Dungeon Siege III: Treasures of the Sun – Review
Platform | Release Date
PC | October 26, 2011
PS3 | October 26, 2011
X360 | October 26, 2011
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment
Published by Square Enix
The Pitch:
In Dungeon Siege III: Treasures of the Sun, players will extend their journey and travel beyond the borders of Ehb to an all-new environment: the Aranoi Desert. On their search for a lost Legion hero, players will fight through hordes of new villains only to find a forgotten abbey hiding a long-lost secret: the greatest treasure of the Azunite faith.
As this is a review of premium downloadable content, we did not post an Open Review. However, should you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments section. You can find our original review of Dungeon Siege III here. The following review is of the PlayStation 3 version of the content.
Hack n’ slash RPGs are the chicken nuggets of video gaming. They aren’t the fanciest thing you can buy, but when you have a craving and need something easily accessible, they’ll generally leave you happy and satisfied. Dungeon Siege 3: Treasures of The Sun is a chicken nugget value meal in that way.
This DLC provides an interesting side story that fits anywhere into the timeline of the full game?. It takes place on the outskirts of the land of Ehb, in the desolate Aranoi Desert. I know what you’re thinking “Wow, A DESERT, that’s an original RPG zone”, but hear me out. While not the most original setting, the expansive landscape and included dungeons are incredibly well crafted. The set pieces are interesting to look at, and the quests are presented in a logical order that will let you explore all the extra nooks and crannies built into this world. The time and effort they put into this first expansion shows not just in the design but in the dialogue as well.
Treasures of The Sun takes you on a quest to find a long lost member of the Legion. In your search, you’ll come across a number of interesting characters scattered about the desert, from a splintered religious sect of Azunites in a massive temple, to witches and outcast monks in the remote dunes. This side story-arc is woven nicely into the Dungeon Siege basket, and Obsidian’s reputation for interesting writing has been upheld. As you get further into the main quest, you’ll learn back-story about the Azunite religion, a race of giants, and uncover a mystery or two. It’s tied subtly, and cleverly, into the main DS3 story, portraying the locals being at odds with Jeyne Kassynder.
While there are no new playable characters, the DLC also offers some cool new mechanics that were strangely missing from the core title. In addition to all the new loot you’ll find, the game has introduced “essences”. Both major and minor essences can be applied to your gear to enhance stats and abilities such as “stagger” and “vampire” to give them new properties or supplement existing ones. Think of this as an “enchanting-lite” system, since they can be applied to almost any item as long as you have the cash to do so.
The main quest hub also offers a fountain where you can pay to re-spec your character, which was a welcome feature. Finally, a difficult-to-miss side quest will unlock “ultimate abilities” such as a powerful shield, mega healing spell, or badass (AOE) explosion. The AOE attack was definitely a welcome addition since the enemies in ToTS (good acronym) are quite fierce. I found myself dying much more than I did in the original game, especially when fighting the giant sandworm. You didn’t think they’d make a desert without a giant sandworm, did you?
If you were a fan of Dungeon Siege 3, I would wholeheartedly recommend Treasures of The Sun for the ten dollar asking price. It provides hours of gameplay in a fully realized new setting. Nothing about it feels tacked-on. Plus, if you haven’t beaten the main campaign of DS3, Treasures will provide you with some bad-ass loot to bring home and use to finish off the story.
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a Sidequest for 10 euro is ridiculous and i want it for free as ds 3 was allready crap.
everyone buying ds3 was prepared for the ds fun making servers to play with friends and beat stuf get loot(that was most fun getting loot)
now ds3 let you run 1 way and finish game in like 2 days playtime and than ontop of that you cant play on.
why i want to get lvl 35 if i finished the game at lvl 30 and cant play my char nomore cus he finished??
buying the dlc would still make my chart obsolete cus he finished the game omg what a ripoff.
note : ripoff was that i expected the standard ds game and not the new ds finish game and delete char style they use now.
@sidequest – What in the heck are you talking about?
I loved DSIII, finished it three times and found it quite enjoyable. My question is if I was starting a new game at what point does the DLC come in?