Video games - Starsiege

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	Video games - Starsiege

Starsiege is a mecha-style simulation game developed by Dynamix and released in 1999. Starsiege is set in the Earthsiege universe, which contains its predecessors Earthsiege
(1994), Battledrome (1995), and Earthsiege 2
(1995), as well as action game Hunter Hunted (1996), strategy games Mission Force: Cyberstorm (1997) and Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars (1998), and first-person shooters Starsiege: Tribes
(1999), Tribes 2
(2001), and Tribes: Vengeance
(2004).

As a simulation, Starsiege offers players the ability to pilot a wide variety of massive bipedal war machines known as HERCULANs (Humaniform-Emulation Roboticized Combat Unit with Leg-Articulated Navigation) (or 'HERCs' for short), as well as several tanks. Set in 2829, Starsiege contains an array of advanced technology, and numerous upgrades are available for each vehicle. Starsiege takes place across a number of planets and moons in the solar system, offering a range of different locations throughout the game and in multiplayer battles, including Earth (Terra), Titan, Luna, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. There are two campaigns, Human and Cybrid. The human campaign places the player as a member of the Free Martian Alliance (a faction of the Martian rebellion, detailed later).

Story

Starsiege contains a rich backstory and plot, which are conveyed to the player via three main sources. The first source is the Compendium, a 150-page booklet which came in the box. The Compendium contains all of the necessary backstory to understand the plot, as well as copious information on the various sides and characters involved in the story. The War Timeline is a running timeline in the game that starts with important events as far back as 2422 and extends all the way to the present time in the game, with updates after each completed mission. Finally, the Scannex, or Omni-Web, is a sort of public chatroom in which various individuals or groups post messages, providing updates and opinions on various events after each mission. While the Timeline tells what's happened, the Scannex is very much an important tool to know what's happening, and works alongside mission briefings, debriefings, and occasional cutscenes to keep the plot flowing and add more depth to the universe.

Background

:The background information in Starsiege diverges in some ways from the information provided in previous games. For the purposes of this entry it is assumed that Starsiege is correct. Also, please note that, in keeping with game terminology, when Prometheus is referred to by the pronoun 'it', capitals are used (IT) The essential background of Starsiege begins with the creation of the artificial intelligence Prometheus in 2471. Developed by Sentinal Cybertronix (headed by Solomon Petresun) for the North American Prefecture (NAP), Prometheus was an amazingly advanced sentient capable of processing and storing information at incredible rates. IT quickly absorbed all human knowledge into ITS memory. Impressed with ITS spectacular success, the NAP prepared to use Prometheus as a template from which automated pilots could be developed for the recently developed HERCULANs, thereby preventing the waste of promising young trainees, and creating a race of pilots who couldn't die. Coined Cybrids, from cybernetic hybrids, these AI pilots were embraced as the wave of the future.

While the NAP developed its war machines, Solomon Petresun, founder of Sentinal Cybertronix and creator of Prometheus, found another use for his creation. Petresun secretely used Prometheus to perform an operation for him, transferring his mind into an organimech brain, which would be placed back into his body. The organimech brain would last for thousands of years, granting Petresun near-immortality. The brain could be switched to a new body each time the old one died out. (An important note is that Petresun never did accept a new body, needing more and bulkier life support machinery to sustain him, and eventually becoming immobile.) Prometheus successfully performed the transfer, but during the procedure IT linked ITS mind with Petresun's, hoping to understand ITS 'father'. However, upon witnessing the fearful and illogical mind of a human, Prometheus determined that humans were mere animals, and the Cybrids existed as the next stage of evolution. Prometheus finished the operation but began ITS plans to rebel. Petresun, who had witnessed the dark thoughts of Prometheus, was shocked into a coma from which he did not emerge for months, too late to stop his creation. All he could do was go underground when disaster struck.

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Video games - Starsiege

Story

Background

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