Warhammer 40, 000: Rogue Trader Releasing December 7th, 2023

Nicosia, Cyprus (September 14, 2023) - Leading cRPG developer Owlcat Games is excited to announce today that its upcoming turn-based cRPG, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, will release on December 7th for PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The all-new narrative-focused trailer details some of the choices players will make in pursuit of their destiny and features the last companion out of 10 available - Marazhai, one of the Drukhari - a Xenos race famous for feeding on pain and anguish to replenish their threadbare souls.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is an isometric turn-based roleplaying game where players become one of the galaxy’s most revered privateer voidship captains. While you crusade in the service of the God-Emperor and His Imperium, your loyal and diverse crew crusades for you. Go forth into the Koronus Expanse, where riches and danger await in equal measure. 

“Light your way in the darkness with the pyres of burning heretics!”
- Unknown Priest of the Eccliesiarcy.

Watch the brand new Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader Trailer Here:
YouTube

Of course, as the one blessed with the Warrant of Trade, the Rogue Trader is the captain of their own vessel, and their word is law. It is up to you where the ship goes, who of the panoply of potential companions is let aboard, and how you interact with your crew. Perhaps you lead as a suave pirate captain, letting your sweet words do the work for you. Or shall you crusade in His glory, crushing all before you and leading with an iron fish and unshakeable will? Or perhaps you’ll find a new calling. A path of promises, darkness, and the service of a new lord… 

“A man can be convinced to do anything, no matter how abhorrent, with the right motivation.” 
- Lord Erebus, First Chaplain of the Word Bearers.  

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will release on Windows PC and Mac via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store, together with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on December 7th, 2023. Fans can become a founder and pre-order the game in digital standard and collector’s editions directly from Owlcat Games to gain instant access to the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader beta. Multiplayer co-op will be available on day one for the Windows PC version of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and post-launch for Mac and console versions.

Stay up to date with Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader by following Owlcat Games’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and YouTube. Learn more about the game at https://roguetrader.owlcat.games. 

About Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Players will take on the role of a Rogue Trader, a scion of an ancient dynasty of daring privateers who reign over their own trade protectorate and explore the fringes of Imperial space with the blessing of the Emperor Himself. By virtue of their Warrant of Trade, the Rogue Trader is endowed with privileges and power beyond imagination as well as the task of expanding the borders of the Imperium. At their disposal is a gargantuan voidship of immense strength and innumerable personnel ready to follow their leader without question. Show your subjects mercy or disdain, stay faithful to the Emperor, or consort with the enemies of Humanity — the Rogue Trader’s every decision sends ripples across entire star systems, changing the in-game world and those who inhabit it.

Events will unfold in the Koronus Expanse, a dangerous and unexplored region on the farthest frontiers of the Imperium. Many explorers have fallen victim to this dangerous place, never to return.

Remarkable and sophisticated companions are one of the pillars of the cRPG genre, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is no exception. A mighty Space Marine, a mercurial Aeldari Ranger, or even a courageous Sister of Battle armed with a bolter and ardent prayers are just a few of the many characters that will join the Rogue Trader during their adventures.

About Owlcat Games

Owlcat Games is a team of developers united by a love of RPGs. From our beginnings as a small group of games industry veterans obsessed with the idea of making our dream games a reality, we have grown into a truly international company, with our headquarters and development in Cyprus and more than 120 employees spread across offices in various countries. We continue to expand and take on new hires from around the world, and we also get together every week to play tabletop games in the office and on Roll20 online.

Article by: Susan N.

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Steam Festival Digital Tabletop Fest returns with Blood & Dice

Celebrating tabletop-inspired games and the players who enjoy them

Bristol, UK – 22 March 2023. The third iteration of Digital Tabletop Fest returns to Steam on March 23rd through March 27th. This event will celebrate board, card, and tabletop-inspired games through a wide array of discounts, in-depth panels with notable figures from the community, and exclusive let’s plays. The theme this year is Blood & Dice, which will have a special focus on fantasy, horror, versus, and war games. 

With tabletop games influencing video games from direct board game adaptations to first-person shooters, there’s a whole host of genres involved in the festival. Established hits such as Slay the Spire, Disco Elysium, Terra Invicta, and Wildermyth join upcoming games like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, For the King II, Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life, and Breachway.

Exclusive Boltgun Gameplay Footage

A let’s play for Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun will premiere during the festival in never-before-seen footage. Viewers will get an in-depth look at the game’s first two levels as members from the development team face-off in a competition to defeat all enemies as quickly as possible.

Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice is run entirely by Auroch Digital, who partnered with Steam for the previous two festivals. Studio Director at Auroch Digital and Co-Founder of Digital Tabletop Fest, Tom Rawlings, is excited to see the festival return.  

Tom says: “It’s been great to organise the third Digital Tabletop event, and it’s a genre that’s so close to our hearts. To be able to showcase so many tabletop-inspired games, from indie through to AAA, shows us just how varied the tabletop space is for video games. It’s incredible to see different takes on board and card games, as well as other titles that are inspired by tabletop mechanics or IPs. We can’t wait for Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice to begin!” 

In addition to a variety of discounts on many of the participating titles, Auroch Digital will also publish pre-recorded panels based around the themes of the festival. These panels feature prominent figures from both the video game industry and physical tabletop space and cover topics such as: Vampires in Gaming, Dice, Randomness & Gaming, and Conflict and Competition in Card Games. The guests featured in the panels include Lead Designer on Vampire The Masquerade 5th Edition, Kenneth Hite, Brand Community Developer for World of Darkness, Martyna Zych, Lead Producer for For the King II, Dan Mascall, Game Designer for The City of Games, Frank West, and Concept Artist for V Rising, Viktor Blomqvist, as well as many more industry experts.

The recently announced Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life will be discussed with the game’s Lead Designer, Producer, and Lead Marketing Manager while playing the original Mars Horizon. The team will look at the original game and discuss the tweaks and enhancements that are being made to the sequel. The final let’s play of the festival will see members of the Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator team attempting to brew a blood-red ale in the game as they closely follow a special recipe.

Below is a schedule for the Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice content: 

Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice takes place on Steam from March 23rd – 27th. The page will be live from 5pm GMT on March 23rd and the promotion will end at 6pm BST on March 27th. For more information, follow @SteamFestivals and @AurochDigital. 

You can visit the Coming Soon page now to sign up for a reminder and see more information about the featured content: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tabletopfest 

About Auroch Digital

Auroch Digital is part of the Sumo PLC Group. They are a small game development studio based in Bristol, UK and founded in 2010. The studio works on original titles, partnerships, and work-for-hire projects, specialising in strategy and digital tabletop games, working with the likes of Games Workshop and Ndemic Creations. Auroch also has an interest in making games that relate to and deal with real-world issues.  

Auroch Digital's titles include boomer shooter style Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, the authentic beer brewing simulator Brewmaster, action-strategy hybrid Dark Future: Blood Red States, the console versions of fishy theme park management game Megaquarium and cute robot city builder The Colonists, and Mars Horizon which was made in collaboration with the European Space Agency. The studio is currently working on several titles, both original IPs and ports. 

Auroch Digital continues to grow and is recognised as a leading studio within the gamedev community for its talent in connecting the real with the digital. It is also recognised for its craft in porting games from one platform to another, be that physical tabletop to digital, or between PC and console. 

For more information visit: www.aurochdigital.com 

Follow us: Twitter | Discord | Linkedin | TikTok | YouTube

 

Article by: Susan N.

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Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus – PS4 Review

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus by developer Bulwark Studios and publisher Kasedo Games—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus comes to us as a blend of rogue like and turn-based tactics. Explore tombs, fight evil (?) robots, blow yourself up by accident, and purge the planet of the scourge inhabiting it, all from a comfy orbital ship. Now, if you're like me and have very little (read none) knowledge about the warhammer universe, fear not! Mechanicus does a good job of introducing you to what you need to know plot wise.

Essentially, a group who worship technology and "mechanizing" religiously have arrived at a planet following the last known coordinates of a cohort. Upon arriving, they discover that the planet is "inhabited" by Necron, who contrary to their name, appear to be fully robotic being that don't really die, but are warped away upon "death". Cue a sort of religious purging between the two groups, as the Adeptus Mechanicus want to get rid of the Necron, and the Necron view the Adeptus Mechanicus as an affront to their robotic being. The Necron are in a sort of stasis within tombs on the planet, and after the Adeptus Mechanicus investigate a tomb, they begin to wake up.

It is your goal as commander to guide your "tech-priests" into battle in order to stop the Necron from taking over the planet. You do this by investigating tombs at the bequest of your aides and subordinates in the form of missions. But be warned, as the Necron are waking from their stasis, and prolonged time in a tomb just allows them to awaken faster.

You are joined on this expedition by two primary aides: Scaevola and Videx, essentially a researcher and priest respectively. Scaevola has forgone the majority of their human self, now speaking in programming code, and has a very hefty interest in analysis and research into the Necron and their technology. Videx, on the other hand, is fully committed to the religious aspect, opting in favour of a "fire purge" or even ignoring something that could be useful if it has relation to what is viewed as abominable or heresy by their religious standards.

This gives an interesting dynamic, as these two main advisers are more often than not bickering or going against each others plans or ideas, giving the leader, Faustinious, a load of grief. Missions between the two tend to be similar in content, but have very distinctly different narratives. For instance, Videx may have you explore a tomb and bring along an escort able device in order to broadcast their scriptures in binary across the tomb. No, I personally did not believe that would help, but the rewards for the mission were good so I went along with it. Scaevola, on the other hand, basically has you on the cusp of being labeled a heretic purely in terms of what they're willing to do for research. Needless to say, these two don't exactly mesh well, although that just adds more to the story and background information.

So what is this all about in regards to exploring the tombs then? Well, this is where the roguelike element came from. Upon selecting a mission and enetering the tomb, you take a sort of commander role, guiding your troops through rooms on a tomb layout map. Upon entering a room with an event, you are usually requested to make a decision regarding what's in the room. Sometimes this results in nice things, like more resources.

Other times it results in things like losing half your health. Unfortunately, the results are rather arbitrary, so it can be quite detrimental to your cause if things go the shape of the pear. In fact, I lost so much health and time on the Necron awakening counter that I soon just started rushing for the finishing tile, especially since unit health isn't healed between combat.

Which brings me to the point that my rewards were almost never worth the cost of interacting with a room, especially given that the in-tomb counter for awakening level gives bonuses to the enemies, and then that counter gets translated to global awakening level after tomb completion. It also doesn't help that Mechanicus employs quite literally the most awkward method of selecting a destination room I have ever seen.

So how about the combat then? Well, the combat is where we pick back up again a little bit. Combat is done through turn-based play on a grid, where faster units go first in a turn, and slower units go last, with each unit getting an action during the turn. You have a number of tools at your disposal, between physical and energy attacks, as well as how you have outfitted your units will determine your battle strategy. You can run up to enemies to prevent their ranged weapons and hit them, or you can shoot at enemies from a distance.

As you use your weapons, they can gain "machine spirit" that will give them a one-off buff. Also to take note of is "cogitation points", which are required for heavier hitting weapons, and will allow you to deploy extra troops or to move further across the map. The points can be accumulated either by camping out near obelisks, or by defeating enemies and stealing a point off their bodies. Speaking of, Necron are kind of immortal, so you need to attack them after they die to get rid of them, otherwise they will just heal in a few turns and come back to life.

Before beginning a mission, you have access to a few cantrips you can set, as well as the opportunity to augment your units with blackstone, giving them better stats and unlocking new equipment types and abilities. There are multiple "skill trees" you can go through, and you also have the opportunity to go down multiple if you wish to. I chose the minion enhancer and melee specialist when I first started upgrading.

As interesting as Mechanicus is, I have to say it felt super clunky. Menus felt awkward to navigate, some parts of the upgrade system were a little confusing at first, and I didn't even figure out how to use the cantrips for longer than I'd like to admit. The roguelike aspects tend to be more annoying than anything, and I found they offered well more detriments than I had reason to pursue the events in each marked room.

Combat is acceptable, but nothing truly special. Honestly, I found where this game shone wasn't in the gameplay, but instead in the storyline. This felt like more of an interactive book, similar to those Animorphs choose your own adventure books I used to read as a kid, with a decent helping of turn-based tactics to keep you entertained enough to continue. The storytelling was by far the best part, while the combat was fairly average, and the "rogue like" sections more annoying than anything else.

In conclusion, Warhammer: 40,000 Mechanicus feels more like a spiced up novel than a game in many aspects. While the clunky menus and occasional menu interactions may deter newer players or those less patient, you do get used to it after awhile. What I really enjoyed, however, was the banter between characters. Definitely not for everyone, but this just might scratch that turn-based SRPG itch you've been looking to scratch.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - Heretic - PC Review

Back over the Christmas holidays and into the new year I had the chance to sit down to Bulwark Studio’s Turned Based Strategy Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus. Taking control of your troops from the safety of your ship, you got to control them through a holographic table that outlined the planet below where they were deployed. Having just recently added more content, Mechanicus is back with both a new discipline for your Tech Priests and a whole new scenario that has you fighting against your own people on your own ship!

Starting off with perhaps what I thought was the bigger inclusion to Mechanicus is the new discipline for Tech Priests. Basing a discipline straight off of the Necron forces, your new tree to level into provides plenty of restorative possibilities like regenerating health per round or flat out being able to restore several hit points with a permanent skill that goes into cooldown. The catch to all of this hit point regeneration comes at the price of losing hit points for every single attack that the Tech Priest makes. Shooting a weapon that takes no CP or several CP will both knock you down a hit point so if you’re making several attacks in one round make sure that you can actually survive a hit from the surrounding enemies.

The reason that I found the inclusion of the new path the bigger addition to Mechanicus is because it can be used right from the beginning. Restarting your travels and explorations of the Necron world you can go straight into that tree and see how it unfolds over time instead of having to meld into it when the world is halfway or three quarters awakened depending on how far you’ve made it. Side to this new tech tree though is the inclusion of a new scenario that raises the bar a bit as it acts quite differently than the core experience.

Partway through your travels when levels start going from all easy to easy / normal or even normal / hard you’ll have a new option open up at the bottom but don’t trust it when it says that it’s easy. It really isn’t but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t fun even if I got wiped the first time that I tried it as it was clear that it was too early for me to have tried it. Opening up with a new series of dialog that you have defectors on your very own ship that have also taken parts of your troops with them, it’s up to you as to how you want to deal with them but it’ll be a little bit different this time.

Being on your own ship, you won’t exactly be hovering over your table until it’s time to open up a can of whoopass. So instead of moving from room to room, you’ll instead go straight to a series of decisions that can affect the battle ahead. Do you quietly take out a sentry while they aren’t paying attention? Do you send your forces in weapons blazing and blades severing? Or do you just keep on moving. Your first decision will bleed into the next which after a few of these and plenty of dialog between your advisors, it’ll finally be time to launch into combat on your own ship and fighting Tech Priests and your own style of forces? It requires a bit of a different touch than the Necrons on the planet below but at least when you knock your enemy down, they are down and out. Once finished the first part, you go back to your planet exploration until the time that the next part opens up.

The inclusion of this new content is a great addition if you want to start off from scratch and use it to your benefit. While the new class may be a bit harder to incorporate into your battle plans halfway through your exploration or crusade on the planet below, the battles on your own ship are timed perfectly as you should definitely have the gear and your Tech Priests loaded with enough firepower to show to those that defected that it was a bad idea to piss you off.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Bulwark Studios
Publisher(s):
Kasedo Games
Genre(s):
Turned Based Strategy
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - PC Review

Even now when I think of Warhammer 40,000, I still think of a tabletop game. The miniatures, the giant maps and the table(s) to support the battlefields. Sitting down to Mechanicus invoked that style of fondness for miniatures as you are never at the forefront. Instead, you sit above a digitized table as you tell your “minis” where to go as they dungeon crawl under time limits on a planet that is both waking up and trying to kill you.

Mechanicus took me by surprise. Now I might not be as harsh as Robert, but he isn't wrong when he says that a lot of Warhammer titles aren't as good as they should be. Turn based strategy? RPG elements? Dungeon crawling? Mechanicus has everything for a solid experience and I’m happy to say that Bulwark Studios delivers on it.

Beginning with a tutorial you are giving everything you need in order to attempt to survive this planet which is waking up and trying to kill you. Having essentially woken up a hive of Necron, your forces are now on a time limit for how much they can gather before needing to leave the system. Technology, tactical information, historical information, and relics. All of these are up for grabs but as to whether or not you'll be able to acquire them? That's up to hold bold you want to be.

Starting off, gameplay comes in two flavors. The core of Mechanicus will have you sitting at the digital table with a layout of the stage that your forces are about to enter. At first I thought that it was a bit odd to showcase the entire layout and show which rooms lead to which through the lines that connected them. I mean isn’t the best part of exploring a dungeon to find out where things lead on your own? The answer to this question would generally be yes however, in this case? I’ll take knowing exactly how to go in and out in the fastest way possible even if I mean to explore every room.

The reason for the above is simple. The planet is waking up and you’re on a time limit. Alright that makes sense. Tying into that aspect, each location that you’re going to explore isn’t quite awake, not at the beginning. It’s through your explorations, your poking and your prodding that it wakes up and when it does? It tries to seriously kill you. By each location waking up, a meter will start to fill which will affect your foes in different ways. Clicking from zero to one will add extra enemies to your eventual fights. One to two could add the time that it takes for a Necron to resurrect itself in order to attack you again if you don’t put it fully out of its misery. This meter keeps on filling until you book it out of there after fulfilling your final objectives and each increment will also further add to the overall planet waking up.

Exploring the dungeons is a fair amount of fun as it’s basically a choose your own adventure. Do you do A? B? Or do you do C? Let's be honest that like in real life sometimes all of the options suck. It happens but it’s what you do with the results that you are given that matter. One of your units fell down a hole while trying to excavate something. Do you blow the whole hole up? Do you hastily scramble to get your unit out? Or do you take your time in doing it all properly? C you said? The crypt that you are currently exploring just woke up and the meter just went from partially above zero to halfway through one. Enjoy more enemies when you run into them!

While exploration is fun, the combat system is even better. Acting a bit like you think it would as a turned based strategy, Mechanicus has a few tricks up its sleeves that made me both want more and question why some others in the style haven’t done the same. As a base rule, every unit can move, and every unit can attack. Base rule. Once you get to your priests though, this is where things get interesting as while the base rules apply, they can take combat a step higher through the use of accumulated Cognition Points (CP).

With the use of CP, priests can move past their normal allotted movement ranges in order to cover more distance. Now while that still sounds normal enough as others have allowed it, they can do this, multiple times. Hell, they can even use CP in order to move far enough to a spot that will allow then to obtain CP on the next turn phase if they are standing beside a CP generator. So not only do you need to calculate your moves for the next turn, you need to calculate your moves for the CP that you have on hand. Very handy when running away from something big and scary or moving towards another unit that needs healing or that can heal.

Unlike the movement though, weapons, also for priests, are a bit different and cannot use the same rinse and repeat tactics. Starting off with a simply melee weapon or a ranged one, once you attack, your weapon goes into cooldown mode. I thought this felt weird at first because it put a bit of a damper on battle as often you had to wait a whole extra turn to finish things off because a weapon was on cooldown. Also because your basic fodder was too far to deal the final blow. As the adventure moves on and your priests level up however, more slots unlock allowing for multiple ranged and melee attacks. The cooldowns make a lot of sense once you get to that point as otherwise the balance would have been utterly broken.

Your priests are not the only ones with tricks up their sleeves however. The Necron forces aren’t quite down and out for the count once you take out their hit points. Once a Necron drops to zero hit points, it goes into a recovery mode. This amount of time is dictated by the meter bonus that the enemy gets the longer that you stay in a mission or from the mess ups that your forces caused. While it’s down, CP can be gained from them before delivering the final blow that will take them out once and for all. You can let them get back up so that you can kill them again but why would you risk your own force’s lives?

Speaking of your forces, you’ll be starting the game off with two basic technopriests and one basic minion type in which you can have four of to basically be your meat shields as you start exploring the planet. More priests are to come and this is where Mechanicus shows its RPG elements. Unlike your basic fodder that can move around, hit things and take hits, your priests do everything they do and more. Flipping switches, downloading information from terminals and extracting CP from obelisks and other sources. They also have more hits and can be loaded out differently with the equipment that you pick up. Basically they are your RPG heroes and each can be as different or as identical as you want them to be.

While leveling up, your priests will have options to progress into various disciplines that will affect how they perform while sortied. What I really liked, and what you are essentially told in-game, is that these priests are versatile and can be customized as you see fit. Not being bound to one path allows for varied loadouts but do be careful as it's fairly easy to create a Jack-of-all-Trades. Having all of these paths to follow regardless of the potential pitfall allows for you, the player, to go about your experience as you see fit. Do you want a damage soaking cheetah on the battlefield? What about a glass cannon? As you get more priests as you explore the planet you can experiment further with your “hero” units.

Alongside leveling up your units and acquiring new abilities or discipline specific gear, they'll be unlocking the ability to use more simultaneous equipment slots. This means more armor, more weapons, more mods. Picking and choosing is easily done as you have but to click and drag as you see fit within the current limitations of a priest's level. Also another nest feature is that when you get new equipment, it's not a one off. Every unit can be equipped with the new equipment that you picked up. The o my time that you cannot is when the equipment is discipline specific that that particular unit has unlocked.

Now, we've gone over how to level but leveling? It's not your normal process. Instead of gaining experience point for acts in battle or in exploration, you earn a currency value for your deeds. Finding a cache, winning a battle and successfully pulling off a mission will earn you a few “dollars”. It's with this currency that you'll be able to individually upgrade your priest units though beware as the costs of upgrading only get higher and the more damage you take in battle, the smaller the cash flow you'll receive as you have to pay per hit point missing.

Presentation wise Mechanicus gets high marks in battle. At any time you can adjust your view as needed. Zoom out as far as you can for a better view of the combat field or zoom right in to see massive details of each unit as they fire on one another. Both are always valid and the graphics of the environment and of the units are both pretty and we'll designed.

Between a well built Turn Based Tactical System and a great exploration base that allows for quicker or longer play session, Bulwark Studios have created a solid experience with Mechanicus. Upping the ante somewhat is that I think Bulwark Studios may have also designed a Warhammer title to make even Robert happy!

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Bulwark Studios
Publisher(s):
Kasedo Games
Genre(s):
Turned Based Strategy
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War - PC Review

In an unexpected twist, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is not a horrible mess nor a total disgrace to the good GamesWorkshop name that nearly every single other Warhammer title released in the last 5 years has been. In fact, it is quite enjoyable if a bit mundane at times, but the great folks at both Proxy Studios and Slitherine Ltd. Have put together a more-than solid turn-based strategy title under a franchise that has been historically beaten to death by a slew of vomit-inducing insults to nature. Truth be told I was pleasantly surprised with my time in Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War and that in itself is an achievement.

Folks may think that I am a bit hard on the Warhammer video game franchises but let us be real for a minute … I am not. The overwhelming majority of the *thirty seven* Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 titles released since the start of 2013 have been fit for no more than the bottom of the bargain-bin at a Wal-Mart, and even then that is being kind to those games.

Many are fundamentally broken, being unbalanced, full of technical issues (that never went unresolved), or so devoid of anything interesting that it make counting sand by hand an enjoyable experience so when Gladius was announced I audibly groaned and closed my laptop. As more press releases came through and more content was provided to the press and public alike, I took a bit more interest, especially since I am quite familiar with Slitherine-published titles, the majority of which I have thoroughly enjoyed, but I still kept my expectations in check as here I thought there would be another steaming pile of horse dung…

I was wrong.

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is not only a good game, but I would even be so inclined as to call it a great game. Though the difficulty curve seems a bit out of place (likely due to balancing oddities, like why is it that I will have Predator tanks get demolished by standard Imperial Guard infantry? Not even anti-armor!), Gladius is not only stunning in appearance and concept, but really brings a bit of the tabletop flare to your desktop, a feat few can pull off. Even then, none of those titles that can are part of the Warhammer video game franchise (not since Shadow of the Horned Rat, a critically under-appreciated Warhammer game from last century).

With Relics of War you have a wonderful 4x-like turn-based strategy game set on Gladius Prime, a planet that the Imperials have deemed archeologically important. Taking control of the gargantuan Space Marines, monstrous Orks, hateful Necrons (they are literally the worst), and everyone's favorite squishy boi's, Astra Militarum, you will wage (and often lose) war across the broken remains of Gladius Prime.

Though I have played my share of Orks and Necrons, winning and losing equally, it was with the Space Marines and the Astra Militarum that I played the most. Admittedly I have lost 100% of the games that I have played as the Space Marines (making it an incredibly frustrating experience), but the real mindbender is that I have won 100% of the maps that I have played as the Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum. Normally this band of squishy goodness is good for nothing more than causing the enemy blascannons to overheat (that is, until you bring their mechanized warmachine to bear) but man, in Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War? Nah, they are wicked.

This is where I think that there is a bit of a balance problem; the chance that a single unit of Guardsmen taking on a single unit of Terminators is so wildly not possible outside of the actual tabletop game (where dice matter and anyone that has played a dice game with me knows, I role zeroes on a D20 nearly 100% of the time) that each time it happens I am quite confused. On the other hand, having your Predator tanks thoroughly trounced by a rando Ork or Necron unit is rage-inducing. Balance issues indeed.

Beyond a few quirks though, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is an excellent 4x game set in a dark and gritty universe. In time I hope that we see the additional races, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, and my personal favorite, Tau, as only 4 playable races does make the game feel a bit empty at times. That said, what is there within the four playable races equates to a solid turn-based strategy game that, Emperor take me, is an excellent Warhammer 40k title. Gladius - Relics of War is 2018's Warhammer Must-have.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Proxy Studios
Publisher(s):
Slitherine Ltd.
Genre(s):
Tuned Based Strategy
Mode(s):
Single Player
Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Robert

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Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr - PC Review

Earlier this year I had the chance to sit down to an initial bout of NeocoreGame’s Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr which is the follow up title to the dev’s The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 1, 2, 3 and the Final Cut. Put into the shoes of an Inquisitor in the Warhammer universe being sent to a seemingly derelict ship named the Martyr, you’re going to be shot at, charged at, spat at and have a generally unwelcome reception from the “locals”. It’s a good thing though that you’re a badass because you’re going to need the firepower that comes from your position as you will be often be single-handedly taking them all out on the way to your goal.

When I originally sat down to Martyr with Robert both of our reactions were that things were quite rough around the edges for a title that was moving into the final beta stages before release which was just a short time ago. Just to make sure that I played the smoothest possible version, I’ve waited a few weeks to make sure that everything was ironed out before jumping back into the space based crusade.

So if you’ve read the preview, linked above, some of the issues that I had are still there while others have been smoothed over through the versions. The main issue which is a little better now is that you are still stuck going through the entire introductory system with a new character. If you had a character before I want to note that they are now gone and the dev’s had mentioned as much that there would be a server wipe before moving into the final stages. At least now the introduction feel much smoother, faster paced and with all of the elements in place, fun. However as much fun as it now is, you still have to do it repeatedly for every new character. *sighs*

So available for your space crusade are three overarching classes each with three sub-class options. The first of these is a Crusader which acts as the tank of the group, the second is the Assassin which is quick on her feet in either melee or from afar with a sniper rifle and the last of them is the Psyker who is essentially the Wizard of the three casting impressive feats of destruction to any in their path. Each of these three come with three starting options that help shape your character from an early stage in a manner of playstyle that is more appropriate to you. Starting off with the Eradicator sub-class, I had my Assassin ready for critical hits from afar until I also gave her a sword once she was better geared to literally jump in and decimate her foes before they even knew she was there. They say to give her a shotgun but a sword is so much more satisfying!

Unlike a lot of other ARPGs, Martyr is mission based forcing the player to make all of their preparations before launching out to tackle their objectives. This is honestly one of the points that I’m still on the fence about as near the beginning before the equipment started to get good it almost felt like it wanted to force you to join up with others in order to survive the even remotely tougher objectives that you have to pull off. As time passes things smooth out and your one-person army is more than enough to handle things on their own as long as you keep your surroundings in mind and make sure you aren’t swarmed.

The other reason that I’m also on the fence about the mission based structure is that preparation honestly becomes everything as once you launch, you cannot change a single aspect of your character’s gear until you get back. So basically if nothing good has dropped in a while, if the chests for completing missions have dropped you junk leaving you worse off than when you started and the captain of your ship’s store is crap, that’s too bad.

Even if you pick something amazing up on a mission you’ll have to wait until you get back to equip it. With this style of RPG being all about the loot, the loot has been mostly removed from the equation with slim random placements of chests and most of your gear coming from the completion of a stage. It changes everything about the style and only time will tell if it really works as what is present now is already better than what was previously available in the late Early Access stages.

After a certain amount of missions and having rescued or recruited several members for your crew, new options open up in the form of crafting / salvaging and changing up what your medical implants can do for you. Crafting can be done with the materials that come from salvaging unwanted or older gear that no longer has a use. This can be one way to supplement yourself if nothing new has fallen in a little bit. Your options will be limited at first but once you start finding blueprints the world is your oyster. By comparison, you implant which leads to your medical options can be modified in accordance to the capabilities of the item itself. More health? Better buffs? Better everything but less uses? Things to think about especially if you know what you’re about to come up against.

Once you’ve completed your preparations, you can select where you want to go from either the terminal of your ship’s bridge, or by pulling up your notifications to immediately jump into your next available campaign mission. Because of the mission based structure, campaigns aren’t these giant overarching be all end alls. While some do push forward the main story, others are side-plots that work great for building up your characters. In either case, each of these will have various missions that are required to be completed in randomly generated levels that follow along a plotline.

In one case after the story got going I had to rescue a Tech Priest from the clutches of Pirates. How I went about it though was entirely up to me. Each stage of the campaign has choices that can be made in regards to sabotage and subterfuge. Leading the pirates away on a fake distress call I went in and eliminated those that stayed behind. As things never go according to plan, the rest came back leading to the next mission where it became a no holds barred fight to their death as I clearly won. I am still here to write this after all.

It’s these little elements that lead to some interesting mission objectives like snatching up an officer to interrogate. You have to make sure to not kill him as you tag him for teleport and then be able to pull off the teleport without dying. With the possible swarms of enemies you’ll need to be either brave or be smart by taking cover behind something close.

One of the best features to come out of Martyr, though no good if you get swarmed, is the cover system. This lets characters and enemies alike hide behind destructible objects like half walls or pillars in order to have it soak up the damage instead of you. The other great thing about cover is that when your hidden your health will regenerate faster than it would otherwise allowing you to keep a health injection for when you really need it. The downside to cover is that your enemies can use it too making you have to be a bit creative in your approach. I like how it was not simply limited to you but that anyone could use it which makes the world that much more believable.

Now while the overall experience is much smoother, I felt that there’s still a bit of work to be done when it comes to the controls. Keyboard and mouse or a gamepad, both have their perks but both have their disadvantages especially when it comes to using an Assassin.

The keyboard and mouse will sound to most people the logical choice when it comes to the PC even if there’s full controller support because of the availability on the PS4 and the XB1. The level of customization is much larger though the level of effort to move around your surroundings felt heavier than that of a controller. The reason is that you can either move forward with your keys or your left click but then to look around that’s another set of keys or your middle mouse button. Adding in that the Assassin is the only class to dodge and can only dodge directionally according to the button press, that’s a total of ten keys just for your movement and your camera if you flatout ignore the mouse. TEN! Add in the various skills and what not, your looking at twenty some odd keys if you want the full motion of controls.

Using a controller however is much easier as you move with the left stick and view with the right. That’s it. If you want to dodge, then you click on the left stick which was a bit odd instead of mapping it to a button but oh well. The reason of the motion of controls felt natural with the standard attacks and those that required cooldowns. Inventory management takes a bit longer to go through compared to clicking and dragging but that’s a price to pay for the controller. Where the controller suffers compared to the mouse and keyboard however is that often you are left wondering what the targeting system is up to.

Because the default attack button is also the interact, often my characters would meander off to go open a supply or medic chest instead of attacking the enemy. Other times instead of activating a switch to move on with a stage, they would go attack whatever was closest or, like the other case, go open a chest because why the hell not. Targeting with ranged weapons while in cover was also challenging because you can’t really aim it but hope that the system points your weapon properly which was often not the case compared to with a mouse which allowed you to properly zone in on your enemy even if they were very far out of range. Hurray for super long distance warfare!

There’s one last feature that I’ll be honest that while I’ve looked into it, I haven’t dived into it. This is what NeocoreGames have called the Cabal which is basically a Guild system that allows for any member to gain passive bonuses just from being a member. Looking through the available lists there are plenty out there, some big, some brand new and surprisingly, a decent amount French. If I wanted a French speaking guild from the Province that I live within? A lot of them seem open to new members and are freely open to join. I found that pretty cool.

Warhammer 40k - Martyr: Inquisitor has a lot of great ideas and is easy to sink hours upon hours into but there are still some areas that felt rough. The title itself however hasn’t just been left to its own devices and I want to give the developers huge props for the work that they are putting into it, the events that they have ongoing and the general work that keep putting into it. Like The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, NecoreGames pay attention and work towards making the best product they can with feedback from the fans. Should you check it out? Yes. There’s plenty to do and a lot of “Hack & Slash” Action RPG adventuring to be had.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
NeocoreGames
Publisher(s):
NeocoreGames
Genre(s):
Action
Adventure
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
Consoles on launch

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Warhammer 40K Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition - PS4 Review

Warhammer 40K Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition is the latest release for this first person shooter in the role of perhaps one of the most badass librarians that I’ve ever seen. Equipped with either gun and blade or something more massive and your first, you’ll be going through dark corridors against hordes of enemies accompanied only by your left and right hand men. It’s a good thing they are there because you’ll be yelling MEDIC often!

I was impressed by a lot of features that Deathwing had to offer. The large environments that you traverse are rife with enemies, blocked doors that you could hack or simply punch REALLY hard to knock it off of its hinges, crumbled passageways and good old fashioned turrets out to blast you into oblivion. Both your starting allies, one designed as your tank and the other being your medic, are useful to have and can be set into positions to maximize your stand against incoming waves of enemies while you wait for something to finish scanning. With all of these features though, Deathwing felt long, slow and sluggish because of the controls and a few of the environmental design choices.

I get that you get put into the role of a massive hulk of a man in a powered armor but you would think that you would move faster. Walking around, especially with the set atmosphere, feels like a horror experience with you just waiting for the next thing to jump out at you, and while it does, it’s not a horror title and there’s no jump scare. It just happens. It often felt like there were two competing ideas that clashed. One was to install a sense of horror that never happens, and the other is a run and gun through a space ship however you simply just moved too damned slow.

In order to run through the environments you really have to hold down on L3 and there’s no way in order to switch it over to a toggle or to change the sensitivity. Often when pressing down to the point of it hurting, my librarian would stop running because it was no longer sensing that I was holding down on the button in order to run. This seriously made things long as you pretty much had to get used to walking around.

The other factor that got to me was that head bobbing as you walk could not be disabled, only reduced. After a while I would get motion sick as things are fine when you’re running but when you’re walking it just got to me. If I can disable it, it’s off. It may be more immersive for some but it should be able to be turned off for those that can’t deal with it. While that issue isn’t the end of the world, as it meant smaller play sessions, the cross hairs for your weapon would not stay still. At all. It was all over the place making aiming, even when zoomed in and highlighting your enemies, an awful experience making it honestly safer to take a spray and pray approach or use a flamethrower. The flamethrower was awesome.

Often my issue with the environments is that everything looks the same. Okay, yes you’re in a decripide space wreck and its dark, but everything looked the same and without the map, I would have been toast. The map features are great but they never actually told you what corridors were crumbled even as you’ve been by making your already long winded detours that much longer if you couldn’t decode the door or punch it off its hinges. This I loved. Tired of being chased down? Enemies keep opening the door? Lock it. Enemies chasing you down and you don’t have time to hack a normal sized door? Slash at it or punch it down. Either is acceptable and both are satisfying ways to go on through.

I really wanted to enjoy my time with Warhammer 40K Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition but some of the design choices just made it seem long and drawn out. Adding in killer load times, and sometimes it wasn’t worth reloading from a previous save but instead starting the mission over because you didn’t get out of the way of a missile turret fast enough.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Streum On Studio
Publisher(s):
Focus Home Interactive
Genre(s):
First Person Shooter
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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New features! Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr - News

Robert and I have already sunk some time into Martyr and now it looks like we'll be able to see exactly how well the experience has developed now that it has fully released from Early Access. Stay tuned for our review!

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Budapest, Hungary – 1 June, 2018 – NeocoreGames has released a new gameplay trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr, featuring all the major elements that will be in the game's full release.

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr, the very first action-RPG in the Warhammer universe, is coming out on 5 June, 2018 for PC and on 5 July, 2018 for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Skulls for the Skull Throne!
31 May - 4 June

Games Workshop video games on Steam unite for a Skull-themed sale and event, and NeocoreGames is proud to announce that Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr is participating as well!

During these days players can take part on a global event in the game in which you are collecting Skulls of the Innocent. By collecting 50 of these (dropped by various enemies), you will unlock a unique cosmetic item called Mask of the Martyrs for your character. Any character class can wear it, but it won't affect any stats. Because of this, you can keep the mask permanently (the character progress reset at launch won't affect this item). The global event will also have its own leaderboard.

Article by Pierre-Yves

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