Besiege Review Summary

Unlimited creativity like Lego: The game is compared to a digital Lego set, with 70+ blocks and complete freedom to build anything imaginable.

Build any vehicle type: Players appreciate the ability to construct a wide variety of vehicles, including tanks, planes, helicopters, and robots, allowing for extensive creativity in building functional machines.

Top-tier physics sandbox: Many consider this one of the best sandbox engineering games, praising its realistic physics and engaging engineering challenges.

Engaging sandbox mode: The sandbox mode is a standout feature, where players can unleash creativity freely and enjoy humorous outcomes.

Satisfying destruction effects: Destruction mechanics are praised for being cool and satisfying, adding to the enjoyment of testing builds.

Numerous bugs and glitches: Players encounter frequent crashes, save file corruption, mirroring bugs, floating point errors, and other technical issues that disrupt gameplay and ruin progress.

Campaign is weak and repetitive: Many levels feel samey, rely on luck rather than skill, and become tedious or frustrating, while the story is not immersive and missions lack variety.

Not beginner friendly: The game is extremely hardcore and requires engineering knowledge or significant time investment, making it unsuitable for casual or younger players.

Physics simulation is unreliable: The physics engine feels janky and unpredictable, causing machines to break apart, shake, or behave erratically without clear reasons, leading to frustration.

Performance issues with large builds: Frequent frame rate drops, lag, and stuttering occur when building machines with many parts, especially over 300-600 pieces, even on high-end hardware.

Physics sandbox building core: The game is fundamentally a physics-based sandbox where players construct machines and structures using realistic physics simulation. It emphasizes creative freedom and engineering problem-solving.

Vehicle and weapon building: Players build various war machines including tanks, planes, helicopters, trebuchets, and catapults. Vehicles are constructed from parts and used for combat missions or destruction.

Destruction and physics simulation: Destruction is a core gameplay loop, where chain reactions and realistic physics make demolishing structures satisfying. Building and crashing machines is a key activity.

Diverse machine types: Players can build a wide range of contraptions from simple gizmos to complex automated machines for tasks like farming, cargo transport, and fortress destruction.

Campaign and sandbox modes: The game includes a campaign mode with specific challenges and missions, as well as a free-build sandbox mode for unrestricted creativity. Both modes support vehicle creation and physics destruction.

Performance drops with large builds: Players report significant framerate drops and lag when constructing machines or structures with many parts, especially over 300-600 pieces. This issue is mentioned across multiple clusters, indicating a common problem with complex builds.

Mixed performance on low-end hardware: Some players achieve 30-50 FPS on weaker systems, while others report poor performance, lag, or crashes on similar or even mid-range hardware. The experience varies widely, suggesting inconsistent optimization.

Runs well on decent hardware: Some players report smooth performance, high frame rates (60-100 FPS), and solid optimization on capable PCs and Macs, indicating the game can run well under the right conditions.

Crashes on various platforms: The game crashes frequently for some users, including on MacBooks, Steam Deck, and specific game levels. Crashes are reported both on startup and during gameplay, often tied to GPU limitations.

Physics and simulations lag heavily: Complex physics calculations cause simulations to run at 20-50% speed and cause slideshow-like performance, especially with many explosions or moving parts. This highlights CPU/GPU bottlenecks.

Highly recommended overall: Many reviewers strongly recommend the game, giving it high scores like 10/10 and praising its value. This is the most common sentiment across clusters.

Excellent value for money: Reviewers frequently mention the game is worth buying at full price and is a great deal. Many highlight its affordability and value.

Ideal for building enthusiasts: The game is highly recommended for players who enjoy construction, engineering, and creative building. It appeals to those who like designing and tinkering.

Great for creativity and physics: The game is praised for its physics-based building and experimentation. Reviewers recommend it for those who love improvisation, over-engineering, and solving mechanical challenges.

Also appealing puzzle fans: The game is recommended for players who enjoy puzzles and creative problem-solving. Building contraptions requires thinking through challenges.

Community fair range: $4.99 - $9.99.

Game completion: 20.0h.

Story completion: 20.0h.

Session length: 0.3h.

Besiege has a steep learning curve and minimal tutorial, causing early frustration. After about 10 hours of confusion, players find it deeply rewarding, especially when playing with friends or embracing creativity.

Reported time to anchor: 10h.

Friction: No in-game tutorial to guide new players; Steep learning curve for building mechanics; Frustrating initial 'what is going on' experience; Lack of clear progression direction.

Builder-Engineer: Systematically plans, builds, and iterates machines to solve open-ended puzzles or create elaborate structures, often investing many hours in fine-tuning. Motivation: The satisfaction of designing and perfecting complex mechanical contraptions within realistic physics constraints. Stance: buy.

Casual Sandbox & Destruction Enjoyer: Builds whimsical machines without strict goals, enjoys testing contraptions, and delights in explosions and chaotic failures in sandbox mode. Motivation: Relaxation and entertainment through creative freedom and satisfying physics-based destruction. Stance: sale.

Multiplayer & Competition Seeker: Engages heavily in multiplayer modes, using both cooperative building and competitive versus to test creations against others, often exploiting or optimizing for the meta. Motivation: Competing and cooperating with friends in chaotic, physics-based battles and shared building experiences. Stance: buy.

Players on sub-8GB VRAM hardware report smooth performance at medium settings with occasional slowdowns during large builds, while the single report for 8-11GB VRAM indicates playable but not ideal performance at around 30 FPS.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Players with less than 8GB VRAM report stable 60 FPS on medium settings, with frame drops only during extremely large builds (600+ pieces).

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: mixed. One user with 8GB VRAM gets around 30 FPS and finds it playable, though performance is described as not running well.

Steam Deck: The game is severely broken on Steam Deck and Linux due to frequent crashes after level completion, an unstable native Linux version, black screen issues, and performance problems with physics-heavy scenes. Workarounds like using Proton help but do not fully resolve the instability. Lack of controller support adds further friction for handheld play.

Linux and Proton: The native Linux version of the game suffers from frequent crashes, specifically after completing levels, making gameplay unreliable on both desktop Linux and Steam Deck. While Proton can improve stability somewhat, it does not fully resolve the issues, leading to a strong negative consensus among Linux users.

Monetization: The game's monetization is limited to a one-time base price and a single paid DLC expansion. The main criticism involves locking base game achievements behind the DLC paywall, which some players find unfair. However, there are no microtransactions, gacha, loot boxes, or pay-to-win elements. Overall, the model is standard for a traditional DLC-based game with no predatory in-game purchases.

External guides: Players frequently report needing to consult external guides, wikis, and videos to overcome game difficulty and understand complex mechanics due to insufficient in-game explanations. A minority also experience technical issues like crashes requiring external fixes. Overall, the game's reliance on external data for learning and progression is a notable barrier.

Positive anticipation for DLC: Players express excitement about upcoming downloadable content, indicating strong engagement and desire for more game content.