Company Games Workshop, which owns the rights to everything related to the cult Warhammer universe, has somewhat changed its policy in recent years: now it actively distributes licenses to small but proud studios so that they do not make AAA projects that are loud and shiny with millions of dollars, but more modest, laconic, but no less exciting, authentic and hitting exactly the target audience games in the “Wakhi” setting. Thus, it recently became known that the Kaliningrad studio HeroCraft next year will release a collectible tactical strategy Warhammer 40.000: Space Wolf. And we really want to believe that the Russians will not repeat the mistakes of the Danes from Full Control, which they did in a small, 15-mission, but promising tactic with a similar name – Warhammer 40.000: Space Hulk.
The plans of Terminators shooting Genestealers, of course, raise the degree of pathos, but when they are repeated every 5 seconds, they begin to tire.
Scolopendras vs turtles
Space Hulk is a popular board game in the “Wahi” universe with very clear, concise tasks: one player, controlling a squad of “Spacemarines”-Terminators Blood Angels, must clear the skeleton of a huge abandoned spaceship (or rather, this is a whole gigantic Starfleet cemetery, wandering outside the boundaries of the material world and sometimes popping up somewhere) from vile creatures Genestealers, and his opponent, accordingly, tries in every possible way to interfere with him, playing for local “outsiders”.
That is, there are no special plot twists here. The whole game is a very specific corridor tactics in enclosed spaces, reminiscent of scolopendras hunting turtles locked in a labyrinth. Slow, clumsy Terminators must watch each other’s backs and keep a vigilant eye on doorways, relying on their superweapons, but above all on the Overwatch function – it allows you to automatically shoot all enemies in sight on the next turn. Genestealers, on the contrary, rely on speed, numbers and surprise, trying to reach the enemy as quickly as possible and defeat him in close combat with a couple of blows.
But Space Hulk has its own special atmosphere and romance, consisting of fear, tension, claustrophobia and brutal pathos. In how slowly, solidly the stern Terminators move along the gloomy corridors, competently covering each other and stacking “strangers” in stacks until the weapon jams and someone still collapses under the blows of the enemies; in the way everyone is laid on the altar of victory; how the bodies of fallen comrades are burned without mercy so that their super suits do not go to the Genestealers; how, clenching their teeth, they burn creatures with fire even through the backs of their allies – in all this, you must agree, there is something!
All this is meticulously reproduced in Space Hulk from Full Control. 12 missions familiar from the tabletop (plus three training ones) offer the same set of harsh entertainment, but exclusively for Terminators: it all comes down to surviving, preserving a certain number of “blood angels” or at least one flamethrower, clearing the map, destroying some object, or simply getting from point A to point B (as an option, bring an important character there).
At the same time, the atmosphere https://slotellacasino.co.uk/ and specific romance are reproduced with dignity: there is fire through the backs of comrades, and pathos, and blood on the walls (it can be appreciated thanks to the camera that is installed on the helmet of each fighter and displays a separate picture at the top of the screen), and gorgeous, truly brutal voice acting.
Familiar tactical system in place. Everything takes place in a step-by-step mode, where for every sneeze the game rolls a virtual die. Each Terminator is given four action points, plus at the beginning of the turn a certain number of “command points” are randomly rolled out, which can be spent on performing any actions if there are no more normal AP left for them. Actually, the choice of actions is small: hit the enemy with a power sword or shoot at him with a bolter (or other weapon), take a “defense” position, which will allow you to automatically re-roll the die to get a better result if the Genestealer tries to hit you, go to the specified point in the “whoever I see along the way – to that fire” mode!». And, of course, the same saving Overwatch is in place, on which almost all tactics are based.
Cheat named Overwatch
However, what works well on a board game, as it turns out, is not very suitable for a “single” computer game. In battles between living players, the zest of all of the above is given by the factor of surprise, which the Genestealer player relies on: he himself decides when to open up and show the true number of his “units” rushing at the terminators, from which direction to attack, and so on. And in the "single" Space Hulk from Full Control AI behaves much more primitively, its maneuvers are almost always visible without any radar. And all we can do is place the “blood angels” in the right passages in time, turn on Overwatch and watch how they pathetically stack the evil spirits in stacks.
It gets ridiculous: in one of the missions we are asked to block all Genestealer spawn points or kill a certain number of them. As a result, the mission lasts a couple of minutes. Nobody, of course, goes anywhere to block anything (watching the Terminators move at a snail’s pace along the corridors is too painful and painful!): we simply place our fighters opposite these points, turn on Overwatch and, without actually doing anything, quickly bring the counter of killed “aliens” to the desired level.
Of course, sometimes the unexpected happens: either the Genestealer still manages to get dangerously close to the Terminator, or the latter’s bolter jams or the red-hot overheated “assault cannon” explodes in his hands. But this rarely brings big trouble: you can re-roll the die or reload the save so that your soldier repels the attack and fights back himself; you can spend command points to get your bolter in order and continue mowing down your enemies. And even if one of the “blood angels” dies, the rest, as a rule, cope with the task without difficulty. And in the next mission, the “deceased” miraculously finds himself back in action – you must agree, a strange relaxation for a tactical game.
In such a situation, at least some adrenaline can only be obtained at the highest level of difficulty, where there are no “saves”, but there are restrictions on the number of command points and on the total time for issuing all orders. Especially on later maps, where Terminators-Librarians (Space Marine Librarians) with their psychic abilities add some variety to the usual scheme. But even there, monotony sooner or later takes its toll..
The promised one has been waiting for 40,000 years?
All difficulties that arise during the passage, as a rule, are associated not with tactics, but with the dampness of the game itself. There are inconvenient controls here, forcing you to twist the mouse for a long time in order to select the desired direction of movement of the fighter (and it happens that the latter still stands in the aisle as he pleases). Crashes happen. Some missions explain too confusingly what you need to do, or suddenly force you to play as Genestealers, but do not allow you to advance further in the plot, and after a reboot they again entrust the Terminator squad. One of the tasks is completely impossible to complete due to a bug.
The salvation, it seemed, was supposed to be multiplayer, but even there everything is far from ideal. The network code is poorly optimized, so you have to wait for hours for an opponent, and when the game finally finds him, it turns out that he is already offline. There is no declared cooperative either.
And in general in Warhammer 40.000: Space Hulk there is not much of what the authors promised. There is no editor that allows you to create your own levels or change old ones; there is no free missions mode where you could assemble Terminator squads at your own discretion; there is no possibility to personally equip fighters; there is no full “customization” of characters or the player himself (you can only somehow modify your banner, but it is still not visible in online battles).
The graphics in the game are mostly dark and dirty, but this rather contributes to the overall gloomy atmosphere.
We, of course, hope that all this is temporary. That the authors will work on the bugs, patch the game, and after some time they will release the promised version for iOS, after which everything missing will appear here, including support for cross-platform multiplayer. For now Warhammer 40.000: Space Hulk resembles a beta version tested on personal computer owners who are used to everything. Board game fans will most likely find their charm here and will appreciate the well-reproduced atmosphere. But for everyone else, unfortunately, this is still a passable game: it has a too monotonous “single”, poor multiplayer, a lot is missing, but the bugs are through the roof.
Pros: well reproduced atmosphere of the original; the mechanics of the board game are meticulously and accurately transferred.
Cons: in the “single” the tactics are too monotonous; general dampness of the game; weak multiplayer today; lack of many important and initially promised features, including an editor, “customization” and co-op.