Wednesday 20 July 2011

:B: - Dungeon Siege III

I've been procrastinating on writing a post for Dungeon Siege III because it's a bit of a controversial game. Developed by Obsidan, a studio well-known for creating buggy but great games, it's come under heavy fire for being the latest victim of a phenomenon called 'consolitis'. Consolitis is when a game is dumbed down so it plays better on a console.

The original two Dungeon Siege games were a type of game called a Diablo-clone. These games are defined by a lot of clicking and a lot of inventory management. So how has the third fared? The inventory management has been simplified a lot - instead of inventory tetris, there are just loot types for the various equipments that the characters can equip. And as for the clicking? Instead, there's a complex battling system. You have two stances, each with three skills, and the ability to dodge and block. It can get quite harried at times as you try to survive; beats holding the left mouse button down and occasionally pressing a hotkey to cast a spell. (Note: I am actually a huge fan of Diablo and it's clones and sequels. You just have to be in a specific mood to get the most out of them.)

I was quite enjoying Dungeon Siege III, even with the poor voice acting and linearity. But I'm playing on the easiest difficulty, and I've managed to lose almost two hours of play through the savepoints being just a little too far apart. The first time it happened I just powered through but after the second time I just couldn't bring myself to play through the same bit for the third time. Especially when you consider that the game is only about 8 or 9 hours long, so I've lost progress equivalent to a quarter of the game. I like it, but I just can't bring myself to play any more.

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