One thing that I can’t say I’ve seen a great deal of on the Switch, even with so much diversity represented in the eShop, are sandbox-style simulators. There have been a few, including the pretty unique Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, as well as ones that represent other genres and styles, but they’re certainly one of the more uncommon subgenres represented on the system. 

Besiege can now be added to this relatively short list, representing a mix of medieval warfare, an enormous opportunity for creative construction, and undoubtedly a great deal of trial and error failures and eventual successes. Each new stage you reach will task you with pretty specific demands, which start out being quite simple but will quickly get much more difficult. You’ll be given a very rudimentary machine to start with, consisting only of some posts and some wheels, with your goal to continue to modify and improve it however you see fit to keep pace with the challenges you’re tasked with.

What you’ll quickly discover is the game’s double-edged sword of open-endedness. On the one hand there’s a pretty extensive array of elements you can add to your mechanical creation, providing you with a pretty impressive range of possibilities for how you may tackle any given problem you’re presented with. On the other, you’re provided pretty well no guidance at all on how to work with or effectively utilize much of it, requiring you to roll up your sleeves and try things out, which will almost always initially result in some pretty catastrophic failures. While a cannon may be an effective weapon, you’ll certainly need to be sure to try to secure it properly, as simple physics will blow your entire creation to pieces when you fire it otherwise. Wouldn’t a flamethrower be cool to use? Considering your structures tend to be made of wood you may find them to be as lethal to you as your enemies.

While I appreciate the core of the experience Besiege offers, especially considering the fact that there’s really nothing like it on the system, I will admit that its implementation on the Switch can feel a bit tricky. This absolutely feels like an experience better suited to a PC, where I’d imagine not only the interface and controls would work a bit more smoothly, but where you’d also be able to tap into the mod community to help supplement the experience further. There’s no question that the core experience works, that it presents some cool engineering challenges, and that it includes the means to create some truly impressive machines from scratch. Just be prepared for it to be a pretty tough road without much in the way of guidance or assistance.