On a better note, Space Siege sports some excellent level design that gives the feeling of a large ship with many floors and bottomless pits. The game also makes liberal use of physics, thanks to the exceptional number of explosive barrels and canisters lying around (which the game does address). These explosives are great for setting traps and or just blasting to see where the canisters fly off to. Unfortunately, the smaller canisters use a weak firecracker sound effect that undermines the joy of watching big explosions. Additionally, everything from giant crates to metal barrels can be pushed around as though they were all empty Styrofoam containers.

The good level design almost makes up for some of the awkward controls. This game would have benefited greatly if movement could be mapped to the keyboard in addition to clicking to move. That way, special abilities can put onto one of the mouse buttons and managing abilities would be less of a hassle. This becomes a big issue when it comes to controlling Seth's robotic companion, HR-V (Harvey), which comes with its own attacks and abilities. This robot obviously wasn't designed for evasive maneuvers. It will stand in place until it gets blasted to pieces, and trying to move it while controlling Seth can be a major hassle. Although it's useful for drawing fire, running through minefields, and offering light support, it invariably gets destroyed early on during boss fights. There's no way to bring back the HR-V on the spot, so players will have to wait until they reach a manufacturing machine to get their companion back. These machines, along with healing nodes that double as autosave points, are plentiful enough to keep the robot's inevitable destruction from being a big issue. However, having lots of save points and health nodes also contributes to the general ease of the game. Yet, the fact that it has no personality - it's pretty much a drone that you pour points into - there's no sense of attachment or great incentive to upgrade it.

Space Siege is fine for a weekend distraction, but the short and linear game doesn't offer strong differences between playing as a human or cyborg, so there's little incentive to play through more than once or twice. The saving grace comes from the cooperative multiplayer, which gives you all cyborg parts and 40 skill points at the very beginning to build a custom character. Players will be shooting through unique levels made specifically for multiplayer, and there's a genuine difficulty setting to make the monsters harder. Multiplayer games can also be played solo, so in a sense, it's almost like having bonus content. This game would provide a richer experience if it were more like an RPG, but it's formatted to be more of a shooter instead. Unfortunately, even for a shooter that cashes in on big explosives and special powers, it's not a game that leaves a huge lasting impression.

Download the Space Siege Demo (935 MB)