Space Siege

Posted 4 years ago By - Brian Edey

From Gas Powered Games, developers of the Dungeon Siege series and Supreme Commander, Space Siege is following the action role playing path like its fantasy cousin Dungeon Siege. Although the game has a pedigree behind it, Gas Powered Games and Sega did not exactly give the hardcore PC gamer a title which will last for years on their hard drive, but it is nothing more then a stop gap until Diablo 3 and other big named action role playing titles are released.

Space Siege is about how the human race is being wiped out by a nasty race of alien invaders called the Kerak. The Kerak have invaded Earth and as the remaining people of Earth are leaving the planet in these giant ships, the Kerak are boarding and destroying them. You are left on one of the last ships, the one person who can save what is left of humanity and destroy the Kerak threat on the ship. Space Siege has a cliché sci-fi story, but it is well written and told in a way that feels fresh and new.

Space Siege is your average point and click action role playing title, you left click to move around and hold the right button to fire your weapon while using the function and number keys for various attacks and commands. There is one issue I will bring up now and that is the fact you can not change your movement commands to WASD or even customize your keys, something I tried several times but it would not change. Other then the lack of being able to customize your controls, once you do grasp the controls you can play the game fine, but it still will not feel natural.

The single player campaign is a fun romp of action role playing, with plenty of initial customization options. But really there are only two ‘classes’ you can be in the game full on cybernetic bad ass or save your humanity and face an onslaught of monsters with out the benefit of being enhanced. The multiplayer campaign is separate with options to customize how the game plays with up to four players online. The multiplayer co-operative campaign is always fun, but there are better games to play online and I found it difficult to wrangle people to play with.

One very nice feature in Space Siege is the number of paths you can take in the game; it was surprising to see how different the game played the second time through when I upgraded my character a different way. Plus your robot companion, HR-V, can be customized in many ways and during the game you can use him during combat in different ways such as going on the offensive or have him defensive during the game.

You will be surprised how small customizations to you and your robot pal HR-V can change the way the game feels and plays along with the quick action of diving behind cover and dodging enemy fire there were times I was wishing for the game to support a gamepad so I could keep playing longer when my hands became tired dealing with the poor control support the game comes with. Patch the game please Gas Powered Games.


Do you remember how wonderful Dungeon Siege was when you first played it, with zero loading screens as you traveled the land and explored the world? It was fantastic and in fact the game still plays and looks good to this day. But I was disappointed in Space Siege graphically in many ways from the overall art style which is almost plain, to the level design which does not make much sense and finally the special effects which are not so special. To me the game looks like a indie title with a small budget graphically, except for the awesome opening cut-scene, which would not be a bad thing if it was not for the great graphics we are used to from Gas Powered Games other titles such as Dungeon Siege series and Supreme Commander.

The graphics are not so bad you will not enjoy looking at the game, because even on older systems the game will run fine and you will see plenty of explosions and cool physics effects as you hit barrels or other explosive items and see everything fly around. The only major issue with the physics is there just does not seem to be enough of those exploding barrels to make it a completely fun experience visually.

Dungeon Siege was a great sounding game for music and sound effects one of the leading titles for its time audio wise in my opinion. Space Siege music did not follow its fantasy cousin all the way in the audio department, but it is not all bad, in fact at times the sound effects are excellent and the music fits, unfortunately just not the entire time you are playing the game. The voice acting on the other hand are all well done, especially in the radio chatter and the opening game CGI movie in which the back ground story is told. The voice over work is not the best we have heard in a role playing PC game this year, but it is far from the worst.

Gas Powered Games and its publisher Sega had a potential super star hit with Space Siege to be one of the stellar role playing PC titles of the year, but with many issues with the overall gameplay remove the long term value of this title multiplayer wise. If Gas Powered Games listened to the many complaints mentioned all over the web, we could have a great game to play for years to come.

This is a good game for a once through, but lacks any long term re-play value and lacks what made the Dungeon Siege titles so great and full of amazing gameplay. The online side of Space Siege is very well done but like the Single Player it lacks that certain something which makes it a great and worth while game.

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