The Warhammer 40K universe is loved by many. There is a reason for this – for a well-developed and epic setting, as well as for the abundance of ways to plunge into this “dark world of the distant future”. Among them are books, gorgeous drawings and miniatures, and finally, board games of various genres, where it all began. Space Hulk is one of these “board games”. For some reason, it was she who fell in love with video game developers, and, born in its desktop form as turn-based tactics, it first appeared on computers as an action movie, and only then as a strategy.
Space Hulk: Tactics — the eighth game about the confrontation between Space Marines and Genestealers in the narrow corridors of abandoned spaceships. The developer is Cyanide Studio, for which cooperation with Games Workshop not new: except for two parts Blood Bowl The French also worked on the previous version of Space Hulk – an action movie Space Hulk: Deathwing.
Uninvited guests
At the center of the story Space Hulk: Tactics – a detachment of Adeptus Astartes, carrying out a mission to explore and clear a huge dump of abandoned starships, freely drifting in space. Such conglomerates are called space hulks. Despite the years of oblivion, life has not left these wrecks, but the current owners of the Imperial, Orc, Eldar and even Tzeentch knows whose ships are not at all friendly towards visitors. Representatives of the Tyranid race – genestealers, one of the most ferocious and dangerous fighters among these xenos, are waiting in the wings when someone dares to disturb their peace by climbing inside the wanderer. Often the cramped and narrow corridors of starships become an arena for battles between terminators (as special space marine fighters are called) and gene stealers.
In general, the plot for the “Wakhi” turned out to be extremely standard – the Blood Angels, like honest warriors, chop down numerous enemies, overcoming not only the attack of hordes of xenos, but also the intrigues on their side (here the inquisitor from the Ordo Xenos plays the role of the main fan of stirring things up). But there is something fresh – the ability to play as Tyranids both in single battles and in multiplayer. There is even a full-fledged campaign for this side of the conflict.
This campaign is a chain of quests telling about long-ago battles on board the same hulk, where the heroes of the Blood Angels campaign will go many years later. The narrator is an inquisitor already familiar to us, a great lover of history and gene stealers, no matter how strange it may sound for a representative of the Ordo Xenos. The interest is purely scientific, don’t think about it!
Both campaigns allow you to travel through the spaceship junkyard on a separate screen, collecting resources and using them to modify your squad. There is even relative variability – the player has a choice: to rush straight to the goal of the chapter or to collect useful things that will help in the upcoming battle.
Roll the dice in the name of the Emperor
The rules of battles generally copy the tabletop ones, but there are also some peculiarities. Each terminator has a certain number of action points, which can be spent on moving or using various skills, including shooting, opening and closing doors, interacting with terminals and other objects. A special Space Marine fighter, the Librarian, among other things, has special abilities – with the help of psionic powers, he can increase the chances of attacking in close combat, make one cell of the playing field temporarily impassable, or with some chance fry all the genestealers in a certain area.
It’s worth telling more about the chances. As in the board game, everything here is controlled by dice rolls, and the results are shown to us on the screen. A tribute to fans of the original, nothing more: it’s still more convenient to look at the probability of success or failure as a percentage, which is shown to us each time we use a particular skill.
In fact, there are enough nuances in https://slotellacasino.co.uk/login/ the rules, but to find out about them, you will have to go into the settings of the weapons and equipment of each fighter in between missions. Take, for example, a fighter with an assault cannon. Yeah, the die is rolled three times, if the resulting value is more than five, then the shot is considered successful. But if three dice roll the same number, the weapon will explode, killing its owner.
The knowledge is interesting, but it is of little use for business – it was hidden too far, making such subtleties completely opaque during the battle. The lack of a normal battle log (the current one is extremely uninformative) also negatively affects the understanding of the mechanics.
The gameplay for the genestealer leader looks somewhat simplified compared to the role of the terminator commander, but only at first glance. Tyranids are not limited in the number of fighters, they usually have more action points, but the skills they use and ways of interacting with the environment are very few. Starting in specially designated areas of the map, they may not reveal the type and number of “units” on the spawn cell until the last moment – the opponent sees only the very fact of the enemy’s presence in the cell, which can move before a couple of monsters hatch from it with a toothy smile from ear to ear. Space Marines are a strong opponent, so you have to work hard to win.
For even more variety, the mechanics of special cards have been introduced into the game, which will be useful to both sides of the conflict. Terminators can play one of the cards during a turn, receiving a certain bonus – a few points to the dice roll, guaranteed success of an attack, and similar goodies – or exchange the card for additional action points, available to all squad members. Genestealers use these cards to activate similar skills, and they need to exchange them to buy new fighters.
Fashionable color pleases the eye
Graphics and voice acting are usually good for Warhammer games of recent years. Terminators Cyanide Studio turned out very well: clad in power armor and armed with formidable weapons, from axes and hammers to bolters and flamethrowers, they leisurely walk along the narrow corridors of the ship, bearing the word of the Emperor on the tips of their swords. Genestealers didn’t let us down either – among other things, in single battles and multiplayer they, like space marines, can be customized by adding certain elements of external design and changing the coloring of the armor. Without the latter, it is perhaps now difficult to imagine playing “wakha”.
With location design, things are not so rosy. Yes, the authors managed to convey the atmosphere of Space Hulk – with a first-person view (there is such a thing here), you fully feel the painful sensations from the low ceilings and cramped abandoned compartments, where the bulky terminator turns around with difficulty. But the isometric camera is not so beautiful.
Blood Angels Campaign Screen. There is no more freedom of choice than Ilya Muromets had in front of that stone.
What’s worse, it’s not very convenient to use – it will take some getting used to. The location is divided into separate tiles that look too colorful, and their borders can sometimes be seen only when zoomed in as much as possible. Until you train yourself to constantly use the mini-map (or even expand it to full screen), it’s easy to get confused in determining the right cell. In situations where even turning on the spot costs action points, this is not the most pleasant nuance, especially since for some reason you cannot cancel moves.
The voice acting is also traditionally good – the genestealers hiss and squeal disgustingly, sawblades cut flesh with a roar, bolters rumble in bursts, and terminators sometimes delight the ear with pompous phrases. True, you will get tired of one of them very quickly.
Rode Overwatch through Overwatch
The scourge of all attempts to transfer the tabletop Space Hulk to video game rails is the Overwatch skill. This is the name of one of the abilities of any terminator armed with a long-range weapon – after spending two action points, observe the space in front of him, opening fire on every enemy who dares to approach within firing range. And the point is not even that the gene thieves begin to attack such “sentinels”, dying one after another, but that the AI is very cowardly. He very rarely decides to open a door behind which there is a Space Marine in a “lookout” position, and reluctantly runs out into the targeted area.
Customization is good – you can not only change the color, but also choose between different options for power armor elements.
“Locking” genestealers in the right places in this way, moving further with the help of a pair of Apothecary and Librarian who carry out the main task, is not particularly difficult. In missions where you need to hold out for a certain number of turns, everything is even simpler – it’s enough to turn on this same Overwatch for each terminator every turn. You don’t even need to move – just listen to how the Space Marines utter this sore exclamation.
For obvious reasons, this problem will not arise when playing as Genestealers, although at first it seems that the AI in the role of Terminators likes to succumb. The same Overwatch is not nearly as deadly, and instead of the passivity of computer opponents, their stupidity becomes clearly visible.
It’s much more interesting to fight in multiplayer, but the specifics of the genre and the not-so-successful implementation of turn-based battles (matches are very long and have very low dynamics) have led to the fact that even now it’s not so easy to find those willing to measure their strength. It’s a pity, but any options for choosing tactics thanks to the customization of fighters and a very good map editor will most likely remain unclaimed.
Space Hulk: Tactics leaves behind ambivalent feelings. Pros and cons follow each other inseparably: boring gameplay for Space Marines and something new when playing for Genestealers; good design of locations and characters, but inconvenient camera and bugs (one of which prevented me from completing the Blood Angels campaign); good map editor and ranked multiplayer – and too tedious implementation of battles.
Not the least of these comparisons is the question of price and quality. For a strategy on Steam they ask for 2,000 rubles – the price tag is at the level of AAA studios. For that kind of money they are offering us far from hack work, but this project, like many creations Cyanide Studio, most likely will appeal to a very narrow group of players.
Pros: level editor; location and character design; Genestealer gameplay.
Cons: the stupidity of computer opponents; high price; bugs; "imbal" Overwatch.