Save humanity
by sacrificing yours – part by part
Michael Brownee
The year is 2210, mankind has taken to the stars, exploring, discovering, and populating. In his thirst for exploration he inadvertently sets foot on a planet sacred to another ancient species called the Kerak. Suddenly attacked, the space fleet is quickly decimated and these aliens seem intent hunting humanity to extinction—a goal which they intend to achieve by following stragglers back to Earth, and destroying the home planet of the interlopers. You play Seth Walker, an engineer and robotics specialist, aboard one of the large motherships, en route to Earth. Kerak forces have infiltrated your ship, and they’re intent on killing everybody aboard and allowing the ships navigation systems to take them to your home planet. PILOT, the ships control computer, decides to put everybody to sleep in their sleeping pods, while flooding the ships environs with a toxic gas, thereby eliminating the Kerak. You awaken later, only to find you’re alone. The other crew members have gone missing from their pods. As you arm yourself and fight your way through Kerak forces (who somehow survived the poison gas) you’ll find remnants of the crew aboard who’ll join you in your objective—to rid the ship of these invaders. But the Kerak are not your only worry. There are also cybernetic entities onboard—part-human, part-machine, all trouble. Where did they come from? Since they’re hostile towards both you as well as the Kerak, what do they want? Then there’s PILOT, who seems to have his own agenda, and his own methods of saving humanity.
At the outset, Space Siege doesn’t have a very strong storyline, and there are a lot of gaps—especially about who the Kerak are, why is your ship so important to them, and such, and these you will have to fill in yourself. This tale isn’t without its twists, and in the end, you’ll be entertained. As Seth Walker, you have a personal dilemma as well. There are a number of cybernetic body parts—legs, hands, and even a spine and brain that you will come across in the game. These body parts enhance skills and make you stronger, or bestow bonuses to your character stats. You’ll need to decide whether you wish to stay human, or…err…indulge your RoboCop fantasies. There’s also a point in the game where you’ll need to make an important and rather epic decision—but we’re not spilling the beans!
The game has great body physics and rag doll effects. For example, when an explosion throws bodies around, they’ll slide to the floor rather realistically. Weapon and grenade effects are good, as is the animation and attacks of your main melee weapon, the Magblade. Keep in mind though, that this is an isometric game, and not fully 3D, like some of the other hack-n-slash games out there.
I quite liked the game, and was entertained for around ten hours, thanks to the sometimes interesting storyline, and the action. However, there’s nothing that stands out about Space Siege, and I’m waiting for Diablo 3 to get my real hackin-n-slashin thrills.
michael.browne@thinkdigit.com
Rating: 7/10
Developer: Gas Powered Games
Publisher: Sega