"Dungeon Siege + Sci-Fi Theme = Space Siege?"

Introduction
Space Siege is the latest game produced by Gas Powered Games, which was famous due ot their point and click Action RPG game called Dungeon Siege. Space Siege doesn't fall much from its roots and plays very similarly to Dungeon Siege, but has a Space Sci-Fi theme, a simplified equipment and weapon system (no more hauling weapons back to merchants to sell), and a rather interesting story questioning the aspects of humanity in a few awkward situations.

The game starts off as humanity is forced to migrate from Earth due to a massive alien invasion. Some of the remnant including the player manages to avert certain disaster and managed to slip through the alien dragnet with a migration ship. However the story just starts there are the remaining survivors find out that their problems have only started, and the aliens are not the only threat to humanity.

Game System
Though the game plays similarly to Dungeon Siege, this game has a number of differences that could either be interesting or dull depending on what type of game player you are.

Players can improve skill sets to add additional abilities or either improve player stats. During the course of the game, the player can acquire Cybernetics and install them on the player. These cybernetics gives bonus to the player stats, and can open a number of different skills that the player can acquire by spending skills points.

In addition to skill points, players can salvage parts from enemies and use these parts to improve weapon, armor, create equipments, and improve our robotic sidekick by adding levels of upgrades. As opposed to most other point and click Action RPG, the choices for your weapons and armor is rather limited. Instead of being able to select and modify numerous armors, you are limited to only one initial armor, and you are allowed to improve a number of predefined stats such as armor, hp, resistances, combat ability, and scientific ability. The weapon that the player and his robotic side kick and use are also rather limited. The player has a total of 8 weapons, which are not that varied. Like the armor, the player can customize the weapon by addition levels of upgrade to its damage, critical level, critical damage, and damage level.

With the system that they have implemented, it means that all enemies only drop points, in which you would collect and spend them on improving your player armor, weapons, robotic sidekick, and create weapons. The skills that are gained when finishing certain parts of the story, could be spent on learning new skills or improving old ones.

The implication of this modified system is that the game turns out to be much simpler to similar games such as Dungeon Siege and Diablo. One thing that is gone is juggling the inventory and equipment. Another thing that is gone is the ever-present merchant in these games. The merchant no longer plays a huge part in your quest which is rather amusing if you consider how games in these genres are designed. Based on these major changes you might find the simplified system to by your liking, or if you are the hardcore player, these changes dumb down the game to the point that it is simply too bland.

Game Play
The basic game play of the game is done by using your mouse to move the pointer in the game and utilize your mouse to do the two basic actions.

To move the character, you left click your character to where you want them to move. In addition to moving, you can run by activating a skill. In addition, you could also roll in the direction of the character facing, to quickly evade enemies.

To attack an enemy, you have to right click the enemy. One huge gripe of the game is that when you are using a melee weapon, the player does not move to the enemy position and attack. This causes a slight problem as it may appear that your player suddenly has gone unresponsive.

You can use skills by assigned skills to the 0-9 keys. Certain skills such as using grenades can be done by pressing the key and the grenade will be thrown at the position of the mouse cursor. Other key presses may activate buffs that are independent of the mouse cursor.

Your robotic sidekick also could be controlled by issuing commands and skills from the F1-F10 keys.

The camera is a typical 3rd person orbit camera that could be modified. It sometime clips and objects can obscure the player, but this can easily be rectified by slightly turning the camera.

In conclusion, an impression that you might get from playing the game is that the game may appear rather unresponsive, the huge mouse cursor that is used to control the game irritating, and the controls needs to be rethought. Due to the controls, evading enemies is simply difficult and frustrating. In my own humble opinion, I believe that the root cause of this rather unfavorable feel could be cause from trying to map the proven game mechanics of Dungeon Siege into a shooter based type of game. This doesn't work quite well. An alternative control system that could help make this game easier to play is the controls found in Alien Shooter.

Level Design and Impression
As the game takes place in a Spaceship, all the level design consists mostly of the ship's interior that is not significantly interesting. Though there interesting details, there aren't enough points of interest that would make you remember the game.

To compound things, the quest system in the game is rather linear, and there isn't much of a variety in the quests. The main primary quests usually consists of continuing the story, whereas the secondary quests usually consists of getting new weapons or cybernetics that are such in the close vicinity of the primary quest that it doesn't appear like a separate quest. There is major plot fork in the game, which makes this game good for a few replays, but not much more than that, unless you are going to fire the multiplayer mode.

In respect to the enemy bots, the classification is quite few, and there isn't that much variety. The boss battles are quite uninteresting. You don't really have to tweak strategies to win battles in the game. Find a reasonably good routine, stick to it, and you will find the game rather easy to beat.

Art/Sound
The art and sound of the game are of reasonable quality. Though not significant, it isn't bad either. It is unfortunate that the game takes place in the interior of a spaceship, as it is probably the reason why the game appears rather generic.

One gripe though is that though voice acting are done well, the static player portrait makes it difficult to appreciate the quality of the voice acting.

In Summary
The Good
- Interesting Story that provides food for thought
- Simplified Game System that makes this Point and Click Action RPG easy to play

The Bad
- Controls need a rethink
- Simplified system makes the game less interesting for hardcore players
- Levels are unimpressive
- The Game Play lacks a climax (boss battles are rather uninspired)
- There are games in the Sci-Fi genre (e.g. Mass Effect) that might be more interesting
- There are certain parts of the game (e.g. sidestory) that seems to be unfinished or somewhat irrelevant to the main story
- Linear gameplay and story

Conclusion
Space Siege is a rather uninspired game, which is a disappointment when considering the quality of earlier releases. You might want to pick up the game if you liked Dungeon Siege. You might even consider it if you want a game that contains an interesting plotline that doesn't contain the typical fare. You also might want to consider the game if you want a multiplayer co-op game when you are bored of other games. Other than what I proposed above, I find it difficult to recommend Space Siege to other game players. However if you have a lot of spare time to burn, and have no games to play, this game might suit your bill.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/08

Game Release: Space Siege (US, 08/12/08)