Andy Serkis joins 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, talks new character

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate – DaemonhuntersIt has many strengths. You have the origins of the original game. This was a 1998 strategy title that introduced turn-based strategies in XCOM style to the future. Then there is the developer, Complex Games, a studio with plenty of experience with Games Workshop’s source material. Now the developer is bringing on some celebrity talent — BAFTA-award winning actor Andy Serkis, best known as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films and Ulysses Klaue in Marvel’s Black Panther.

Frontier Foundry, publisher, announced Tuesday that Serkis would voice the character Vardan Kai, Grey Knights Space Marine grandmaster, in the game’s audio. Also, it announced Daemonhunter’s release date of May 5, when it becomes available on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. The pre-orders open Tuesday.

Polygon was able to talk with Serkis regarding his job. We also spent some time with Complex Games’ CEO and creative director Noah Decter-Jackson to learn more.

Image: Complex Games/Frontier Foundry

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate – DaemonhuntersStars the Grey Knights Space Marines (previously mentioned), a chapter of bio-engineered super soldier with powerful psionic abilities. While they can field a variety of war machines and warriors, players will be on the sidelines when the game starts.

“You’ve just come off of a major campaign against a cult of Khorne,” Decter-Jackson told Polygon. “Your ship is damaged, severely lacking in resources, and really everyone on board should be heading towards home.”

The ship and its contingent of Grey Knights are now being escorted by an Imperial Inquisition member, who assigns a new mission. The new goal will be to bind their wounds as best they can and scan a given sector of space for an even more dangerous threat — an incursion by the forces of Nurgle.

The war that follows will take place on many fronts. One side of the Grey Knights is the plague god’s putrescent forces, which are bent on transforming large areas of inhabited area into a desert. A more formidable foe is the Imperium of Mankind’s bureaucracy.

“Grand master Vardan Kai is basically an authority in the Grey Knights universe,” Decter-Jackson said. “He’s the steward of the armory. He’s the one responsible for giving you […]You have access to some of the more valuable armor and weapons that Grey Knights own. So you really have to kind of convince him that the outbreak that you’re dealing with is serious, and that he should really help you out.”

Decter Jackson described the campaign’s nature as an ongoing struggle against attrition. It will be difficult for players to choose which missions they accept. Push your Space Marines too hard and you won’t have the strength to withstand an organized thrust by the forces of Chaos. Kai may lose his faith in you if Kai holds back.

“In a way he’s supporting you,” Decter-Jackson said. “You will be able to talk to him regularly throughout the course of the campaign. Report to him and you will be able to make decisions that could affect your access to the armory. [He] can also introduce new supports or advantages to your strategic level over the course of the campaign.”

Those boons can be upgrades for your flagship, the Baleful Edict, or they can be additional reinforcement — perhaps even powerful new Grey Knights veterans in terminator armor.

“He’s somewhat adversarial in some ways, because he’s managing a lot of different campaigns at the same time,” Decter-Jackson said. “You’re just one of many demanding his resources. So you have to find ways to show him that you’re capable of commanding a Grey Knights strike force and that the [incursion] that you’re dealing with is actually a serious threat to the galaxy.”

Serkis seems to enjoy the grand master role, particularly when it means he can chastise his players for poor performances on the battlefield.

“With Kai, I think one of the main reasons I took the job was I was going to have the opportunity of talking directly to a player,” said Serkis, “and that is something I have never done before.”

This isn’t Serkis’ first time participating in the development of a video game. He performed as King Bohan’s performance-capturer in 2007. Heavenly Sword. Also, he was the dramatic director and wrote its story. He’s appeared in Risen (alongside John Rhys-Davies and Lena Headey), Ninja Theory’s Odyssey to West: EnslavedPlease see the following: Volume, Mike Bithell, an indie developer. His work will also be included in the Star Citizen project’s Squadron 42 Single-player game. This product hasn’t been released since 2016.

“This character was such a great opportunity because he’s very hard to read,” Serkis said of Vardan Kai. “He’s kind of implacable. He’s emotionally like a kind of pressure cooker, but he keeps it all in for the most time. He’s stern and stony-faced. His sense of humor is stoic. I thought he was like a block of granite with no cracks. You see that there’s a tiny, tiny grain of humanity in there. He can be a master manipulator. He’s sarcastic and sardonic much of the time. He doesn’t suffer fools.”

We’ve included a clip from our extended interview with Serkis below.