CES '08: Space Siege Updated Impressions

Gas Powered Games' upcoming action-heavy role-playing game blows stuff up nicely.

LAS VEGAS--Space Siege is sort of like the plot of the hit show Battlestar Galactica in which the last remnants of humanity flee Earth, pursued by deadly aliens. However, in Space Siege, humanity's last hope inhabits a giant colony ship, which the aliens have just boarded. Thus, it's up to you as protagonist Seth Walker to defeat the bad guys, with the added goal of trying not to lose all of your humanity in the process.

Gas Powered Games is at the Consumer Electronics Show to showcase its latest action role-playing game, one that will strip out a lot of the complex role-playing gameplay that pervaded its spiritual predecessor, Dungeon Siege. To that effect, Space Siege is more of an action game with light RPG elements to it, but one that promises quite a bit of replayability. Like Dungeon Siege, you play from an isometric overhead camera perspective, looking down at Walker as he navigates the detailed interiors of the colony ship. These aren't dynamically generated randomly as they were in Dungeon Siege, but the advantage is that each of the handmade levels will feature a lot more personality and scripted moments.

The demonstration showed off the basic premise of the game, where you'll navigate the interiors of the spaceship, blowing away hundreds of alien opponents in the process. You'll have plenty of weapons at your disposal, as well as skills and abilities. However, the true challenge in Space Siege is figuring out how much you want to turn Walker into less of a human being and more of a cybernetic organism. During the game, you'll be given choices to exchange some of Walker's organic parts for cybernetic parts. These parts may confer powerful bonuses and abilities, but they come at the price of having him become less human. The tradeoff is that the characters in the game will react differently to Walker, especially if he becomes less and less human. There are also very powerful abilities that can only be unlocked if Walker retains his humanity. So where will you draw the line? What choices will you make?

Space Siege differs quite a bit from Dungeon Siege II in that it narrows down the focus of the gameplay to just Walker and his robotic companions. You won't have to juggle multiple characters. This lets you focus on just battling through the game, and the fights will involve plenty of explosions and physics. If you shoot the end of a canister full of compressed volatile material, you can watch it fly like a rocket, pummeling anything in its path. If you toss grenades into a crowded space, bodies and objects fly around the environment.

The replayability comes from being able to play the game different ways, experimenting with both human and cybernetic possibilities. In addition, Space Siege will feature cooperative gameplay in the form of missions. You can team up with up to three other players and have fun blasting your way to different objectives, like killing a boss character or clearing a level entirely of enemies. It all looks very promising, and we'll keep an eye on Space Siege. The game is on track for a fall release date.

82 Comments

  • BlazeEagle

    Posted Feb 6, 2008 7:38 am PT

    Sounds quite interesting story wise, I hope the gameplay is up to snuff...

    While becoming more & cypernetic sounds fun, I'll test out staying human as well to see what surprises await.

    I don't have a problem with it being totally in a coloy ship because that's likely a big hunkin' ship!

    From having sci fi knowledge, a coloy ship is beyond HUGE, so there could be a vast variety of things in it.

    Many gamers spend hours in dungeons, so why the fuss over a coloy ship??

  • DreamTwister

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:50 pm PT

    Not looking very good. I think it hurts to show such an early build (it's an early build right? I hope!!) I hope works out good. I've had just about enough with the fantasy settings.

  • JackfnBurton

    Posted Jan 18, 2008 9:07 pm PT

    Well it does have two of my favorite things. Space....and...sieges...I wonder if it has girls in bikinis on crotch rockets with machine guns? That would be the trifecta.

  • Avenger1324

    Posted Jan 17, 2008 10:22 am PT

    Looks like it could be fun, but I'm concerned about the length of the game. Dungeon Siege 1&2 were both fairly long games, but maintained interest by having very distinctive different land areas. If all of this takes place inside a spaceship it may be restrictive.

  • btwillett2003

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 10:29 am PT

    Dude Vasot, Chill out, it was just a joke, calm down.

  • Bilrel

    Posted Jan 14, 2008 6:50 pm PT

    Yay, Dungeon Siege in Space...no thanks. And did anyone else notice that the movie is better than the game? WTF

  • Zythyl

    Posted Jan 14, 2008 4:10 pm PT

    We need more sci-fi RPGs...

  • Vasot

    Posted Jan 14, 2008 4:51 am PT

    TO btwillett2003:

    1) You have been reported for your first post against me (Posted Jan 11, 2008 7:08 am EET)

    2) Thats my opinion about Space Siege as everyone has his opinion in here...

    If you like it or not i do not care.
    It is your problem and not mine

  • btwillett2003

    Posted Jan 13, 2008 5:00 pm PT

    Graphics are the last things to be tweaked before release, there are a lot of games that look like crap when they put out screens or previews.

  • megadisc

    Posted Jan 13, 2008 4:55 am PT

    this is one my most beloved games ,,

    i've been waiting for this for a long time !

    welcome to malaysia ! Http://www.ykoo1nulben.blogspot.com

  • Tharros89

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 9:13 pm PT

    Remember the first images of Supreme Commander? Now look at it. Just my 2 cents.

  • imnodewd

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 5:01 pm PT

    I agree with many of the other posters here... the graphics really look last-gen.

  • Nuclear_Kernel

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 11:50 am PT

    Third person action rpg (OK rpg elements), with a cliche story. Yeah it' s going to be GOTY

  • pugnate

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 10:33 am PT

    Yea I hope the game looks much better when it comes.

  • Maximiliator

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 10:23 am PT

    the graphics look awful -.- like kotdr II . lame...

  • pugnate

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 10:22 am PT

    Ever since the preview in PC Gamer, I've been looking forward to this game. I really enjoyed Dungeon Siege. I quite liked the hack and slash gameplay, the looting, the visuals, and the excellent party AI. However I felt the game wasn't without its faults. Even when compared to an RPG light game like Diablo, the storyline in Dungeon Siege was bone thin, and there was a distinct lack of atmosphere. While the game offered plenty of NPCs, the dialog was virtually non existent. Despite those issues, I liked Dungeon Siege for its positives. I also appreciated the innovations in the introduction of the pack mule, and the experience based leveling up system. When Dungeon Siege 2 came around, I was pretty disappointed though. The visuals that once had been cutting edge, suddenly felt merely adequate. The gameplay, while still good, lacked much in the way of further innovation. And in terms of the storyline and dialog, the game was still lacking. Unlike Diablo, it didn't have the atmosphere to fall back on. The whole thing felt more like Dungeon Siege 1.5 than 2.0

    Upon reading the first previews for Space Siege, I was pretty excited. I found the premise very interesting, and was pleased to note that the game would concentrate on a storyline. To me, a great RPG consists of two halves. The first half consists of the action and the roleplaying mechanics, while the second consists of the storyline and NPC interaction. Considering how the first Dungeon Siege got the action elements right, I felt a new Siege intellectual property from Chris Taylor would have tremendous potential, provided improvements in areas of past shortcomings. With Taylor's technical expertise, I felt that a fully fleshed out narrative would result in an instant classic. Now recently I read his interview on Gerstspot...err...Gamespot:

    http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/spacesiege/news.html?sid=6184380&tag=topslot;title;1

    It seems to be shaping up fairly nicely, but there was one thing that bothered me:

    :
    Gas Powered Games is at the Consumer Electronics Show to showcase its latest action role-playing game, one that will strip out a lot of the complex role-playing gameplay that pervaded its spiritual predecessor, Dungeon Siege. To that effect, Space Siege is more of an action game with light RPG elements to it, but one that promises quite a bit of replayability.


    It bothers me because the role-playing elements in DS weren't all that complex to begin with. In fact they were very streamlined, with skill points not distributed by the players, but rather earned through frequency of skill use. So my question is, what "complex" elements are being "stripped out"? Also how can an isometric action RPG entertain you, unless it involves a robust and involving skill system? In an isometric RPG, there isn't much twitch based skill required from players. The most gamers do is click on targets, and hit the respective hotkeys at appropriate moments. More often than not, (especially when a party isn't involved) you spend your time tweaking the mechanics that level up your character, and then simply watch as he/she wreaks havoc. The input in the action is minimal, and the enjoyment actually comes from the looting, and the skill and stat manipulation. So that's why I am a little bothered by the "stripping out", because without the role-playing mechanics, you aren't left with much. From what I understand, there isn't a party to control in this game. You basically have your hero, and can be accompanied by bots that are similar to familiars in Neverwinter, or the summoned creatures in Diablo. To me, that's a negative. I think talkative companions enforce an RPG's story telling. In the end, I am still looking forward to this game, but I do have some concerns. The game is listed to come out in the next six months, so we shall know soon enough.

  • KingLim

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 8:24 am PT

    Perhaps it's something like Shadowgrounds? In any case, hope it doesn't turn out to be like Restricted Area. Looking good.

  • prowler666

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 8:13 am PT

    all the images look horrible. i'm having my hopes up for Demigod instead.

  • ryaz_weaponx

    Posted Jan 12, 2008 1:39 am PT

    Hopin this would b better than Dungeon Seige 2

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