Gameplay

Enough with the eye-candy, how's the actual gameplay? Compared to the dreaded waypoint jog of Earthsiege II, where most of the missions consisted of following the dotted line of nav points and killing every enemy that appeared, the missions in Starsiege present the player with an enjoyable and challenging variety.

The campaigns start you out working alone, which can be a bit more relaxing since you don't have to worry about coordinating squadron tactics. In the early stages you're also limited in your HERC and weapon options; apparently neither side trust rookies very much with plasma cannons. The designers also recommend that gamers start off with the human campaign, since they consider the Cybrid missions to be the more difficult of the two, though I didn't see much of a difference.

The missions range from the standard patrols, defend, and search 'n destroy, to the more creative ones like Beheading the Snake, a human campaign mission in which you need to equip your HERC with a LTADS (Laser Target Designation Systems), which 'paints' an enemy target for friendly artillery to ground-pound moving targets, so long as you keep them in view.

This way you can destroy missile turrets protecting an enemy base that's harboring someone your rebel buddies want to put on trial. Once these defenses are removed, you can order your squadron forward and complete the other mission objectives, carefully avoiding enemy minefields that are cleverly placed.

HERC Intelligence

Speaking of squadrons, Starsiege's AI companions seem much more skilled at dealing out damage to the enemy than in earlier installments, though they certainly cross your lines of fire at inopportune times (a nice way of saying that a squadmate took two blasts of plasma in the backside ... oops.)

It's the usual AI path-finding stuff, which means that routines sophisticated enough for AI-controlled units to track the actions of both you and your squadron while fending off the enemy would probably choke even a P3 500. But they are certainly not heartless automatons who lack the ability to decide the outcome of a heated fray. Other reviewers may disagree with my assessment, but if anything Starsiege's squadmates definitely liven up the radio channels with some of the most humorous chatter in recent memory.

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As the campaigns unfold, you'll inevitably rack up those Cybrid or human kills, paving the way to better, more powerful equipment and weapons. And it's at this point that you've stripped away the game's rind, revealing what I feel to be the heart of Starsiege: mission loadouts!

Mission Loadouts

This gaming goodness is organized in what's called, aptly enough, the Vehicle Depot. Think of it as a sort of futuristic garage. The Vehicle Depot is where you'll choose the HERCs that you and, eventually, your squadmates will pilot for each mission. Starsiege offers roughly 30 different armored behemoths to control, a pretty good number, though unfortunately a third of these are tanks, a new addition to the series I'm not all that thrilled about.

After all, HERCs are themselves bipedal tanks that offer both functional and aesthetical coolness over their treaded, or hover, cousins. Starsiege was originally going to ship with armored flyers, which would've presented far better gameplay possibilities than the included tanks. It's a shame that they didn't make it into the release. Regardless of this omission, the game still manages to provide a good selection of vehicles, from light scouts such as the Talon to heavyweight bruisers like the Gorgon and Apocalypse.

But what's a HERC without an ELF (Electron Flux Whip) or two? Starsiege categorizes its weaponry as energy, beam, ballistic, missiles, or mines, with numerous types for each category. There are also 'special' weapons, such as the ELF mentioned above. Or consider the Cybrids' radiation gun, a particularly nasty piece of equipment that's designed to completely bypass the shields and armor of a human-piloted HERC and kill the carbon-based lifeform doing the driving, leaving the chassis in pristine condition.

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