Starsiege, the third title in the "EarthSiege" series, was done by Dynamix, the people who did the ORIGINAL Mechwarrior for Activision. Its graphics and sound are as good as Mechwarrior 3, and VASTLY more user configurable, with both multiplayer SERVER and client included.
The story features a split between the solar colonies (Mars, Venus, etc.) and Earth, as the policies of the Terran Emperor Petresun forced the colonies to rebel, and with open war broken out, Prometheus, the master computer that somehow survived the previous two Earthsieges, seized his chance to destroy mankind... And ordered the Cybrids into an all out attack... You command some of the vastly outnumbered Terran forces against the Cybrids if you play the humans, or command the premier Cybrid strike team if you play the Cybrids.
While most denigrade Starsiege as a also-ran title, don't count it out. How many mech games allows you to create YOUR OWN MECH SKINS for pilotable vehicles in the game? How about squad insignia? Your character's portrait? How many also includes multiplayer SERVER? How about OpenGL support AND GLIDE for graphics? Drive Tanks as well as "mechs"? Salvage enemy components? Upgrade/design your own mechs? Starsiege lets you do all that, and more.
Graphics are as good as the current Mechwarrior 3 though a little less than the Pirate's Moon expansion pack. Sound is generally good, with pretty good music. What's best, most of the "cut scenes" in the game are actually rendered in the game 3D engine itself, instead of a "video file", which makes it look far more "realistic". When you kill a HERC when it's on the run, it will tumble in the air, shedding parts, until it comes to rest on the ground, then the fusion plant blows, leaving charred remains behind. It's VERY cool to look at.
Gameplay is a bit different than Mechwarrior, since the HERCs do not do torso twist. It however, does have shields in addition to armor. Instead of heat management, you do energy management. You need to coordinate your strike to beat down the shields, then penetrate the armor, and the variety of weapons would satisfy even the most jaded mech fans. You get regular ballistic weapons like autocannon and blast cannon to energy weapons like blaster and electron flux whips, to beam weapons like lasers and plasma beams, to exotic weapons like nanite cannon and smart guns. Then there's missiles (radar or heat seeking) and mines, each have different variants as well. Some HERCs can fit six different weapons onboard! You can group them together in "firing chains".
To outfit the HERC, you can put in different engines (affects speed and acceleration), different powerplant (generates energy to power everything else), sensor package (different resolution in active vs. passive mode), computer (different tracking capability), shield generator (weight, shield power, shield regen speed), armor (protection rating, any bonus against specific type of attack), and special equipment that can enhance some of the components. For example, shield modulator allows you to focus the shield in a specific direction as well as rotate the concentration toward a specific target. There's also cloaking device that can hide your presence completely until the energy is exhausted, and various other special equipments.
If this sounds very complicated, it really isn't. Most of the configuration you do at the beginning of the mission, then you forget about them.
The gameplay is also first rate, as most mission have multiple objectives, and frequently the objectives change. For example, one of the early missions have you lead a convoy in attempt to retrieve some rebels hiding in a city. As soon as you located the rebel safehouse, incoming artillery blew it up: it's an ambush! Then the rescue becomes a fight for survival as you fight the Imperial HERCs lying in ambush while trying to escort the convoy to safety amidst incoming artillery. It can get pretty tense. There's also a few where you need to spot artillery for your own side. Those are fun.
On the other hand, the campaign has no branches. It's win, or replay. And some of the missions can be pretty tough, as you try to figure out the optimum route and which enemy to engage and which ones not to, or the optimum configuration to use for certain missions. Though there are two campaigns, a Human campaign and a Cybrid campaign.
Between missions you are treated to both a "war timeline" and a recording of important messages gleamed from the newsnets (called SCANNEX).
The AI is pretty good, and your squadmates are actually good for something time. In fact, their aimming skills are usually better than yours! In most games you can outshoot your AI escorts easily, not in this game! In fact, you'll soon rely on your squadmates to make the quick kills, leaving yourself as close escort to the objectives. The command interface is quick and precise. Press a function key (F1/F2/F3) to radio a specific squadmate, or F4 to all of them. Then hit a number key to specify a command (attack, defend, join, half, etc.) MUCH easier than Mechwarrior (press key to enter command mode, then issue commands...) The AI is also pretty good as they attempt to circle around you or pound you from a distance depending on your shield config, and different enemies have different fighting styles.
Multiplayer again is a real blast as there are PLENTY of user maps out there (visit starsiegeplayers.com), as well as plenty of skins for the different HERCs and tanks. It is even possible to modify some of the Hercs and Tanks and weapons and play a special "MOD". As mentioned before, "server" software is included. In fact, on an NT machine, Starsiege can use multiple CPUs! (One of only two games I know that can, the other is Falcon 4.0)
There are a few places that could use some enhancements though. Nav points aren't as each to find as they should be, visual ID sometimes outranges active sensors. The campaign could use a few branches, and you were never referred to by name, merely as Harabec's chief lieutenant, or the Cybrid <killer of animals: designation>.
In general the game has very few faults, just as good as the newer Mechwarrior 3, and its configurability and multiplayer leaves Mechwarrior 3 in the dust. Guess this game is just a bit ahead of its time, and now that it's in the bargain bins, you should really check it out.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.