trystero
Novice
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2004
- Messages
- 72
Picked this up yesterday, played ~5 hours single player campaign. This is the PSP version, so comments on graphics needs to taken with a grain of salt if you are a DS person.
Anyway, started the game, nice cinematic to open it up, high quality, voice acting is decent, suitably marine-like, nothing that doesn't "fit" 40K. Load times are very short, no loading once in a mission.
Started the first mission, you get a squad of Ultramarine Scouts, the enemies are chaos cultists... this mission and the second seemed very easy to me. The cultists do very little damage, there is very little need for cover unless you are extremely stupid. By the end of the 2nd mission, I feared I had wasted $30 since I had not lost a single squad member ( in fact few had even been damaged each mission ). Moving through the next several missions, however, that fear seems to have been somewhat unfounded.
Before I go further in terms of challenge, let's describe the mechanics a little. You have a squad of Ultramarine troops, at the start of each mission you can give them a custom loadout of wargear. You earn different wargear when a mission completes. Each can be equipped with a primary ( Bolter usually ) and secondary weapon. The secondary weapon has limited ammo, and you can opt to take less ammo which gives you more action points. Action points are what you will use to traverse the map and take combat actions. Basically, they allow you to move and fire. Crouching and facing are both free. If you reserve enough action points, you can go into overwatch when enemies cross your field of vision on their turn.
Moving and combat are *very* fluid on the PSP, the control handles very nicely, a line is drawn to enemies when you are in 'fire' mode. That line will go from green to yellow to red as it gets further from the marine, indicating chance to hit. You can spend more action points then the weapon requires in order to boost your accuracy. Your field of vision is represented by a light green arc originating with a particular marine. It is very easy to determine field of vision when changing facing. Crouching behind cover before ending your turn is critical to marine survival when the enemy starts fielding Chaos Marines, Predator tanks, etc.
Cover - one of the great things about this game. Everything on the battlefield ( that I have found so far ) is destructible. It may take several shots from a Predator tank, but trust me, the walls will fall ( incidentally, things have different rates of damage absorption before they collapse, so a steel wall takes more then a stone building for example ). It is VERY satisfying to get marines in covered and flanking positions, and then have your Predator roll up and demolish a building being used by Chaos forces as cover themselves. Activate your marines and fire away at the revealed enemy. Of course, this also counts against you. Enemies have taken down plenty in front of my marines, exposing them to fire.
Now, for AI, in *general* it is decent. I tend to see the enemy fire from cover, they will also move from cover, fire, then return to cover. I have seen enemies attempt to flank my position, but not always. I think a lot depends on how they are initially placed at the start of the mission. One cute example of AI: An ultramarine scout notes two Chaos Marines ahead through a window. The Chaos Marines see the scout as well. Next turn I assume the scout is dead ( out of AP so can't hide ). However, on the enemy turn, they don't move, just stay under cover themselves. On my turn, I think the AI lost it and move up a Space Marine and another scout and crouch them behind cover for an attack. I remove part of their cover with a plasma weapon. On the enemies turn, he moves up a Predator tank that was hiding behind a large building, removes cover and kills the first scout, then activates the two Chaos Marines who kill the other scout and damage my marine. Intentional or not, it came across as clever to me.
Multiplayer - I did try and join a multiplayer game for ~5 min, but it just kept searching for players, so no comments there. I imagine it would be entertaining however, especially if you know the people you are playing against.
So, sum up:
Pros: Fluid and intuitive combat and movement controls
Completely destructable environments
Conveys the feeling of WH40K nicely
Nice squad customization
Satisfying tactical experience
Slick graphics
Little load time
Warm, fuzzy feeling you get from serving the emperor
Cons: Single Player missions ~15, I can't see it taking longer then 12 - 15 hours to complete
Multiplayer - big question mark, can't tell if enough people will be online to make it worthwhile
First couple missions very easy, it has gotten harder, but with only 15 missions, it better keep ramping up quickly
Sameness - while I don't find this seriously annoying me, some people may find each mission a little too "samey", environments vary and objectives will as well, but ultimately, it is about navigating a maze of cover each mission and bringing down the enemy with whatever firepower you have
Unknowns: Downloadable content - if they release downloadable content for this, it would be a huge plus, more maps and/or units and wargear would be great additions
Anyway, started the game, nice cinematic to open it up, high quality, voice acting is decent, suitably marine-like, nothing that doesn't "fit" 40K. Load times are very short, no loading once in a mission.
Started the first mission, you get a squad of Ultramarine Scouts, the enemies are chaos cultists... this mission and the second seemed very easy to me. The cultists do very little damage, there is very little need for cover unless you are extremely stupid. By the end of the 2nd mission, I feared I had wasted $30 since I had not lost a single squad member ( in fact few had even been damaged each mission ). Moving through the next several missions, however, that fear seems to have been somewhat unfounded.
Before I go further in terms of challenge, let's describe the mechanics a little. You have a squad of Ultramarine troops, at the start of each mission you can give them a custom loadout of wargear. You earn different wargear when a mission completes. Each can be equipped with a primary ( Bolter usually ) and secondary weapon. The secondary weapon has limited ammo, and you can opt to take less ammo which gives you more action points. Action points are what you will use to traverse the map and take combat actions. Basically, they allow you to move and fire. Crouching and facing are both free. If you reserve enough action points, you can go into overwatch when enemies cross your field of vision on their turn.
Moving and combat are *very* fluid on the PSP, the control handles very nicely, a line is drawn to enemies when you are in 'fire' mode. That line will go from green to yellow to red as it gets further from the marine, indicating chance to hit. You can spend more action points then the weapon requires in order to boost your accuracy. Your field of vision is represented by a light green arc originating with a particular marine. It is very easy to determine field of vision when changing facing. Crouching behind cover before ending your turn is critical to marine survival when the enemy starts fielding Chaos Marines, Predator tanks, etc.
Cover - one of the great things about this game. Everything on the battlefield ( that I have found so far ) is destructible. It may take several shots from a Predator tank, but trust me, the walls will fall ( incidentally, things have different rates of damage absorption before they collapse, so a steel wall takes more then a stone building for example ). It is VERY satisfying to get marines in covered and flanking positions, and then have your Predator roll up and demolish a building being used by Chaos forces as cover themselves. Activate your marines and fire away at the revealed enemy. Of course, this also counts against you. Enemies have taken down plenty in front of my marines, exposing them to fire.
Now, for AI, in *general* it is decent. I tend to see the enemy fire from cover, they will also move from cover, fire, then return to cover. I have seen enemies attempt to flank my position, but not always. I think a lot depends on how they are initially placed at the start of the mission. One cute example of AI: An ultramarine scout notes two Chaos Marines ahead through a window. The Chaos Marines see the scout as well. Next turn I assume the scout is dead ( out of AP so can't hide ). However, on the enemy turn, they don't move, just stay under cover themselves. On my turn, I think the AI lost it and move up a Space Marine and another scout and crouch them behind cover for an attack. I remove part of their cover with a plasma weapon. On the enemies turn, he moves up a Predator tank that was hiding behind a large building, removes cover and kills the first scout, then activates the two Chaos Marines who kill the other scout and damage my marine. Intentional or not, it came across as clever to me.
Multiplayer - I did try and join a multiplayer game for ~5 min, but it just kept searching for players, so no comments there. I imagine it would be entertaining however, especially if you know the people you are playing against.
So, sum up:
Pros: Fluid and intuitive combat and movement controls
Completely destructable environments
Conveys the feeling of WH40K nicely
Nice squad customization
Satisfying tactical experience
Slick graphics
Little load time
Warm, fuzzy feeling you get from serving the emperor
Cons: Single Player missions ~15, I can't see it taking longer then 12 - 15 hours to complete
Multiplayer - big question mark, can't tell if enough people will be online to make it worthwhile
First couple missions very easy, it has gotten harder, but with only 15 missions, it better keep ramping up quickly
Sameness - while I don't find this seriously annoying me, some people may find each mission a little too "samey", environments vary and objectives will as well, but ultimately, it is about navigating a maze of cover each mission and bringing down the enemy with whatever firepower you have
Unknowns: Downloadable content - if they release downloadable content for this, it would be a huge plus, more maps and/or units and wargear would be great additions