Castle Siege

Castle Siege is a very straightforward medieval action game, and I think that simplicity is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. I play as a knight fighting through waves of enemies while trying to reclaim a stolen castle and take back the kingdom. The whole thing is presented as a cinematic third person adventure, and I liked the feeling of being thrown straight into a large medieval battle without having to learn a huge number of systems first. The combat is the main focus, and it is pretty satisfying when everything comes together. I spend most of my time fighting enemies with a sword and cutting through groups of soldiers as I make my way towards the castle. There is a nice sense of impact when attacks connect, and the third person camera gives me a good view of the battlefield. I liked being surrounded by enemies because it makes me pay attention to where I am standing instead of simply attacking whatever is directly in front of me. The battles also do a decent job of making the world feel larger than just my character. I am not fighting completely alone because there are other knights and soldiers involved in the conflict, which helps give the encounters a proper medieval warfare feeling. Seeing groups of fighters clash around me while I push forward towards the objective is one of the more enjoyable parts of the experience. It is not a deep strategy system, but it adds some scale to the fights. I also liked the overall atmosphere. The environments have a fairly serious medieval appearance, with castles, forests and battlefields giving the game a nice setting for the action. The cinematic presentation helps too, especially during the larger moments where the fighting becomes more chaotic. There is a story behind the invasion and the attempt to reclaim the kingdom, although the narrative is fairly simple compared with the amount of attention given to the action. The biggest issue for me is that Castle Siege feels limited in what it actually offers. Once I understand the combat, there are not many additional systems to keep me interested. I wanted more variety in the enemies, weapons and situations because the basic fighting can start to feel repetitive. The game also has some rough edges in its presentation and character behaviour, which occasionally reminds me that this is a small indie project rather than a polished big budget medieval action game. I still appreciate that the game is completely free to play. That makes the limited scope much easier for me to accept because I can jump in, experience the campaign and enjoy the combat without having to commit much to it. I think the concept has potential for a larger game, especially if the developer adds more varied battles, stronger enemy designs and more interesting objectives. There is a decent foundation here, even if the current experience does not go particularly deep. Overall, I think Castle Siege is a decent little medieval action game that is best enjoyed for what it is. The sword fighting is simple but fun, the battles have a nice sense of scale and the castle setting gives the whole thing a proper medieval atmosphere. It definitely needs more variety and polish, but I still enjoyed charging into the fights and working my way towards reclaiming the castle. For a free single player game, I think it is worth trying if I am in the mood for some uncomplicated medieval action. Rating: 6.6/10