Reviewed by Peter Eley
Starsiege ***
Dynamix
PC $99.95
M
Rock on, you heavy metal fans! At last there's a game to rival MechWarrior. Starsiege is a graphically stunning, fast-moving war game where giant robots shoot it out in richly-textured 3D worlds.
But be warned - you need extended graphics support such as 3Dfx to get the most out of it and without one the game looks a bit ordinary. Starsiege is the latest in Dynamix/Sierra's Earthsiege range and a lot of effort has been made to rejuvenate the series.
The first thing you notice is the weight of the box. It contains two books, a 184-page pilot guide and a 120-page full-colour glossy history of the Earthsiege story.
Great value but all of that makes for a complex game. Although you don't need to read the history book, some study of the pilot guide is essential and an hour or so spent in the game's tutorial and training rooms isn't a bad idea.
Once up and running, Starsiege is a reasonable game, although it does have some minor faults. One particularly annoying one is the difficulty of aiming. Often you have an enemy mech in your sights and you let him have it, only for nothing to happen.
On the plus side, it has a strong storyline, a well-crafted mission structure and strong multiplayer options, with plenty of scenarios on the CD.
Required: Pentium 166, 3D accelerator, 32Mb Ram. Recommended: 3Dfx Glide or OpenGL graphics support.
