Besieger 1.0

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

Well designed, but with minor AI faults and disbalances, this real time strategy is technically well on the level for its release year 2004, but for some reasons it is still not a hit. You act a leader of medieval Wiking warriors and fight with Cimmerians and fantastic beasts. We were impressed with game s graphics: you can zoom out so far that a large area of the 3D map becomes visible with many small objects on it. Textures, interface elements, backgrounds, and special effect look quite pleasing. You can move you camera as you wish to see the battle from any angle. The music of the game did not touch us: it lacks dramatism and sounds as if it was taken from some opera play but not an RTS in historic/fantasy setting. Besieger has most of the features of a good RTS and surprised us with a lot of nice improvements: now you do not simply clone units in a barrack, but you need to take a worker and convert him into a warrior. This limits you army size, prevents early rush, and make you strike balance between the number of your villagers and the number of warriors. You can also produce heroes, which become stronger after getting some experience. However, they may become too powerful, even powerful enough to do their job themselves without an army to help. The AI is weak in the game and poses no challenge, but you may find it hard to win due to bad pathfinding of your units. In general, Besieger is still a solid game, which would be great if it were released a few years before. But its minor faults and issues do not let it say a new word in the RTS genre. Some strategy fans may try this game out, and there are chances that they will fall in love with it, but these chances are not too high.

Publisher's description

From DreamCatcher Interactive :

Besieger is a real-time 3D strategy game from DreamCatcher Interactive. The game takes place centuries ago during a war between the Vikings and Cimmerians. The game features a castle construction and siege theme with two races, 12 levels, 40 types of buildings, 20 types of units, and several online multiplayer modes. This demo for Besieger includes two single-player campaigns and four multiplayer modes.

CNET Editor's Note: This is a very large (263MB) file and may take several hours to download via dial-up modem.

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