Dungeon Siege 3 action role-playing game

Dungeon Siege III is an action-adventure game that can be played alone or with up to four friends.

In a nod to a past era of gaming, it even includes so-called 'couch co-op', which means it can be played with a friend on the same screen, rather than online, and this is where it shines.

You take the role of a hero from the 10th Legion, cast into the Kingdom of Ehb and fighting to restore your people following an attack that all but wiped out your order.

Four characters are available: a sword-wielding soldier, a mage, a gunner and a mythical creature who can change form to use ranged or close-up attacks. As you progress through the story the character will gain experience and skills.

Developing the character is typical to such role-playing and the skills 'trees' work well to a point. The skills we added didn't really affect our approach to battles, which usually ended with a swarming mass of enemies.

Often the most effective attack was blind hacking or running backwards and launching ranged attacks. While the action was repetitive, the environments were lovely to look at and fun to explore.

To aid the slaughter of foes, who are wide-ranging, colourful and creative, and include everything from brigands to swamp creatures, there is a looting aspect.

Every barrel, enemy and treasure chest throws up some kind of weapon, armour or enchantment. While most items are useless, the hope of finding that special sword or rare shield kept us plodding forward.

The story changes slightly depending on the character chosen at the start, and while the script was decent and the voice acting good, characters' facial animations were poor. Dialogue can be explored and there are even moral decisions to make but it never felt like much was weighing on our choices.

The game ran well on our three-year-old PC so you won't need the most modern computer to play it.

Dungeon Siege III never rises far above mediocrity but played with friends it can offer several hours of enjoyment.

Pegi age rating: 16+