It has been six years since we’ve seen a new Dungeon Siege game. In the game world, that corresponds to 150 years, and Obsidian Entertainment hopes to reinvigorate a dormant franchise with a new cast, a new era and, in context, a new generation of consoles.

With Obsidian at the development wheel and with Square Enix assuming publishing duties, Dungeon Siege III seeks to bring more action to the classic four player co-op RPG.

Nathan Davis, the game’s associate producer, explains how the game occupies a unique position for the publisher: “This is the first game we have worked together with Square [Enix], and this is the first real western RPG to come out of Square, so we’ve been pretty excited to be part of that.”

The 150 year interlude between Dungeon Siege II and III has let Obsidian create an almost entirely new world. Since we last visited Ehb, empires have risen and fallen while the world itself is littered with historical reminders of the older ages for existing fans. The new setting also allows for characters with their own stories.

From the outset it is clear that Obsidian is looking to make this a legitimate relaunch of a much-loved franchise. As Davis explains this, we get a look at Obsidian’s new Onyx engine at work. Dynamic lighting effects wash across characters set squarely in a smooth environment bathed in a soft glow.

Obsidian is taking a more story-driven approach to all aspects of the game. The storyline, dialogue trees and multiple endings all support a much broader, richer narrative experience. The action, the meat of the game, has been significantly streamlined. The goal is to serve the dual purpose of accommodating console players while keeping everything fluid.

Each character has two action stances that can be quickly toggled between. With the press of a button a warrior character can switch between a two-handed sword stance and a shield and sword stance – each with distinguishing abilities, while holding the left trigger opens up defensive abilities and lets the player block or roll out of danger.

But fear not, this is not simply a new console-friendly button mashing entry into a classic PC RPG experience. With the touch of a button or two we can peel back the curtain to discover a game replete with stat screens, ability lists and item collection. Ability choices, the importance of base statistics and equipment selection all mould the characters in very personal ways.

As characters level up through the game, they’re presented with many options from abilities in each available stance to passive abilities increasing damage or helping the group. Obsidian has layered on further depth by allowing characters to modify their existing abilities in ways that best suit individual playstyles. As a result, players will discover a kind of flexible duality to abilities as they play around: would you prefer your Shield Slam did more damage or was a more reliable and enduring form of crowd control? Would you rather your area of effect fire spell did more damage or should it cauterize friendly players’ wounds? A little bit of both? How your abilities perform is on you.

This combination of character attributes, understanding abilities and using them to their best advantage has always been a feature of the Dungeon Siege series and the newest entrant looks to be no exception. “We took this action RPG that has always been on the PC and took all of the complexities that you would expect from a PC RPG and brought it onto the consoles so that we have a fun and visceral game,” added Davis.

Playing the game cooperatively with Davis, the hectic pace of combat is readily available to see. Davis has assumed melee duties as I’m playing the role of a supporting caster. In a set piece featuring a miniboss, his warrior is dodging and charging around the room collecting up and bringing low scattered ranged enemies while my focus is on keeping him alive and putting some serious hurt onto the main enemy. Switching stances is crucial. I enter my fire elemental form to drop area effect healing and damage spells and, once those are on cool-down, quickly switch to my human form to unleash some spear-based hurt.

Blending Obsidian’s touches, the lore of the first games and fluid action, in addition to stat-building for real RPG fans, Dungeon Siege III could very well be the reboot the series needs. Certainly it has only been a brief taste, but our appetite has been thoroughly whetted.

Read our full interview with Nathan Davis here.