There’s only good turn-based team fighting in the pitch-black far future, slightly let down by a slow resource-gathering midgame. To describe a Warhammer 40k adaption as sleek, let alone nuanced, is sacrilegious. This cosmos is characterized by unending grot, sour liturgy and robust cybernetics. Its soldiers are kept together by rivets and fervor, and its starships are ancient Gothic ironclads that have been retrieved from asteroid fields.
You anticipate clashing cogs, overdone crenelations, and suggestion windows that read like catechisms, not a thoughtful presentation or careful handling of inspirations in such a context. You anticipate things to wallowing in Plaguebearer offal like a Dreadnought. However, Daemonhunters positively glides aside from a minor (and, to be honest, genre-typical) over-reliance on grinding to assist the story reach the next peak. In practice, however, this is both a fine balance of ideas from XCOM and Gears Tactics, and a crisp boiling-down of a massive fiction that somehow renders everything digestible, even snappy, without sacrificing the morbid intricacy of the source material. At first glance, the interface looks like a Borg sneezed all over a cathedral.
The fact that the Warhammer 40k Space Marine chapter you lead in Daemonhunters, the Grey Knights, were created specifically for an XCOM-style game and are a covert order that fights in small groups against vastly superior numbers while surgically removing Chaos infestations as an extension of the Imperial Inquisition, helps. The tale opens with the noble ship Baleful Edict, which lost its former Commander in the last (tutorial) combat, returning home to Titan after an exceptionally deadly war. You have just a few seconds to get to know your lieutenant Ectar and Tech Priest (or head engineer) Lunete as his disembodied, silent successor before the inquisitor Vakir commandeers the Edict because he has discovered an enigmatic Nurgle “Bloom” on neighboring worlds.
Nurgle is the Chaos deity of illness, decay and rebirth, and something of a New Weird folk hero in these posthuman, chthulucentric times, but Space Marines have little patience for hippie ecological sci-fi, so off you go to trample all over the Fly Lord’s magnificent mouldy creations. Like in XCOM, infected planets function similarly to cities: outbreaks appear on your holographic star map in groups of three, and you typically only have time to reach one before the infection intensifies. This increases the difficulty of subsequent battles on the infected planet, as tougher Chaos demon species and more frequent “Warp Surges” debuff your Marines while energizing their enemies.
You’ll be playing office diplomacy when you’re not cleaning out planets, gradually upgrading the Edict’s research and building facilities (a limited but exquisite assortment of menu tabs featuring unique theme songs), or taking care of your armies of screamy robo-exterminators. In general, Daemonhunters is a cosmic witchhunt, yet it frequently works more like a comedy about theocracy at work. Every coworker has a grudge against the others. Vakir is an arrogant outside consultant who handles the entire situation as if it were her own science study. She constantly demands that you go farther into the Bloom’s history than is prudent or pious. When you talk to Ectar alone, he’s rather kind, but he’s also a grumpy old man who follows a very short book called “kill on sight.” After serving in Jabba the Hutt’s IT department for a millennium, Lunete became C3PO. She is not afraid to tell you that she views the others as malfunctioning ship systems with out-of-date squishy pieces.
Arguments are common, whether they take the form of significant story points or unexpected occurrences that force you to take a side. Problematically, your subordinates also serve as avatars for Daemonhunters’ research, base building, and upgrade features. For example, if you reprimand Ectar for “tidying up” Vakir’s reports, he will pout for 30 days and reduce your mission XP gains by 50%. Additionally, Grey Knight grandmaster Vardan Kai, played by Andy Serkis as a sort of cyborg John Bercow, will occasionally interrupt you with messages. If you have a falling out with him, he will stop providing you with new and fancy Space Marine recruits, weapons, and equipment, all of which you can purchase with requisition points earned from each mission that goes well.
Whatever occurs, you can anticipate a lot of “my devotion to the Emperor is bigger than yours” statements and passive-aggressive allusions to Imperial doctrine. The Black Library author Aaron Dembski-Bowden writes in a dense but fast-paced style that makes for an enjoyable read. The campaign’s main focus is on trucking between planets while waiting for construction projects to finish and sponging up research materials to advance the plot gradually. Once the game reaches the fifteen-hour mark, the inclusion of four additional Bloom flavors—each of which requires you to acquire individual samples—counterbalances the entrance of new customization options and monster kinds. The domestic flashpoints in The Edict are a great diversion, but I missed Gears Tactics’s better-coordinated dramatic structure and drive. You may explore each character’s captivating backstory by clicking on their management tabs.
The cut and thrust—or, maybe more correctly, gouge and bludgeon—of actual battle more than makes up for the campaign’s slower moments. XCOM’s fundamental components are all present, enhanced by a confusing yet easily navigable user interface that, above all, never lets you guess who can be shot from where. These elements include grid-based, multiple-elevation layouts that are split into half or full cover; the ability to set overwatch view cones and cancel attackers during the enemy turn; and map exploration that involves carefully peeled back the fog of war while attempting to avoid triggering too many skirmishes at once. The distinction lies in Daemonhunters’ desire for you to raise the volume when things do become raucous. It’s highly biased towards aggressiveness, but (a bit shockingly) not nearly as rampage-prone as Gear Tactics.
One of my favorite XCOM memories is how my squad’s whole commander went into a cowering hysterics due to a single soldier’s frantic response firing, losing me a turn and eventually the fight. I mean, it’s great to lose. Due to their innate incapacity to feel fear, Space Marines view defeat as a sin. As a result, most of their combat speech revolves on the question “was that supposed to hurt?” Only a small number of Nurgle’s forces are as formidable or lethal as the overpowered Stormtroopers you pit against them. Sure, his forces are tasty, with everything from squealing, timebomb-firing Mad Max extras to clanking, bile-spreading Plague Marines to vast, blobby archdemons that duplicate themselves when hit. Take a peek at your guys standing on the Teleportarium pad during mission setup – the Hottest New Boyband of the 41st millennia, complete with flamethrowers named Vengeance and Harbinger, skull-plated shinguards, and blue halberds that crackle. It’s nearly enough to hide the fact that they resemble Buzz Lightyear in some situations.
Not only are Space Marines fearless. Fortunately, they also have death immunity. A Space Marine that is knocked out can get back up after three turns at half health; if they are lost again, they will be sent back to the Edict for some rest and relaxation. While most Space Marines have restricted chances of revival, some are unbuffered, and wounded soldiers can be redeployed while recovering at a lower level of maximum health as long as they do not have critical wounds. After losing every squad member in the first five hours of the game, I nearly restarted it, but the effect of a team wipe on Standard difficulty is essentially insignificant.
Although the interface first appears to be a Borg sneeze all over a cathedral, in actual use it is a precise distillation of a massive fiction and a masterful balancing act of concepts from both XCOM and Gears of War.
Nor do Space Marines miss. Ranged damage is not based on your guesswork about accuracy percentage; instead, it is based on factors like target cover, angle, and distance. One of the many grace notes is that, while you’re choosing waypoints, the UI displays you how much damage you’ll do to foes from any grid square. This gives flanking strategies—which, in XCOM, always feel like tempting fate—more confidence. There’s a Get Out of Jail Free card in the form of the Aegis shield system, which allows you to swap action points for temporary additional health to absorb the brunt of the response fire, should your foes manage to flank you in turn and lock you down with overwatch cones. Harder Space Marine classes, such as the Paladin, may be enhanced to essentially grow a second life bar, allowing you to strut through combat zones instead of running to the rooftops and launching all of your grenades at once as in XCOM.
The will point system, which powers Space Marine psychic abilities like healing and teleportation and allows you to amp up standard assaults with debuffs or AOE blasts, encourages you to go on the attack. Killing creatures restores will points, so each encounter becomes a practice in refueling. Pay close attention to making sure your apothecaries, or medics, take a few scalps early on. If regaining will points is the carrot, then each map’s sporadic Warp Surges are the stick. The longer you retreat, the more Nurgle’s plague will hinder your progress by giving enemies juicy mutations, blocking your Space Marine skills, or increasing the number of reinforcements you can call in when you attack targets like enormous seedpods. By using Stratagems, which are one-time map-wide power-ups that may transfer your whole squad or immobilize every opponent for a round, you can neutralize the effects of Warp Surges.
Though with greater limitations, Daemonhunters also takes inspiration from Gears Tactics’ clever, momentum-building concept of regaining action points after you capital-E Execute an enemy. Executions are only possible if you roll a critical and get Precision Targeting for body parts. If you are unable to kill a Chaos wizard outright, you can still salvage some satisfaction by chopping off the arm that he uses to cast spells. Individual class talents allow you to sneak a few additional movements into your turn, and this is accompanied by an execution system. While the Interceptor has unlocks that give them a chance to recuperate AP when they conduct teleport assassinations, the Justicar may beam AP to friends. This is the basis for some incredibly flamboyant killstreaks.
Additionally, units can operate outside of their turn thanks to context-specific abilities. For example, the Purgator can be set to counterattack when fired at, and the Interceptor can react-fire on any enemy that a friendly targets. These kinds of tricks are arguably my favorite parts of turn-based strategy games like XCOM; it’s not only about choosing the best possible combination of movements; it’s also about figuring out how to extend your turn “unfairly,” as in shouting over your opponent. Though it doesn’t take this to the same, devilish heights as Othercide, Daemonhunters penalizes you far less for going beyond.
I want to end with a few grievances. One is that opponents can occasionally be a touch odd when it comes to overwatching; they’ll effectively tie you up and practically force you to give up a unit. At other moments, they seem to point nearly at random. Early on, I could have also done without a few more peculiar demons: the rank-and-file Before they’re altered by Warp Surges, Nurglers are just dudes with firearms, which minimizes the effect of terrain that range from ruined Eldar craftworlds to fungus-filled trainyards.
However, a Space Marine would smirk at these types of dents on the armor. A few uninspired opponent types? A little too much busywork on the screen throughout the campaign? A title resembling something you would say to the cops to show them you haven’t had any alcohol? Pshaw, such trifles are of no concern to Adeptus Astartes troops. Go forth, allies, and savor one of the most impressive and, admittedly, sophisticated XCOM tributes in memory.