Space Siege

Chris Taylor and Gas Powered games are most famous for their successful Dungeon Siege series. Hence it was only logical that after two iterations of action role-playing games set in a dungeonish (sic) universe, Chris and company would move the hacking and slashing to a science-fiction universe. They've done so with the similarly titled Space Siege.

The story is weak at best, irrelevant at worst. A bunch of aliens have destroyed Earth (more or less), only one colony ship remains, and you—as character Seth Walker (no relation to the reviewer)—must destroy the aliens (they are named Kerak, if you're interested) and save the ship and humanity.

The destroying is typical real-time action fare. Seth runs and guns about the ship, solving semi-simple quests, using abilities and blasting aliens. This is an RPG, so there is a bit more than straight-up blasting. Seth can learn and employ abilities such as Shard Storm, which unleashes a lethal blast that injures anything within a few meters, or Deadly Strike, which throws a, well ... deadly strike against a single, distant, enemy. Seth can also use scrap that he collects about the ship to upgrade his human extremities, such as arms, legs and eyes, to more advanced cybernetic parts.

The game ships with a robust multiplayer component. Up to four gamers can journey together to fight the aliens and rescue humanity.

Fun, but limited

Space Siege is a lot of fun, but I need to qualify that statement. Space Siege is a lot of fun for me, but I'm a huge fan of science-fiction RPGs, and shooters. Heck, I thought Alien Shooter: Vengeance was the next best thing to sliced bread.

Running through the corridors, engine rooms and terrariums of the Armstrong (the name of the last surviving human colony ship), blasting a multitude of bad-guy aliens, is as good as it gets. And even more exhilarating are the multitude of skills, weapons (from assault rifles to chain guns) and upgrades that you can use to blast, hack and blow up said aliens. Of course, there are the small bits of strategy, such as detonating flammable barrels to take out large hordes of the bugs/aliens, and ably utilizing your partner in destruction—a smallish armed robot.

Yep, while all that is great, the following is less so. The plot, despite its multiple endings, is linear. The aliens, despite their swarming numbers, are dumb as rocks. That doesn't mean they aren't challenging, but it does mean they aren't challenging in a clever way. And finally, the controls, despite their usefulness in Dungeon Siege, are frustrating in a shooter. For example, if there is a way to strafe and fire, I couldn't figure it out.

But the final is word good. Literally. If you like science-fiction-themed shooters, Space Siege is good. If you like games that are heavy on the action, but sprinkle a bit of RPG-lite on top, Space Siege is good. Last but not least, if you like to have fun without sweating too many details, Space Siege is good.