Video game review: Dugeon Siege III

July 25, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

‘DUNGEON SIEGE III’

Grade: B

Details: by Square Enix, for Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and PC; $59.99 ($49.99 for PC); rated Teen

The last decade or so has been great for fans of loot-driven dungeon crawls.

Action role-playing adventures such as “Borderlands,” “Torchlight,” “Titan Quest,” “Din’s Curse” and the “Dungeon Siege” series have given players many perilous depths to explore in the past several years.

Now comes “Dungeon Siege III,” in which the ever-turbulent land of Ehb has lost its king and turned on its protectors, the 10th Legion of the long- collapsed Empire of Stars, blaming it for the monarch’s murder.

Thirty years after the king’s death, the player’s character travels to a remote estate for a gathering meant to begin the training of a new generation of legionnaires.

The meeting is massacred, however, and so begins a quest to find any survivors and determine who was behind the attack, defeating tons of enemies and finding fortunes worth of treasure (and a lot of useless junk) along the way.

There are four characters for players to choose from. Lucas Montbarron is the son of the 10th Legion’s last leader and fights with sword and shield; Anjali is a fire spirit who wields spears and staffs and can alternate at will between human and fire-elemental states; Katarina, a witch and illegitimate half- sister to Lucas, armed with magic and firearms; and Reinhart Manx, a powerful spell-caster with an unconventional approach to magic.

In the console versions of the game, a second player may join the first at any time and play as one of the inactive heroes; when adventuring online, each player must play a different hero.

Each of the warriors can switch at will between two battle stances with separate sets of three special abilities. A third set of three abilities is activated while blocking enemy attacks.

Each character’s nine abilities can be upgraded using one of two proficiencies.

Up to five ranks can be gained in each ability, and players can specialize in one proficiency or create a mixture of the two.

—Justin Hoeger, Sacramento Bee