The idea of clicking a button thousands of times per hour should have all the appeal of a Jonas Brothers concert, but like Live Arcade’s Torchlight before it, Dungeon Siege III makes all this mashing near-irresistible. The third entry in the previously PC-only action-RPG series requires no knowledge of its earlier iterations. All that matters is that when you slay the world of Ehb’s evil creatures, glorious loot will explode from their corpses like piñatas being cracked open at a 5-year-old’s birthday party.
For once, though, the plot merits more than a passing mention. The tale of your “last of his kind” hero reclaiming his people’s honor is hardly an original one, but the way in which it’s told — through frequent narrated cutscenes and informative chats with the world’s inhabitants — keeps it compelling. Even more laudable are the choices you’re asked to make along the way. We opted to play our warrior Lucas as a patron saint who never accepts rewards and always gives evildoers a second chance, and this choice aided our overarching mission by netting us allies and shop discounts we otherwise wouldn’t have had. Topping the engaging arc is a lengthy, rewarding end-cinematic that varies based on the choices you’ve made during your 15-hour journey.
And what of the core gameplay? It’s all about the goodies. En route to the level cap of 30, you’ll attack, kill, loot, and repeat, gaining talents, abilities, skills, and proficiencies that allow you to kit out your hero to your specific preference. The many layers of these buffs and talents is a bit overwhelming at first, but before long you’ll have a firm handle on it. The same could be said of the Equip screen, where you’ll spend a lot of time trying on all of the new gear you scoop up from fallen foes. As soon as you realize that the best item is always at the top of the inventory list, you’ll be fine.
The combat, meanwhile, mixes in plenty of colorful special attacks with enough oomph to really make you feel powerful. When fighting an enemy, your killing blow will sometimes send them soaring halfway across the screen. And gameplay is a lot less repetitive than all of our button-spamming talk makes it sound, thanks to frequent mini-bosses and full-fledged boss fights.
Aiding you in battle is an A.I. companion — your choice of one of the other three character classes. We stuck with battlemage Anjali simply because we liked her personality, but regardless of who’s by your side, they’ll fight admirably and, more important, will spare you many a “Game Over” screen by serving as your own personal defibrillator, reviving you when you die.
Of course, any good action-RPG shines as a co-op adventure, so Siege offers friends a chance to kick the A.I. ally to the curb and take up arms by your side, either online (four players) or same-screen (two). Sadly, the otherwise fun times are marred by scaling difficulty that makes the campaign significantly harder in multiplayer, a fixed camera height that’s a bit too close to the action, and an odd restriction that requires everyone to stay on the same screen together, even when playing on separate consoles.
We also wish the game had fast-travel options as well as a world map to give it a proper sense of scale, and that camera issues didn’t occasionally put the view in an awkward position. Nevertheless, Dungeon Siege III is among the finer ways you can dungeon-crawl on your 360 these days, and if the developers can iron out its quirks, a sequel (which this game sets up nicely) could be epic.
+ Quality dungeon-crawlin’, loot-collectin’ gameplay; solid graphics.
+ Interesting storyline with multiple dialogue options and endings.
- Annoying multiplayer issues; minor camera and navigation bugaboos.
? Why does Odo always sound like he’s got a gallon of mucus lodged in his throat? Is there any in-game antihistamine for sale?
