Steam had a sale, again (Dungeon Siege 3)

Steam had a sale, again

I'm a sucker for a good Steam Sale especially if it's on a title I wanted to try but was too fearful of the Metacritic Reviews to shell out the $$$ for.  

The old adage is true, you get what you pay for.

Considering I paid $3.74 for Dungeon Siege 3 I almost feel like I got what I paid for.  This latest installment of the series lets you play as one of 4 different character types.  All with unique abilities and following the standard RPG template. 

Lucas Montbarron is basically the soldier class, Anjali is an archon which falls somewhere between a mage and a fighter, Reinhart Manx is a mage and Katarina is pretty much a thief with some magical ability.

The premise of the game is that you are one of the few remaining descendants of the 10th Legion which in typical RPG fare were the guardians of all things good and light.  The game starts about 30 years after a big bad witch (Jeyne Kassynder) came along and wiped out the 10th Legion which makes everyone sad.

Within the first 5 minutes you'll instantly recognize that the camera angles and player controls were an afterthought.  Playing it for a few hours and having ample opportunity to see the exact same scenery so often (because I kept dying so much) I got the impression that visuals trumped game mechanics. 

The game does look very good, which is the extent of my praise. 

Wildly fluctuating camera angles, vague character controls and a meaningless skill tree make playing the game an exercise in frustration.  I actually bought a copy for a friend so we could play co-op.  I mean, what did I have to lose for less than $10 right? 

Without going into detail, after  15 minutes  of setting out on a new co-op campaign he said, "I'm not playing this."  I'm trying to give this thing a fair shake as I've hated other games initially only to find that it was just a matter of getting used to the nuances to make it enjoyable.  It isn't the case here.

This isn't my first RPG.  I actually started with Dungeon Siege 2, went on the Dragon Age:Origins, Torchlight, Oblivion and Skyrim.  My friend adds at least a dozen other RPGS to that list. 

So what specifically is wrong with the game?  Knowing that I don't have a lot of room to complain having paid only $3.74 I truly feel for those who actually paid $60 for it.  If that was you I feel your pain.  It's why I waited so long to try it out.

Let's start with the most glaring problem, camera control.  In Dungeon Siege 2 the camera controls could get a bit wonky but usually would keep your character in view.  in Dungeon Siege 3 you traverse the maps in fear of sudden camera changes that leave you essentially blind amidst a gaggle of bloodthirsty enemies.  If you watch the video above you'll see more than one example.  I never play an RPG in extreme close-up view but apparently DS3 thinks it's advantageous.  Luckily my female character was rendered attractively so that I could at least enjoy her looks as she lay unconscious on the ground.

You quite literally live in fear not of the enemy combatants but rather of a sudden camera change you had nothing to do with. 

Character control is almost as bad as directionality is as vague as trying to parallel park a cruise ship.  The suggestion of a direction is there but it's not guaranteed.  Which leads to the inevitable camera change when you venture too close to a wall, tree, enemy or anything else the game engine thinks you need to see in glorious HD.

The next complaint is the complete change in inventory mechanics.  Gone are health and mana potions replaced instead by powerups gained either from looting chests or dispatching enemies.  If you're the hit and fade type who likes to drop back for a quick swig of the red stuff this game isn't for you.  That's because there isn't any red stuff.  Even if there was there's no way to assign an inventory item for quick use anyway.

You earn XP and level up in the usual way but the skill trees are an unintelligible mess.  I ended up just dropping my "proficiency points" anywhere that would just get me out of the interface quickly.  Worse you're forced to assign your points when earned.  Even in the middle of battle you have to stop everything and click madly just to get rid of the dialogs.  My supposed gains from all this annoyance did little to advance my fortunes.  I still ended up dead, a lot.

Another thing you'll notice is that you don't have a lot of freedom in the game.  You're lead down a very narrow and tightly controlled path.  No running off in the heather to battle possessed wildlife.  Whatever you fight is going to be right in front of you and you usually have no avenue of retreat.

Even better, enemies tend to surround and dispatch you long before you can even hope to beat a hasty retreat.  You can end up replaying the same mission over and over again and never gain an inch of ground.  I'm still wondering if I'll ever exit the Stormsong Cavern.

Speaking of over and over again.  

If you're the type that likes the freedom to save a game wherever you want, forget it.  Saves only happen at predetermined points marked by pillars of fire and if you don't manually save a game at that point you'll end up starting over from the beginning should things go badly for you.

Autosaves don't exist, well not useful ones anyway.  I have an autosave, for example, that takes me back to a point where I was about 30 seconds into the start of the game.  Considering I had played for an hour when I had need of it, I wasn't impressed.

Lest we forget the "corrupted save" notices and the Steam sync errors that you'll inevitably run into. 

Let me sum it up. 

Look, I know I only paid 3 bucks for this game but I hoped that in 2 years Square Enix would have at least TRIED to fix some of these bugs.  I've seen exactly two patches come down for this game which tells me that nobody really cares anymore. 

I desperately want to enjoy this game at some level even if it's only staring at the seductively rendered female characters.  Unfortunately I only get to experience that when they're lying on the ground deceased and I'm not into necrophilia.

The previous game, Dungeon Siege 2, was crafted by Gas Powered Games and Microsoft Studios.  This one's got nothing in common with it save the first two words in its title.  Obsidian and Square Enix have managed to create an RPG version of Postal 3.

Glad I didn't pay much for it but given the circumstances I still feel a bit ripped off.