Space Siege - Preview @ Eurogamer

magerette

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Eurogamer has posted a lengthy preview of Gas Powered Games forthcoming space-themed action rpg, Space Seige, delving into Chris Taylor's philosophy on his new game, as well as some of the differences from his past Dungeon Seige series:
Fresh from developing real-time strategy love-fest Supreme Commander, Gas Powered Games and its charismatic boss, Chris Taylor, are dragging the Siege series into a science fiction setting - and taking the opportunity to rewrite the rule-book in the process...
...Space Siege, then, is less like Lord of the Rings and more like Aliens - indeed, the whole feel of the game is that of an action movie. Lead character Seth Walker is a quintessential action hero, a warrior who sets out to save humanity from an alien menace... And unlike Dungeon Siege's characters, Walker will be doing all his saviour stuff alone.
This, to some extent, is an even bigger departure than the move to a science fiction environment. Space Siege is a single-character action RPG, a complete reversal of Gas Powered's multi-character approach to Dungeon Siege - which, at the time, was considered to be one of the most unusual and innovative aspects of the series...
...Other aspects of the action RPG genre fall by the wayside like confetti as Taylor explains Space Siege to us. The game eschews the concept of experience points in favour of the aforementioned cybernetic upgrades; Taylor dismisses the experience system as "old school".
In fact, he dismisses a lot of things as being old school; the original design, he says, called for many different types of parts to be pieced together to make cybernetic upgrades. This, too, was "old school", and the team decided that people don't want that level of detail to stand between them and the fun combat sections. Instead, the game now sports one generic resource, "parts".
Game Over screens, too, are "old school". Instead, the game will sport regular health stations scattered throughout the levels, and when you die, you respawn at the last station you visited. Sound familiar? Taylor makes no bones about the similarity with Bioshock's Vita Chambers - a lot of Gas Powered's decisions, he says, were confirmed by Bioshock's popularity....
Indeed, there's a feeling that Taylor has had something of a Road to Damascus experience - and Space Siege is the result. He's open and honest about his belief that the hardcore market for games is diminishing, and believes that what consumers want now is a fun "interactive entertainment" experience, rather than a traditional "videogame"...
...Part of Taylor's new approach, then, is putting more action into the action RPG. Players in Space Siege can mix and match tactics from traditional RPGs and tactics more familiar to players of action games ... Systems like clever enemy AI, fully 3D environments...and realistic physics are being imported en masse from the FPS genre into Space Siege.
More information.
 
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Space Siege is a single-character action RPG, a complete reversal of Gas Powered's multi-character approach to Dungeon Siege - which, at the time, was considered to be one of the most unusual and innovative aspects of the series...

Unfortunately, I think that might actually be a completely accurate statement: Although party-based RPGs have been around for at least 20 years (Bard's Tale was 1985), the fact that Dungeon Siege was "multi-character" probably was the most innovative thing about it!

EDIT: P.S. The whole article basically concentrates on how this "action-PRG" will be more action and less RPG, even in comparison with the already action-heavy and RPG-lite Dungeon Siege. While I'm sure someone somewhere will derive enjoyment from the game (for example, if it's given away free with your first frontal lobotomy), IMHO it's not worth RPG Watch covering this game. It's simply not aimed at the same audience.
 
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More action and less rpg than dungeon siege?? I dont think thats possible.

Does anyone have a manual how to use the 3rd person view in Siege games? I tried to play Lazarus mod but the view basicly made it unplayable.
 
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Sorry zakhal--my DS manual is long gone. There's a pdf manual with Lazurus but I don't think it covers that either.

This article actually depressed me in a way, not that I think GPG is a huge creative force in gaming or that it's a big loss to see the DS series turn into a Bioshock clone--just that the climate of gaming has changed so much that even the simplified action rpg format of a Dungeon Seige is considered too hard for the 'casual gamer"--this in particular:

...the original design, he says, called for many different types of parts to be pieced together to make cybernetic upgrades. This, too, was "old school", and the team decided that people don't want that level of detail to stand between them and the fun combat sections. Instead, the game now sports one generic resource, "parts".

Just freakin pathetic, IMO.
 
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These guys seem totally oblivious to what makes a game entertaining. However, they might know how to appeal to the masses by being "cool" on the surface. It'll probably end up more "popular" than Dungeon Siege.

TA was a fluke, apparently.
 
...the original design, he says, called for many different types of parts to be pieced together to make cybernetic upgrades. This, too, was "old school", and the team decided that people don't want that level of detail to stand between them and the fun combat sections. Instead, the game now sports one generic resource, "parts".

omg! the success of KotOR isn't an indicator?

what are these people thinking? action games have been around just as long as RPG's and suddenly taking advantage of the extra time players have is useless?

I can see cashing in on the Wii phenomenon but this isn't the game to do it with. Space RPG's are a distinct and proven genre with a style different from fantasy. They replace stats with upgrades for crying out loud, if only to your ship. I didn't buy DS2 I can't see me buying this one.
 
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With the lack of space RPGs ive digged into the past during the past year. My latest finding was cyperbunk RPG called Anachronox from 2001. It cost only 15€. It has great dialogue and turn-based combat plus 4-5 star reviews:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/anachronox

Ion Storm is surely a remarkable company. During the recent years, we have been treated with two great games - Deus Ex and "Anachronox".

"Anachronox" is a fantastic game. It has so much to offer, yet it stays always so modest - how is it possible not to love such a game? I have rarely seen a game that lets you do so many things without losing the story line, that guides you securely towards the next goal without being too linear, that offers you a diversion at every corner without distracting you, that makes you laugh out loud without becoming too superficial, that challenges you without frustrating, and that is, to put it simply, one big package of pure, healthy FUN!

But the strongest part of "Anachronox" is its humor. This game is funny. It is very funny. It is maybe even funnier than Monkey Island or other famous videogaming comedy examples. It is, quite possibly, the funniest game I ever played. From standard humiliating jokes about the main protagonist to extremely witty satire - this game has all kinds of humor, that never gets over-the-top or corny. Many comedy movies can learn from "Anachronox".

What makes its humor so great is not even the countless jokes and hilarious situations (alone the scene where Sly talks "science" in a foreign language is guaranteed to make the most melancholic person laugh), but the very clever writing.

The guys who wrote all those dialogues for "Anachronox" deserve a prize. The English language is brilliant in "Anachronox", the vast vocabulary makes the dialogues rich and versatile, and the slight ironic tone is wonderful. Sometimes, the humor in "Anachronox" rises to the level of a true satire, like the merciless parody on democracy in the Democratus section. The high quality humor of "Anachronox" is unparalleled to any other game I
know.

Dialogue example:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/anachronox/screenshots/gameShotId,25599/

You can pick the game for pennies from places like amazon etc.
 
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Just freakin pathetic, IMO.
Absolutely. This is definitely discouraging news even if I wasn't expecting something groundbreaking. I doubt I'll be buying it unless they change their tune.

Even amongst action gamers, I find it unlikely many would say "tech upgrades are teh suck" (that's how they talk, really ;)). That really sounds more like an excuse to cut something from the game because they don't want to spend the time on it. If I'm wrong about this, then the only alternative I see is these folks are idiots.

And for those who haven't played zakhal's recommendation Anachonox, do so. It's not perfect (I, for one, disliked the JRPG-style combat) but it's pretty darn brilliant.
 
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Is this game even real? Making it easier to play than Dungeon Siege (I only ever bothered with the very first one) means that I start the game and everything is played by itself. Therefore, there are better things to waste my time with.
 
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anachronox is the gaming equivalent of snoging the prom queen/king and marrying the validictorian and giving birth to jesus all in one.
 
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I'll have to reccomend Anachronox as well. It has its flaws at points, but is still one damn good ride. I've lately been considering re-installing it for another run-thru, once I find the cd case that is.
 
I'll have to reccomend Anachronox as well. It has its flaws at points, but is still one damn good ride. I've lately been considering re-installing it for another run-thru, once I find the cd case that is.


I remember trying out the demo for Anachronox, while I appreciated the characters and dialog, the Final Fantasy style combat was a big turn off for me.
 
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Overall the combat was, okay. For that style, i'm more of a fan of Phased-based rather Timer-based.

They did use a little grid area where you could move about a bit instead of standing in a well ordered line, but it was so underutilised it was near pointless. Better than a click-fest at least.

If they had taken a little extra step and included greater environmental (The only instance I remember is in the tutorial arena) activity while in combat...
 
I remember reading an article that talked about how Anachronox was released as only half the game it was originally planned to be. They were going to release the 2nd half as a sequel, but they couldn't because of the poor sales of the original.
 
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i don't know about that. it is true the game leaves the story far from finished. but calling anachronox half a game is like calling california half a state. the game is massive and yes they cut some content from the game but not anything after. combat is not central to the game, though it constantly evolves and each character has lots of different weapons and moves. and then half way through the game or so you get the awesome magic system. this is one game that no demo could do it justice. unlike the final fantasies combat is a much smaller part, you really never have to level up in this game, and there are very few places in the game that have respawning battles. its really an adventure game at heart with the vast amount of dialogue and story. the choices to be made don't come from dialogue trees either in the game but rather who you have in your party and your actions of how you deal with the limitless amount of npcs. if you don't like reading loads of well written and humouros dialogue (even about non quest giving npcs) in a game and watching countless cutscenes this game probably isn't for you as those are really the most prominent strengths of the game that no game comes close to.

oh and i hope space siege tanks so bad that it puts chris taylor and company out of their misery. what i also would like is for obsidian to bust out with some news on their alien rpg, which at this point i am still highly anticipating. i really hope they are focusing on that and not a second nwn2 expansion.
 
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Lol, the more I read about Space Siege the dumber it sounds.

I second the thought that this shouldn't be covered by RPGW. I normally don't care what is covered as I am free to pick and choose what to read. Space Siege though had got to go, it would just make me made every time I see the name.
 
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i don't know about that. it is true the game leaves the story far from finished. but calling anachronox half a game is like calling california half a state. the game is massive and yes they cut some content from the game but not anything after.

It's not a rumor it's a fact, even after 3+ years in developement Anachronox ended up being only half the game it was originally supposed to be.
 
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that doesn't change the still more massive than 99% of the other games out there does it? and i still think you facts are a bit questionable considering you haven't played the game, or read countless articles about the game. anyone can write "facts" on the internet. its up to the readers though to put the puzzles together. come on JDR13 you like puzzles don't you? why not try the game that so many people here enjoy. you might then see this game as half overfull instead of half empty;)
 
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Dude, you're way off.

I'm simply dropping some information on you, you can choose to believe what you like. This has nothing to do with me liking the game or not.


Development took roughly three and a half years, and the development team was able to finish only about half of the game, which ends on a major cliffhanger. The story was to be completed in the sequel, but the game was a commercial failure[citation needed], which contributed to the dissolution of Ion Storm. However, the game nonetheless developed a cult following, largely due to its off-beat, humorous storyline, and was notable for the quality of its music and is considered by fans to have one of the best game soundtracks. In response to favorable input about the game's story, Jake Strider Hughes (the game's cinematic director and producer) independently spliced together the game's cutscenes into an award-winning machinima movie.
 
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