Introduction
What is this then? The reviews aren’t hot and metacritic user score is 4.6!
To get the basic facts out of the way, Dungeon Siege III is a third person action RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment, published by Square Enix, for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, and was released in 2011. I’ll be playing the PC version, and this will be a VLP. To refresh your memory, Obsidian also developed Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, and more recently South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the upcoming Pillars of Eternity. Obsidian is usually great in the dialogue and moral choice department, but sometimes the gameplay and technical side are a bit shaky. Technical problems at launch and a pretty shit port over to PC (that has since improved) aren’t the only reasons Dungeon Siege III wasn’t received with open arms though.
Oh hey, Dungeon Siege! I loved the old games!
Yeah, that’s the other reason. This isn’t like the old games. Being brought to consoles changed the game a lot, so much so that apart from using similar story elements it doesn’t resemble Dungeon Siege I or II. Naturally, fans who remembered the earlier games as some sort of gaming perfection were up in arms about every change and preferred raving in madness over enjoying a good, but different game. I’ve enjoyed my first playthrough of the game a lot, the combat is pretty decent, there’s good music, good dialogue, but I especially like the choices you get to make.
Choices? Can we chime in?
Hell yes. The game has a decent number of moral dilemmas. Most of them really are dilemmas and not a choice between drowning kittens and rescuing orphans from a burning church. There are 7 major choices that influence the ending, and a slew of minor ones, every one of which will depend on a vote here. Because there are choices involved,
DON’T SPOILER SHIT. Seriously, don’t muck this up for people who haven’t played the game yet. To start off with, we need to pick one out of four possible player characters. We’ll be gathering the others during the game as companions, and we’re free to bring one along with us. Once we have more than one companion, this is also up to a vote. The vignettes are from the Dungeon Siege III site, the left image is in-game, the right is concept art, the text accompanies the characters when choosing in-game.
Lore
If you need more background story to help you decide, check the second post. Later on I'll include every piece of lore in the update posts as well, but lore usually comes in bursts (like finding a library) and I might stagger them to more properly reflect where we’re currently at in the game. If, at whatever point, you want more information to make a decision, ask and you will (probably) receive. I didn't want to influence your choice for character but if you want me to chime in feel free to ask. It's also not a bad idea to check out the introduction video, linked in the second post's list of contents.
Vote for one of these mooks to be the player character Lucas Montbarron
Official vignette
Lucas Montbarron is the son of the former Grand Master of the Legion. He is the last of a noble and respected line. Raised in a series of safehouses by families loyal to his father’s memory, Lucas will not rest until the Legion is rebuilt, and his family’s honor is restored. Lucas is a skilled swordsman, and a master of two combat stances. He can fight with a sword and a shield, which allows him to attack quickly, deal heavy damage, and interrupt and stun single targets. When outnumbered, he wields a massive two-handed sword. While slower to swing and less practical for one-on-one combat, he can use it to strike multiple foes and knock them back, making it an ideal weapon for crowd control.
Anjali
Official vignette
Anjali is an archon – a legend, come to life. In the old stories, archons were spirits of fire, who served the long-lost creator gods. But Anjali was raised by friends of the Legion, and she does not know how she came to this world, or what happened to the others of her kind. Anjali can shift freely between her human form and an incarnation of elemental fire. In human form, she fights with a staff or a spear, allowing her to fend off multiple attackers while leaping in and out of the fray. In her fiery incarnation, she can hurl bolts of flame at ranged targets, flood areas with heat and fire, or inflict searing wounds that injure her foes over time.
Reinhart Manx
Official vignette
Reinhart Manx is descended from a long line of Legion mages. He has spent most of his life at the Collegium, in the city of Stonebridge, immersed in the study and practice of magic. Reinhart is known for his unconventional thinking and innovative magical techniques. A scholar of arcane magic, Reinhart warps the forces of creation and destruction to his will. His Entropic magic can blast a wide area with life-extinguishing force, though it leaves him open to attack. It is perfect for destroying crowds of enemies, as long as he keeps them at a distance. His Dynamic magic is channelled through an arcane gauntlet and capacitor. It creates deadly currents of energy with a mere motion of his hand, allowing Reinhart to quickly incapacitate a single target at close range.
Katarina
Official vignette
Katarina is the illegitimate daughter of Hugh Montbarron – the fomer Grand Master of the Legion – and a Lescanzi witch. Her mother’s people are nomads and wanderers, distrusted by many people in Ehb… but they are skilled in both warfare and magic, and Katarina has been trained in their ways. Katarina takes a thoroughly practical approach to conflict resolution: stay out of sword’s reach, and settle your problems with firearms. With her rifle in hand, she can fell distant foes, and even the most resilient enemy can be brought down by her ensorcelled bullets and debilitating curses. When forced into close combat, Katarina uses sorcery and a pair of short-range side arms to repel attackers.
Official Lore Resources
On the Dungeon Siege 3 website there are two sections worth reading if you want to fully delve into the backstory. One is a timeline of the Kingdom of Ehb, roughly 2 pages of A4 which I’ve slightly summarized below. The other is the rather lengthy journal of Odo the Venerable, relating in detail the last 30 years leading up the events of the game. The journal is worth reading, for the timeline I’d just go with the summary below.
What’s the tldr?
The tldr is only about half a page
Because the first two games (both with an expansion) needed a story, heroes and setting, the continent of Aranna customarily fell into chaos every few years or so, following the traditional scheme of marauding creatures, evil wizards, plotting villains, and magical devices that split into parts which the player had to go find and repair. The kingdom of Ehb seemed to be particularly prone to chaos and was the site of the first game.
While the kingdom of Ehb was founded by the 10th Legion, they did not end up ruling it but swore allegiance to an elected king. The elected kingship of Ehb devolved into a hereditary line and, combined with the autonomous military force of the Legion, this was bound to create tensions. When the paranoid king Hendrick started dissolving the Legion and died under questionable circumstances, blame fell to the Legion. A charismatic religious leader called Jeyne Kassynder seized the opportunity and called for a crusade against the Legion. She defeated the 10th Legion in a battle at the Rukkenvahl and killed its current Grand Master, Hugh Montbarron. For good measure, Kassynder also slaughtered two of the remaining members of the royal bloodline, the last of which went into hiding in the mines of Glitterdelve.
In the first game you played a farmer becoming a hero, and he/she is retconned to become the first Lady Montbarron, ancestor of Hugh Montbarron, Grand Master of the Legion. Hugh Montbarron, in turn, is the father of Lucas Montbarron, of his bastard off-spring Katarina, and the ward of Anjali, 3 of the 4 player characters in DS3. A bunch of years after the above summary is where our story begins. The Venerable Odo, a survivor of the wars between Jeyne and the Legion, calls for a meeting of the remaining members of the Legion at the old Montbarron Estate. We make our way to the estate only to find that…