Dead Siege, a Student Project being created by students at Alamo Colleges, is a flashy 3rd person shooter tower defense hybrid that uses the main characters magic to not only build towers but to throw fireballs and other spells head on at the enemy.
The game handles and plays a lot like that of Orcs Must Die, but offers a varied experience from it as well. Instead of using traps to slow and stun your enemies, you use the towers at your disposal (Lightning, Poison and Zombies) to damage in encroaching enemy before they reach your castle-like base. Not only can you take advantage of these towers and just build dozens of lightning towers, you can also get right in the action with the ability to cast 3 different spells, each one having its uses in combat. The first attack (being the left mouse button) hurls a fireball directly in front of you. The best bit about this spell is you can constantly cast it and never run out of mana. The second is a freeze spell (used by pressing the right mouse button), this will stun enemies in their tracks so that either you can sweep in and finish them off or let your tower decimate them. The third spell is an A.o.E fire spell (used by pressing the middle mouse button) that attacks all enemies in the arch in front of you and continues going straight forward. Both the second and third attacks consume your spell casting mana while building towers consumes your tower mana.
Both mana pools can be restored by collecting pick ups from fallen enemies. There are several different colour crystals that offer different amounts of mana. The two coolest features in this game are the ability to upgrade your towers (3 times each) and the amount of enemies you have to deal with to survive. The enemies come in three forms. The first ones are just Knights, trying to slice you down with their tiny 3. They have the least amount of health and drop either magic mana or the 5 or 10 tower mana crystals. The other two types, which are both larger with bigger weapons and more health, drop more mana (around 20 mana) but can dish out a tonne of damage to you and your base, so be cautious of them!
Overall Dead Siege is an extremely impressive student project, full of vibrant colors, fun gameplay and great character design. It’s also constantly being upgraded with thanks to feedback from the community, so it’s also worth checking out to see how this great little game evolves over time.
Note: Due to crash reports, be sure to run in a 16:9 aspect ratio with windowed mode and not full screen
Download Dead Siege Here (Windows Only)