Space Siege Preview

IGN has put together a preview of Space Siege that’s obviously based on a press build far beyond what we saw in the game’s demo.

There are deeper role-playing elements as you get further in the game. As you level up, you can dump points into various skills and abilities. However, the really big decisions come down to cybernetic upgrades that can unlock new skills and abilities that were previously unavailable to you. So do you swap out your organic arms, legs, spine, and more for robotic parts? Or do you try and stay as human as possible? It poses an interesting question, and my decision was to try and get through the game by upgrading my weapons and armor as much as possible, and only use cybernetic parts unless absolutely needed. I found these kinds of decisions to be much more compelling than the traditional action RPG dilemmas of having to choose between two or three different sets of armor or weapons. The latter seem mostly cosmetic, but the former actually feels like it has long-lasting implications.

With that said, there’s a lot that also seems a bit underwhelming about Space Siege. The story and the characterizations lack the mystery or the delivery of something like BioShock, a game that captured the sensation of being in a spooky environment effectively. Space Siege lacks that kind of atmosphere, and the setting of a spaceship in deep space seems wasted. Where there should be darkness and flickering lights and dark shapes lurking in every corner, there’s basically another moderately lit room or corridor.