Space Siege PC Review

Space Siege is ultimately, a disappointment. Coming out of Gas Powered Games, the makers of Supreme Commander and the earlier fantasy-themed Dungeon Siege games, Space Siege takes the basic hack-and-slash action RPG framework and boils it down to an absurd degree. Many of the things that make that genre entertaining have been stripped out of the game, and although there’s still a playable and enjoyable core here, the end result is lacking in replay value and overall entertainment.

The entirety of the game takes place in an spaceship which has been infested by these evil alien robot things. You’ll play as a generic space marine character, and find a few other human characters along the way. Throughout the story, a number of typical boilerplate sci-fi things happen, and eventually, after about 15 hours, it all comes to an end. The story is gripping at first but quickly dissolves to the point where you’ll see everything coming, and it is highly linear. You’ll collect all the important weapons and items exactly when the game wants you to. There are a few moments in the game where you can decide to enhance yourself cybernetically, but this has little impact on the story and is more important to your character’s skills.

Gameplay is standard point and click action RPG fare. You’ll click on hundreds of enemies to shoot or hit them. Melee and firearms are available, and both are satisfying and fun to play, but the combat starts to wear thin as the game moves on. There are no experience points whatsoever. The game hands out skill points when it wants to, which you place into various abilities, but none of these has a huge impact on the gameplay. Instead of collecting loot from enemies, you’ll collect a generic currency of “parts,” which can then be used to improve items. Everything works out well, but it feels stripped down compared to other games of this type on the market, and even compared to previous games in the series.

The presentation values here are solid. Every room of the ship contains a number of physics objects that seem to be there solely to bounce around and explode. The downside of having one large spaceship as the environment for the whole game becomes apparent after just a few hours. Although the ship is split into a number of unique areas, they all look more or less the same. They look nice, and the texturing and model work is good, but they all start to blend together. The sound effects are unspectacular, and the music isn’t nearly as memorable as the music in the earlier Dungeon Siege games. The voice actors are solid, but the material they are working with is not good enough to take advantage of them.

Multiplayer is included here as well, but thanks to the linearity of the story, the lack of loot gathering, and the lack of experience points, it’s not really worth dragging someone else through the game. Plenty of other games offer the action RPG experience in a more fun and replayable fashion. I loved the earlier Siege games, and I was really excited going into this one. I had fun with it for the first few hours, but the lack of experience points especially turned it into a slog. There’s something about gaining experience and character improvement options that make these games enjoyable for me, and the total lack of that here killed the game for me. The core gameplay is solid and fun, but the game built on it feels lacking and unfinished, especially compared to the epic experiences of the older Dungeon Siege games. I’d highly recommend playing one of those instead. If you have played those and you’re looking forward to this new sequel, the number of toned-down and scaled-back gameplay elements will likely disappoint you. Recommended only for those that have to play absolutely every action-RPG. This game is rated T for Teen by the ESRB. For more information, check out www.spacesiege.com.


	Space Siege PC Review…2 out of 5 By Alex Rowe Space Siege is ultimately, a disappointment. Coming out of Gas Powered Games, the makers of Supreme Commander and the earlier fantasy-themed Dungeon Siege games, Space Siege takes the basic hack-and-slash action RPG framework and boils it down to an absurd degree. Many of the things that make that genre entertaining have been stripped out of the game, and although there’s still a playable and enjoyable core here, the end result is lacking in replay value and overall entertainment. The entirety of the game takes place in an spaceship which has been infested by these evil alien robot things. You’ll play as a generic space marine character, and find a few other human characters along the way. Throughout the story, a number of typical boilerplate sci-fi things happen, and eventually, after about 15 hours, it all comes to an end. The story is gripping at first but quickly dissolves to the point where you’ll see everything coming, and it is highly linear. You’ll collect all the important weapons and items exactly when the game wants you to. There are a few moments in the game where you can decide to enhance yourself cybernetically, but this has little impact on the story and is more important to your character’s skills. Gameplay is standard point and click action RPG fare. You’ll click on hundreds of enemies to shoot or hit them. Melee and firearms are available, and both are satisfying and fun to play, but the combat starts to wear thin as the game moves on. There are no experience points whatsoever. The game hands out skill points when it wants to, which you place into various abilities, but none of these has a huge impact on the gameplay. Instead of collecting loot from enemies, you’ll collect a generic currency of “parts,” which can then be used to improve items. Everything works out well, but it feels stripped down compared to other games of this type on the market, and even compared to previous games in the series. The presentation values here are solid. Every room of the ship contains a number of physics objects that seem to be there solely to bounce around and explode. The downside of having one large spaceship as the environment for the whole game becomes apparent after just a few hours. Although the ship is split into a number of unique areas, they all look more or less the same. They look nice, and the texturing and model work is good, but they all start to blend together. The sound effects are unspectacular, and the music isn’t nearly as memorable as the music in the earlier Dungeon Siege games. The voice actors are solid, but the material they are working with is not good enough to take advantage of them. Multiplayer is included here as well, but thanks to the linearity of the story, the lack of loot gathering, and the lack of experience points, it’s not really worth dragging someone else through the game. Plenty of other games offer the action RPG experience in a more fun and replayable fashion. I loved the earlier Siege games, and I was really excited going into this one. I had fun with it for the first few hours, but the lack of experience points especially turned it into a slog. There’s something about gaining experience and character improvement options that make these games enjoyable for me, and the total lack of that here killed the game for me. The core gameplay is solid and fun, but the game built on it feels lacking and unfinished, especially compared to the epic experiences of the older Dungeon Siege games. I’d highly recommend playing one of those instead. If you have played those and you’re looking forward to this new sequel, the number of toned-down and scaled-back gameplay elements will likely disappoint you. Recommended only for those that have to play absolutely every action-RPG. This game is rated T for Teen by the ESRB. For more information, check out www.spacesiege.com.