Tܫhe Warhammer 40K Universe is a big place. So large that no matter how many titles Games Workshop produces there is always, somehow, space for more.🥂 More races, more stories, heck, even spiritual sequels to middling entries that were released almost 25 years ago. In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only War(hammer), apparently.
Thankfully Games Workshop seems to have stopped peddling its IPs out to every two-penny studio looking to infest the games industry with their predatory business models. Instead, we have 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemon🐷hunters, a game so darn good that I can barely believe it ex🎃ists. Imagine XCOM, onl♍y with more pus, and more death.
You take on the role of a nameless, faceless, bodiless Commander. Your now-dead superior, well, died after coming face-to-face with a Bloodthirster (think bipedal murder daemon with wingsꦫ). If that wasn’t bad enough, your ship has been commandeered by the Inquisition, the Plague Father Nurgle has concocted a plan (and plague) to ruin everyone’s lives, and it’s down to you and your depleted Strike🎐 Force to do something about it.
Right from the get-go, Chaos Gate impresses. The tutorial - often a slow-burning sour spot in any video game - showcases the ludicrous nature of the♚ 41st Millenium. Blood is dripping from the walls, your grenades have WRATH carefully applied to the side of their casings, and you better believe everyone is rocking highly stylized, and ornate, attire fit for an Astartes. It teaches you everything you need to know, and looks good doing it.
The over-the-top nature of the art direction continues for the game’s duration and is supported by some excellent voice work. Everyone is giving their best, hammiest performance, nailing the bolter-fuelled, epic feel that Warhammer has pushed since the dawn of time. The game even brings veteran actors like Andy Serkis to provide their talents, and it sets the scene perfectly for the gameplay to﷽ take ce🐟nter stage.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is a joy to play. It takes the tried and tested XCOM formula for making turn-based strategy games, and throws in every spice from the rack to give that extra kick. You pick four Grey Knights, you take them to a planet, and you kill everything. There’s plenty of variety too, in mission structure, enemy design, and even class loadouts, but the reliable gameplay loop underne🌄ath it all is solid.
You start with a fairly standard selection of classes - leader, medic, gunner, and melee dude. They of course come with lore-appropriate names, like Justicar, but we all know what they are. Beyond that🎀, each class has a little bit of flair to really make them stand out. The Interceptor can teleport across the battlefield, the Purgator can shoot through walls, and more. There are even advanced classes that add to the squad pot, like the psychically attuned, book-loving, Librarian, or the super-angry, skull-toting, Chaplain.
The highlights of the game, however, are the amazing boss fights. These have you going up against Greater Daemons, Chaos Spawn, and even Desecrator Pattern Chaos Knights. Each boss requires a different approach, and just shooting them won’t always work. Munificus The Undying in particular is a creative twist on the game's core mechanics.
This, unfortunately, leads right into difficulty. Warhammer 40,000: Chaꦺos Gate - Daemonhunters is simultaneously a ludicrously hard game, and one of the easiest games the genre has ever seen. It starts tame, cranks up the difficulty over a few hours, and asks you to do the impossible. Then, out of nowhere, it drops the curve off a cliff and your team is suddenly strong enough to kill immortal entities in a single turn without breaking a sweat.
This difficulty is directly tied to balance, and that balance is completely out of whack. Your Knights start strong, the enemy gets stronger faster than you do, and then you outscale them overnight and the game’s non-boss roster can’t keep up. There are so many options at your disposal - in and out of combat - that breaking th🦹e game becomes inevitable. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, it just could have been a bit smoother on both ends of th♎e scale.
If, like me, you thought you could just twist the knob and get that difficulty to a level you want it at on the fly, you’re destined to walk straight into a reinforced ceramite wall. One of the stranger aspects of Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is that once you pick a difficulty, you are locked into it. If you⛄ want to change, you need to start again. Considering this a lengthy, 30-40 hour game, you miﷺght hit that aforementioned difficulty spike and just not know a way to proceed.
Once you get your boots off the ground and firmly planted on deck, however, Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters opens up to show off its scale and depth. You are but one ship desperately trying to uncover the mysteries of The Bloom, purify🔯 the sector, and get back to Titan alive. Researching new tech, repairing your ship, The Baleful Edict, and customizing each of your Knights to tailor-make the ultimate kill team.
This all plays out on the game’s galaxy map, and from here, the long-term planning comes into focus. Nearly all missions are timed affairs, and you won’t be able to tackle them all when they crop up. It’s a delicate balancing act as you try to gather resources 𝓡and personnel whilst also keeping an eye on corruption. If too many planets get overrun, it’s game over. Throw in a couple of spanners from RNG, Warp Storms, enemy ships, and appeasing Titan, and your plans can go awry very quickly.
Despite my minor grievances, Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is exceptionally fun. It’s a treat for the eyes, ears, and the bonce. It’s violent, gore-filled, crunchy, and full of charm. Underneath all of that is a wealth of depth and customization that begs to be explored. If you’re a fan of the setting then this is an easy s♎ell. If you aren’t, then this 🥂is still a fantastic introduction to a wacky universe that’s well worth delving into.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
- Released
- May 5, 2022
