Dungeon Siege 3 is hated and vilified because of how much it deviates from the first two games. Well, I've just finished Dungeon Siege 3, and I have to say I like it way more than the first game. (I did not play the second game. I mildly enjoyed the first one, but not enough for me to bother with the sequel. I got the first game mainly because I needed its engine to play Ultima 5 and 6 remakes. I recently bought the third game because it was so dirt cheap on Steam, and I had a shopping urge.)
What Dungeon Siege 3 did better than the Dungeon Siege 1 was storytelling and characterization. The original Dungeon Siege was actually a very generic RPG: it has a generic fantasy setting in a generic fantasy world with a generic backstory and a generic save-the-world story. The original Dungeon Siege in itself did not have much of a story; the story was more of an excuse to play RPG. Dungeon Siege was more of a toolset for modders to build their own RPG, so it targeted a niche (the modder communities) who did not particularly care much about storytelling and characterization in RPG.
Dungeon Siege 3 went a different path. It actually has character-driven stories that have some degrees of complexity and intricacy, (i.e., the storylines of Lucas and Anjali in particular.) Dungeon Siege 3 actually added - i.e., retconmed - a rich backstory/history/politics/religions and complexities to Dungeon Siege's very generic and very bland fantasy world. It added details and depths to the world. That was what made me prefer Dungeon Siege 3 over Dungeon Siege 1.
Dungeon Siege 3 started out as a linear action button-smashing game and very little of RPG. However, at about 1/3 into the game, (when the characters reach Stonebridge,) then familiar Obsidian storytelling and world-building come to the forefront; that's when the whole world opens up and the game becomes more non-linear, and when character interactions, dialogues and choices start to drive the gameplay and story. It actually reminds me of BioWare titles. Unfortunately, I think most players were so put off by the initial parts of the game that they had never reached Stonebridge.
Dungeon Siege 3 is also a surprising stable game. Obsidian (as its predecessors Black Isle and Troika) has a reputation: the developer released buggy/broken games, and then abandoned those unfinished products for their fans communities to patch. Which is why I stayed away from their titles until I knew fan-made patches were available. Dungeon Siege 3 does not have any fan-made patch -- yet it is an amazingly stable and smooth experience. (Dungeon Siege 1, by a different developer, is still buggy after years. So Dungeon Siege 3 is also better than 1 in terms of stability.)
So, if anyone has not already played the game, give it a try, and ignore all the hates it has gotten from the traditional Dungeon Siege fans. You may enjoy it, especially if you liked character-driven gameplay in your RPG.
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