Dungeon Seige III - Gameplay Preview

Dungeon Seige III, featuring the appetising display of both Square Enix and Obsidian's name, is a game I had little intrest in. I had not played, nor heard of, the first two, and to be honest I've never been one for the dungeon crawler, Diablo style game. However, after seeing the free demo on Steam the other day, I figured, what the heck, I'll give it a whirl. The demo takes place at what I can guess is the start of the game. You can play as either Lucas, a sword-weilding hack and slasher, or Anaji, a mythical fire-weilding woman, who fights with fire and spear. Both characters are really fn, and the combat is pretty intuitive and easy to pick up. The character is either controlled by holding and draggin the right mouse, or the slightly more clumsy WASD. The camera is set at aclose or far isomentric, depending on you preferance. Combat is as simple as clicking, with the number keys used for special abilities and the space bar for blocking and rolling. Each character has two fighting stances, a fast syle for single foes, or a slower, group style. Switching between them is a simple as pressing Q and can be done at anytime in a split second. The rest of the game appears to be taken up by questing, exploring and looting, and while I can't say much for questing from the demo, there is definitely an abundance of loot that would please even the most Diablo-hardened gamer. The inventory system is simple, if nothing ground breaking, and items can be equipped, sold or "transmuted" into coin, fixing the commonplace rpg issue of what to do with all your loot when the nearest store is miles and miles away. On the graphics side, the game is surprisingly beautiful, and ran butter smooth at ultra settings on my laptop. The environments are gorgeous and really detailed, water effects and lighting are fantastic, and even the character models are surprisingly good for an isometric game. Sure they look a little funky in the cutscenes, but they are meant to be admired at a distance. This demo has really got me quite excited about this game, and if I have moved in with my friend at it's release, I'll probably buy it. If you're looking for a fun, if not ground-breaking, co-op loot collecting hack and slash dungeon crawler to tide you over until Diablo III, then this is the game for you. I recommend checking the demo out. Dungeon Seige is coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on June 18.