- Siege the different lands of the world your way!
- Build any type of machine you can think of, as long as it functions
- Seek, destroy, and push the limits of your engineering
Whenever it comes to battle scenes in medieval films, chances are there's going to be a siege of some place, usually a castle. Now, while siege technology wasn't the most complex or fancy, it got the job done, and sometimes all you need is a big log with enough force to open a door.
But here's the thing about wood: It's dynamic. There are so many ways you could arrange wood to make all kinds of destructive devices, and now's your chance. With the combined efforts of Spiderling Studios and Playdigious, you can become the wood engineer of the century in Besige. You've got a 3D construction tool to help you lay waste to various structures, so let's see how it works out.
What is Besiege?
There were all sorts of reasons for communities to siege one another back in the day, and you're welcome to your pick of them. This is because Besiege leaves the lion's share of the experience and the motivation up to you. Things lead you into the situation by giving you a planet full of different lands and realms to conquer. You have a limitless supply of wood, metal, and mechanisms to make the siege weapons you'll need to beat each level. The more you destroy, the more you can build… to destroy even more.
Under Besiege!
The more a game tries to give players control, the more the other elements tend to suffer to make space for all the necessary tools. The thing about Besiege is that it has a sense of scale and makes the most of its single-player experience. All the models look very solid and well-assembled, with so many details that you'd almost forget there are blocks beneath the surface. The star of the show is the siege machine itself, which has a whole catalogue of detailed parts and components that really sell the fact that you're building with real materials.
On the note of materials, there are a lot of them. Since this takes place in a medieval setting, the machine parts aim to be thematic and sensible, but it works. On top of it working, there are no limits.
Each level gives you access to a recommended selection of parts, but you are under no obligation to use only those. You can open the full catalogue of siege weaponry to construct a machine that not only will get the job done, but will also be YOUR creation. As long as the machine can run and be controlled in some manner, the sky's the limit (and there are definitely wings to help you get up there).
The levels themselves are simple enough to understand at a glance, with the missions ranging from destruction to navigation. What, just because this is all about siege weaponry, you think sieging is the only thing you'll be doing? Of course not.
After all, the siege machine needs to reach the target and return in one piece. You can put anything together, but physics will punish you for going overboard or just slapping any two pieces together. But don't worry, there are no punishments for failure, so you have plenty of opportunities to learn.
Over the Besiege
Now, the problem with games that give players so much control is that it can be challenging to decide where to set the limits. While this can be a positive in some ways, Besiege shows how it can work against the enjoyment. Since we have access to all the pieces from the very start, nothing is stopping us from making giant flying machines to get where we need to go and avoid all the danger.
On top of that, we're able to make a platform with tons of wheels and cannons to destroy anything that could get in the way. Sure, there's always a chance that the machine will be destroyed, but as long as it accomplishes its mission, then we can call it a victory and go home.
Speaking of the missions, there could be a greater variety of them. When we're given no limits to how we can build our machines, simply using them to seek and destroy can feel like a misuse of our talents. We're creative engineers who can create all sorts of machines, so it'd be nice to see more missions that challenge our design sensibilities.
Thankfully, it's not all about destruction, but there could be more to make better use of the different pieces and mechanisms we can put together. At least the novelty of watching giant structures crumble to the ground thanks to our creation is always a bit enjoyable.
Besiege the day!
Besiege is a 3D puzzle with custom creation mechanics, all about building a siege machine to navigate certain areas and destroy specific targets. There is so much freedom and materials to work with, and a lot of nice-looking levels and structures to break with our equally visually-pleasant machines. However, the lack of any limits defeats much of the challenge, while at the same time, we yearn for more challenges and missions to solve. But until we get those assignments, we must seize the siege today!
Besiege review - "Building battering rams for a better tomorrow!"
Do you have the urge to siege something? Well, then make your own siege machine in Besiege with full access to all the parts and a lot of destruction-centric missions.
Will Quick
Will Quick is a travelling writer currently dedicating his time to writing about the games he spends his free time playing. He's always on the lookout for the smaller and stranger of the bunch so he can shine a light on them.