Space Siege PC demo now available

May get this one; GPG is a good developer. I just fear it'll be lost among the leviathan releases of this holiday season.

I'll probably buy the game, since I loved DS1 and DS2 before they degenerate into tedium, but this demo is damn short. And it doesn't feature your moddable robot companion at all, which is one of the big things I'm looking forward to.

Most dissapoiting game of the year sadly.I really tried to enjoy the demo but it fells unpolished and RUSHED, maybe some heavy patches but I doubt that will happen. ANOTHER garbage PC title from SEGA.Just die SEGA and take Atari with you.

no thanks...

I despite this type of game, to be honest. I find it absolutely no fun to point and click and blahblahblah.

That being said, I felt that the presentation was very good, it seemed polished-- the only problem being that I couldn't turn V-sync off, but if that's easy enough to do in my NVIDIA control panel anyway.

The story seems like, no matter what twists they pull, it will be generic as hell.

The gameplay looks like decent action RPG fair, so no complaints. Just why the frak can't you move with WASD? It's annoying. I'd probably love it except for that one detail-- it makes me feel handicapped.

Considering there's been next to zero press on this game for months and months, I'll gladly check this out.

The preset number of weapons which show up as empty bits in the selection screen left me disappointed - the game seems to revolve around collecting a single type of item, 'parts', with the Z key and then using those parts to purchase weapon/armor upgrades (firing speed, defense, critical chance... boring/generic) and med kits. Definitely felt like they've dumbed it down for the consoles. Hopefully the robot companion and skills add a lot more complexity.

1gb for 5 minutes, joy.

Story seems like it will be as poor as the Dungeon Siege series, game play itself seemed fine except for one major issue... animation for attacking is quite jumpy and off putting. Visuals seemed acceptable though.

Won't be buying the game.

Demo? That looks close to the size of the original Dungeon Seige.

Anyone else think this is a stopgap game designed to fill GPG's coffers while they work on their real games?

Still, Demigod looks good, so if this gets them enough cash to finish that then all the better... i guess..

Demo review:

The opening cinematic is very pretty and well done. The story itself doesn't openly show promise, but what I have read about characters reacting to your humanity or lack thereof if you have too many cybernetic limbs and implants may prove interesting.

The greatest strength of Diablo and its clones is loot, but Space Siege had almost none of it. Nearly all the enemies only drop what amounts to gold; you can use it to upgrade your weapon's stats at certain points in the levels, but while there was a weapon to be found in the demo, the U.I. shows a limited number of potential weapons, so I don't expect getting new weapons or equipment will ever be a regular occurrence. There were some grenades to be found, and health packs, too, but nothing else. Can the game hold up over time with just collecting upgrade parts to add 2% damage to your gun? Maybe it'll be different in the retail game.

But perhaps the game's biggest and most obvious flaw is the camera. Like in Dungeon Siege, it still needs to be spun around and adjusted to get a serviceable view of the action literally all the time. Moving too close to high wall will bump the camera, too, and there's a spot in the demo where it clips through elements of the ceiling and obscures the view. For what? Why do I need to put up with constantly rotating the camera? The Diablo games and Titan Quest have fixed cameras for a better reason than just technical limitations: constantly rotating the camera into a usable angle is a needless, uninteresting exercise.

Beyond the stripped-down loot system and bad camera, there's actually a good combat mechanic. It feels good shooting down the aliens, and the skills you have at your disposal are fun and easy to use. There is a lot to appreciate there; from how enemies lose bits of armor as they're damaged, to the way the physics work with all the objects and debris, and the way the explosive compressed-chemical canisters go zipping all around like rockets before blowing up. Speaking of explosives, there are so many hundreds of exploding barrels and tanks lying around, it's beyond silly. Not to mention the mountains of crates piled up in each and every room. These are cliches in games already, but this takes it up a notch.

Bottom line is that I have come away thinking Space Siege is a game with a solid combat mechanic, a worrisome loot system, atrocious camera, and a seemingly run-of-the-mill sci-fi story with potential to be a little more interesting if it's done right.

Tried the demo last night. It's rather short but here's what I thought:

Gameplay - As others have mentioned, the gameplay is a mixed bag. Combat feels fun and it looks like there will be a good amount of special abilities that are both simple to use and effective. Adding cybernetics is pretty cool as well and there is some decent interaction with the environment with exploding barrels. Yeah, not the most original, but it does add some flavor. I didn't mind the loot system too much although it's obviously not nearly as intricate as games such as Diablo or Titan Quest. Basically if you're more interested in getting back to fighting rather than collecting loot, you probably won't mind it at all. If you really enjoy picking up loot you'll be disappointed. The camera was annoying as hell though.

Graphics - Graphics were nice. Nothing fancy or even top of the line, but they appeared clean and polished. The environments I thought were a little bland but this was only a 20 minute demo so who knows what later sections of the game will look like. Animations were great except, oddly enough, for the character you play as. Some of the animations seemed to have some hiccups or were "jumpy" as a previous poster mentioned. Lighting was well done, explosions looked good, and there are some decent use of physics. The opening cinema was pretty good. Overall it's not a graphic powerhouse by any means but it does look polished.

Storyline - Thought it was horribly generic. You're typical "humans went to space and then ran into a bunch of aliens that want to kill them for no apparent reason" kind of deal. Dialogue was pretty cliche as well.

As a result of playing the demo, I've got some mixed feelings. I'm considering getting it if for no other reason than to kill two - three weeks until Spore and Force Unleashed come out in Sept. There is a multiplayer option in the game for up to four players, but the demo doesn't let you access it so this title might have some decent replay value with that. I think it's shaping up to be a good time waster, but I wouldn't consider it a must-buy.

Hm! I actually found the demo quite enjoyable and thought I might pick it up.

I am the only one who thinks that movement feels delayed?

The demo blew. I sincerely hope that the "Korean" method of character and camera control is abandoned by the entire gaming industry. (I'm looking at you, NC Soft--I want to be able to enjoy Guild Wars 2).

To each their own, though; those chain smoking Starcraft addicts can have as much point and click fun as they want, but it's WASD for this round eye.