The private demo I saw was little more than a proof of concept. A dungeon, two heroes (a warrior and a wizard) and a steady stream of ugly baddies. The bads got knocked about like toys – the warrior slamming his shield into entire groups. It’s simple bash bash bash entertainment. The wizard fights by the warrior’s side – one is controlled with a gamepad, the other with a mouse and keyboard. Their abilities are complementary, the wizard slowing or freezing bigger enemies in place while the warrior carves a safe path through them.

The technology is impressive. The dungeon they’re fighting through is miles deep. You can see it spiralling down into the depths. Each little goblin that gets knocked off the ledge can be seen pinwheeling into the river below. This isn’t an off-the-shelf tech solution like the Unreal engine: this is developer Obsidian finally flexing their technical muscles.

And that’s the other weird surprise. Hold tight, this is complicated financial stuff. The original Dungeon Siege was developed and created by Gas Powered Games, led by Chris Taylor. The Dungeon Siege games and intellectual property were sold to Square Enix. The same Square Enix that created the Final Fantasy games, and then merged with UK publisher Eidos (themselves the owners of Deus Ex and Tomb Raider). Square Enix, in turn, have contracted out development of Dungeon Siege 3 to Obsidian, the team behind Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and in their former iteration, Planescape: Torment and Fallout.