Space Siege
Because Metal Corridor Siege isn't as catchy.
There's a bewildering lack of polish throughout, to the point that it's impossible to see any of Chris Taylor's usual hallmarks here. It feels like a low-budget, first-time developer game, not the latest from a respected old-hand of PC gaming. From the total lack of environmental variety, to all the pointless backtracking to previously-visited, empty locations you then immediately have to leave again, to the way there's not enough interface space/hotkeys to access all your skills, it's a cheerless, characterless mess.
It's like a hobo convincing himself he's a businessman purely because he found a knackered briefcase in a skip and stole a suit from a charity shop. It's certainly got all the appropriate trappings of a decent Diablolike, but apparently very little idea of how to implement them properly. To put it another way, it's certainly got all the appropriate trappings of a decent Robotronlike, but apparently very little idea of how to implement them properly.
Progression is a straight A-B run, with almost every significant pick-up highlighted on the map and placed en route anyway, so there's nothing in terms of side-quests or secrets. You can improve your various weapons' damage, speed and crit chance individually, but it's fairly academic as you'll switch to and stick with the next new one you find anyway.
Similarly, your robot companion HR-V is a fixed constant. You can choose whether to spend your looted gold (let's drop all pretence of 'upgrade components') on improving your own or his abilities, but there's such a surfeit of currency that you'll inevitably do both anyway. Control over him is minimal, and his AI all but brain-dead, so all he really needs do is follow and shoot. He's not even a fun robot. Doesn't make cute electro-burbles, doesn't threaten to exterminate all the meat-bags, doesn't transform into anything. He's just a boring, silent orange oblong who follows you around.
Yet it's one of those games I didn't find myself hating as such. There's a fundamental compulsion to keep going, keep upgrading, keep killing, and it's difficult to ascertain whether I'm actually enjoying that journey or if I'm simply obsessed with the destination. There's very little strategy to the combat - it really is an easy play - but on the other hand it's a reasonable path of mindless destruction, and that can muster two days of not unpleasant time-killing. One of the more exaggerated but common criticisms of the Dungeon Siege games is that they become glorified screensavers after a while, and that's not the case here - you're very much hands-on at all times, even if the game is making 90 per cent of the decisions for you.
It is, however, a genuine failure, perhaps even a spectacular one. It could do serious damage to Taylor and Gas Powered Game's once-golden reputation, and I pray it's just a one-off blip. With the Supreme Commander games apparently alienating as many players as they charmed, I suspect much hinges on the upcoming, self-published Demigod.
Space Siege's timing is fascinating, however - releasing just prior to Too Human on Xbox 360, it's hard not to draw comparisons, not least because TH's original plot dealt with very similar subject matter (its title is pretty meaningless since the story switched to Thor-in-space). And also because anyone who thinks TH is a disaster really should play this (and, if it isn't too impolitic to do so, I'd include Eurogamer's TH reviewer amongst those people). While riddled with design disasters, Too Human seems like an action-RPG holy grail by comparison to this startling mess. Better yet, play Shadowgrounds: Survivor instead of the both of 'em.