Space Siege Reviews

The first review of Space Siege at IGN is markedly unkind, summing the game up “[a]s dismal as any dungeon?” and giving it a 6.4/10.

Space Siege bills itself as an action RPG but the developers have cautioned that it leans more towards action than RPG. The combat mechanics are functional if not particularly inventive. The player simply points and clicks the mouse to move and shoot, and uses the number keys to launch the occasional special attack. We’d have loved to see a WASD-style movement system like we saw in Shadowgrounds, because using the mouse pointer to control movement and shooting makes it impossible to do both at the same time. It’s not usually a problem but in the bigger firefights it can be a real liability that you can’t move while shooting.

There is a dodge function in the game, but it really doesn’t work. There’s no option to dodge to the side or the rear, so anytime you dodge, you roll forward towards your enemy. This presents two big problems. First, it puts you closer to the enemy and gives you less time to dodge their next attack. Second, since you’re dodging right along the enemy’s line of fire, you’ll likely pop up from your roll only to be shot in the face.

PC Gamer US claims Space Siege isn’t very bad, it’s just very ordinary, giving it a suitable 58%.

In practice, however, the moralizing is merely lip service. Whether he’s fully human or a walking toaster, Seth retains his square-jawed enthusiasm, delivering every line of the voice-acted dialogue with chipper all-American bravado. (It’s unintentionally hilarious to watch your chrome-faced cyborg character emote like a quarterback who’s about to throw the winning touchdown.) Except for your appearance and some modest changes to your skill set, the choice to augment or not to augment carries no real ramifications for gameplay or the story.

It’d be unfair to hold Space Siege to the epic storytelling standards of Mass Effect, but it’s advantageous to have that dangling (carrot) to entice us to hack and slash (or, in this case, shooting and slashing) ever forward. That carrot may come in the form of cool and unique loot drops, massively configurable characters and armor sets, increasingly flamboyant attacks delivered by a party-full of disparate characters, and a new and interesting environment around every corner. Space Siege skimps on carrots: loot consists of boring health kits and scrap parts that can be traded for stat improvements in your abilities and weapons; your sole companion is HR-V, an upgradeable robot buddy; and the ship is one long, drab maze of metallic gray hallways and metallic gray catwalks. Worst of all, your cybernetic implants can’t be upgraded like your weapons and armor, or replaced with better ones. Even though the ship is infested by (cybers) – cyber-enhanced humans under Kerak control – only one of each body part implant is available.

GamePro simply sums it up as “One Voyage Not Worth Taking”, giving it a 2.3/5.

The character leveling system is also incredibly boring. Leveling, classes, and skill development has been almost entirely removed. The only progression seen throughout the game is the allocation of a few skill points once you complete each major objective, which can then be added into either combat or engineering traits. The only really interesting trait choices come when the idea of giving your character cybernetic parts such as a new eye which helps targeting enemies, or a metallic chest which will improve your health. Installing new parts reduces your base humanity, opening up new skills, but blocking off others. On the whole it’s a good idea, but like most other elements of the game it falls short. While some skills are blocked off by adding new parts, they are a distinct minority, and players stand to gain a good deal more by just installing every part they find. There’s also a morality angle–you become more powerful at the expense of your humanity–but it doesn’t have any significant bearing on the story.

Matt Peckham covers the game on GameOn, his PC World blog. While not exactly a review, his impressions are made clear enough.

Also: Aliens. Aliens that swarm. Aliens that lob grenades. Eventually even aliens that are grenades. Aliens on a human colony ship, like snakes on a plane, and, you know, about as intimidating. (Somewhere in a trunk with x-ray glasses and sea monkeys and moon monsters are Actually Scary Video Game Aliens. But not in this game.)

Did I say misery? Loves company. So I went and got some named “Harvey,” which is long for HR-V, sort of like WALL-E, except not remotely. He’s ix-nay on the conversation-ay, but that’s alright, he’d rather just tag along and sign with his fists, which, by the way, are also guns. Nothing says “buddy” like the lumbering chug of servo-mechanics on your six. Go dual-wield gatlings!