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Metaltech: Earthsiege | |
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Developer(s) | Dynamix |
Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
Producer(s) | Mark Crowe |
Designer(s) | Mark Crowe David Selle |
Programmer(s) | Paul Bowman |
Artist(s) | Robert Caracol |
Composer(s) | Timothy Steven Clarke Christopher Stevens |
Platform(s) | DOS |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Simulation |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Metaltech: Earthsiege is a mecha-style simulation video game developed by Dynamix and released in 1994.
Players are placed in the cockpit of various massive bipedal war machines known as Herculans (Humaniform-Emulation Roboticized Combat Unit with Leg-Articulated Navigation) (or 'HERCs' for short). Set in the 25th or 26th century, Earthsiege is a technologically advanced setting with many futuristic weapons and vehicles.
Earthsiege is the first in a series of video games in the Metaltech universe, which contains Earthsiege 2 (1996) and Metaltech: Battledrome (1994), as well as the strategy games MissionForce: CyberStorm (1996) and Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars (1998), direct sequel mecha-simulation Starsiege (1999), and first-person shooters Starsiege: Tribes (1998), Tribes 2 (2001), Tribes: Aerial Assault (2002) Tribes: Vengeance (2004) and Tribes: Ascend (2012). In 2015, Earthsiege was released as freeware by Hi-Rez Studios. [2]
On November 29, 2471, the race for true artificial intelligence ended when Sentinel Cybertronix activated Project: Prometheus. Prometheus was a prototype, the first cybernetic-hybrid machine, or Cybrid. The mass production of these Cybrids and their use for war, to the point of nuclear war devastated Earth's population. In the aftermath, the Cybrids turned against their human creators, forcing the humans into hiding. Twenty years later, the humans started their own resistance. Using hit-and-run tactics against the machines, the humans managed to survive and even capture Cybrid weapons and equipment.
Gameplay in Earthsiege consists of piloting the mecha-style HERCs in combat against opposing HERCs. The HERC can be steered with a keyboard or joystick, though some controls are only found on the keyboard. The mouse can be used to interact with the various buttons in the cockpit. The whole game has at minimum of 5 campaigns of about 7 missions each. Success and failure of the missions might trigger secondary missions and campaigns to rectify previous failures, all in all resulting in 45 missions in 8 campaigns.
HERCs battle with various ranged and projectile weapons, including lasers, missiles, and autocannons. They offer rechargeable shields and armor plating for defense. When the shields are depleted, armor begins taking damage; when armor is low, internal components, weapons and even limbs can be destroyed. A HERC that has lost a leg is immediately incapacitated, leaving more salvage (in the form of scrap metal and weapons) for the player.
Outside of battle, the player manages their squad's HERCs and resources. The player selects the weapons mounted on each HERC, and can repair existing HERCs and weapons (as well as build new ones with scrap metal). Additionally, the player can bring up to three squad mates along on missions. Squad mates can be assigned HERCs before the mission begins, and during a mission they can be issued basic orders. As squad mates complete more missions, their skills and rank rise.
In 1994, a speech pack was released for Earthsiege. It adds digitized speech for some characters. The CD-ROM version was released with this feature. In 1995, an expansion pack for Earthsiege was released featuring a full-motion video introduction. The expansion pits humanity against a second wave of Cybrid attackers 3 months after the end of the original game. The expansion pack featured new content such as new vehicles and weapons.
Publication | Score |
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Computer Gaming World | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Next Generation | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Computer Gaming World rated the game as "the best attempt yet at creating a futuristic simulation of giant armored combat", praising the graphics and animation. They did, however, pan the game's overly difficult missions, consequence-free mission failure, and a host of "tiny, but irritating, glitches and questionable design decisions." [3]
Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated "Without a doubt, the finest mech simulator available." [4]
In science fiction, mecha or mechs are giant robots or machines typically depicted as piloted and as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword 'mechanism' or 'mechanical', but the meaning in Japanese is more inclusive, and 'robot' or 'giant robot' is the narrower term.
Starsiege: Tribes is a first-person shooter video game. It is the first of the Tribes video game series and follows the story from Metaltech: Earthsiege and Starsiege. It was developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 1998. An expansion pack, Tribes Extreme, was cancelled; it was supposed to add single-player missions, multiplayer maps, and bot AI.
Tribes 2 is a first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001 as a sequel to Starsiege: Tribes.
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Starsiege is a mecha-style vehicle simulation game developed by Dynamix and released in 1999. Starsiege is set in the Metaltech/Earthsiege universe, which contains its predecessors Earthsiege (1994), Battledrome (1994), and Earthsiege 2 (1996). This universe also includes action game Hunter Hunted (1996), strategy games Mission Force: Cyberstorm (1996) and Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars (1998). It also includes the sequelsStarsiege: Tribes and all subsequent Tribes titles. In 2015, this game and the rest of the Metaltech/Tribes series were released as freeware by Hi-Rez Studios, but Battledrome and the Cyberstorm series were not.
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator Red Baron, the puzzle game The Incredible Machine, the Front Page Sports series, Betrayal at Krondor, and the online multiplayer game Tribes.
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Earthsiege 2 is a mech-style vehicle simulation game developed by Dynamix, produced by Frank Evers (NYPH), and released in 1996. Earthsiege 2 is set in the Earthsiege universe, which contains its predecessors Earthsiege (1994) and Battledrome (1995), as well as the action game Hunter Hunted (1996), strategy games MissionForce: CyberStorm (1997) and Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars (1998), simulation Starsiege (1999), and first-person shooters Starsiege: Tribes (1999), Tribes 2 (2001), Tribes: Aerial Assault (2002), Tribes: Vengeance (2004) and Tribes: Ascend (2012).
MechWarrior 4: Vengeance is a vehicle simulation game, developed by FASA Interactive and published by Microsoft. It was released on November 22, 2000. It is the fourth game in MechWarrior series. It takes place in BattleTech universe where the pinnacle of all war machines are huge, heavily armed robots called BattleMechs. The player pilots one of these "'Mechs" and uses variety of available weapons to battle enemy 'Mechs, tanks and other vehicles. An expansion pack, MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, was released in 2001, and a subsequent stand-alone expansion, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, was released on November 7, 2002. Two smaller expansions, Inner Sphere Mech Pak and Clan Mech Pak, were also released in 2002.
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MissionForce: CyberStorm is a turn-based strategy game developed by Dynamix and published in 1996 by Sierra On-Line. The game is set in the Metaltech universe created by Dynamix, and the player control units of HERCULANs : bipedal warmachines of varying size and construct, more commonly known as HERCs. Although CyberStorm was a limited commercial success, it sold well enough to spawn a 1998 sequel called CyberStorm 2: Corporate Wars. It was digitally released by Activision on July 23, 2019 on GOG.com.
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Metaltech: Earthsiege CD (*)