Yesterday, I bought download versions of Dungeon Siege III and Deus Ex: Human Revolution from Amazon. While neither of those games were on my must-play list, they were such a good price that I had to pick them up to see if I like them.
I enjoyed the first two Dungeon Siege games a lot which made me hope the third one, which got not-great reviews, would be okay. When I downloaded it from Amazon, it added itself to my Steam account, which is great, because Steam can worry about keeping it up to date, etc.
The game is very console-oriented, with few character choices, no customization, loot items specific to each character, and combat tailor-made for a game controller (I use the Xbox 360 controller for Windows). The game looks good at high resolution and doesn’t stutter on my system. Dungeon Siege III starts amazingly quickly and has very little in the way of delays or loading screens. It’s very well done.
I chose a character that uses guns, both a long rifle for ranged attacks and a duel-wield shotgun/pistol combo for short range. There are only 4 character choices, so my guess is that the party will eventually end up with all four: yourself and three companions. Each has different skills, armor, and appearance.
So far, the combat is pretty good. Before I got better with the controls and switching between short and long range, I had a lot of trouble when mobs would close on me and surround me. The long rifle is powerful, but not useful up close. Once I figured out my stun skill, how to roll and avoid hits, and spamming the shotgun/pistol blasts, I got lots better.
The plot is the usual kind about how you are of special lineage and everyone around you was betrayed and killed, etc. The plot missions, so far, are very linear, and the number of side quests is reasonably few, so you can focus on progressing the story. You start off solo, but so far, I have rescued one of the other characters, so she is now my party companion and does fire damage and helps a lot. I presume our goal will be to rescue the other two soon.
In short, Dungeon Siege III is a fun, simplified action RPG that is worth playing, especially if you can buy it on sale!