Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters review: Gothic XCOM strategy

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate – DaemonhuntersXCOM is a tactical XCOM like that which uses turn-based tactics. It’s definitely unsubtle. Colon And a dash! “Daemon” with an e! It’s all about the excess Like Games Workshop’s iconic pumped-up Space Marines, there’s something exuberant about this game. The sweeping cathedral spires at your battlecruiser Headquarters to your grinning, Grey Knight supersoldiers are all part of the game. Daemonhunters’ aesthetic The sound is intensely loud

Just a few minutes in to the tutorial mission my four gruff Grey Knights have begun shoulder-barging their way through blast doors into a demonic Lair. I see a group of unnamed underlings in the corner. So, I give the order to throw a frag bomb at them. The top-down tactical view suddenly and slickly zooms in on the projectile, the camera admiring the grenade’s contours for a split second, before doing a bullet time spin and zooming back out for a devastating overlook. The second knight is instructed to smash into the pillar and destroy another group of foes.

In my long campaign against the forces of Chaos, I witnessed these door breaching, grenade-throwing, and pillar-knocking animations countless times, and yet, after 40 long hours, I still haven’t gotten tired of seeing them play out. I haven’t gotten tired of watching my fully decked-out squad teleporting down to a planet in a flash of fibrous lightning. The Interceptor, my favourite toy soldier man, has never bored me. Like many of the game’s classes, he’s melee-focused — but he can also teleport. He functions as a bit of a one-man army, appearing behind enemy lines to massacre weaker foes, or keeping larger targets at bay with the Daemon Hammer’s knockback effect (he can also knock enemies off cliffs and into pits, which feels a bit like cheating in the best way possible).

Image: Complex Games/Frontier Developments plc

Similar to Gears tactic, Daemonhunters This is an aggressive simplifying of the XCOM formula. Gone are the percentage-based miss chances, and with them, much of the complexity of Firaxis’ sprawling sci-fi series.

Instead, Daemonhunters This fast-paced method of executions and stuns is used to quickly drain one meter. It forces an enemy to his knees. The melee execution awards Action Points for everyone. Used efficiently, it’s possible to keep your turn going almost indefinitely. My Interceptor, psychically buffed by his fellow Justicar and pumped with the Apothecary’s biomancy, blinks from one swift execution to the next, allowing the squad’s momentum to gather as they roll on and crush the enemy beneath them like an unstoppable juggernaut.

Although the combat in the immediate moment is quick, the campaign drags on for a while. This is also the case with XCOM. Daemonhunters It adds a layer of strategic strategy to its turn-based skirmishes. This layer tasks you with upgrading various sections of the Baleful Edict battlecruiser, from the industry of the Manufactorum to the research of the Libris (as is often the case in the Warhammer 40K universe, the Empire’s proper nouns are Latinized.)

Image: Complex Games/Frontier Developments plc

Using the map in your ship’s Strategium, you’ll bounce around a web of star systems, desperately clearing up the plagues and infestations wreaking havoc on the local cluster, like an elaborate game of whack-a-mole. Daemonhunters’ antagonists are the Nurgle — grotesque creatures obsessed with disease and mutation, but whose sense of humor makes for a fun contrast. At the micro level — with body-horror creatures sprouting extra limbs — Nurgle are the perfect foil to your sullen Grey Knights. It can be tedious to try and fight the constant spread of infections throughout the galaxy.

There are many other benefits, too. Daemonhunters’ missions act as filler. The levels are made up of many destructible, chest-high terrains that were designed for Space Marine coverage. You’ll explore dozens of worlds filled with nothing but sci-fi portacabins. Even when you aren’t in the right environmentLookThey are all different. Feel The same. The most annoying aspect is that many missions will force you to wait for your ship’s teleportation systems to come online before concluding. A quick fifteen-minute adventure suddenly becomes something that takes twice the time. It is a part of the genre that tactical repetitions are a regular feature. But it feels particularly egregious here, where the tactical elements are so pared back, and the strategies on offer feel less like XCOM’s sprawling, variety buffet and more like a foundation for the game’s story to lean upon.

Daemonhunters’ campaign feels like it’s dragging its feet in part because the story is so good. In other words, the time-consuming combat and resource collecting eventually feel like an obstacle delaying the game’s finest attribute. The Gothic is cut and detailed, with enough purple prose to describe the dark, bureaucratic, and ecclesiastical details that the Grey Knights have and how they manage their large, sprawling Imperium.

Image: Complex Games/Frontier Developments plc

While you play an anonymous commander, there are three central characters on the Baleful Edict: a duty-bound veteran, a slightly unhinged tech-priest tuned to the whispers of the “Machine God,” and an ambitious young Inquisitor whose arrival kickstarts the plot. They are all superbly voiced and directed and each show a remarkable amount of nuance, as the Nurgle spread throughout the galaxy. They also seem to be able to bounce off each other as tensions mount onboard and the campaign moves towards an epic end.

Daemonhunters’ writing, story, and characters are easily its best attributes. While I was expecting turn-based combat with precision, I ended up wondering if I should try one of the tie-in novels. With mentions of “ancient archeotech,” “astropathic whimsy,” and “ruinous algorithms,” it’s exactly the kind of opulent, over-the-top stuff I love. Daemonhunters may only focus on a single faction, but by hyperfocusing on the Grey Knights, it manages to adeptly explore some of Warhammer 40K’s most interesting and expressive elements. From concepts of the “Warp” and the “Cult of the Machine” to thickly laden themes of corruption and heresy — this is that grimdark universe at its very best.

While there’s enough tactical depth and customization to sustain a playthrough, much of Daemonhunters’ battles feel like vehicles for getting across its great story, and not the other way around. XCOM is a favorite of many. is as much about the long journey — failures and do-overs included — as it is the destination. And while I don’t think Daemonhunters This game offers that obsessive replayability and a crisp tactical base to support its brilliant aesthetics and story.

Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters Windows PCs will receive the game May 5, 2010. Frontier Developments plc gave us a code to download the pre-release version of the game. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products sold via affiliate links. Find out more. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.