Despite its name share, Gas Powered Games’ Space Siege is making big departures from its dungeon-dwelling predecessor. “In Space Siege,” says ever-enthusiastic honcho Chris Taylor, “We’re not adhering to any old-school system. We’re not just carrying features along like baggage, we’re dumping it if it doesn’t make sense.”
And he’s not joking either: “We’ve dropped multi-character parties, we’ve dropped the inventory system, we’re even dropping experience for God’s sake!” Space Siege, says Taylor, is all about stamping out the traditional RPG restrictions and bringing choices over to the player. “In the old design you’d find a gun and you couldn’t use it because you need more experience. That’s just dumb: if you find a cool gun, you want to use it.
“The closest we get to that is ‘It’s too heavy, you can’t wield it because you don’t have a cybernetic arm,’” and there’s where the most conscience-testing component of all comes in; the ability to strip your character’s limbs and replace them with hulking machines, swapping humanity for strength.
