Developed by Icebird Studios and Aesir Interactive and published by Headup Games, “Subsiege” aims to be the next big thing in the E-sports and RTS spectrum. The game is a real-time strategy multiplayer only set in post-apocalyptic 2063: resources are scarce, oxygen is lacking, and weird monsters are coming out from under Earth’s surface.
Author: RedHill
Steam: Early Access
Developer: Icebird Studios and Aesir Interactive
Publisher: Headup Games
Release date: March 8, 2017
Genre: RTS, MOBA
Type: Multi-player
GAMEPLAY
The game plays like a standard combat-focused RTS: you have your HQ where you can spawn new ships, and your objective is to destroy all the units of the other teams while also exploring the map to find resources and smaller AI enemies to annihilate. An interesting mechanic is the addition of oxygen: its bar keeps depleting, and once it gets to the bottom your units die. This makes for an added level of tension that keeps you on the lookout for objects that will increase oxygen.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Graphically, the game looks very generic, both with the design of the units and the environment: you have seen this dark and blue underwater-like objects in most sci-fi RTS, and there really is nothing new to the looks. Performance was pretty stable throughout the various games that I played, and the soundtrack that accompanies each battle is barely noticeable.
The spaceships that you spawn are wholly unoriginal, looking as if they were bought straight from an assets store. The scenery (which the developers call “fantastic”) lacks any sense of scope and focus, coming off as if it were randomly generated by a program. The sound design is underwhelming, with sound effects that offer no excitement, making each “firefight” a tedious slog that you practically have no control over.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Compared to other RTS games, what this game truly lacks is a sense of scope: your troop is not going to be bigger than 5 units. The genre is usually pretty easy to develop, and this game does the bare minimum. I do give it the benefit of the doubt, since it is in Early Access, but here is what it needs: more time given to the oxygen bar so that it is less tedious; increase the amount of units that you can spawn; add either a Campaign where we can explore the story of this post-apocalyptic future; and add the presence of bots, because the lack of a player-base renders the game completely unplayable for those without friends who own it.
The biggest problem with the game is its price: even though it offers battles up to 12 players, the developers think that the game is so innovative that it deserves 29$. That high of a price for an Early Access game that is pretty much dead on arrival makes the overall experience kinda painful: unless you are sure that you are going to play this game with some friends, it’s gonna take you even 30 minutes before another player joins your game, and you cannot even play offline with bots. Overall, “Subsiege” is a passable multiplayer RTS that is way too expensive for what it offers right now. Fans of the genre are going to like it, but those who are not into this type of games are better off playing something else.
RATING:
