The AI has a very loose interpretation of following your commands I can hardly count the number of times I've told one of the characters to defend, directly after having told them to stand right in the middle of a doorway, only for them to decide to move a few metres out of the doorway, behind a fallen brick in the attempt of giving their big toe a bit of cover. Of course sealing the door also cuts off a route of egress, which can then only be reopened by simply destroying it.Īlthough this is an option, it doesn't exactly make it a tactical shooter, or even tactical in any sense of the word. You give commands to your two AI companions in the single player campaign, having them hold position, heal one of the team, seal doors in Killing Floor fashion to remove a route of access for the monsters. The game also has the trappings of a more tactical shooter. Maybe even the huge ones that take enough damage to make a panzer tank red with envy. The Tyranids that cloak, the way they scramble your radar being the only way to indicate one being nearby. It's incredibly tense at points and death can come from any angle, particularly when you take into account the more specialised monsters. Acting like a basic shooter, mowing down the monsters and just fighting for survival, it's a great ride. What's strange is that the combat both works and doesn't work at the same time. Ranging from chain-guns that rapidly fire, mowing down hordes of enemies, to melee weapons like lightning claws or a devastating mace to crush in an alien’s skull. Each level, nine in total, has a number of missions that unlock extra weapons for you to use. It's a light sense of progression and offers you something to drive towards. From a simple boost in defense, giving you an immunity to critical hits, to unlocking further abilities like a wave of fire that turns any enemy it contacts into ash. The three trees are Command, Devotion and Psychic, offering a variety of unlocks. In addition to these, you unlock points that can then be used to enhance your character. You hear the wail of the monsters, haunting the same corridors as you and your team mow them down in a hail of bullets, fire and electricity. Your footsteps reverberate through the claustrophobic corridors. Your melee attack can crush a Tyranid in one lethal blow or smash through a metal door.
There's a sense of weight that comes with combat. The sense of overwhelming odds and the feeling of being a space marine as good as any before it. Space Hulk: Deathwing gets that part right. Tyranids coming at you from every side, crawling down the walls, swarming and filling every square inch of your view. Space Hulk: Deathwing is just that, a 40K horde shooter. Left 4 Space, Killing Space, Space Hulk: Verminspace, pretty much any horde game but with space added into the name. I was torn with the heading to give this review. Can they recreate that atmosphere and bring it to the Warhammer 40K universe? They certainly can. Developed by Streum On Studio, whose previous title was the surprisingly good and incredibly atmospheric E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. Now a horde based shooter compared to the previous turn-based strategy. Space Hulk: Deathwing is a completely different game than the aforementioned Space Hulk. Run of the mill titles like Space Hulk, Armageddon and Space Wolf fill the pack for better games like Battlefleet Gothic: Armada and Legacy of Dorn to round it off nicely. Since then, we've seen poor games like Storm of Vengeance and Eisenhorn: Xenos. With their death came the end of any exclusivity license. The 40K universe in particular, and the lack of consistency found within it, can directly be attributed to the death of THQ. Games Workshop and the games they lend their IP to tend to be a varied bunch in their universes.