When I heard there was going to be a third Dungeon Siege, I knew it was a game I wanted to keep an eye on. I played the first one upon release in 2002 and really liked it. Yes, it had some flaws, but overall it was a good RPG that I spent a lot of hours with. Sadly I was without the means or computer to play the second one. So when a demo for the third popped up on XBL this morning I made sure to download and play it. All for you fine readers, all for you.

I think the first thing I should mention is how I evaluate an RPG. I try to look at them through the eyes of someone who isn’t a fan of the genre, as much as I do someone who loves it. Listening to both PatMan and Glasenator talk about what makes them dislike RPG’s, has caused me to pay more attention to how the game play works. I mention this because that was the first thing that impressed me about the demo. When tracking a quest you can get a nice line of bright dots telling you which direction to head. Pretty much just like the Fable series has done and it is something I endorse. Makes it much easier to figure out exactly where your going. Which means less time spent trying to determine where in the hell your headed. I am sure Hardcore fans will whine as they often do, but I applaud the developers for putting it in. Might just be able to get a few casual fans playing the game. The rest of the controls are pretty straight forward and are easy to learn. The on screen tutorials were also helpful and I never felt lost when it came to the controls

Graphically the game looks really good on the 360. As is usually the case I am sure they will look much better on the PC. That said, I don’t see myself losing sleep over having to settle for the 360 version of the game. There was no graphical tearing or frame rate drops that I noticed. Granted I am probably the last person you should ask about graphics quality. As I tend to stop caring after it reaches pretty. Character models aren’t stellar, but look sufficient enough to suit my tastes. All the breaking and explosion effects looked good, as did the spell casters magic. I doubt highly the art aficionados of the gaming world will rushing to heap praise on the game, but it doesn’t scream last generation either. Mind you I only played tiny fraction of the game and most of it was set at night or in a cave.

The story seems interesting and fits into the Dungeon Siege universe. You are back in the Kingdom of Ehb for this epic tale. Your character is connected to the bloodlines of the now destroyed 10th legion. You are tasked with rebuilding the legion and saving the Kingdom from destruction. While that sounds fairly run of the mill, I got the sense that the story was going to broaden and get more interesting as the game goes forward. Some of the dialogue choices and things that are teased, make me think you may be able to guide the story more than I had originally assumed. Given it’s a demo I have no clue whether that is the case, but it was a feeling I got. My hope is that the plot and story keeps me guessing from beginning to end. To many RPG’s of late have been predictable and well kind of boring. I admit I am only going off what the demo showed, so I am prepared to be disappointed. Still there is enough in the story outline to make the game worth while from my point of view.

Overall I enjoyed the demo and plan to play it again later this afternoon as your given the choice of two characters and I played through the first time with one of them. I highly recommend at least given the demo a shot, even if your not a fan of the genre. It may surprise you how easily you can get into the game. Then again given the cranky crowd around here maybe not.