Listen to Erathoniel ranting on and on in good ol' conservative Christian fashion.
The game that could have been
Published on July 29, 2008 By erathoniel In PC Gaming

    Space Siege is the sucessor to Dungeon Siege, a wonderful game. But does it live up to it's predecessor's glory? Nope. Not at all. It reminds me of one of those arcade-style games that have the 60-minute demo that nobody buys because they're tired of it before they get through it, with more lag. Seriously, on minimum settings, I got about 3 FPS on my laptop. I might contemplate it on GameTap, or if I had a better computer, but it falls in the middle ground of casual and complex. It's probably too complex for a casual gamer to enjoy, and too casual to play with the memory of Dungeon Siege still fresh. I skipped DS2, but if it was this way, I'm glad I did. It's gonna get my first 1 @ rating, because Chris Taylor should do better than that. It's playable, but I'd rather grind my guns up to maximum level in Cave Story, and at least that keeps me occupied.


Comments (Page 1)
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on Jul 30, 2008
ah..where is the link please???
on Jul 30, 2008
Hm. Only played the original Dungeon Siege and never was a big fan. From what you write, it sounds a bit like the 'Crysis Syndrome'.

I'd rather spend my money on the newly released Drakensang. Proper, old-school RPG.
on Jul 30, 2008

I wouldn't really call this a review folks (looks like more of a rant to me). I've got the full demo recorded and I'm uploading a video of it on YouTube now. I will be posting a proper write-up on it soon.

Pro tip: don't try and play cutting edge games on a laptop, and then class that as having played the game as it was intended.

on Jul 30, 2008

Pro tip: don't try and play cutting edge games on a laptop, and then class that as having played the game as it was intended.

 

Less of a "Pro Tip" and more of a Don't be a Tard Tip!

 

 

Eratnhoniel : Seriously... you want to play brand new video games on a laptop? Get real. this is not a review in any sense of the word.

 

This is like trying to watch a DVD on a waffle iron and then bitching about the low video resolution.

on Jul 30, 2008
As far as actually reviewing it goes, here's my take on it:

- First, it doesn't aim to be a very deep RPG. It's basically meant as a light-hearted "Jump in and shoot crap" type of game.
- It looks pretty enough. There's no "advanced" graphics options in the demo, so you set resolution, textures, etc as usual. But you can't toggle AA, Anisotropic filtering, etc.
- Its gameplay seems pretty fast paced, even though the demo length is only about 15-20 minutes worth. The thing that irks me most is that there is no inventory, and no real looting. You do find weapons, but the "loot" is all metal scraps that you use to upgrade your gear. So far, it doesn't look like you can actually "outfit" your character, just keep upgrading.
- There is a skill/talent tree, which is sort of a norm for today's games. Your choices are limited also by some skills needing cybernetic components, which you find and install. Supposedly, there's some tradeoff further down the line between getting more powerful with cybernetics vs staying fully human, this isn't obvious in the demo.

Space Siege seems a little simpler than similar games in its genre, mainly because you don't have "loot" and merchants to worry about. The demo isn't clear on whether or not there's any quick modes of transport between areas, or if there's a "town" of sorts and you can re-play areas or if it's just one straight shoot to the finish. It's also unclear if there will be further difficulties that unlock something - again, fairly common in similar games.

So, to be honest, the demo is not a very good glimpse of the final game. You get to see the engine, and it's pretty satisfying grabbing your cybernetic arms and legs and wielding a freaking huge minigun to mow down lots of alien bugs, throw grenades, and pounce on them with your equally huge energy sword.. if you enjoy a light action RPG, I think you have a good chance of liking it, but it's a shame so many gameplay elements are not apparent from the demo.

The exclusion of loot is particularly strange, since outfitting your character and getting new and shinier gear is typically the major draw of light action RPGs. So I do worry about how long the game will hold interest, and how replayable it will be..
on Jul 30, 2008
Some nice design ideas but game somewhat lacks WASD controls to my taste.
on Jul 30, 2008
I really liked it. Its just the game to play if come home from work and want to shoot stuff.

- I really like the upgrade your weapon idea.
- There is loot, just not much. In the demo i found a new weapon (one of 8 possible IRC) new cyber legs and arms.
- Graphics ar 20/20, but its fast paced, so i dont need to see each hair.
- I like the exploding background, but you need to be carefull, you can kill yourself with it.

It's all i thought it would be.
on Jul 30, 2008
I found the demo to be fun for the time I played it however, even on my system, I did notice some jerky camera issues. It wasn't consistent and not based on anything going on in the room (ie numbers of enemy, explosions). While not really pushing the graphics I found them pretty solid and consistent.
I can't tell anything about the audio since I had 4 kids playing in the background. Not an ideal situation.
As was mentioned above, based on the demo, inventory is not really deep and neither is item collecting which considering is a major part of any RPG I find disappointing. Perhaps the full game will hold more but the demo doesn't show it.

Perhaps a 2nd demo will be released to give us a better idea of the full game. As it stands now it is an ok game but shows a lot of missed opportunities, again based on the demo.
on Jul 30, 2008

Perhaps a 2nd demo will be released to give us a better idea of the full game. As it stands now it is an ok game but shows a lot of missed opportunities, again based on the demo.


Doubt there's time for a second demo, game is out on August 12th, apparently
on Jul 30, 2008
Hm. Only played the original Dungeon Siege and never was a big fan. From what you write, it sounds a bit like the 'Crysis Syndrome'.I'd rather spend my money on the newly released Drakensang. Proper, old-school RPG.


QFT. also, don't complain about FPS being low without mentioning anything about the setup you're using. for all i know, you've got 128MB of RAM and an Intel IGP.

- It looks pretty enough. There's no "advanced" graphics options in the demo, so you set resolution, textures, etc as usual. But you can't toggle AA, Anisotropic filtering, etc.


can AA/AF be controlled through the nVidia/ATI control panel?
on Jul 30, 2008
can AA/AF be controlled through the nVidia/ATI control panel?


I haven't tried personally, but one guy on IRC last night said that didn't work. I'll give it a shot myself tonight, though.
on Jul 30, 2008
Well, I tried it and you can indeed override the defaults with the control panel. It doesn't make a huge difference because the game is typically zoomed out enough that no AA and such isn't very noticeable, but it does look a bit sharper when you override.
on Jul 30, 2008
what is the length of a long RPG nowadays. I read in PC Gamer in the past that the newly RPGs won't be as long as either morrowind or Oblivion. One of the PC gamer editor said it took him 300 plus hours to finish doing everything in Oblivion. I remembered when Morrowind came out, the devs said it will take 500 plus hours to do everything in the game.

I tried going through Morrowind's main quest having the strategy guide in front of me for reference, and after one week, i was only half way through the main story line. It was sooooooo damn long. I thought the final fantasy series of rinse and repeat in their battle system was bad...(in a good way). But Morrowind and Oblivion takes the cake for being long games.

One of my friend told me that i should use the strategy guide only after i complete the game the first time unaided, then, i will do the entire game again with the strategy guide to discover all the secrets. I told him.."hell no." because i seriously wish i can have that much time to blow on my hands.

So i light RPG is not a bad idea, if it is interesting and to the point. Let's hope that GPG don't blow it on this one.
on Jul 31, 2008

So i light RPG is not a bad idea

This is sort of being billed as a hybrid RTS/RPG. Elements of both genres present but lightened.

 

QFT.

Stop it. This isn't a Ron Paul forum.

 

 

on Jul 31, 2008
QFT.


Stop it. This isn't a Ron Paul forum.


how is "quoted for truth" a phrase from a Ron Paul forum? i picked it up on PC hardware forums.
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