Space Siege (PC)

A game divided against itself
8/26/2008 6:19 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 3

You are told much of the backstory through data recordings; you are attacked by artificially enhanced humans; and there is some sort of message about the nature of humanity. But any similarities between the action-RPG Space Siege and last year's BioShock are entirely coincidental. Space Siege has a plot and mechanics that are derivative of a dozen other games -- some better and some worse -- and brings nothing really new to the table. It has lots of action, one or two skin-of-your-teeth boss battles, and little else of note.

You've heard the plot before somewhere else. A space ship is attacked by an alien threat and a few survivors make it to a safe location. Then one of these survivors -- played by you -- sets out to eliminate the menace through the judicious use of guns, grenades and exploding barrels. You are accompanied by a replaceable robot companion for most of the action. As you kill stuff, you collect "upgrade materials" which you can spend on ability boosts, new hardware or robot upgrades.

Even with the hackneyed outline, the writers are up to the job. While none of the plot twists are that surprising, and not all the game's mysteries are answered, the dialogue is pretty good and the data recordings are evocative of a ship that had a nice routine before all hell broke loose. The characters are one-note stock figures, but that's almost to be expected in a game as simple as this. There's not a lot of room for nuance when one character's entire purpose is to tell you what your primary objective is and another is there solely to tell you about the seriousness of the stakes.

The ethical conceit of the game is the option to install cybernetic parts onto your hero. Each new mechanical body part makes you more deadly but also less human. So, every time you find a cybernetic implant, two voices are screaming at you from the safety of Med Lab Delta. One person wants you to stay human; the other wants you to be a killing machine. This is as deep as the choices get; the game is more action than RPG.

And there's a lot of action. It's nonstop, in fact. Every level and every stage is filled with constant combat against alien invaders or cyborgs. Who you are fighting really doesn't matter insofar as the parts you collect -- dead aliens and dead cyborgs both grant the same upgrade materials. The maps start to blend together after a while, and your basic strategy won't change whether you are fighting on the bridge or a cargo hold. Explosive crates and barrels seem to be everywhere, and the only real tactical debate is how to ration your health packs until you get to the next save point.

The combat gets repetitive very quickly and there is little sense of risk. You point and shoot and maybe lob some explosives towards your enemy -- that's it. This isn't Mass Effect, where you choose a character class, or even Dungeon Siege, where you have a mix of characters that can make your life easier or harder. This is a straightforward action game that lets you pump up your offense and defense as you go and that's it. You will always spend whatever materials you find since you never have to hoard them so you can afford something better later. If you die, you usually regenerate at a health center not too far away, and progress you made is saved for your new incarnation.