Space Siege and Humanity

Philosophy is rarely an interesting source of inspiration for videogames and those who play them. With all that, a big part of Gas Powered Games' upcoming Space Siege game decides how human the main protagonist remains while fighting a bunch of genocidal aliens.

The game begins as humanity is being obliterated by the Kerak, an alien race that seems to not like us very much. The reason for this dislike is the fact that we sent a ship, called the Rebecca Lee, to colonize a planet that apparently was holy to the alien race. As punishment, they killed the colonists and then set out to destroy Earth. Humanity hopes to survive by launching another huge colony ship to settle on a distant planet. Unfortunately for humanity as a whole, the ship is boarded.

That's where the game throws the player into the mix. He plays the role Seth Walker, one of the people on the boarded colony ship. He begins to fight the aliens with the help of the HR-V, aka Harvey, originally known as the Hodgson Robotics Unit. Once the robot is up and running, it becomes the sidekick of the main hero, bringing superior firepower to bear down against the aliens.

The Keraks are insidious little aliens, and fighting them will force Seth to make a choice. As the enemies become tougher, he too needs to become tougher and that can only be accomplished by choosing to replace some of his own body parts with cybernetic implants. The way most of the NPCs in the game react to Seth is based on how much of him is still classified as being human.

One of the most interesting elements of the game is the way Seth's abilities change depending on the cybernetic implants he acquires. Updates are available for his weapons and for his robotic companion, in addition to upgrades related to the implants.

Space Siege is scheduled for release sometime later in the year for the PC and a console version might become available next year.