System Requirements
2.6GHz
512MB RAM
3GB HDD
Nvidia 6800/ATI 9800 or better
Windows XP/Vista Space Siege is a click and kill RPG from Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games, the makers of Dungeon Siege. Instead of taking place in medieval times, the story takes place in the 2200\'s. As mankind set out to colonize out into space, they ran into the Kerak alien race. The Keraks have invaded earth and there\'s only a handful of humans left on a colony ship called the Armstrong. The Keraks have boarded the Armstrong and it\'s up to you, Seth Walker, to save humanity from extinction. Fortunately, you\'re not alone. You have friends and technology at your disposal to give the human race a fighting chance. Instead of finding gold and treasure chests as in typical RPG\'s, you\'ll find tool boxes, weapon caches, and upgrade parts. With these upgrade parts you can upgrade your armor, weapons, and engineering abilities. You\'ll construct and equip a robot companion named HR-V (Harvey). HR-V has unique abilities and is upgradeable too. If HR-V dies, you can construct another in a manufacturing facility at the cost of some upgrade materials. He does have a self repair routine, but he heals over time, and it\'s not instant like a medkit. Your friends will interact with you and give you their .02 about cybernetic technology. As you explore, you\'ll find data pads that record people\'s thoughts during the invasion. Some of the messages recorded are humorous, others are sad. For example there\'s a log of a father searching for his daughter. Another data pad talks about a guy thinking a girl is checking him out and later you find her data pad saying that a weird guy was freaking her out. The character development was pretty good but the story and plot was predictable. A controversial but helpful technology is also available if you choose to use it. Along your journey, you\'ll come across cybernetic parts that will exchange your humanity for power. The cybernetics do offer special abilities, but is it worth it in the end? There are multiple endings and game paths depending on the decisions you make in this game. The maps are pretty linear and once you clear an area, the enemies will not respawn. Doors will open up as they are needed for your missions, so there\'s not a whole lot of room for exploration. One nice feature is that there\'s a transit system so it\'s easy to get to the different sections of the ship without having to re-trace your steps. The game play is similar in both the single player and multiplayer modes. You have objectives to complete and as you complete them, you get more work to do. There are swarms of aliens, cyborgs, and turrets to defeat. The occasional boss adds some variety as well. The single player story line is extremely short, so expect about 10-15 hours of game play. Multiplayer does add some more life to the game, but there are no active servers as of this writing. Creating a server was easy but nobody hopped on during the time I was playing. The single player character does not transfer into the mutliplayer modes, but the weapons seem to. The game engine looks like a tweaked version of the Dungeon Siege II engine. The interface is easy to use and the game ran flawlessly. Although I did not experience any stability issues, there is a patch to help with drive detection errors with the copy protection. If you can run the game, you don\'t need the patch. When it comes to graphics, it is not cutting edge, but they look good. There are several alien variations and they all look unique. The maps are not super detailed or colorful but it\'s not necessarily a luxury cruiser or a cheery atmosphere.
The voice acting is good and the background music adds to the atmosphere. I didn\'t like the looping story narration in the game menu; the ability to disable it would have been nice. The explosions and enemy taunts & noises were good. There was a fair amount of swearing in this game. Da*n and bast*** were used a few times. Violence is a given but it\'s not very gory. There is a possible romance but nothing inappropriate from what I saw. With the human race in danger, falling in love is encouraged! Overall this game is a bit underwhelming. The concept is nice and the game is nicely polished, but the short amount of game play is very disappointing. Online play is available but it isn\'t very fun if there is no one to play with. I\'m glad I didn\'t pay full retail price; I found it at discounted for $25 but as of this writing you can get it on steam for $18, which is a fair price. There\'s a demo available as well.