Like I’ve mentioned earlier than, there are too many Warhammer video games, and one of many massive downfalls of that carefree licensing is that when there are such a lot of video games popping out with the identical branding they simply turn into background noise. Which is a disgrace when one comes alongside that deserves to face out.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters launched on PC earlier this week, and if all you noticed was its silly title and fundamental premise—it’s a turn-based 40K recreation the place you management House Marines—you’d be forgiven for fully ignoring it. In spite of everything, didn’t we simply play one in every of these?
Sure, we kinda did, however whereas Battlesector was extra of a recreation of the board recreation expertise, that includes bigger battles, Daemonhunters is making an attempt one thing else—straight-up cloning XCOM—and it doesn’t care how shamelessly it does it.
Whereas there’s a complete style of video games which are XCOM “clones”, few are as specific as Daemonhunters is. Actually each core system and menu on this recreation is lifted straight from Firaxis’ basic, from a central base (that needs to be repaired and upgraded) to roster administration to the passage of time, proper on right down to little cutscenes for every dramatic battlefield second and a parasitic blight that’s rising over time and may’t be allowed to take over.
This can be a little bit of a disappointment. It’s so overt that it’s an actual stretch at instances to make the extra intimate XCOM method a thematic match for the grand, 40K-scale motion going down, and it’s fairly dangerous that I can sit down with a completely completely different recreation made by a unique developer and never even want the tutorial as a result of, having performed XCOM, I do know what each button and command does.
However actually, in most methods I don’t care. I actually like XCOM, and I actually like 40K, and every little thing XCOM does properly this recreation does nearly simply as capably. It does one thing XCOM—and Gears Ways simply to unfold the reward round—recognise as being important on this style, and that’s being stable, chunky and visceral. Your characters have actual weight and function on the map, and there’s nothing extra enjoyable on this recreation than opening a door, as a result of in Daemonhunters you don’t open doorways, you run as much as them and kick them along with your big House Marine boots, smashing them into 1,000,000 items, and every little thing goes WHOOSH and THUD and it guidelines.
It’s additionally, when not stretching itself skinny to suit the XCOM method, an incredible use of the 40K license. I may take or depart the character artwork, however the voice performing is straight from the highest shelf of Foreboding Britishness, and your Marines actually come to life with their designs, weaponry and grim willpower to keep up a stiff higher lip irrespective of how a lot wild demonic shit is happening round them.
Most significantly, although, it’s a blast to play. Your Marines, every of them named and capable of be levelled up and specialised, permit for an enormous quantity of tactical flexibility, which you’ll most undoubtedly want. Even Daemonhunters earliest missions will throw some goal curveballs at you, and the power to impose sure restrictions—like taking part in a mission with three Marines as an alternative of 4—in return for higher post-mission rewards retains even probably the most fundamental encounters attention-grabbing.
I’ve had a greater time with Daemonhunters than I’ve in a lengthy time with 40K, perhaps even since House Marine, its mixture of tactical brilliance—irrespective of how a lot of it’s borrowed—and an understanding of the license making this a terrific recreation for 40K followers, a terrific recreation for turn-based ways followers and perfection for anybody discovering themselves trapped on the level these two venn diagrams overlap.
