I played the demo, I knew I wasn't going to get a game of the year when I bought Dungeon Siege 3 for the PC. It had its flaws but as with any loot grinder I found it kept me entertained enough to finish it. Trouble is that it was complete in just in 6 and a half hours with every sidequest done.

For this reason alone, I fully regret making the purchase. I expect a far bigger time - money value and I'm pretty disgusted that it was so bloody short.

Just throwing that warning out there, this is by no means a long game.

How do you know you completed every side quests? Are they really that visible and few of?

Hmmm.. Somehow I doubt this.

6½h is too short for an RPG even if you skip every side quest.

They are like many MMORPG's where all the quests are picked up from very obvious quest givers, they were few and most were intended to be complete while doing the main quest line with the objectives very near by. Truly awful.

That's disappointing to hear.

I don't know much about this game, but isn't it possible to explore a big world or something? Or is it very linear? I'm sure you can find more quests if you explore some, no?

Wow. I'll remove this from the wishlist, thanks for the heads up.

6 1/2, really? I've played 6-7 hrs and don't seem close to finishing. And some reviews have listed it at the 18 hour mark.
 
Edit: Yeah quite certain the OP is full of shit on this one.

er I'm 7 hours in and just reached the swamp, not even the city showed in QLEX
so I'm highly skeptical of your number

I'm level 28, and the autosave before the final boss clocks in at 8 hours 9 seconds.

I'm level 28, and the autosave before the final boss clocks in at 8 hours 9 seconds.

@Tennmuerti: I dunno, it feels like I may have played for about 10 hours. Not sure though, because it's one of the least memorable games I've played in a long time.

Was looking forward to this game. If what is said is true i'll just wait till the price lowers a bit.

All side quests and finished, on what difficulty? What level were you? I'm level 18, 6 hours in, haven't even gotten the 4th party member and game doesn't feel close to the end but I honestly don't know how much longer is left. Certainly doesn't feel like a final boss is anytime soon though. I've died a handful of times, playing on hard, done every side quest up to this point with very little down time out of that 6 hours.

On the 12 hour mark, taking my time to explore and complete sidequests. Also on Hardcore, might have something to do with it.

And boom goes the dynamite.

Just finished the game.
21 hours Steam time.
(12 hours by the game save)  The time on the saves is not actual time just when you are in the world unpaused, so any time you are reading text, talking, trading, in stats/gear menus, it seems to be not counting.

Wow... so daggerdale is amount the same amount....weird...

6.5 hours is an excellent length for a bullet-fast shooter. For a slower RPG... a genre that is known for comprehensive world and character development? That seems fairly unacceptable. There's no rollercoaster, yet no long-term investment.

6.5 hours is an excellent length for a bullet-fast shooter. For a slower RPG... a genre that is known for comprehensive world and character development? That seems fairly unacceptable. There's no rollercoaster, yet no long-term investment.

Jim Sterling on Destructoid said that he did every side quest and the game took him 12 hours. Still pretty short.

@Kratch said:

Jim Sterling on Destructoid said that he did every side quest and the game took him 12 hours. Still pretty short.

Alpha Protocol only takes that amount of time...

Heh, and people were complaining that DA2 was short...

@Arkez said:

They are like many MMORPG's where all the quests are picked up from very obvious quest givers, they were few and most were intended to be complete while doing the main quest line with the objectives very near by. Truly awful.

Honestly that sounds like a sign of developing for more casual gamers. It's always talked about how most gamers don't finish the games they buy according to achievements and developers talk about making games shorter and more packed with content in smaller travel/play time.

@ZimboDK said:

I'm level 28, and the autosave before the final boss clocks in at 8 hours 9 seconds.

That's still really short though

Glad I never attempted to buy this game.

@Enigma777 said:

Heh, and people were complaining that DA2 was short...

DA2 is not short. It's long, mundane and fucking repetitive.

@Enigma777 said:

Heh, and people were complaining that DA2 was short...

Is DA2 short? I am like 21 hours in and I don't feel half way through chpater 2. How long is the whole game meant to take?

@AlexW00d said:

@Enigma777 said:

Heh, and people were complaining that DA2 was short...

Is DA2 short? I am like 21 hours in and I don't feel half way through chpater 2. How long is the whole game meant to take?

Took me like 40 hours

@ZimboDK said:

I'm level 28, and the autosave before the final boss clocks in at 8 hours 9 seconds.

That's still really short though

That is horrible for an RPG. Obsidian does it again.

Even Nier isn't that short and that's only a hybrid RPG.

People do realize that there are conflict reports in this same thread. Some people are having vastly different times which themselves vary if you're looking at Steam time vs. in game save. Personally I wouldn't buy the OP's story unless reviewers verify across the board.

@warxsnake said:

@Enigma777 said:

Heh, and people were complaining that DA2 was short...

DA2 is not short. It's long, mundane and fucking repetitive.

nuh-uh

Lady Hawke sarcastic dialog choices overwrites every short coming of DA2.

But i will admit, bisexual is okay, but using the same male/female model for Hawke's sex scene is THE PINNACLE OF LAZY-DOM!

As for Dungeon Siege 3, gotta give Obsidian credit for fleshing out the Kingdom of Ebb beyond the 5 lines of story Chris Taylor provided in DS1/2.

I don't know whats up IGN's butt but they sure are having bad reviews lately.  I give IGN's reviews a 4/10.

I actually like the idea of rpgs that have shorter main-line quests, with all the extra filler that normally fills a rpg as optional side quests. That said, six and a half hours is too short by anyone's standards for this type of rpg. I could be down with 10, with none of the sidequests completed, but not this.

6.5 hours is no accurate. The game will take you easily 10+ depending on how much time you put into character growth and weapon management, etc. Plus, the game is made to be played multiple times with each character. A shorter RPG is necessary for that.

Wow, that's short. I got it on the PC too and I'm finding myself playing it with an Xbox 360 controller instead of Keyboard and Mouse. It was definitely built for the console.

I sat down tonight and played for the first time and I paid attention to the clock. I played uninterrupted for an hour and fifty minutes. My in game save said barely more than one hour. My best guess is that the game is only counting the time when you are not in any menus, looking at quests, managing inventory, etc.

2 things should not be trusted here and they relate to each other perfecly: The in game clock & The OP. Also guessing on top of that that the OP is one of those gamers that skip alot of the text and extra detail in world in favor of rushing through the game mechanically.

Also its a dungeon crawler not an RPG of epic proportions.

Was gonna get this game but now I'll wait till it's really cheap in price, thanks for the info, saved me a "pissed off" moment.

Some people play games at rocket speed.

2 things should not be trusted here and they relate to each other perfecly: The in game clock & The OP. Also guessing on top of that that the OP is one of those gamers that skip alot of the text and extra detail in world in favor of rushing through the game mechanically.

Also its a dungeon crawler not an RPG of epic proportions.

The game's short for an rpg/loot crawler period. There's so much more that's wrong though. Obsidian made some very weird choices while trying to add dialogue and story to a DS game, and the result is a game that is neither a good arpg, or a good loot/crawler. The online co-op mp is very poorly implemented w/some amazingly poor design choices. There is some fun to be had but it's a rent/bargain bin game, not nearly worth full price.

@pweidman: I'm hoping that you are a Too Human fan. I have HUGE amounts of love for Too Human. I'm dying for more. But TH is shorter than this game (at least for me) and I had no problem with it. Maybe I'm missing something in lumping these two games together for time comparison sakes, but I view them as quite similar. I totally see the co-op as a massive head-scratcher. I'm guessing that design decision was due to time constraints though, not lack of dev ability. Anyhow, like TH, I think that this game takes it on the chin a little more than is deserved when other titles seem to get free passes on many core gameplay issues. Personally, I really like DS3.

@Jimbo_N said:

2 things should not be trusted here and they relate to each other perfecly: The in game clock & The OP. Also guessing on top of that that the OP is one of those gamers that skip alot of the text and extra detail in world in favor of rushing through the game mechanically.

Also its a dungeon crawler not an RPG of epic proportions.

That's pretty presumptuous of you. The OP complained that a dungeon crawler - an RPG one at that - was overtly linear and for him it clocked in at 7 hours.  This is cause for concern, because when you buy one of these games, you expect some mileage out of it. Having Dungeon Siege 3 be a shorter experience than a Gears of War game is concerning.

@ericdrum said:

@pweidman: I'm hoping that you are a Too Human fan. I have HUGE amounts of love for Too Human. I'm dying for more. But TH is shorter than this game (at least for me) and I had no problem with it. Maybe I'm missing something in lumping these two games together for time comparison sakes, but I view them as quite similar. I totally see the co-op as a massive head-scratcher. I'm guessing that design decision was due to time constraints though, not lack of dev ability. Anyhow, like TH, I think that this game takes it on the chin a little more than is deserved when other titles seem to get free passes on many core gameplay issues. Personally, I really like DS3.

Played TH for 350+ hrs. That was a true dungeon crawl loot game with some serious challenge. TH required you to put in the time(lvl 50 wasn't enough, you needed the truly rare loot sets to really get there plus building the awesome charms up)to make your character into a godly beast. Once you did that though, it was simple bliss mowing down the hordes, bosses, and helping friends in a more than competent co-op mode. And even then you had 4 other characters that did play much differently to lvl and fool w/at your disgression giving the game almost endless replayability. Too Human was an epic game.

DS3 has no singular identity. It's not an rpg of large scope or freedom. All the dialogue chioces and 'grave situations' are resolved in a matter of minutes in small areas, taking away any real weight that the extensive dialogue options attempt to add. It's franchise lineage, if Obsidian gave a rat's ass, is action, loot based rpg. It doesn't do that well either with identical gear most game long, and no character creation, nor carryover to mp, nor any sort of grindy N+ place to go after you finish, nor much challenge once your character quickly skills up and gets all the blue/yellow rares...I got the all rares achieve in about 7 hrs, lol.

To be fair, the game is fun for a while in sp, and even mp despite the horrible one camera pulling on you constantly(fuck!). But it's a placeholder for us hardcore crawler/loot fans until Diablo 3 drops, or even more immediately, until Torchlight 2 comes out this summer.

Gaming is way subjective though, so if you love DS3, awesome. Enjoy duder!

I just finished it in 12 hours. It might be 6 if you literally do the main story but sidequests are thrown at you so much you'll end up doing them anyway.

It took me 8 hours on normal difficulty with every sidequest. Throughout the whole game I died once (Dying all the time and being stuck may explain the much longer playtimes mentioned in this thread). Maybe you need one hour more if you actually listen to the dialogue instead of flying over it and then skipping it. Maybe you need 2 hours more if you are not Anjali who owns everyone and everything in her path with a simple two-spell combo. Maybe you need 3 hours more if you are borderline retarded and can't solve the simple sidequests which are always near the actual main story objectives, like someone said before.

However, the game can be finished that fast because it has an excellent WoW-Addon-like quest helper. You press UP on your controller and breadcrumbs lead the way. So basically all you do is walking up to the guys with the exclamation mark and then pressing UP until the quest is finished. This way the game will be done in 8 hours.

DS III is by no means horrible. It is entertaining while it lasts and its combat feels dynamic and rewarding, but people who keep yelling that this game will take significantly longer than 8 hours for a first (and probably only) playthrough are either unable to cope with the difficulty (lol?) or simply misleading interested buyers of the game.