Warhammer Necromunda: Underhive Wars - tactical RPG from Mordheim devs

[Strange Fellow]

It is also out, unless I'm mistaken.

 

[Infinitron]

Focus Home like these midnight release times, eh.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Strange Fellow, started it up and began making a custom gang. Initiative does indeed seem to be deterministic and tied to the "Alertness" stat of the character.

 

[Infinitron]

The only review I can find right now: https://www.pcinvasion.com/necromunda-underhive-wars-review/

Necromunda: Underhive Wars review — Underwhelming wars
In the grim darkness of the far future...

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a tactical RPG/turn-based strategy game from Rogue Factor, the makers of Mordheim: City of the Damned. In it, you control various gangs as they stake their claim in the deep bowels of a massive city.

Part of the Warhammer 40K universe, Necromunda: Underhive Wars is also a spinoff tabletop offering from Games Workshop. Think of how games like Dreadfleet or Mordheim take place in Warhammer Fantasy Battles’ setting. But, the question remains: are these gang battles worth your while, or will you just wish to “exterminatus” the entire experience? Let’s find out in our official review.

Spoiler

The three-way dance
Necromunda: Underhive Wars has a story campaign, one that lets you follow the journey of three rival gangs as they attempt to recover an “Archeotech.” For the uninitiated, think of these as artifacts from mankind’s Golden Age that have been lost through time.

The three gangs — the Banecats led by Tessera, the Rowdy Bois led by Blutvor, and the Black Ash led by Flynt — are all eager to find that Archeotech and get rich. To do so, they’ll need to navigate the planet’s “underhive,” the deep, dark recesses of the city itself, now overrun by other gangs and thugs.

The plot itself sounds interesting at first. After all, when you’re told that this Hive world has labyrinthian passageways and countless scum looking to make their mark, you’d think a bit of exploration is involved, right? Sadly, this is the first of Necromunda: Underhive Wars‘ many shortcomings — the campaign is extremely linear to a fault.



Chapter to chapter
When you think of other turn-based strategy games or turn-based RPGs, you’d often imagine something like XCOM. There’s that sandbox nature where you go from one mission to the next, but there are additional quirks you can do such as building your squad or upgrading your HQ. Others, such as the more recent Gears Tactics, might lead to a more linear affair, but there’s also that semblance of progression as your squadmates level-up.

In Necromunda: Underhive Wars, you’re simply thrust into one chapter after another, at times swapping to another gang to see their side of the story. For instance, Tessera and her Banecats might’ve reached a certain part of the city’s underbelly in one chapter. Then, the next mission might be about how Blutvor and the Rowdy Bois are hot on her heels and they’d need to hijack a train.

It does get a little bit better towards the end once everyone starts teaming up, but the entire progression to get there is almost forgettable. For instance, I chuckled when I kept seeing the same names of rival gang leaders or characters popping up — I thought I killed these guys, but they’re back. Character builds tend to be neglected too since you’re not making decisions in between missions. At most, a certain class might get a new skill, but I doubt you’d even get to use it. You’re limited to five units each mission and having more friendlies along will simply have them controlled by the AI as allies.



Necromunda: Underhive Wars‘ sluggish gameplay
The general gameplay of Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a departure from your standard affair in the turn-based strategy genre. You won’t see the top-down isometric viewpoint and the movement of characters to various hexes. Instead, it’s akin to a third-person action game where each character has movement points (MP) and action points (AP) to determine what they can do during their turn. It’s similar to Mordheim: City of the Damned, Rogue Factor’s previous offering.

While you have a character selected (and depending on that character’s class), you can use your AP to activate elevators, drop a few traps, sabotage machines, use ziplines, carry crates, and more. All of these sound good, at least on paper. Regrettably, Necromunda: Underhive Wars falls flat when you realize how the pacing seems off. It happens once you select a character and the AI selects its own (higher initiative means a character can take their turn before others). While it’s the AI character’s turn, you’ll simply watch it move around, cast a few buffs, go into overwatch, kneel down, and so on — sometimes it might even trigger its own traps. You’re always looking at the character’s back as they clumsily move around; you can neither control the camera nor speed up the action. Imagine having to watch a dozen AI troopers make decisions and roam around, and you can bet there were several instances when I started to fall asleep.

I also have to mention the ridiculously low AP that each squadmate has. As such, you’ll find yourself spending multiple turns just getting into position, taking a couple of potshots, popping overwatch, or bringing some items to reach the objective. The game continuously asks you to “select a fighter” even when you only have one unit remaining after everyone has already finished their turn or they’ve all escaped via the extraction points. Additionally, Necromunda: Underhive Wars’ animations and graphics leave a lot to be desired. It just doesn’t look flashy or visually appealing even when using the highest graphics preset and 4K resolution. So, when you’re just watching the AI move around, you get to see how clunky and outdated it becomes.



No cover here
As far as the action goes, Necromunda: Underhive Wars has no shortage of enemies to kill with your armaments. True enough, you’ve got weapons like chainswords, bolt pistols, lasguns, flamethrowers, melta bombs, krak grenades, and many others.

Sadly, you’d be uncertain if the human dwellers of Necromunda: Underhive Wars have secretly turned into gene-hanced Space Marines. That’s because you could coat an enemy in acid or flames, and they’d only take a fraction of damage. You might fire an “Aimed Shot” to the head via a lasgun, but the target will still have health remaining. Oh, and I’ve blasted a couple of people who were out in the open using a Melta Bomb — they just said, “Ouch!” and I had to use two additional units to finish them off.

The combat in Necromunda: Underhive Wars doesn’t make sense and it’s a huge immersion-breaker when you think about it. An opponent is expected to take three to four well-placed shots before they’re downed. Headshots aren’t guaranteed kills or crits, and your weapon will probably jam in between which lengthens the firefight. Heck, direct hits with an autocannon would sometimes graze or completely miss a foe for no reason. I personally haven’t played the tabletop product, but I’m very familiar with the turn-based strategy genre and Warhammer in general. There should be an emphasis on lethality. Instead, it’s like everyone’s just blind-firing with a BB gun.



Gang customization and the sandbox
Necromunda: Underhive Wars does have its sandbox/operations mode, although the game does suggest that you finish the campaign first. This mode lets you create your own gang, customize their colors and other cosmetic effects, all while letting you level-up characters. You’re allowed to recruit more backup gang members, though, similar to the campaign, you could only bring up to five units each run.

Anyway, after creating your gang and characters, you’ll then partake in several operations in the titular underhive to amass more resources. There’s also a “looting round” so you can pick up all the stuff from downed hostiles scattered all over the map, but your AP and MP remain limited. Back in your HQ menu, you’ll then purchase additional skills and equipment to bolster your capabilities. It’s also possible to fight your Steam buddies or randoms — unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try out the online multiplayer feature during the course of this review.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars‘ operations mode should be considered the meat-and-potatoes of this title as it presents a more traditional approach to the turn-based RPG systems. Truth be told, its gameplay loop can be quite engaging, and you’ll grow fond of your custom characters too. My main gripe, however, is that this could’ve been included as part of the campaign (or at least the means of importing your created gangs/characters). If you do away with the bland narrative of three gangs looking for an Archeotech, you might have a campaign that has these customization and progression options. As such, without any sort of story to look forward to, all you’ll have here are mere skirmishes.



Underwhelming underhive
Necromunda: Underhive Wars lacks a lot of polish and it could use tweaks in other areas. I also have to mention how I’ve experienced a few crashes while reviewing the game. Likewise, there were various bugs including enemies spawning from doorways that should’ve been locked, AI units running into obstacles, some overwatch abilities not working, and characters getting stuck in textures after activating traps (which is only fixed by restarting the entire mission).

As for another thing that doesn’t make sense, you’ve got the sprawling levels. Yes, that should be a net positive for Necromunda: Underhive Wars. Unfortunately, the layouts themselves aren’t fully utilized. There are so many areas, sections, and platforms that could’ve been used for flanking or repositioning. But, until the last couple of missions, your squad always starts at the same location and you’d be out of AP or MP by the time you try to get creative. These nooks and crannies only get utilized once the enemy tries to run away from you and you need to chase them down (which turns into a comical whack-a-mole session). The tactical map isn’t all too helpful either.

The gang customization and sandbox mode/operations will be a treat if you’re into that content. However, since it doesn’t tie into the story and knowing that the campaign itself is forgettable, you’re looking at two disconnected modes that could’ve been combined to make the progression and narrative more entertaining. Let’s not forget that the aforementioned downsides during battles such as clunky animations, painfully slow pacing, and those “bullet sponge” units or weak-as-hell guns still apply no matter the content you’re playing. In the end, Necromunda: Underhive Wars might be enjoyable for only the most die-hard of Mordheim followers.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars
A turn-based strategy RPG from Rogue Factor, the makers of Mordheim: City of the Damned.
5.5

Necromunda: Underhive Wars has an engaging sandbox filled with a trove of missions and operations, as well as gang customization. Unfortunately, its linear campaign leaves a lot to be desired, and its own combat mechanics remain egregiously flawed and underwhelming no matter the content you attempt to tackle.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Just from my initial impressions from playing the first little tutorial mission in the campaign, then moving on to creating my own gang, it does seem like they treated the campaign as a type of "training" mode for new players. Very strange decision. The real meat seems to be in the "sandbox" mode, where you can freely take missions, create and upgrade your gang, have multiplayer skirmishes, all of the former with persistent progression, etc. They really should have just done it like they did in Mordheim and have the whole thing a cohesive experience that all contributed to your warband's progression.

EDIT: Also, I'll probably be sticking with the game despite my misgivings and probable inevitable disappointment. If anyone is interested but doesn't want to buy, feel free to ask me questions about it in the coming days. I will remain as objective as possible regardless of which way the enjoyment scale tips.

EDIT II: Nevermind. Refunded. What a goddamn disappointment. I just couldn't see how these guys could take everything they learned from Mordheim, and come out with this. Must have been budget restrictions, or pressure from their publisher, or just pure incompetency, or all of the above. If they add 7-8 character squads/point buy-ins, more gangs for free, more class variety between gangs, and an integrated campaign system I might consider buying this again in the future. As for now, they lost a customer.

 

[Darth Roxor]

they had

one job

goddamn

 

[kangaxx]

Bugger, sounds like my complaints above came to pass. Bullet sponge enemies in particular is unforgivable.

What a waste.

 

[Thac0]

Just from my initial impressions from playing the first little tutorial mission in the campaign, then moving on to creating my own gang, it does seem like they treated the campaign as a type of "training" mode for new players. Very strange decision. The real meat seems to be in the "sandbox" mode, where you can freely take missions, create and upgrade your gang, have multiplayer skirmishes, all of the former with persistent progression, etc. They really should have just done it like they did in Mordheim and have the whole thing a cohesive experience that all contributed to your warband's progression.

EDIT: Also, I'll probably be sticking with the game despite my misgivings and probable inevitable disappointment. If anyone is interested but doesn't want to buy, feel free to ask me questions about it in the coming days. I will remain as objective as possible regardless of which way the enjoyment scale tips.

EDIT II: Nevermind. Refunded. What a goddamn disappointment. I just couldn't see how these guys could take everything they learned from Mordheim, and come out with this. Must have been budget restrictions, or pressure from their publisher, or just pure incompetency, or all of the above. If they add 7-8 character squads/point buy-ins, more gangs for free, more class variety between gangs, and an integrated campaign system I might consider buying this again in the future. As for now, they lost a customer.

What particularily made you drop it?
Since I loved Mordheim I was quite excited for this, and didnt buy a lot of games the past days I otherwise might have, since I was certain I was gonna buy Necromunda.

Bugger, sounds like my complaints above came to pass. Bullet sponge enemies in particular is unforgivable.

What a waste.

How spongy are we talking here, since combat in Mordheim was spongy af aswell. Arrows dealt 15-30 damage against targets with more than 100 hitpoints.

 

[Thac0]

I've got over 600 hours in Mordheim so I was really excited to give this a go. It's been a a pretty miserable experience so far in the sense that it's an alpha product.

AI Hilarity: Characters still get hung up on walls and items on the ground just like Mordheim. The AI occasionally runs all the way one way and then when you think it's out of move points it circles back to where it began. Sometimes it runs by my characters without attacking and other times it will run by me and kneel in a corner amongst my gang. This is basically the same game as Mordheim, you'd think these issues would be long gone. Embarrassing that they're not.

Catastrophic Design Flaws: You're forced to watch each individual AI move up close and personal. Like you're literally running up stairs with them and turning around corners before kneeling behind a crate. Every.Single.Move.Every.Single.AI Turn. Not only is it punishing in terms of wait times but you know where everyone is at all times which quite literally ruins the game. There's no suspense or wonderment around positioning, overwatch or ambushes. On top of that, the 3D map also shows you where everybody is at all times. Watching every AI move is obviously unacceptable and ultimately a deal breaker but knowing where every enemy is any given minute is game breaking and not in a good way. I can't stress enough how bad these two issues are. They need to be addressed immediately and totally.

Another mind numbing flaw is that at the beginning of each of your characters turns they further slow down the already incredibly slow turn times with a graphic that comes up telling you, "It's Your Turn" or "End of Turn" for every single turn. It's a self inflicted wound, those two time wasting pop ups don't need to be there. Just pick your team member, play your turn and immediately end you turn and on to the next. It's like they're trying to annoy the player. This nonsense needs to removed immediately, it serves zero purpose.

Other notably annoying facts: Characters still can't move through or get by their own gang members just like in Mordheim. Members of your warband blocking hallways, doorways or jump/climb points would be impenetrable walls, unwilling to let a team member get by even though their lives depended on it. Again, why do it? Have that just apply to the enemy in order to create blockades and choke points.

I've had the game crash to desktop a couple times so far. Not the end of the world but it just adds to the gong show.

My last gripe is that they've removed the ability to automatically see when you're in range of an enemy and what % chance to hit you have and from where. You end up really missing this feature especially with a greater focus on range. You now have no idea when you're in range. You have to select "offence", which brings up a menu of attacks and then you visually scan the area until you either target them manually or are at an angle and distance where you can use a "next target" function. Having the former capability is needed now more than ever based on all the little nooks and crannies the bad guys hide in not to mention the different levels of verticality Necromunda provides. That automatic, in-range/accuracy data is critical now more than ever. Removing it has made the game much worse.

Anywho, they must realize they have months and months worth of rewriting and redesigning to do which is unfortunate because it's a pretty bare bones game with just 3 gangs that are pretty much all the same minus a few behind the scenes skill scores and their general appearance to a point. It's sadly nothing like Mordheim where every faction was truly unique. I'd wait until Q2 next year before checking back on this title. They need to dump a ton of resources into this before making DLC.

Looks like even the people who loved Mordheim despise it. What a dissapointment. I hope it doesn't kill the developer yet and they get to turn this mess around.

 

[Lyre Mors]

What particularily made you drop it?
Since I loved Mordheim I was quite excited for this, and didnt buy a lot of games the past days I otherwise might have, since I was certain I was gonna buy Necromunda.

Pretty much the absence of everything I noted that I would need to buy the game sometime in the future

if they add 7-8 character squads/point buy-ins, more gangs for free, more class variety between gangs, and an integrated campaign system I might consider buying this again in the future.

were the absolute most irksome things for me. I started the pathetic excuse for a campaign, where it's just a continued series of missions that feature each gang, which I found annoying. No discernible progression or customization to be seen. I could be wrong, but from the first couple missions, and from what I've gleaned from reviews and other discussions, that's how it is throughout.

That leaves us with what is essentially the framework for a potentially fun multiplayer-focused game with a tacked on main campaign. Sure, you can take random missions in the "sandbox" mode alongside your multiplayer experience - which is kind of similar to the whole non-campaign mission structure of Mordheim - but what made Mordheim special for me was how integrated all of these things were. Having those challenging and driving main campaign missions to work towards with the random missions in between was a nice structure, and never left me feeling like I was spinning my wheels. Being able to jump in and out of multiplayer with my warband at whatever stage they were at was an awesome touch too, especially when I'd get fucked up in a skirmish and have to return to the single-player dealing with the consequences of a missing limb, or generally disabled units. Now that they separated those aspects, I feel like I'd just be playing generic random missions, in order to hop in a multiplayer game and play against real people in another generic random mission.

The whole thing just feels completely pushed out the door, mismanaged, slipshod, and sloppy as fuck. I was having a little bit of fun on the battlefield the few times I was on it, but I ultimately felt the shallowness of the experience already creeping in through the cracks, and I didn't want to trick myself into possibly wasting $30 and feeling even more disappointed after 10 hours of playing it. Throw in the lack of great things like missing limbs, fog of war, and sense of deadliness in general that made Mordheim so tense, and I ended up thinking it wise to just step away. The game runs kinda clunky on my mid-range system too, which is pretty unacceptable for how it looks. That's a minor issue, but kind of a slap in the face after everything else.

I would love to see them address these many issues that I have with the game, but I highly doubt that's going to happen. It feels like the game is half-cooked and never going back in the oven.

 

[Agame]

I started the pathetic excuse for a campaign, where it's just a continued series of missions that feature each gang, which I found annoying. No discernible progression or customization to be seen.

That leaves us with what is essentially the framework for a potentially fun multiplayer-focused game with a tacked on main campaign.

Good lord. They took the thing that made OG Necromunda so cool, progression and building up your gang over time and FUCKED it up!!? I mean just make a nu-Xcom game like every other dev is doing nowadays, with in depth campaign and squad management, at least it would have been neat to have 40k hive city aesthetic. Looks like pandering to multiplayer dude-bros has claimed another victim...

Was cautiously optimistic this would be good.

Why can't we have nice things.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Good lord. They took the thing that made OG Necromunda so cool, progression and building up your gang over time and FUCKED it up!!? I mean just make a nu-Xcom game like every other dev is doing nowadays, with in depth campaign and squad management, at least it would have been neat to have 40k hive city aesthetic. Looks like pandering to multiplayer dude-bros has claimed another victim...

I mean, just to be clear, you get to create, run, level up, and progress your own gang in "Operations" mode - which is the random skirmish mode I was talking about - but to me it felt like I was going to be hitting recycled content VERY quickly. That - to me - would reduce the mode to simply an excuse to grind for your next online match. There could be some good fun to be had there for awhile. Like I said, I feel pretty confident I would have squeezed a good 10 hours of fun out of the game. I just didn't want to feel like a chump after that time had passed.

IE - Give me a proper fucking campaign with proper fucking progression you morons.

 

[kangaxx]

I mean just make a nu-Xcom game like every other dev is doing nowadays, with in depth campaign and squad management, at least it would have been neat to have 40k hive city aesthetic.

I'd buy the shit out of this.

I don't get why they removed the lethality in this game. It was a key component of what made the original game fun... not plodding a heavy right up adjacent to an enemy and standing there trading bullets with them across 3 turns.

 

[Agame]

Btw it does say this on the Steam page:

"Follow a rich narrative campaign in the Underhive"

 

[Lyre Mors]

Btw it does say this on the Steam page:

"Follow a rich narrative campaign in the Underhive"

Ah yes. There is a rich narrative campaign that lasts 10-15 hours. If only they hadn't made it into an extended training session and had integrated it into the rest of the game!

 

[kangaxx]

Sounds like a complete mess. At least we should get some funny vid clips out of the AI though.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/566440/view/2899710712737494350

The game is out!
Necromunda: Underhive Wars is now available!

Hi everyone,

We're delighted to welcome all of you to the harsh world of Necromunda: Underhive Wars, the first video game adaptation of Games Workshop’s dark and violent Necromunda tabletop game, part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe!

Play the story in a massive campaign, grow and lead your gang across an endless Operations mode, then take it online to battle other players in fast-paced, tactical fights. Pick your house, equip your fighters, level them up, and specialise your gang as much as you like with new skills, passives, careers, and much more. Get a taste of everything in the launch trailer available now.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a game of choices in every aspect. Your gang is yours to grow as you see fit, tackling naturally developing injuries, vices, and virtues as well as which gangers to hire, how to specialise them, from the skills and stats you want to develop to the way each of them will look on the battlefield, and much more.

In campaign story mode, track the Escher, the Goliath and the Orlock gangs as they vie for control of ancient archeaotech, forbidden technology that will provide wealth and power in abundance. Getting to it won’t be easy, fighting for it will be even harder, and keeping it almost impossible. Jump in and find out what happens when shaky allegiances are necessary in the Underhive.

Finally, challenge other players online in up-to-four player battles in any combination. Free-for-all, team-based, or simple 1v1s are possible, with the choice of if multiplayer matches have a permanent effect on your gang up to you. Just remember to enjoy the top spot while you’re there as the Underhive will never allow it for too long.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is available now - have fun!

 

[fizzelopeguss]

It's a nu-GW licensed game, of course it's gonna be shit.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Awww man, I was kinda looking forward to it. ;/

 

[Darth Roxor]

It sounds to me like they focused too much on the criticism of Mordheim's suboptimal multiplayer format, and decided to approach this game with the same philosophy that was used for the PC adaptation of Blood Bowl - forget the singleplayer or make it a soft tutorial for the multiplayer part.

It's mind-boggling though considering that people seem to have by and large enjoyed the singleplayer of Mordheim, and at the same time they also introduced things which are downright catastrophic for multi, like the removal of fog of war.

Does this have any sort of "league" structure for multiplayer (like BB) that would support this theory?

 

[Strange Fellow]

Nope, looks like it's just random skirmishes with matchmaking based on your crew's power level.

Speaking of which, I wanted to try a multi game ASAP to check it out before the refund window closes, but well...

Spoiler

:participationcasket:

 

[Tyranicon]

Well, this was a disappointing read. Did everyone who worked on Mordheim get fired? How do you not learn any lessons from the last game? How big even is the multiplayer audience for a slow tactical squad game like this?

 

[thesheeep]

You're forced to watch each individual AI move up close and personal. Like you're literally running up stairs with them and turning around corners before kneeling behind a crate. Every.Single.Move.Every.Single.AI Turn. Not only is it punishing in terms of wait times...

My only explanation for failing like this with two games in a row is that the developers simply don't give a flying fuck about any kind of feedback.
I mean, sure, stick to your vision and don't let the masses' opinion get in your way - but what kind of "vision" is - on full purpose! - wasting your players' time?

There were some very clear feedbacks to be had from Mordheim.
Not only was nothing of it addressed, they instead made everything worse.

Guess they rolled a critical failure on their development check.

This is such a disastrous failure that I can really only laugh at how such a thing is even possible.

 

[Serious_Business]

I don't think these guys know how to make competent AI - same thing with many tactical and strategy games. It seems like this is the rarest developper skill ; high budget doesn't do anything for it. It's no doubt very complex to work a competent AI, even on a simple framework - which Mordheim and this don't have. These guys must just be happy that the characters don't get stuck in walls ; that in itself is an accomplishment, don't ask about competent tactics. I loved Mordheim despite of itself really - everything about it didn't work, except what was under the hood, which the devs seemed to have included as an afterthought. A third-person tactical game is a fucking bad idea, but it still managed to do some things right ; the character building and difficulty (at least the idea of it) were amazing. A tactical game with multiple team options, mutually exclusive options that force different strategies, is really the dream of tactics, it's like multiplying X-Com in terms of possibilities (if you could play the xenos, for example).

 

[Grunker]

I always stumble upon this and Mordheim and I'm like "hell yeah this looks sweet" but then get dissuaded by what seems like an afterthought of a campaign mode

 

[Elwro]

I played tabletop so I could always see where the opponents were, and also I couldn't move through my own guys, so these are really non-issues for me. However, all the other issues are simply mind-boggling. We're in 2020 and the AI peacefully kneels before my guys? Still, it's fun that the game promotes literacy since after a few games you can easily have read a book during the idiotic animations...