 10 hours game. Will wait until price drops to more acceptable level.

The controls were made for a console so was the ui and inventory. Everything I said about the demo. The game is also linear and short. The graphics aren't bad to me either is the writing. Another obsidian red mark.

If I refused to buy games that were designed to run on consoles I wouldn't be playing much. Thankfully I am not picky enough to care really, as long as the game is good.

When a game is optimized for consoles and doesn't even bother to map the controls right on the pc that is a problem to me. Its enjoyable but it still lacks something like every other game they make. Its a shame.

Agreed, as do I.

Good review. The game actually sounds better than I expected.

I'll probably pick it up tomorrow and play through it during the weekend.

Been playing it recently, and the resolution of the characters are so low its blurry and hard to even make them out. Also if you dislike follow this path and only this path with a few dead ends scattered about, you'll hate it. I havn't yet gotten to any area like an open field or massive cave/dungeon like DS2 had plenty of. Its all very short levels with extremely tight paths and the controls along with a wonky camera make it even worse!

Very clearly a console game horribly ported to PC…as shoddy as it is, they should never have spent the money on a port to begin with. Honestly it should never have been made really…its that bad!


Its really sad to see such great series' being ruined, that had far better resolutions and core designs from years ago, and on much older tech, that far surpass the dumbed down, blurry and extremely shoddy gameplay they release today. What is happening to the damned gaming industry!?!?!?


Oh yeah, and another thing just come to mind that annoys me to no end are the conversions. The camera is always just over your characters shoulder {kinda a side profile view} pointing at the person talking, but it never ever shows your character when they're talking and now that I think about it I don't recall the camera ever moving period…its fixed in that position for every talky bit! Its just so bad…

As a standalone little snack, it's quite decent and polished. However, I suspect it will be forgotten soon after you're done with it.

Dungeon Siege 2, however, is miles ahead of this in every way - except for the dated visuals.

Is your insight based on the demo, a review copy or on less savoury means?

Regarding the review it actually sounds like its the kind of snack game with a bit of Obsidianesque storytelling that I was expecting. I will have to check out the demo if I can deal with the controls. Usually I am flexible in that regard.

Capital piece of information. 10 hours are really short. Thanks.

Makes the stuff clear. Redeemable quality.

Is it true? Does this game provide with partners able to pull their weight? How much is the killings ratio between you and the partner? How able is the partner when it comes to cleaning the path?

I can confirm that from the demo.
It strongly reminded me of Dragon Age 1, though.

And, as I have said before, the UI screams with every bit "console !!!" - whereas the actual gameplay doesn't do that. It plays rather like a standard action RPG - keep in mind that I have very few experiences with actio-RPGs - and once you get used to the WASD thing, you might be able to use it quite well. At the beginning, though, it is something you must become used to, which means : lots of training. An tutorial is imho definitively missing here.

But everything - and I REALLY mean EVERTHING UI-related just screams "console" - everything UI-related is simplified so much it isn't an RPG anymore (my personal impression) - the inventory - for example - reminded me very much of that of Jade Empire. Items aren't displayed anymore. They are just represented by symbols.

Armor and weapons, however, are still there in the inventory - but you get - to put it extremely - 10.000 same-looking swords, short-swords, sables etc. with each one having a different name … Same goes for any other kind of armor.
The "different names", however, are all according to the prefix-/suffix-system of modern action-RPGs (interesting that "old school" RPGs still don't use a similar system; this seems to me merely limited to action RPGs).

I found the in-game graphics very good - but on the other hand I had put everything on maximum and the gamma value higher than the game wanted me to.

In the demo I had only 1 fight when my character - Mountbarron - died and the female fire elemental battled against the enemies - it was fairly impressive (apart from the fact that I couldn't see much of it because the camera focused ion "my" dead character and stubbornly refused to show my "companion") how she acted - and on to of all she came back to "my" character and she revived him !

I found that fairly impressive - but please keep in mind that this was nothing but a single fight.

10 hours long RPG, um… w00t!?

I think everyone who followed the game closely knew that this would be a "short" game.

But to say that the replay value is "little" is an understatement. There are 4 vastly different characters in the game. You also don't consider the multiplayer co-op value. I wouldn't be surprised if most people put 30-50 hours into the game. I already played the demo thrice and I had fun every time. If you seriously thought this game was meant to be a one-playthrough-only singleplayer experience, you were never part of the target audience.

Seriously, most people had completely unrealistic expectations on what the game is about. It really is about the co-op experience and the ability to try out different party compositions with your friends, all while engaging in combat that is fun.

I could go on explaining why DS3 control's scheme is actually more precise on the PC and how the complaints about consolization are exaggerated and totally irrelevant but I won't waste my breath, since most people already decided that it's a horrible abomination. Suffice it to say that if you didn't get how the control scheme is more precise on PC, you failed at basic geometry.

Many people around here pull for Obsidian to succeed but almost expect it to come up short on its releases. Instead of trying to patronize people with blanket statements, you could expand on your diatribe's reasoning. You come off as a twit whose opinion is easily discarded otherwise.

It's not about expecting anything from DS3 - as much as it's about calling a spade a spade.

The game is a snack at best, and nothing more.

I was expecting about 20 hours. Diablo 2 had increasing challenge tiers and so did DS1&2.

As for replay value it is less than most games of thsi type.

Games like this, that are very short and well a joke shouldn't be allowed the ridiculous price tag of $50, ~ $60 on consoles. Maybe a $20 ~ $30 split at most.

There are far better, and more well designed titles that scream the dedicated love and attention by indie devs for $5-$30 that most the AAA RPG titles in the past few years combined can't compete with. And yeah I do play them to make up for the big name crap that are usually a huge disappointment!

If you like this kind of games I recommend spending instead $19.99 on Titan Quest Gold (available on Steam), a great and under-rated hack & slash made for PCs. It's from 2007 but the graphics still looks great.

Definitely.

Dungeon Siege 2
Diablo 2
Hellgate London
Titan Quest

Are my personal favorites of the genre.

That said, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance holds a special place in my heart - and it resembles Dungeon Siege 3 most of all. DS3 is similarly small and consolish in both scope and execution. Also, if you're into this kind of snack - I'd recommend the PS2 Norrath games, as they're bigger and will last a good deal longer.

How is Co-op? How much complementary are the characters? Is co-op straightforward, does it offer elaborated combos? How does it work?

That is a good one.

My perspective is that I can plug a controller in and still get a much better experience than console players do thanks to higher framrates, resolution and graphics (as well as tweaks and mods when applicable). Even the worst PC port is still better than the console version.

I guess some people have a "true PC game or screw off" attitude but I don't have that. If PC gaming stopped existing tomorrow I would go buy an Xbox.

Save points? Sigh.

I simply don't think it's a good idea to force players to buy and use a controller, if they want to enjoy your game on their PCs.

In fact, I think it's insulting to people who spend 50$ on a PC game in a genre that's 100% KB/mouse in terms of tradition.

It takes absolutely zero effort to keep the PC in mind when designing your control scheme. There are two ways of ending up with a control scheme like in DS3 = extreme incompetence or apathy towards that market segment.

For DS3, the perfect solution would have been standard WASD for movement and mouselook for camera controls. It's so obvious, it hurts to think of how little they've done to adapt the game for the PC.

And I don't think it's a good idea to make a RPG you can pass in 10 hours.
It's not RPG any more.

Then go play on your xbox. I dont use a controller on my pc and never will. I said its a small but fun short rpg. I dont care if it has 4 characters and I dont care about co-op as most most games do nowadays. Its like most of there games its aspires to be more than it is.

At the very least, they could have implemented the established progressively higher difficulty modes - and scaled loot/enemies accordingly.

From a technical standpoint, it's incredibly simple to do - but I guess that's Obsidian for you. They all but ruined multiplayer in NWN2 - so why not ignore staple features in Dungeon Siege 3.

It's almost as if they WANT to piss of fans of the franchise and genre.

I think you've been spoiled by recent behemoths. PS:Torment lasted me 19 hours, earlier games like Eye of the Beholder were even shorter.

Eye of the Beholder cost £30 in the 90s, and still got great reviews:

http://amr.abime.net/review_15418

96% ;)

I was like you… until I bough an xBox controller. There are games that are more comfortable to play with controllers, like Devil May Cry, sports games, driving games or GTA style games. I will play even The Witcher 2 with a controller. Obviously, for FPS and RTS there is nothing like mouse and kb.

And this game is an rpg. So it has no excuse.

Exactly.
Want an example of a hack & slash well ported to PC? Deathspank