''Besiege'' is a

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " a ...

sandbox

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed and published by Spiderling Studios. The game was released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

in February 2020, which followed a five-year long

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

phase. A console version for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020 ...

was released in February 2022.

Overview

The game allows players to build outlandish medieval

siege engine A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while othe ...

s to pit against castles or armies. Players select from a collection of mechanical parts that can be connected together to build a machine. Each level has a goal, such as "destroy the windmill" or "kill 100 soldiers". Although the goals are relatively simple, the wide variety of possible approaches allows for experimentation. Despite the medieval theme to the game, players are able to build intricate working models of four-stroke and two-stroke engines and vehicle systems, including computer systems, as well as modern vehicles such as

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

planes,

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

planes,

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribut ...

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

s, and battleships. An update in December 2017 added a level editor and multiplayer capabilities, such as pitting the vehicle creations against each other, or other players attempting to knock down a castle created by another. Later they added advanced build mode which grants the player the possibility to build complicated machines. With these additions, players developed systems to run tournaments similar to the television show ''

BattleBots ''BattleBots'' (logo: Bꓭ)In season 10, the 2020-2021 TV season, the show introduced the "Bꓭ" logo is an American robot combat television series. The show was an adaptation of the British show '' Robot Wars'', in which competitors design and ...

'', pitting their ''Besiege'' creations in one-on-one matches with others to try to take the other out. The game was first released for

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

and

via

on 28 January 2015 before officially releasing on 18 February 2020. A console version is set to be released for

and

on 10 February 2022. It features reworked

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

, photo mode, and a different Workshop for sharing user creations. However, it does not have the multiplayer or level editor functionality of the PC version.

Reception

Marsh Davies of ''

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

'' praised an early version of the game, comparing its "bouncily caricatured" science to a 12th-century version of '' Kerbal Space Program''. Davies also praised the game's stylized graphics and sound. Another

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

article b
Jay Castello
which is a released-version review published on March 2, 2020. Jay Castello admired the game varieties that kept her engaging and trying to construct the new better

s. Although there was some lack of guidance that was mentioned in the article, the game has had a strong community support with mods, guides, tricks created by people who have a very good handle on besiege construction tools since the game was released early-access in 2015. On the date September 22, 2022, Besiege has Overwhelmingly Positive all reviews on steam with 95% positive reviews from 39,871 reviews, and Very Positive recent reviews with 93% positive reviews from 171 reviews.
Worth a Buy
(Game review YouTuber) published his Besiege (

) video review on January 23, 2015, after he had played the game for 1 hour. He mentioned that the game caught his eye with its look and cheap price of $6. The game building mechanic is fun with lots of crazy weapons to equip and experiment with
Worth a Buy
summarizes that this game is fun, cheap, and really worth a buy.

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

article b
Rick Lane
gave the game 85 out of 100 and said: "Besiege lets you build siege weapons in a medieval fantasy realm. It contains four kingdoms, with each kingdom having many levels in it. The level is nicely crafted, with objectives for you to do in order to pass the level. Each level is designed to make you come up with a new mechanic with different tasks for you to do. You will be given a building area at the start of the level. Besiege provides a toolkit that's easier to understand compared to Kerbal Space Program, but lacks a good

tutorial A tutorial, in education, is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complet ...

to guide the beginners. The toolkit contains a lot of objects for you to use and work with. You can build from cranes to flying machines with it. Besiege allows you to adjust individual object parameters such as power, speed and even binding it to do certain actions."

References

External links

* {{Official website 2020 video games Early access video games Indie games Linux games MacOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Simulation video games Video games with Steam Workshop support Strategy video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games