An applaudable collaboration between Spiderling Studios and publishing veterans, Ultimate Games S.A, Besiege is a physics based puzzle game that calls for deep-thinking and an inextinguishable source of patience.
Once residing in the limelight as a part of the Game Pass catalog, the medieval masterpiece quickly became a firm favorite to budding physicists, puzzle fans and sadomasochists the world over. After delving into the intricacies of the game and, I admit, much scratching of my head, I’m eager to share my thoughts surrounding the game.
Besiege Demands Some Deep Thinking
After over three decades of playing puzzle games, I like to think of myself as a veteran in the genre; a puzzle master, if you will. However, it wasn’t long before the terrible – and humbling – realization dawned on me: I had met my match. Besiege takes no prisoners with an approach that gives the player complete freedom in how they tackle presented problems, but demands out-of-the-box thinking and an ability to foresee the outcomes of their actions.
Starting out with the blank slate of a solitary starting block, Besiege merely tells you what you need to destroy and leaves the task of destroying it in your – hopefully – capable hands. A quick tap of D-pad up will open up a vast inventory of blocks you can use to build your medieval artillery. Alongside a whole manner of weaponry, you will be presented with a plethora of different mechanical parts: pivots; pistons, supporting braces; steering blocks; hinges and more odds and ends are made available for you to use on your machine to wreck havoc on your targets; or, like in my case, not quite so much.
A False Sense of Security
Like in most games of this ilk, the first few levels were simple. However, it quickly became clear that Besiege had successfully lulled me into a false sense of security when the levels became far more complicated. Creating an all-powerful machine of utmost destruction might sound like quite an easy task but evidently not with super-realistic physics and so many things to fine tune.
Not only do you need to build a machine capable of destroying your enemies, you also need to build it so it can either get to those targets; which isn’t half as easy as it sounds. Luckily, Besiege gives you all the time in the world to create, test and alter your build; meaning you can take your time and really think about your approach. There always seems to be something that isn’t quite right and needs tweaking and testing until it is. My playthrough taught me this when firing my cannons ripped my structure apart or when badly thought-out steering physics left me literally going around in circles.
Build, Test, Fail, Rinse, and Repeat
My experience with Besiege turned out to be a comedy of errors. With so many ways to build there’s so much that can go wrong. With that being said, the difficulty of some of the levels makes for a far more satisfying experience once you finally build a machine that gets things done, and in one piece.
Summary
Besiege is one of those games that’s perfect for settling in to on a day off work. Giving yourself ample time to play will allow you to take your time with your approach and properly think of the best ways to tackle the levels. Any fan of physics based puzzle title will find a lot to enjoy about Besiege and revel in the magnitude of options it has to offer.
Besiege is available now on Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch.
REVIEW
OUR SCORE - 8
8
SCORE
Any fan of physics based puzzle title will find a lot to enjoy about Besiege and revel in the magnitude of options it has to offer.