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DragonWolf_keny · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:21 pm Post subject: Warhammer games

I have noticed a lot of Warhammer titles coming out lately. So I thought it might be helpful for those Warhammer nuts on your holiday list to list a few and review them. I'll start with the most recent and work back.

most recently I have heard about a Nintendo DS game called, Warhammer 40k squad command. I have only demoed this game but so far my impressions are not good, its controls could definitely have used further play testing. Rather than the the more sensible R.T.S. type game play were used to in the franchise the developer gave this game a turn based game play instead.

All in all I would say its worth a rent at most. Its clunky controls and overly hard to kill, vicious A.I. made it not too liked with the franchise fans.

I have a copy of all of the Warhammer 4000, Pc games and I would be better off reviewing them all at once.

So to begin with there is Dawn of War. I loved this game when it came out two years ago. Its R.T.S. style of game play set the expectations of all its predecessors. It was responsive and not too hard on difficulty. Its expansion winter assault, gave the player more new armies to play and a campaign to explore. Its second expansion not only added two new armies but also allowed you to chose the battle map in the campaign mode by having to concur an entire plaet.

all said and done I find dawn of war a long anticipated success on the Pc.

The final review of the Pc game Warhammer mark of chaos is somewhat two sided. this game was the R.T.S. styled game expected, but it had many problems. it has been plagued by bugs and game play issues since its release last year. Some like its style of game play as siege warfare is quite popular, but its most defining feature is its army customization.

this game was ok, serious fans of the franchise will definitely find it interesting, but the blatant disregard for customer service by the developer might ruin it for the serious gamer.

These next previews might be a little premature because none of theses games will be out in time for the holidays but its still worth mentioning them for next year.

I have also read a few rants about two upcoming Warhammer M.M.O. titles, Age of Reckoning and a 40k title yet to be named. there is little to be said about the 40k title, but Age of reckoning so far is getting allot of praise.

I cant really gage if either game is any good due to it being so early in the making, but they have had some interesting press so far.

I have heard rumors of a title for the X Box 360 called, Battle march. This game is a basically the Pc version of the game Warhammer mark of chaos, reformatted for the 360. It will however include content from the Pc versions expansion Battle March.

My original impression of the Pc version was not very high as it was clear the game was not very well play tested due to its many bugs not addressed by the patches after release. Only time will tell if that will be the case with the 360 version.

Pat The Fox · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:46 am Post subject:

I would argue the turn based was a more sensible approach given the origins of Warhammer. The DS game is more true to the origins of Warhammer which started as just being a turn based tabletop game.

Also, I have heard poor reviews of the Warhammer MMO, one of the reasons it has been delayed since a lot of work needs to go into it. Though, it has been a little while since I have had a look at it and improvements could of been made.

DragonWolf_keny · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:21 am Post subject:

your right about that turn based would have been true to the original Warhammer but the way it was used in the DS game was very poorly implemented.

It did not work well at all, because when you decided to make a sniper or artillery shot you had to do so in first person. most of the time it resulted in a miss for the player but the npc's never miss. hence my well founded difficulty complaint.

Tygon · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: Warhammer games

DragonWolf_keny · Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:47 am Post subject:

space hulk?
never heard of either, are they mods or something? I heard a bout a campaign for the board game by that name.
or did you mean the dark crusade expansion?

Tygon · Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 10:13 am Post subject:

Well, since the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K games have been around for decades, so have computer games related to them. Space Hulk was was indeed an elaborate board game (As was Space Crusade, just a bit less elaborate) that got turned into a squad based first person strategy game in 1993 (Space Crusade had that honor a year earlier). Also, Space Hulk is one of the hardest game I have ever played.

Similarly, Mark of Chaos was not the first real time strategy game that was made of Warhammer. I think there were two or three before it, none of them very good though, from what I have heard.

webkilla · Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:38 am Post subject:

there was the somewhat crappy "shadow of the horned rat" - a precursor to mark of chaos

similar theme, similar execution, just older and far more crappy... and near impossible to control

DragonWolf_keny · Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:38 pm Post subject:

Oh yes I almost forgot about fire warrior! it was alright if you liked FPS.

I was trying to put together a holiday shopping list to help out that hard to buy for gamers o n your list. so I only included the recently available titles.

now that its the holidays I just have to say,

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Tygon · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:49 am Post subject:

Fire Warrior was, in one word, bad. Only fans of Warhammer 40K could derive true joy from it... and not even all of them. I am a huge Warhammer 40K fan. Huge enough to have started working for Games Workshop. But I quit Fire Warrior after the first level. Not only was it a bad idea to make the protagonist a Tau (let's face it, a Space Marine would have been the right choice), it was also unfaithful in regards of most weapons.

And to make matters worse, as far as first person shooters go, it was at best mediocre. Most time you where just searing for the key to the next door. That has been done since DOOM. These days people want more than that.

Lucius_Vane · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:49 pm Post subject:

webkilla · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject:

IG and Tau could easily work together - the lore is there for it, all you'd have to do is put in a pre-damocles crusade setting...

or post damocles, with all the assimilated troops and such left behind

wouldn't be hard - its easy to forge brittle alliances in 40K

Lucius_Vane · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:27 pm Post subject:

webkilla · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:35 pm Post subject:

you'd never see anything like that

as a rule imperium is "nice morphologically stabile humans who worship the emperor ONLY"

they'd never be able to accept any for of xenos assistance on a any larger scale - interim alliances and "lets shoot at what they're shooting at first,before considering shooting at them then" thinking perhaps, but nothing greater than that

Tygon · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:40 pm Post subject:

Webkilla said it quite well. Based on their political and religious policies the Imperium will never officially with together with any xenos. The cases where it does happen it is usually done by people working on their own. Planetary governors can strike deals with aliens and there is a good chance that the rest of the Imperium will never know.

And in addition to that, the Tau wouldn't actually be able to do much in the Imperium. If you compare the, the Tau's empire is insignificantly small. If mankind wasn't already fighting at all fronts they can find they could easily crush the Tau. After all, the only rear reason by the Damocles Crusade was halted was because Hivefleet Kraken was a bigger threat than the Tau.