E3 2010: Dungeon Siege III Preview
Obsidian Entertainment's latest role-playing game.
Dungeon Siege started as Gas Powered Games' franchise. But with the third entry in the series, Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind Neverwinter Nights 2, Alpha Protocol, and the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas is taking control. At E3 2010 we got a chance to see a first look of the game, as Obsidian presented a polished demo section that showed off a few different environments, character classes, and a few combat sections.
Like previous games in the series, the game is being built as an action-RPG. With swords and spells you'll hack apart spiders and fish monsters. They'll spill loot all over the ground when they die which you'll pick up and equip if it's useful. The pieces of gear come with statistical bonuses, and can also be pulled out of treasure chests in the game's dungeons. Obsidian is saying there'll be no loading times as you transition between environments, letting you move from verdant forests to dark dungeons to dusty crypts.
The visuals in the demo were particularly impressive, with smooth animation and nice lighting effects. In terms of actual play, shown off were two character classes, the Guardian and the Archon. The Guardian is more of a melee class with bulky armor and a sword, and can switch between two stances. In one, the class can attack swiftly and do high damage to single targets. By swapping stances you'll swing more slowly and forcefully, which works better for controlling crowds and hacking away at groups of foes. A number of special abilities can also be triggered, including area of effect attacks and charge dashes that can knock enemies across the screen and off cliffs. While this is going on, the Archon sits back and lobs spells.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/109/1099483/dungeon-siege-iii-20100616081536919-000.jpg)
As should be familiar to role-playing fans, you can customize each class with skill sets spread across three skill trees. While Obsidian wasn't yet talking about other character classes, it was mentioned that no class will share any of the same things, which includes animations, equippable items, and abilities, which the aim of creating classes that feel and look diverse.
A big feature of the game will be its cooperative play, shown off during the demo as a drop-in, drop-out variation. There will be many more multiplayer modes in the game, but initially Obsidian is just highlighting the ability for a second player to drop into the game at any time. Since the primary character will have an AI companion running around, the second player can just immediately take control of that second player to make it easy to play with another. The specifics of how this all works are still being worked out, so we expect to get more details in the future. In the demo all the action led into a boss fight against a towering demo character who hacked away at the characters and summoned skeletons to support his attack. If a character happens to lose all health, they can be revived in a flash if a teammate moves next to their body.
While there will be dialogue sequences where players can make a choice about how to proceed through the story, it sounds like the focus will be on the action. The brief demo looked good, so those looking for a pretty loot hunting experience should keep their eyes on this, which is scheduled for a multiplatform release in 2011.
|
