Dungeon Siege III Box Art
  • Genre
    , RPG
  • Platform
    PC, PS3, X360
  • Release date
    Jun 17, 2011 (EU)
    Jun 21, 2011 (US)

This game was released on June 21, 2011 and is no longer available to pre-order. Any incentives that were offered are listed below.

Dungeon Siege III is an upcoming action RPG game set for release in June 2011. It is the first Dungeon Siege game to be developed by Obsidian Entertainment (the makers of Neverwinter Nights 2 and Fallout: New Vegas). As such, it’s going to be quite different from its predecessors.

While the game will still take place in the Kingdom of Ehb (the same setting as the original DS), the gameplay, leveling, and dialogue systems have undergone numerous changes.  We’ll talk about them in a minute, but for now, let’s see what kind of goodies you can get if you reserve a copy of this game before the launch date.

Dungeon Siege 3 pre-order bonuses

Early customers will be getting exclusive in-game items. These include the Burning Band of Scorch (Ring with +6 Fire and +2 Strength), the Bite of the Arakun (Ring w/ +12 Poison and +2 Withering), the Talisman of the Grand Mage (Amulet w/ +6 Retribution & +8 Armor), and the Sacred Heart of the Legion (Amulet w/ +2 Warding & +2 Stamina).

The bonus depends on which retailer you pre-order Dungeon Siege III from (listed below). Interestingly, European retailers offer the Limited Edition of DS3 which includes all four items.

  • GameStop: Burning Band of Scorch & Talisman of the Grand Mage
  • Amazon.com: Bite of the Arakun
  • BestBuy: Sacred Heart of the Legion
  • GAME.co.uk: Limited Edition with all 4 items

Dungeon Siege III screenshots

What’s new in Dungeon Siege 3?

First of all, instead of choosing a class and building your character from scratch, you’ll have to pick one of the four playable heroes. Take Anjali, for example: she is an archon, a fire spirit incarnate who can fight with a polearm in one stance, and become a powerful offensive caster in the other one. Every hero has three stances with several different ability trees, and you can improve them as you level up.

While DS3 will offer much improved graphics, better controls and a more dynamic camera, the gameplay will still be good old hack and slash, a staple of the Dungeon Siege series. That means we’ll still have endless hordes of monsters to slaughter and epic loot to find.

Storyline was never a strong point of the series, but Obsidian promises to change that. DSIII will have an elaborate storyline, background stories for every hero, and offer meaningful choices that will have lasting effects on the game world. I’m sure Obsidian can pull it off, since what they did with NWN2 and especially NWN2: Mask of Betrayer was nothing short of amazing.

Here’s what gaming journalist Richard Cobbett had to say after trying the game:

The result is a completely different game – or to be more exact, about four or five different games, thrown into a blender and pureed. From every other console hack-and-slash, we get the new camera and control systems – now up close (with the option to pull back a bit) to better follow your hero as you mash buttons to swing your sword and unleash the fury. Talk to a character and the Mass Effect conversation wheel pops up. Facing multiple enemies? You can switch between multiple combat styles, just like The Witcher. Get lost? Fable’s golden breadcrumb trail will point you in the right direction…

You can read the full Dungeon Siege 3 preview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Gameplay trailer

Dungeon Siege III is going to use Obsidian’s new proprietary Onyx engine; hopefully that means it will have high quality graphics and smooth gameplay. You can catch a few glimpses of how the upcoming RPG looks in the preview trailer below.

Dungeon Siege 3 will hit the stores on June 17th in Europe and June 21st in North America. It will be released for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms. The official homepage of the game can be found at DungeonSiege.com – visit it for news and other information.

Check out our other upcoming action games and upcoming pc games.